Sierra Mountain Times

Meet the Press: The Personalities of Your Paper 

“Change.” This has been the key word of 2008. During the recent presidential campaign this word was used constantly, ringing out over radios and TV sets – captivating the nation and giving people hope for things to come. Yet unlike last year, where this word was merely spoken, in this coming New Year we look forward to this word being put into action – for as we all know, words without action don’t accomplish much. In the world of the Sierra Mountain Times the paper has already seen tremendous growth, thanks to its new leader, Tim McCaffrey, who has brought his words to life through his actions. When he said that he wanted to completely change the look of the paper – he did it (if you haven’t noticed), and currently the SMT is undergoing all the definitions of change.

“Change”: n. Making or becoming different. n. Alteration or modification. n. Transformation, mutation, shift, adjustment. v. To modify, alter, convert. And although the paper has experienced many agents of change throughout its five-year lifespan, Tim, who recently became the new owner of the Sierra Mountain Times, is ready to take the paper in a completely new direction than it has ever gone before. As the mastermind behind the modification, mutation and transformation of the paper, he knows that it will be an ongoing process throughout the year, but here are some of the most obvious changes: 1. The front page (no more crease down the middle!). 2. It’s lack of syndicated content (except for the popular and informative Earth Talk) 3. Its overall ‘awesomeness’ (which we believe will increase over time).

Tim’s faithful crew is onboard with Tim’s changes and is looking forward to following their fearless leader into the New Year. The crew’s ship (the office in the Twain Harte shopping center) has also undergone some modifications and additions, including the luxury of a comfy purple couch. For those who have never visited the office, come on by to say hello, grab a paper and have a seat. We would love to meet you!

Understanding that it can be awkward to say hello to people that you have never met, we decided that with this issue, we would let ‘meet the press’ and get to know us a little better. Don’t worry – although the paper and office may be going through mutations we haven’t changed…much. We admit that from time to time we may turn into malicious creature when suffering the horrendous affects of ‘cubiclitis’ (over exposure to our cubicles during deadlines), overall, we ‘paper people’ are pretty normal. We have hobbies, enjoy music, watch TV…we even like to read! So here is your backstage pass to get to know us. Enjoy!

Tim McCaffrey, Publisher/Graphic Designer/New Guy: Tim was born on May 14, 1973 in San Jose where he spent most of his youth. During his high school years he became interested in graphic design and began working for his dad between the summers of 1990 and 1992.

“My dad had a full design shop in Santa Clara and I had the opportunity to work with the 49ers and Logitech and 3Com,” said Tim. “It was a great experience.”

After graduating in 1991, Tim moved to Santa Cruz to attend Cabrillo City College in Soquel where he studied music and art.

“I got kicked out of the music department because I didn’t want to play the vibes,” he recalled. “I was a percussionist and I wanted to play the drums. There are some awesome vibe guys out there…but I just didn’t want to be one of them, so I left the music department.”

Yet Tim ended up staying in the area for like five years ‘just hanging out and trying not to work’ until his travels took him to San Francisco where he worked as a bike messenger for a year before moving to Seattle to attend art school.

“I studied in Seattle for a year and made a decision that I wanted to be an illustrator, not a designer and that I didn’t need to go to school for that. But by that time I was a senior and ready to graduate anyway,” he laughed.

After graduating in 1996 Tim decided to move to Twain Harte where his parents were living so he could revisit his old stomping grounds.

“I grew up coming to Twain Harte and basically spent my summers living at the lake and in the winter I would come up every weekend to ski on the Dodge Ridge Ski Team,” he said.

So when he moved back that winter it was only natural that he got a job at Dodge Ridge. Although his original plan was to only stay for the winter, he ended up liking the area and the ski industry and stayed, moving up into management and marketing positions at the resort. Yet by 1999, Tim decided to start his own graphic design business.

“I was like 26 years old and had no idea what starting a business was like,” he recalled. “I really wanted to work for myself, but I soon realized I was in over my head.”

However, before he had a chance to sink too deep, fate had sent a rescue boat that would take his career in a different direction.

“I was working at my graphics shop in Twain Harte when a guy named Mike Ashland stopped by the office and told me that he wanted to start a newspaper,” said Tim. “He invited me to his house for dinner and when I showed up there were like fifteen people there sitting around a table and we started talking about ideas for this proposed paper. And after Mike, BJ Sibley and I kind of formed a team, people started coming out of the woodwork and wanted to see this thing take off.”

