OPINION: Loss of towns means a loss of services and representation

I started my newspaper career in small, rural towns. Like anything, there were both positive and negative experiences.

This part of journalism is more about giving readers and community members a record of what’s happening in their community. It normally doesn’t lead to large investigations and nationally-recognized awards.

I’ll attribute to David Simon the distinction between the craft of journalism and the news business. Community journalism is definitely about the craft, but there are moments when it’s in line with the news business and winning awards. One example is when the paper in Washington, NC won the Pulitzer Prize. 

I’m mentioning the town of Ronda in Wilkes County, North Carolina since a dissolution would mean more questions would be difficult to answer. From its water system to law enforcement, the points of contact would be different and might not be as communicative. 

There would need to be another group to take care of parks and green spaces. Citizens could be taking their trash to the landfill. Yes, there would be an elected member of the county’s board of commissioners to contact, but the residents of Ronda would be part of a larger group instead of having the usual contacts in town. 

Ronda is in Wilkes County, NC is west of Winston-Salem and these places are both different. 

I’m mentioning Ronda since I read the town is likely heading to a dissolution.

One of my first newspaper jobs was in nearby Elkin, in Surry County and I was the sole person in the sports department. We covered East Wilkes High School in Ronda and I made multiple trips to the school and can remember the gym being packed for basketball games. 

This was a small, rural area that saw a lot of textile mill jobs leave. That was the story in the other two counties this paper covered. 

When I worked in Kings Mountain, NC, I covered the small town of Grover, which bordered Cherokee County, South Carolina. While the town has a website and a couple more positions that I didn’t remember being there when I was, the town council eventually did not fill an opening for police chief and instead contracted with Cleveland County for law enforcement. This means instead of having someone in town to respond to matters, residents would have to wait for the sheriff’s office in Shelby, which is about 30 minutes away from southern Cleveland County.

What I’m saying is if Ronda had its own police personnel, it’s possibly gone and those citizens are having to rely on the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office, 

Rural governments are not easy to cover. They’ve been grossly undercovered by multiple outlets (until recently) except when the worst of bad news happen. 

In my experience, it’s best if the people in small town government see a member of the media start when things are routine. Then when the bad news hits, it’s likely that reporter has built some trust and someone would talk. I’d like to add more emphasis on ‘likely’.