A note to a special friend

Being the owner of a news outlet has its challenges. That’s never been more evident than the past election cycle.
The advertising that comes with it is small recompense for the tough business of endorsements and the attacks that ensue. It’s tough to push through it as an owner and even more so as a reporter.
But the work has its advantages and, in some cases, even pleasures.
As we go about chasing information and putting it together into a consumptive format, we actually run head on into the news. That can be painful, such as photographing five presumed innocent people sitting on a curb in handcuffs or zip ties following a raid of their home with geared up law enforcement in the background. The arrested look at you in vain and hide their faces, while you wish you had done a little better job of disappearing into the background.  But that’s the job.
It's also in the job to cultivate sources, and in small towns many, many times those sources become friends.
That’s the case with outgoing Lee County Economic Development Group CEO Dennis Fraise. Dennis was one of the first people I got to know when I took over as publisher of Mississippi Valley Media in 2016. We set up a lunch and talked about plans.
I did most of the talking about the role of the newspaper in helping LCEDG with their objectives. I think we even talked a little about support and it came in the way of donating some ad space and keeping the public apprised of the group’s accomplishments.
But there’s a little separation between the relationship with Fraise that continued when Lee and I started Pen City Current, at least in comparison with a lot of other sources.
Many looked at us as an outside nuisance, but a necessity in any growing community.
Another news outlet in a town of 10,000 and half a county of 30,000 was more than some wanted to deal with.
But not Fraise. He welcomed the additional coverage like a coach who gets more exposure for his team. This isn’t a big secret, but most people want the media only to know what they want them to know. Dennis was different as our relationship grew. He knew the role we had to play and how we had to play it. And he respected that. And we responded in kind and respected the role he was playing and how he needed to play it.
That was understood from the outset and our relationship was very strong and full of trust. Fraise knew it was my job to ask tough questions and it was his duty to dodge them. That’s a little tongue-in-cheek because Dennis was about as open and accessible as any source I’ve ever had. There were times he talked to me about developments that were in front of the group that I’d gotten wind of. A lot of publishers say their responsibility is to their readers first and foremost, and it is. But the landscape for that work diminishes greatly and very quickly when you print things that can hinder the work of others, or at least make it more difficult to do.
Sometimes there is no option. I tell people all the time, "If I could print everything I hear, I’d probably make more money for about a month, then I’d be broke.”
I also had a very respected mentor when I was in Nebraska who said something I’ll never forget as a journalist.
“We have the right to print it, but is it right to print it?”
I think he got it from a mentor of his who had it printed on a banner in what I'm sure was an old editor’s office with papers stacked everywhere and done completely in wood.
Dennis and I talked about many things that were happening with GROW Lee and  MVM jumped in on the World Record Tulip planting with some messaging and designing.
I really got to know him and his style of getting people in a room and it has, well – grown ever since.
Fraise photographed my brother's and sister-in-law's wedding many moons ago, and apparently many, many seniors in the area. He then moved on to non-profit work with the Alzheimers Association and quickly gravitated to economic development.  That work set him up as a unique person to be the catalyst for building partnerships in Lee County. Fraise went about the work with vision and a zeal for greatness. Our headline last week of "The Right Guy at the right time." was on point.
He now has the top Economic Development podcast in the country and has ushered in many state, national, and international economic development awards.
He'd be the first to tell you it hasn’t been without hurdles and even some opposition to the goals at hand. But show me any plan with 100% undeniable support and I’ll show you a fictional plan.
No one operates on a plane of perfection, but successful people try to gravitate to those that reach for the stars. For 11 years in Lee County, Fraise reached for the stars. I’ll never forget this gentle giant pointing to me in a room of people way more important and saying “Our special friend Chuck Vandenberg is with us again in the back of the room and we’re happy about that.”
It was at a March 2020 58-minute LCEDG breakfast. It was also the very first event I forced myself to cover following Kelsey’s death several weeks earlier. I got up and went to the bathroom and wept.
I’m sure Dennis will be around for a lunch every now and then, but as just one small media dude, in a pretty small pond, we’re gonna miss him. Fraise retired from his post on Thursday. I went not to cover the celebration event at Turnwater, but to listen to what I was pretty sure would be a funny wave to those who’d been a part of his life over the past several decades.
He didn’t disappoint.
Godspeed, Mr. Fraise, on your retirement. You’re a special friend, as well – but that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.