Othello's future news coverage talk of council meeting

OTHELLO — The future of news coverage in Othello became clearer at Monday’s city council meeting.

In the wake of the Othello Outlook’s announced closure on July 29, a call for bids for an official newspaper was placed in the consent agenda. Columbia Basin Herald — and former Outlook publisher — Eric LaFontaine spoke of plans to expand The Sun Tribune’s coverage area to Othello and the council discussed the idea of digitizing all 108 years of Outlook issues.

“I just wanted to issue a proclamation thanking the Othello Outlook for its 108 years of service chronicling the history of our city,” said mayor Shawn Logan, who also thanked several former employees at newspaper. “I just really want to thank them all for their service to this community, their service to the city of Othello and the Othello Outlook, the newspaper, because they chronicled what has happened to this city over the last 108 years and so tonight I believe the Othello Outlook deserves to be honored and recognized for their exceptional service to this city and community.”

LaFontaine spoke for nearly five minutes during the citizen input portion of the meeting, which included plans to hire an Othello-based publisher for the Sun Tribune and open an office in the area.

Currently, The Sun Tribune covers the south Grant County areas of Royal City and Mattawa.

“This weekly newspaper that I started is absolutely based on the principles that went on in this community,” LaFontaine said. “It is built behind that ship that taps into the hyper-local feel. All pictures, legals, schools, sports, kids. Again, it’s based on that foundation and we’ve worked really, really hard to turn this newspaper into something extremely positive for those communities.”

LaFontaine served as the publisher of the Othello Outlook for almost eight years before taking the same position at the Columbia Basin Herald in October 2014. LaFontaine replaced interim publisher Kent Eymann.

LaFontaine will lead a public forum at noon Aug. 2 at the Othello Senior Center for those that have more questions.

“You guys had this newspaper for 108 years,” he said. “When you think forward about who can continue a newspaper going for another 108 years, I promise you it’s me. And I promise you it’s the people behind me.”

The Othello City Council opened a bid for an official newspaper as part of the consent agenda.

According to the memo, the city spent about $6,095 in 2015 on legal publications. That figure did not include advertising costs.

The memo said bids will be accepted up until noon, Aug. 5, and staff recommended the city council award the bid at the Aug. 8 council meeting. LaFontaine said he will submit a bid on Friday.

Finally, Logan mentioned digitizing all 108 years and over 5,000 issues of the Outlook. All issues will be donated to the Othello Museum, but the physical copies are still vulnerable.

“They’re in paper format and if the museum ever burned or if someone came in and vandalized and destroyed those papers the entire compendium (collection) of the chronicling of the city of Othello and its history for the last 108 years would be lost,” Logan said.

Logan and city clerk Debbie Kudrna discussed reaching out to the Secretary of State of Washington Kim Wyman and the Washington State Archives in Olympia for help in the digitization process. Applying for a grant that could help fund a job that Logan said could take over a year was also talked about.

No definitive conclusion was reached, but the council agreed that the preservation of the Outlook was important.

“I wouldn’t want to lose those pictures of Larry (McCourtie) smacking a home run,” John Lallas said of his fellow council member.