ONWARD | ‘The Launch’

BY MICHELE MILLER
What’s What New Port Richey

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The first thought for this new venture came with St. Patrick’s Day.

Restaurants and other non-essential businesses were being shut down and restrictions put in place with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. I got a tearful call from my boss. After some 25 years covering local news for the Pasco Times, a regional section of the Tampa Bay Times/St Petersburg Times, my job was being eliminated.

It had been a pretty good, and often fun run. While the pay was never great, I can honestly say that I loved my job.

During my tenure I learned much while producing stories and accompanying photographs covering a range of subjects – education, arts and entertainment, local businesses, feature profiles and personal columns.

I swam with manatees, kayaked along the black and red mangroves that hug Pasco’s shoreline, and came to appreciate the unique beauty of the local parks system in the place I had come to call home.

I went “downtown” to cover events big and small – New Port Richey’s Chasco Fiesta, Dade City’s Kumquat Festival and the first and second Pasco Pride.

I interviewed lots of people. Among them – Special Olympians, valedictorians, teachers, a couple of saddle makers and a few famous people, including Jane Goodall, who came to visit students enrolled in the Roots & Shoots program at Hudson Middle School.

Those local stories and countless others were given light on a local news platform that barely exists here or in other communities that are regretfully positioned on the outskirts of a shrinking, metro news hole. The Pasco Times as a stand-alone section went the way of my job, as did the Hernando Times to the north of here.

To be sure, since the economic crisis in 2007 it has been a long, tenuous slog for local outlets here and throughout the country. After years of watching the incremental loss of talented colleagues through a series of layoffs, and absorbing pay and benefit cuts to help keep things afloat as advertising dollars shrank, you get a notion of what “death by a thousand cuts” feels like.

So in a way, the call from my boss was a relief.

It got me thinking. Inspired me to want to create something new – meet that closed door with an open window. Spend that stimulus money on new gear. Learn how to build a website.

Reinvention sometimes means embarking on a totally new venture. Sometimes it’s a simple redirection of the skills you’ve acquired over a lifetime. What’s What New Port Richey is a combination of that and then some.

It is already a budding grassroots effort, starting with my own inner circle.

The middle kid in Michigan, who makes a living as a business analyst, is putting that USF writing degree to good use as a proof reader. The old man is doing more cooking around the house, which I mention here, because I really want to keep that going.

A handful of locals have already signed on to contribute their talents to “Your Voice – Your View.” The beautiful logo was donated to help kick this thing off.

In the broader sense, even the purposeful websites this site links to were created for and by people who live and work in this community.

There are those who have shared ideas and advice that has filtered through, and others who have offered valued support when confidence lags.

“You can do this,” they tell me, which translates into “We can do this.”

This comes about as we collectively weave our way through some rather strange and uncertain times. As a country and community we are wrestling with pandemic, civil strife and inequity, and for some, the part we need to play in helping make things better.

It is said that “A rising tide lifts all boats. ” I’m thinking we better our chances by being tethered in some way. My hope is that What’s What New Port Richey can help people make a connection that leads to engagement in the community we live in.

Welcome aboard. Please take a look around the place. And do come back any time.

Peace – MM

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Michele Miller is a former newspaper reporter and photographer and editor and creator of the online publication, What’s What New Port Richey. Contact her at mmiller@whatswhatnewportrichey.com. For more, go to the About page.

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Links to a few local stories written by Michele Miller

• An evening sky is aglow, painted by a little boy’s faith, Michele Miller, Pasco Times
• Beyond the coronavirus — moving forward from these days of isolation, By Michele Miller, Tampa Bay Times
• Social media helps push business to Pasco and Hernando restaurants hurting from coronavirus, By Michele Miller, Tampa Bay Times.
• Tampa Bay farm stands offer open-air grocery store alternative, By Michele Miller, Tampa Bay Times
• In New Port Richey, they were taking a walk in the park, one page at a time, By Michele Miller, Tampa Bay Times.

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