Soon, with a small budget, the Twain Harte Times was born in July of 2003.

“It started with practically nothing,” recalled Tim. “Everyone brought in whatever they had. I still worked for myself during the day and would then bring in my computer to the Twain Harte Times office. But then all of a sudden the paper started making money! Our original sales person, Janis Yerington, had sales under her belt with the New Yorker and in like one week we had tons of contracts. We were like, ‘Oh my God, this is real!’ As it started to grow we had a lot of creative people, including Eileen Mannix, jump on board and it was a fun little paper. It was very communal and we all talked about everything – it was a great working experience. There was this very strong sense of family within the company and I remember telling Mike that I had never been treated as an employee like that before. It was refreshing to me, and a real eye-opener. Mike was a huge mentor of mine and he was an awesome person. Besides working for myself, it is probably one of the best jobs I’ve ever had.”

But the old saying ‘all good things must come to an end’ rang true, and after a little over a year, the paper was on shaky ground.

“Things just started to get weird around the office and it didn’t feel right,” recalled Tim. “A couple of the key players had some personal issues and it just began to crumble. Everything seemed to be falling apart in the publisher’s life so I don’t blame him for what happened at all, but it still happened, and he got a lot of gruff to the point where he had to leave the area. So one day he just kind of disappeared…and the paper died. Basically it was like he raised a little puppy that everyone loved, and he brought it downtown and killed it. That is how the community looked at it because everyone loved that little baby paper that was just starting to grow.”

However, thanks to Doug Kennedy and Tracie Snikter, the Twain Harte Times was revived, and brought back to life under the name of the Sierra Mountain Times.

“When the Twain Harte Times was killed, Doug and Tracie saw an opportunity and realized that the paper was a great thing that the community loved so they kept it going,” said Tim. “I think they did an amazing thing.”

When the paper changed hands Tim received a call to work for the paper, but he already had another job lined up working for a sign shop until he decided to try working for himself again.

“I was really struggling to get my own stuff off the ground and I was going back and forth from Dodge Ridge to whatever I could do to pay the rent and keep food on the table,” he said. “But eventually my business started taking off and I could pay all my bills, which was all I really wanted to do.”

During the next four years, while Tim worked for his own business, the Sierra Mountain Times continued to grow under Doug and Tracie’s care, bursting from a 12-16 page paper to a 28-36 page paper. Although Tim had no involvement in the paper during this time, when he heard that the paper was for sale a few months ago, the wheels were set in motion.

“When I heard that the paper’s graphic designer, Luis Torres, wanted to buy the paper and it fell through, I immediately went to talk with Doug and Tracie,” said Tim. “I mulled it over for a few months and I started to get excited about it. There was a spark when I worked for the Twain Harte Times that was missing from my career. I missed the creativity. You want to think you have creative control when you work in creative design, but it’s not true because people are telling you what to do. Then one night I got out of bed, went downstairs and turned on my computer and I put together the masthead for the paper and the next day I put in a call and said I was serious about buying the paper. I was like ‘Oh My God! This is what it could be!’ I don’t have to follow the old reigns or path – I could take a new direction!”

And just as Doug saw an opportunity, Tim realized that this was his opportunity to contribute back to the community he had been a part of for the past 14 years.

“I have never really had a doorway like this,” he said. “I’d only had these little doorways like being able to help with the Tuolumne or Twain Harte Chamber of Commerce or the Soroptomist, Rotary and the DLF Foundation. Working with non-profits always has a pay off that is way beyond any dollar amount. And when I worked at Dodge they were constantly involved with community events and it was great being able to contribute in that way. There is a huge amount of satisfaction that goes along with helping your community and I want to create something that brings back this community and ties everyone together and supports local business.”

Tim hopes that the paper will continue to help bridge the gap between Tuolumne and Calaveras County and create business between them.

“The fact that so many people from Tuolumne County go to Calaveras County and so many people from Calaveras County go to Tuolumne County is huge,” said Tim. “Calaveras County people cut through Tuolumne County to go to Yosemite and people in Tuolumne County go over to Calaveras’ great winery scene and downtown district. Yet they aren’t tied together in anyway because of the border of water that separates them…although the mindsets of the people in these counties are the same. People live in these two counties because they are so awesome!”

Tim is also excited about creating a work environment modeled after his early days at the Twain Harte Times.

“I really want to empower the employees and free up the editor so he can do more of what he wants to do,” he said. “That’s the best part about having a great job. It’s still a job and its still work, but it’s so much better when you’re doing what you want to do. I would rather make less money and do what I love than make millions of dollars.”

