No obituaries causes confusion

I can’t remember when I took over the obituary department (sometime pre-Columbia Gorge News, when I was at Hood River News), but I can tell you this: I have never had a situation where we had no obituaries and only one death notice.

Not until our Sept. 2 edition.

We know that obituaries is one of the first pages people turn to when opening the latest edition — obits, letters to the editor, and sports make up our top three most read sections — and y’all NOTICED.

I can’t feel bad about the lack of obituaries, because I hope that means no one died. But I absolutely understand the confusion that comes when a longstanding newspaper staple seemingly disappears.

In retrospect, I could have made a little note on the page: No obits were submitted this week, and just the one death notice, but both are updated on our website as they are submitted, so anything that comes in after deadline can be found there.

Whenever something like this happens — be it an edition that wasn’t delivered on time, or a repeating crossword puzzle, or a missing obituaries page — we hear about it. And while I do feel bad (because you let us into your homes each week and rely on us to get it right), I am always heartened by the number of readers who report it.

You really care about this newspaper, and I cannot even tell you how much we appreciate that.

Staying informed

And now for something completely different, sort of: One complaint we get a lot is, “Why didn’t we know about this earlier?” whenever something happens that … you didn’t know about.

As someone who is often the only non-affiliated member of whatever agency board meeting I’m reporting on that week, I can see how feeling uninformed might arise. Oftentimes, however, these “surprises” have been discussed and are well documented — in board packets, our reporting, and the meetings themselves.

I realize it’s not possible to be at every meeting and pay attention to every little detail. And I definitely want to hear from readers when something concerning is happening in our communities.

But there are a couple places that can help you get a some background information: Go to our website at columbiagorgenews.com to search our previous reporting, or visit columbia-gorge.documenters.org to read full meeting notes from Uplift Local documenters.

You can also go to various government agencies’ websites to look up past and current board packet and videos of meetings. There might even be a press release or two on the subject.

Being an informed electorate — and community — is no small feat. I haven’t harped on our small staff / four county coverage area in a while, so let me quickly mention that we try our best, but cannot be everywhere at once, either.

Go to those meetings, speak up during public comment — and maybe sign up to become a documenter yourself.

Boards cannot know what their constituents want without input.