Comment:
Two Hats
The Hillsdale News poses a personal conflict for me.
During my years of working at newspapers, I have followed the rule of not getting involved in the stories I write. I kept my distance in the name of "objectivity," a fuzzy but valuable concept. "Objectivity" is something to strive for but impossible to achieve. Our perceptions are, by nature, ours, and hence subjective.
Now I find myself reporting in The Hillsdale News about issues I am immersed in. Everything from undergrounding utilities to helping build bridges (literally and figuratively). In the brief time I have been publishing The News, I have even had occasion to mention myself in the third person. It won't be the last time.
All of this defies journalistic convention. Is it justified?
I think so, but with a series of "ifs."
The justification comes from a role I've taken on in being an advocate for community-building. I wouldn't be volunteering to put out this publication without that higher purpose. Communication and community building go together, and I have cast myself as communicator and community builder.
Those roles needn't be at odds, as long as readers know that I have assumed both.
The "ifs" include:
· If I fully disclose potential conflict (as I am doing here)
· If I remain aware of potential conflict
· If I seek out views different from my own
· If readers are actively engaged in this publication
· If readers help me by being vigilant and alerting me to bias
The last two "ifs" call on you to be communicators and community builders as well. In short, I'm asking you to share this rewarding task with me, for the good of us all, for the good of our community.
Rick Seifert
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Links to Alliance Members
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Rieke growth on track, modular added
With the start of school, Rieke Elementary School is meeting its enrollment growth goals, report the PTA president and the school principal.
As part of an agreement with the School Board to keep the school open, the Rieke community pledged to increase enrollment.
In an e-mail to The News, PTA president Michael Reunert writes that the school is on track to have an enrollment of over 300, from a baseline of 268. That's greater than a 12 percent increase.
Rieke was at capacity last year so a two-classroom modular building (shown above) has been installed to increase the school's capacity this fall. The extra rooms free space for a new kindergarten class and a music room, said principal Charlene Russell.
Rieke will have three kindergarten classes, up from two last year. Reunert said that the greatest growth was expected in kindergarten. The key time to decide about where a child will go to school "appears to come when a family''s oldest child is ready to start school," Reunert wrote.
He added that school board-mandated growth to nearly 400 enrolment is expected to be gradual. "We are not expecting large numbers of families to switch from schools that their children have been attending for several years."
Meanwhile, Wilson High School enrollment is expected to stay around 1600. The school has the capacity for 2,200 students. At 1600 students, it is tied with Lincoln for being the second largest high school in the city. Lincoln, however, is at capacity. Grant is the city's largest high school.
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Farmers' Market keeps on truckin' - in style
What happens to the Hillsdale Farmers Market when it folds up each Sunday at 2 p.m.?
It is trucked away. The farmers use trucks (and, in a few cases, SUVs and station wagons), but the market itself has its own truck for hauling away its tents, tables, chairs, traffic cones, signs and other paraphernalia.
Until recently, the 1989 Chevy hauler was a non-nondescript white.
No longer. In July it was painted and decked out with eye-catching signage. During the week it becomes a storage shed on wheels and is parked visibly next to the Turning Point transitional housing on busy Bertha Boulevard. Thousands of motorists see the truck's signage each day.
A few other market truck facts: It's a S300 van with a cube back and has about 135,000 miles on it. The market, now in its sixth year, bought it two years ago from a farmer for $3500. At the time, it replaced a storage shed that was sold to defray some of the cost.
Painting, signage and shelving cost more than the van itself. And then there was the "sweat equity": Much of the derusting and painting work has been done by former market board chair Ted Coonfield and volunteer Duane Graham.
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Stephens Creek Walkway celebrated Saturday, Sept. 8
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new walkway/bridge at Stephens Creek Nature Park will be held Saturday, Sept. 8, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
City Commissioner for Parks Dan Saltzman and Metro Councilor Robert Liberty will be one hand for the event.
Those planning to attend are encouraged to meet at the Wilson High School north entrance Oak tree and to walk to the site as parking is at a premium there.
Stephens Creek Nature Park entrance is on Bertha Boulevard across from Chestnut Street.
The steps and walkway were built by 35 different volunteers who contributed 325 hours to the job. The project cost under $10,000. City estimates for an elaborate bridge were $900,000, said Don Baack, SW Trails president and the prime mover on the bridge project.
The Hillsdale Neighborhood Association will discuss a name for the bridge at its Sept, 5 meeting (7 p.m., St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, 2201 SW Vermont).
One suggestion is to name the elevated walkway after Werner Raz, a descendant of the pioneering Raz family and a long-time advocate of the crossing. Raz died in 1984.
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Volunteers sought for Wilson clean-up
Roll up your sleeves for the Wilson campus clean-up, Saturday, August 25, from 9 a.m. to noon.
Volunteers should meet by the front entrance to Wilson and bring their own gloves, rakes, shovels, and foam kneelers. Gas-powered trimmers and weed-eaters are also needed.
A noontime barbeque will celebrate a job well done.
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Rick Seifert
Editor, Hillsdale News
(503) 245-7821
editor@hillsdalenews.org
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