Marking 16 Years

This week’s cover story is by Mary O’Keefe about the arrival of the SuperScoopers – firefighting aircraft on loan from Canada. Looking over her story I can’t help but recall the fires in January that were propelled by violent winds and our own brush with disaster in 2009 when we were battling the Station Fire. We are just fortunate that the Station Fire didn’t have the wind-power that the January fires did.

Sept. 4 – last week’s paper – marked the 16th anniversary of the Crescenta Valley Weekly. In 2009 Sept. 4 fell on a Friday – the only time the paper was ever delivered on a Friday because so many local streets were cordoned off due to the fire.

I remember wondering earlier in 2009 what the first cover of the CV Weekly would be. Then the Station Fire broke out.

The Sept. 4, 2009 issue had a couple of unique characteristics: it was the only newspaper we produced that was front page photo dominant meaning that the front page was primarily a photo. In this case, a photo of a firefighter in silhouette holding his hardhat while the fire burned all around him. It’s an awesome photo taken by one of my favorite people: my husband Steve.

That first issue was late to the printers, too; we didn’t get the files to American Foothill Publishing, the house I was using, until the wee hours of the morning. To its credit, by 6:30 a.m. it had all copies printed and ready for distribution.

After COVID the number of pages that we produced declined. During COVID we dipped to 16 pages but now we’re regularly 20 pages. We, of course, can go up when there’s a special section (for example, this week we are celebrating senior wellness); however, we’re reliably 20 pages.

Also, over the years I’ve had a lot of people working with me. Constants have been Mary O’Keefe and Charly Shelton but I celebrate those who I now consider family: salespeople Lisa Stanners, Sonya Marquez and Jon Konjoyan, office manager Rachelle Miller, layout geniuses Steve Hernandez and Matt Barger. I’ve learned a lot from our proofreader Anne McNeill and am forever grateful to our stable of writers and photographers. I get a little nostalgic when I think of the many people who’ve passed through our little company, writing and taking great photos, before moving on to bigger (and better) things. But I’m grateful that they shared with us some of their talent before moving on.

Our advertisers have also changed over the years. There are some, like J’s Maids and Maintenance and Merle Norman Cosmetics – Montrose, that have supported CV Weekly since day one. I am always happy to welcome new advertisers to this paper.

Finally, our subscribers with our advertisers are the backbone of the CV Weekly. Their devotion to this paper reminds me that this dream of mine is important to them too.

To all I say “thank you.”