A bittersweet goodbye to Lincoln County

Drew Lawson | Last updated Jun 20, 2024 11:1am0

Wind turbines!

Okay, now that I have your attention, it’s time to share the news I’ve always dreaded having to share.

And no point in beating around the bush: I have resigned as Managing Editor of The Record-Times. My last day is Thursday, June 27.

With all sincerity, this is truly one of the most bittersweet decisions of my life. My wife, Maggie and I have an opportunity to move back home to Southwest Washington and we feel it’s in our family’s best interest to do so at the end of this month.

But the “bitter” in bittersweet is manufactured by the fact that that means saying goodbye to Lincoln County. While my four years is a mere drop in the pan compared to many local families who have been here for generations, the imprint left on me by Lincoln County’s citizens and readers is one I won’t forget for the rest of my life.

Honestly, I took a job with Free Press Publishing and the then-Davenport Times in June 2020 after graduating from EWU figuring I would stay a year and bounce to a “better” job. But I quickly found out that I’d already lucked into “better.”

You welcomed me in with open arms and allowed me to share in triumphs and tragedies, successes and scandals, wins and losses and the mundane, pleasant life of small towns in between.

While I may just have a week left here, I would love to see as many of you as possible before departing. Reach out to me, and let’s meet for coffee, lunch or a drink if schedules align.

And I’ll still be in our 1112 Morgan Street office all next week.

Rest assured, I also plan to try and visit as often as my schedule will allows. I certainly hope trips back for the Fair and Rodeo, State B Tournament, Deutschesfest and more are in my future.

I would be very remiss if I didn’t offer thank you’s to as many people as space allows, and there certainly isn’t enough space to accommodate the hundreds I’d like to express my gratitude for.

But, I’ll do my best.

First and foremost, I must thank my wife, Maggie, for supporting me through my dream career, always pointing me back to God…oh, and getting a Master’s degree in Social Work while holding her own job, to boot.

Thanks to Roger Harnack for offering me a job four years ago and allowing me the editorial freedom to move the newspaper in the direction I saw fit.

Thanks to John McCallum for teaching me the ropes of being a professional, ethical journalist.

Thanks to Michelle Van Diest for designing a beautiful newspaper every week…and for those delicious cookies on my birthday.

Thanks to the delivery drivers for bringing me my paycheck…and, I suppose, ensuring all our readers receive their newspaper.

Thanks to “legendary author” Byrne Bennett for consistent, reliable reporting, support and friendship. I hope you win a lifetime supply of chocolate milk and “White Claw beers.”

Thanks to Terrie Schmidt-Crosby, Laura Estes and Ashley Parkinson for frequent contributions to Odessa news.

Thanks to Janelle Hein, Georgia Smith and Kelli Wilkie for being great in-office coworkers and companions.

Thanks to Mark and Marcia Smith for being an ear to listen and offering sage advice on covering Lincoln County. Mark never got the opportunity to write a goodbye column, and he held this job five times as long as I did, so he certainly deserves a particular shout-out.

Thanks to Pam Zeiler and Stacy Breithaupt at Basin Pacific Insurance for being fun-loving, supportive and engaging building-mates at 1112 Morgan Street. I’m sure I’ll still hear your conversations and chatting all the way in Vancouver.

Many other groups also deserve special recognition for providing helpful, timely information to the newspaper and becoming people I consider friends along the way.

There’s no way to include everybody, but these include the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, County Commissioners, Auditor’s Office and Clerk’s Office. They include the Davenport, Odessa, Reardan-Edwall and Harrington School District administration. They include local firefighters and cattle ranchers. They include City Hall staffs around the county. They include coaches and athletic directors, particularly in Davenport, Odessa and Reardan.

And, perhaps most of all, they include you, the reader.

Thank you to the community of Reardan. Reardan was my first beat as a reporter, and as a result, took most of the lumps of me trying to figure out the ropes of the job as a professional. Your community welcomed me with grace, support and friendship.

Thank you to Odessa readers for hanging with us during the merger of the Times and Record that I felt was especially unfair to your town. The pride you take in your community is admirable and you’ve always been extremely welcoming to me, as well.

Thank you to Harrington readers for allowing me to be a small part of improving the news coverage in your city.

And, of course, thank you to Davenport for becoming like a “second home” to me. I won’t soon forget the years I spent getting to know, literally, hundreds of you who treated me like an old friend, despite my “transplant” status.

It’s time for me to sign off for now, but we’ll be in touch. Thank you, again, Lincoln County.