Yes, It’s True: I must consider stepping aside

“The old gray mare she ain’t what she used to be, cries when she wants to pee.”

It’s long overdue — acknowledging my very real fears about growing old and losing my ability to cover and report on meetings. This is very real for an aging community journalist with 53 years under his belt.

Indeed, I’ve lost a step, perhaps mostly in hearing ability and in memory.

The biggest test I’ve been facing with Townbroadcast has been my deteriorating relationship with the Wayland Board of Education, more specifically Supt. Tim Reeves. Much of it was shown in the wake of last Monday night’s meeting, at which I reported on Mayor Jennifer Antel’s resignation from coaching cross country and track.

It should be noted that earlier this summer I editorialized against the administration’s budget cutbacks now affecting Antel’s coaching position and bowling coach Sherry Miklusicak. Their positions are being reduced, saving the district only a couple thousand dollars annually.

It also should be noted there is a difference between articles and editorials.

Antel expressed her displeasure in her resignation, saying the administration was willing to lose quality coaches in an effort to save a few thousand bucks a year.

I made the mistake of referring to the cutbacks as policies because it seemed to me that accurately described the process. But Supt. Reeves was correct when he insisted the school district does not have any policies that call for coaching reductions.

Reeves also had problems with me not specifying whether Antel’s comments were verbal or written. Some were spoken, but she ran out of time and I used her prepared written statement to complete the communication.

This episode is just the latest in the contentions by Reeves and some board members that the stories I write are riddled with errors and omissions. They seem to think I’m falling into incompetence and not hearing properly to accurately report meeting proceedings.

This reaction of Reeves and some school board members  has caused me to do some soul searching. I chose to start up Townbroadcast in 2012 when I retired because the Wayland, Hopkins, Martin Moline and Dorr communities lost the services of the Penasee Globe to report local news seven years ago.

The Washington Post has a slogan that “Democracy dies in darkness.” And when nobody tells the people what their local government is doing, the cost is dear.

I decided in 2012 to use my retirement years to continue to do what I did for so many years — practice community journalism. I’d like to think I have provided a valuable service to the people of these communities.

However, now comes complaints that I’m making too many mistakes in my reporting, but they’re all coming from one government unit and its CEO.

Supt. Reeves only Tuesday revealed something I found disturbing: He said,”a couple of years ago, I asked our legal counsel to review your website and articles after your errors and omissions become more frequent. Our legal counsel investigated these concerns, reviewed your website, and came back with a summary that Wayland Townbroadcast is a blog and not a journalistic entity. The attorney went on to further state the best thing we could do was to continue to advocate to see the corrections made, which is what I have been doing for a couple of years.”

I’ve never been in this predicament before in my career, but I must entertain the possibility that indeed my journalistic skills are slipping.

Some of Townbroadcast’s readers are aware that I invited anyone who wants to take it over to do just that. Though I fielded inquiries and some interest, agreements fell through.

If I step aside, that will mean no one will pick up the mantle and serve as a town crier.

That reminds me of what a public figure said to me several years ago about me coming to their meetings: “Dave, we’d rather you not show up.”