Many stories standout in Porterville

During my 22 years here at The Recorder there are many stories the paper covered that I can easily recall. I have always said Porterville is a town with a lot of news and we have covered it all — from the drought and East Porterville to the establishment of the Vietnam War memorial in Veterans Park.

As I wind down my career — now just more six days to go — I am trying to reflect on some of the stories which stand out, but there are far too many so I will only focus on a few.

East Porterville and the drought will always stand out because I really believe The Recorder played a significant part in getting a water system constructed in that area. I vividly recall the day Donna Johnson came into my office to tell me she knew of about 10 or 12 neighbors who did not have a working water well. Little did we know that day that the number would grow to more than 500 families and finding that permanent solution would take a couple of years.

That story drew more outside attention than any story The Recorder covered in my tenure. I spoke to dozens of journalists, many from outside the United States, all coming to Porterville to tell the story of the drought. Another story I recall was the Vietnam War Memorial. The Recorder was very involved in that fund drive with Steve Brown and Cliff Davids. There were many ups and downs during those 18 months, but today, the monument is a proud reminder of Porterville’s sacrifice in that war and a tribute to all who served.

I am especially proud of our coverage of the Gulf War — Desert Storm — and will put up our local coverage of that war against any newspaper in the nation. We were very fortunate to have families share their experiences with loved ones sent to the Gulf and the community really rallied around the local troops involved. Because of this community’s sacrifice in Vietnam — Porterville is believed to have had the highest per capita deaths in Vietnam of any city in the nation — there was extra attention placed on the city as the Gulf War began.

We documented more than 100 men and women from this area sent to the Persian Gulf that year and our first day of war coverage had several stories about how local families were reacting.

Walmart Distribution Center coming to Porterville is another story which stands out, not so much for the announcement, but for the role the paper played. City Manager Guy Huffaker told me just the other day he believes Walmart would not have come to Porterville if the paper had run the story before the announcement. Publisher Harry Kelly agreed with me we would hold off running that story because we felt the jobs were far too important to the community, and we were right.

I will also not forget the night the headquarters of Bank of the Sierra on Main Street burned. I recall it because I stood there with leaders of the bank, includig president Jim Holly, and listened as they planned how to recover from the fire which would burn for a couple of days.

They said those were dark hours, but to me the way they did recover showed the strength of the bank which is still headquartered on Main Street.

I was also pleased with our coverage that day, complete with photos, and I recall, at least four stories.

During my first stint at The Recorder, we were an afternoon paper and that was exciting because we often scrambled to cover breaking news in the morning so it would be in that day’s paper.

One moring was fairly routine as we worked to fiinish up stories that morning when my photographer Lonnie Eskridge came rushing in and said the space shuttle Challenger had just exploded on liftoff. That immediately changed that day as we worked to get that onto the front page.

Some of the odd things that I can remember was a family traveling by covered wagon through town. They had no mission or agenda. They were simply using horses and a wagon to get around. I caught up to them near Strathmore and did a quick interview and for some reason, that has stuck with me.

Then there was the poor guy who swore the government had placed cameras in the sewer systems of America, including Porterville. He smelled like he may have known what he was talking about, but he believed the government was using sewer cameras to spy and track Americans. I struggled not to laugh as he told me his fears.

What makes that story more memorable, was about a week after he came into the office, the city showed off its new camera which they used to go into the sewer and look for cracks. I never heard from the guy again, but I am sure our story scared the — well you know what — out of him.

Big stories stand out, but so do the little stories. There are many characters I will remember and a few what I consider bad guys, I will not forget either. I could go on and on about some of the major and minor stories, but it is really the people you remember the most.

Rick Elkins is publisher and editor of the Porterville Recorder. He can be reached at 784-5000, ext. 1040, or by email at relkins@ portervillerecorder.com. You can also follow him on Twitter.