Now that Tim is officially the owner of the paper he is excited to unveil his vision for the future of the Sierra Mountain Times.

“I want to liven it up and take it in a more magazine-style direction,” he explained. “We’re about to take it in a completely different direction so that it is nothing like it was before. But the main point I want to express is that I want this paper to focus in on the people who are making a difference in people’s lives. There are people who live in this area who are making a difference in the world and it will be interesting to find out how they ended up here. There are some fascinating people who live up here and not many people know about them. I think people are going to be surprised when they find out something like the guy who invented the pet rock lives in Tuolumne County (look for this story in a future issue). Yet we still plan to hold on to the things that everyone loves and make sure to cover all the bases.”

Yet Tim understands that it is going to be a learning experience.

“I am nervous about this issue because I know that it is a work in progress and I don’t know if people are ready for that,” he said. “I don’t know if they will understand that we are coming out with something totally different than what has ever been done with this paper before. But I totally want people to send in their comments and what they love and what they hate and what they would like to see more or less of because that is the beauty of what we are trying to do – we want something that is awesome…for everyone! People definitely talk about this paper and I think they will be talking about it even more.”

When not consumed with work, Tim loves to spend his free time traveling, camping, backpacking, hiking, fly-fishing, skiing and snowboarding.

“That is why I live here!” he said.

Tim  also finds entertainment thorough reading, watching movies, and listening to music.

“I like nonfiction books about random stuff like marketing and business stuff – total dork stuff…its almost like reading a manual for computers.”

Although he doesn’t have a favorite TV show, Tim’s favorite movie is either Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or The Usual Suspects and his favorite band of all time is The Grateful Dead. When asked what song would best describe him he said, “A Bob Dylan song. He has like a billion. I am sure I could find one that is a perfect fit.”

As you may have noticed, creative people inspire Tim.

“There are people who are creative because they can take someone’s thought or idea and change it, and then there is true creativity – those who make something out of nothing,” he said. “That is truly inspiring.”

Greg Kristapovich, Columnist/Photographer/Paper Boy: Greg was born on May 1, 1955 in a little town called Peru, Illinois, whose claim to fame was thousands of acres of corn and a West Clocks factory.

“It was a real rural midwestern town,” said Greg. “All the time we lived there my mom would tune her shortwave radio to a program called Hawaii Calls, broadcasting from Waikiki Beach. I think this would help take her mind off the harsh 20 degree below winters, and when my dad got laid off from the clock factory in 1964 our family packed up and moved to O’ahu, Hawaii.”

Yet this paradise experience only lasted for about a year.

“My parents thought it was counter productive to live in Hawaii because all the kids wanted to do was surf and go to the beach,” said Greg. “My sisters only wanted to hang out with their surfer boyfriends so we moved back to California.”

Greg spend the next five years living in the town of Highland near San Bernardino until his sisters left the nest and his parents decided to try O’ahu a second time. This time they lived on the island from 1970 to 1982.

“I graduated from Kailua High in 1973…back in the dinosaur age,” he chuckled. “Then I attended the University of Hawaii to get my BA in journalism.”

To help pay for his tuition he had a job giving tours while peddling a rickshaw pedi-cab (a tricycle style conveyance) as well as working at the Del Monte Pineapple Canary in Honolulu. During this time he wrote for the college paper, but he also spent a lot of time bodysurfing and ‘laying on the beach wahine (women) watching’, so it took him a little longer to graduate. Finally, in 1982 he received his diploma and he and his family moved back to California where he began looking for jobs in Sacramento. Fate steered him toward retail and he ended up working behind the catalogue counter at JC Penny for a few years until he got a job working for Cal Western Life insurance and then for USAA Insurance.

“After years of doing that I just got tired of the corporate culture and started doing weird stuff…unorthodox stuff like circulating petitions in front of Wal-Mart’s,” he said. “I guess you could say I had a lofty job as a political activist.”

Greg also began delivering a 72-page weekly called the Sacramento News and Review and when he and his family moved to Tuolumne County in 2002 he tried to find work in the same vein.

“My wife had family up here and she found a job, but when I came up here I thought, ‘Will I ever find any work?’ And then one day in 2005 I walked into the SMT office and asked if they needed any delivery drivers and it turned out that the gal who had the Angels Camp route was quitting, so within hours I was told I had a route.”

