Farewell, dear Herald, you will be missed

I fear that Volume 5, Issue 5 will be the last copy of the Saratoga Springs Herald I'll hold in my hands for a while.

The official newsletter of the north Valley community was founded and edited by Liz Starkey, who is planning to move to Oregon as soon as her house sells.

She and her husband Barry own property in Baker, which Liz says is a lot like Carson Valley, but growing at a slower pace.

"We knew Carson Valley would grow, but we didn't expect it to grow this fast," she said.

The Starkeys are retired, so the only thing holding Liz and Barry here are the friendships they've built over the past six years and Liz said that's a powerful connection.

I've always thought of Liz as a fellow editor in Carson Valley. While she was editor of the six-issue a year publication it was always lively and never afraid to take a position.

We've republished two features by Herald writer Christel Hall on interesting residents to live in Saratoga.

Liz said that she fears the Herald will disappear with her, since no one in the neighborhood has shown an interest in taking charge of the publication.

Like any good newspaper it had to pay for itself and had more than 30 advertisers in the last edition.

The Saratoga Springs Herald put life in the community under a microscope, linking together people who might live their lives without ever getting to know their neighbors. It never used photos and the columns were the width of the page, but at its heart it was a great example of community journalism.

Good luck, Liz.

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Gardnerville Poet Ryan J. Cunningham has dedicated his book of poetry "Angels Near and Far" to Rachel Lynne French.

The book is selling for $12.95 and is 60 pages long.

Rachel grew up ion the Gardnerville Ranchos and worked at the Smith's in town, attending Douglas High School.

She was 19 when she was killed Feb. 20 in an auto accident at Airport Road and Highway 50 in Carson City.

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Apparently the peak wind gust from 68 mph wasn't the peak, after all.

R-C weather watcher George Uebele got a reading of 90 mph in Sheridan Acres before flying shingles pelted his wind cup.

I know we had some hellacious winds through here early last week. My wind gauge hasn't worked right since I put it up. By the time George got his wind cups replaced, the breezes were back down to 7 mph.

When I'm doing the morning report, I often take a peek at Meneley Elementary School's weather Web site, which shows wind speed and direction. However, I have found that when the wind is really howling, it tends to stop working.

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I'm going on vacation for two weeks starting Monday. It's my plan to keep up with the R-C Morning Report through that time, though my posting might get a little sketchy from the Nevada and Arizona outback.

Anyway I'll give it a shot. I'm forwarding my e-mail home, so anyone who wants to get a hold of me may do so.

n Kurt Hildebrand is editor of The Record-Courier. Reach him at khildebrand@recordcouriuer.com or 782-5121, ext. 215.