To some it may appear that Purgatory has frozen over and that the world has been turned upside down or that dogs and cats are sleeping together. But I assure you that is not the case.

Yes, it is true that Richard Budman, Publisher of The Signal, and I had lunch at the TPC yesterday. It was a lunch that Don Fleming, West Ranch Town Council member, had invited me to attend.

Richard and I had not met one another before since he had taken over as Publisher of The Signal. It was by all accounts a very pleasant meeting in which many different topics were discussed. I did, of course, discuss my problems with The Signal and why I started the West Ranch Beacon. We had our different points of view and I believe that we agreed to disagree on a few of those points.

It was Mr. Fleming’s contention that we (the West Ranch area and the City) have better communication especially on some of the pressing topics like annexation. Don and Richard thought that we needed to get that into the local paper. They did acknowledge that the West Ranch Beacon was a forum, but that the combined readership would have a greater reach. (They were very diplomatic!)

I agreed to write a commentary on better communication, a sought of wipe the slate clean piece if you will, for The Signal in the coming weeks with the impression that it will actually be published as written. I will be curious to see if it is left intact! It will also be published as written on this blog, the West Ranch Beacon.

It was a good two hour lunch with some laughs and some frank discussions most of which will not go into print. I really felt good after leaving the lunch because I was able to express my dissatisfaction with the local paper and some of the personal running it directly to the publisher. For his part, Richard listened politely to what I had to say and at least expressed an interest in looking at some of the issues I raised.

Who knows, maybe you’ll start to see some cooperation between the West Ranch Beacon and The Signal in the coming New Year. Stranger things have certainly happened in the this Valley!

Dave Bossert