Tips, leads and scoops

Not only do I like tipping off Mark, but sometimes I am actually THE story.  A few weeks ago, Feilding’s Oil and Propane came to fill up my propane tank.  It was accidently overfilled and a valve froe open and the tank began leaking liquid propane all over the place.  I immediately called Feilding to get a repairman over, but was told it could take a while.  I ended up calling the fire department and before I knew what was going on, my entire neighborhood was roped off and being evacuated.  Right at suppertime, nonetheless.  Of course, I called Mark and he was already asked to cover the “big propane leak” in Auburn.  Since it was me, he got a play by play on what was going on, and never had to leave his desk.  I didn’t so much care about being in the paper myself, but got a kick out of the story and how he mentioned my two extremely popular dogs.  People came up to me for days asking about the story.  More people recognized one of my dogs names in the paper than mine, but that was fine with me, he is quite the rock star.

I guess this just proves you never know when YOU will be the news.  My work was what first brought me to Mark.  One of my employers was in quite a bit of trouble and I wanted to make sure his partners were kept out of it.  Thanks to Mark’s accurate reporting, he stuck to the facts and reported on the person in question, not all of his associates.  That was what earned my respect for Mark as a journalist.  He had integrity and I knew I would always give him whatever I could when it came to local news.