Dear Evan,
By the time this paper hits the street, you will be at your new job. (Of course, you will have already edited this copy along with the rest of the issue, but just play along.) I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you won’t be at the Chico News & Review anymore, and the fact that you will be working at the Chico Enterprise-Record!
I would be mad at E-R Editor Mike Wolcott for making you his new Weekend Editor, but the CN&R has stolen its share of the daily’s employees, so I guess fair is fair.
Mike, you’re getting the hardest working reporter in town, a bulldog who will own whatever beat you hand him (and will just as doggedly update you every step of the way as stories unfold—hint: set phone to vibrate only).
Jokes aside, I am going to miss having you around, Evan. We’ve been friends since 2006, when you moved to Chico after being hired as CN&R editor-in-chief. In your first column as editor, you introduced yourself to Chico and said, “I have a lot to learn about my new hometown, and I look forward to meeting more of my new neighbors,” and I’ve been witness to how you’ve educated yourself and made an astonishing number of friends over the past 16 years. You are as juiced in as anyone I’ve met, and in case no one else has already done it, I would like to officially christen you a Local. (Here are 10 Bear Bucks; you may now skinny-dip at One-Mile.)
You’ve worn many hats at this newspaper. In addition to sitting in the big chair, you’ve been a news reporter, arts contributor, health editor, environment editor and contributing editor. We’ve worked together in different capacities throughout your tenure, and it’s the latest one that’s been the most gratifying for me. Thanks so much for being my right-hand man during these difficult COVID years, catching all my mistakes (Evan, do we capitalize “city council”?) and putting in the hard work to help keep the paper going. (Alright, Mike, you really owe me a drink.)
Your 16 years at the paper put you in the company of some its most memorable personalities, and no matter where you go, you’ll have a place on the mantle of iconic CN&R characters. From the whole News & Review family, I say thank you and wish you good luck on your new adventure.
See you at the press table.
My prediction is that someday Evan will occupy the big chair at the Bay Area News Group. He is a friend to many, including me. I see big growth in his future. There is a long history of the weekly paper stealing the staff from the daily one, and vice versa. This move will be for the benefit of all of Chico. Now I can stop bugging Mike Wolcott to hire me as a copy editor. Evan will fix it.