Although that route only consisted between 35-40 stops, before he knew it he was also delivering the Twain Harte to Kennedy Meadows route.

“When I was given that route, I was up to about 140 stops, but today my routes have grown to about 270 stops!” he said. “Now I find myself literally driving around the clock for three days almost non-stop. But I enjoy driving. I like getting out there and exploring and chatting with folks and learning what is going on in the region. As long as my radio works and I have a cup of coffee and the heater works in the winter and the air conditioning works in the summer, I am a happy camper.”

But it wasn’t long before Greg was doing much more than just delivering papers. In June of 2007 Greg came up with the idea for the Man on the Street column and he began asking questions while he was out delivering the papers. He also began submitting pictures of events that he attended and the SMT started publishing those as well. By November he was officially the paper’s photographer. But the owner knew that Greg had more journalistic talent to offer.

“One day Doug asked me to write about the interesting things that I saw and experienced on the road, and that is how Greg’s Happenings was born,” said Greg. “I report on what I observe. Some things are freaky and rather unusual but I also like to incorporate a little bit of pop culture as well as nostalgia. I feel that a lot of people like to look back with fond memories of decades past…especially the 60s.They like to reminisce about those groovy memories, their youth, rock festivals, but they also want to know what is going on in the area. I have had a few people say they enjoy reading my column and I am pleased to hear that. I guess when I worked for retail and insurance I kind of forgot how much I enjoyed writing, but after Doug kind of opened the door for me, it has been great.”

Although Greg doesn’t have too much free time, he enjoys going on hikes when he can.

“My hiking legs haven’t had much use over the last three years since I’ve been delivery the SMT, but I did a lot of hiking in Hawaii,” he said.

Yet whether on the road or at home Greg is always able to listen to music, and he is proud of his record collection containing about 2,000 albums. His favorite band of all time is the Moody Blues.

“In my book they were just as profound as the Beatles,” he said. “One of their songs describes me best and it goes like this: ‘You can fly high as a kite if you want to, traveling through the universe, thinking is the best way to travel…’ They are profound.”

He will also often find something profound in his reading material of choice, Rolling Stone Magazine. Yet his inspiration comes from a variety of sources.

“I am inspired by my mom and dad, the Big Editor in the sky and comedians – especially those on SNL and the Tonight Show,” he said. “I am a huge fan of Jewish comedians like Jerry Lewis and Jerry Seinfeld. Besides watching comedians I also like WWF Wrestling.”

Thomas Atkins, Editor: Thomas was born in Sonora on September 23, 1981 and has lived most of his life in the small town of Tuolumne. After graduating from Summerville High School in 2000 he attended Columbia College.

“I loved the area up here and I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do so I went to Columbia for two years,” he said. “I worked a little bit as a school janitor at Summerville Elementary and for Tuolumne County Park and Recreation, but most of my time I spent doing what I have done most of my life – hiking and camping in the summer and snowboarding in the winter.”

Yet he experienced a two-year mountain intermission when he transferred to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo to study journalism.

“I picked journalism because I liked to write and I knew I had to choose a major that didn’t involve math or science,” he said. “I guess I always had the whole National Geographic dream in the back of my mind.”

After two years of surfing and writing for the college paper, the Mustang Daily, Thomas graduated in 2004 and returned to his hometown where he got a job doing landscaping.

“I wasn’t really ready for a ‘career’ and so I found a job that still allowed me to have a lot of freedom,” he said. “My boss let me take off whenever I needed to and I was able to go on a lot of trips and travel. During those three years I went to Australia, backpacked around Europe and did a two-month road trip around the U.S. It was perfect!”

Then in the winter of 2006 he had an offer to work at the Sierra Mountain Times and put his college degree to use.

“My friend Jerry Whitehead was the editor of the paper at the time and he told me that they could use a part time reporter for the paper, so I started working there two days a week,” said Thomas. “It was a nice blend and the people at the paper were a lot of fun. I mostly enjoyed writing about the local history and the amazing outdoor locations in Tuolumne and Calaveras County.”

But as summer rolled around Thomas was getting antsy and was faced with an ultimatum.

“I was told that they no longer needed a part time reporter and I would either have to become a full time employee or find a different job,” he recalled. “If they had asked me in the middle of winter, my answer might have been different, but because it was in early June, my answer was easy. I chose summer and left the paper.”

After a summer filled with his favorite activities he was asked to come back to the paper two days a week at the end of September. Yet a few months later he found himself filling in the editor’s shoes.

