Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 29, 1992 TAG: 9201290125
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WITH NARY A CREASE, PAPER FOLDS
Roanoke County Today, the cheery monthly newsletter published for six years to spread the good word about the good life in the good county, had budget ax written all over it.And so in December it died. With it perished a $30,000 cost to brave county taxpayers.
There will be no more upbeat feature stories on the Spring Hollow Reservoir. No more touchy-feely essays about the county's underappreciated deputy assistant of mulched leaf distribution.
No more Ralph Cherokee. Ralph, the Native American profile on the county logo, was pressed into service as an answer man. In his widely read Dear Ralph column, the stoic brave calmly fielded readers' questions about flea dips and Santa visits.
Ralph was an invitation to the American Civil Liberties Union to crawl all over Roanoke County's back in defense of the sensitivities of Native Americans. It was an opportunity, sadly, that never arrived.
The newsroom at Roanoke County Today is vacant.
This is a triumph of sorts for Lee Eddy, the Roanoke County supervisor who, in his campaign two years ago, vowed to dispense with Roanoke County Today.
It was a waste, he argued, though he couldn't sway his colleagues on the board to agree - until the arrival sometime last year of Great Depression II. Sometimes great ideas flourish in lousy times.
Eddy is a publisher in his own right. He puts out the Windsor Hills Reporter. It's a one-page briefing for citizens in Eddy's Windsor Hills district. Eddy writes it himself and mails it to about 150 readers. He pays $40 or $50 a month out of his own pocket to do that.
With the demise of Roanoke County Today, publishing magnate Eddy sees an opportunity. He may rename his newsletter the Roanoke County Reporter and broaden the mailing list.
The man who pushed Roanoke County Today down the slippery slope to publishing purgatory would then be put in the uneasy position of asking his supervisor chums to help defray the mailing costs of the Roanoke County Reporter.
Eddy will not be without competition.
While Roanoke, the county, does away with its newsletter, Roanoke, the city, has just started its own version.
CityScene made its inaugural voyage onto front porches in September. The encore edition is due out next week. Among its many topics, Scene will ask readers how they would cut the city budget. One candidate: Kill the Scene.
Michelle Bono, the city's public information officer and, coincidentally, the editor of CityScene, says the newsletter will cost less than $10,000 a year.
It is quarterly, while Roanoke County Today - rest its soul - was monthly.
And instead of being sent to all homes in the Roanoke Valley, as Today was, Scene will go only to city homes.
"When times get tough, is that the time we shouldn't communicate with citizens?" asks Bono rhetorically.
In summary: Eddy kills a newsletter to save money and now may need a few bucks to expand a newsletter.
Meanwhile, in the city, Scene asks its own readers if it should die.
What's going on here? We need to ask Ralph.