Farmers Weekly Review

By Nick Reiher

It’s coming up on my 12th anniversary as editor of Farmers Weekly Review. It seems a lot longer, mostly because there have been so many changes.

When publisher Michael Cleary hired me, he challenged me to make the paper relevant to a wider audience, one that would cover happenings in the entire county; not just on the farms.

I think I remember his hair looking like Don King’s when I suggested changing the title of the then-91-year-old paper to make it sound more inclusive to all residents. But Farmers Weekly Review it remained, with the subtext “Serving all of Will County Since 1921.”

I really never have been good at self-promotion, so some of my ideas to get us into the mainstream might have been a bit odd.
Like when I called the offices of the Chicago White Sox and asked the community rep if the late broadcaster Ed Farmer would be interested in writing a week column called … well, you know what it would have been called.

Even as a Cub fan, I enjoyed listening to Farmer and DJ on the radio. I liked their dry wit. I could tell Farmer had a bit of an edge to him.

So, if the corporate White Sox dude did, indeed, ask Farmer if he would be interested in writing a column for a weekly what-sounded-like-a-farm paper, I can just imagine the heat he got back.

But the answer is always “no” if you don’t try, right? This answer also was “no.”

Instead, I was fortunate enough to add three wonderful columnists, John Kiefner on Ag, Master Gardener Nancy Kuhajda on all things green and Will County Historian Sandy Vasko to tell us weekly how the hell we got to where we are now around here.
I once again began covering Will County government, as I had on and off since 1987 when I was a reporter for the Herald News. Walking into the County Office Building again, as it seems I did every weekday from 1987 to 1989, covering the first days of the County Executive system, was weird. Even weirder, a handful of people still were there from the “old days.”

Since that time, you readers and I have seen the county build a new courthouse, sheriff’s facility and Health Department building (without raising taxes); and watch in amazement as NorthPoint brought its traveling show from Elwood to Manhattan to the county and finally to Joliet, all the while being able to convince reasonably intelligent people their “closed loop” traffic system would solve current traffic issues, instead of only the ones its development would create.

We’ve seen women take over Will County government, as they were elected or appointed to lead offices, a welcome trend outside of government here as well.

We saw the loss of Will County statesmen, Will County Executive Larry Walsh Sr. and former state Rep. Jack McGuire. More recently, we suffered the shocking loss of Ruth Colby, President and CEO of Silver Cross Hospital.

We also grieved the loss of family, friends and businesses during the COVID pandemic, one which Farmers Weekly managed to survive, thanks to faithful readers and advertisers.

Not only did we survive, but last fall, we were able to expand into the 20th century (Yes, I know we’re in the 21st) by creating a website, fwrnews.com.

For years, the cost of setting up a website was out of our reach, especially as dough was stretched thin during COVID. But our new designer, Chris Russell of clrdigital.tech, set up a nice one for us for pennies.

At least I think it’s nice. It’s free, and we now can offer ads on there as well as in the paper edition.

But how about you tell me what you think … of the website, the paper, my new column headshot. Whatever. You can call me at 815-690-1653, or email [email protected].

I like talking with the public. And not just for any accolades you might throw my way.

One of the first calls I got some 12 years ago was from a guy who said I really should be writing in Chicago.
I began to thank him, as he added, “Yeah, we don’t like your writing here.”

Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.