Since I started writing this column I've had a lot of people ask me how this came about. It's even surprising to me, a math major turned software engineer, that I'm writing something for the Beacon on a regular basis.
My relationship with The Beacon News and sister paper The Naperville Sun has been a long one. Generations of my family including myself have had our birth announcements, honor rolls, school sports and awards, scout activities, high school and college graduations, engagements, and weddings published in the Beacon. There have been many obituaries as well.
I’ve had letters to the editor published as well as an article about my oldest daughter earlier this year in the “Amazing People” section. I was interviewed by Denise Crosby for a Beacon column about an issue with our homeowners association. I was also interviewed once for an article in the Naperville Sun about my fight for a school to be built on the site in my neighborhood.
For several years I’ve been living in DuPage County Aurora. This is an odd place to try to get good newspaper coverage. The Naperville Sun covers Naperville, including our school district, but not Aurora. The Beacon News covers Kane County Aurora and surrounding communities really well. It prints most of the District 204 articles that are in the Naperville Sun, but usually a couple days later. The publisher of these two papers also prints a weekly free newspaper that comes to all of DuPage County Aurora and includes articles of interest to us, but once a week is not timely news.
This spring I spent countless hours on the District 204 School Board election and thought I was well-informed coming into the election. A few days prior to the election I saw a sign for a candidate running for College of DuPage Board of Trustees. What? I had no idea there was such an election going on and had no information at all about the people running for that office. The Beacon had printed a Kane County Aurora sample ballot in English and Spanish, but no sample ballot for DuPage County Aurora. The Fox Valley Villages Sun had not provided us with a sample ballot, either. Nor had I seen any press about this or any other possible races I might be voting on besides school board, and most of that I’d seen by reading The Naperville Sun or Daily Herald online.
I contacted Rick Nagel at the Beacon to express my concern. I count on my local newspaper to inform me about upcoming elections including candidate profiles and useful information about relevant issues and referenda. I do not want to have to subscribe to the Beacon for Aurora issues, the Naperville Sun for school district issues, the Daily Herald for county issues, and the Sun or Tribune for state and national news. I don’t have time to read all these papers!
In early May Rick and I met and discussed my concerns and what I’d like to see in the Beacon. At this time I was offered the opportunity to write a Valley Voices column. I told him that I’m a computer person, not a writer, but he felt that my passion for my city and school district would be reflected and be a positive addition to the paper. I only hope that I am living up to this, that I am not boring people, and that the Beacon will continue to make progress in providing better coverage for people living in my part of town and in turn get more readers in DuPage County Aurora. It would be great if Aurora residents in both Kane and DuPage could go beyond the county line to all see ourselves as part of one great city.
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