“Jerry was taking another job and they asked me to take his place,” he said. “It definitely caught me by surprise.”

This time however, the timing was better.

“This was a huge decision for me,” he recalled. “I remember struggling to make a decision because I was supposed to start full time right at the end of fishing season. I was freaking out about being tied down…but I eventually decided to take the job. It’s not everyday a job will just fall in your lap.”

But Thomas admits that it took some time to adjust.

“I’d never really had a ’real job’ with responsibility,” he said. “It was scary, and the first couple of weeks were pretty crazy. But Jerry helped me out and got me started and ended up turning out better than I thought…especially when Luis Torres started to manage the paper and we started going to a four-day workweek at the beginning of last summer. I was stoked about that! So far it has been a great experience and I have met some wonderful people. I am really looking forward to the new direction the paper will be heading.”

Thomas is a huge music fan and enjoys playing the guitar.

“My favorite band of all time is the Beatles, and their song, “Mother Nature’s Son” would probably describe me the best.”

Thomas’ favorite TV show is currently a tie between Seinfeld and Arrested Development. He enjoys reading non-fiction outdoor adventure books and the writings of John Muir. He finds his inspiration in beauty.

“I am inspired by beauty and the Creator of that beauty,” he said. “We are truly blessed to live where we do. I have been a lot of places and I hope that Tuolumne County will always be home.”

Hope Nessl, Tuolumne County Sales Manager: Hope was born in Monterey on February 17, 1984 and lived there through most of her high school years until moving to Indianapolis, Indiana to finish her senior year. From there she moved to San Diego for college and worked part time for a magazine and at a bank doing sales. Then in 2005 she decided to take a break and move back home.

“During this time home was at my parents vacation house in Groveland,” she said. ”About a year later I ended up getting married and moved to Sonora with my husband, Jon.”

It wasn’t long before Hope came to love the small foothill town.

“I enjoy the small town feel where pretty much everyone knows everyone,” she said. “People live at a slower pace and it is enjoyable here.”

It was here where she began putting her sales experience to use.

“The editor was friends with my husband and when he was over at the house one day he told me that the paper was looking for a sales manager,” she said. “The next day I handed my resume in at the office and I was hired in November of 2007. I worked there for almost a year and then went on maternity leave for about four months when our baby Dixie was born in September.”

Hope will be returning this month and the staff is excited to have her back.
“I am looking forward to coming back and having a new owner who will be more involved with the paper,” she said. “It is exciting to see what direction the paper will go.”

When not working, Hope enjoys playing the violin and spending time with her daughter and her family.

“I love my family,” she said. “They have been a wonderful inspiration in my life.”

Certain books also inspire her, and although she admits that she is a sucker for magazines, she enjoys the stories by Mitch Albom, the author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven. One of her favorite TV shows is Band of Brothers and when it comes to music she describers herself as ‘a classic rock girl’.

“My favorite band of all time is Lynyrd Skynyrd, but a song that best describes me would be anything by my favorite composer Antonio Vivaldi,” she said. “He is amazing.”

Mark Lewis, Art Director: Mark was born in Oakland on July 26, 1962 and lived in the Bay Area until he was five when his family moved to a small family farm in the San Joaquin Valley. At the age of 12 Mark left the farm and moved back to the Bay Area where he attended a couple of junior high schools until enrolling in a private high school in Oakland. After graduating he went to Merritt Junior College in Oakland and then moved to San Francisco where he had an array of jobs.

“I had all kinds of jobs, but the worst was working in a sweatshop ironing neckties,” he said. “But I worked at both extremes and also worked for one of the country’s top two interior design manufacturing companies called Randolf & Hein. I started there as the textiles laborer and worked my way up to being the showroom manager.”

In 1999 Mark decided to return to school and he attended San Francisco City College where he studied architecture and began to discover graphic design.

“I have always been artistic and liked drawing and working with colors and when I went to the city college I started using computers, which I had never used before – and I started becoming familiar with that process,” he said. “I didn’t finish my degree there, but I had a really good time studying architecture. Yet my favorite classes were physical geography and art history. I loved learning about how different geological formations were formed. Now when I drive around I will see things and remember how they were formed. I am just fascinated with the processes of nature and how those things work.”

Yet for the twenty years Mark lived in San Francisco, he never owned a car.

“I lived in all different places, but the whole time I lived there I just relied on public transportation and walked and rode bikes everywhere. That was awesome! That is one of the things I really miss – living in a place where you don’t need to have a car.”

But when he moved to the foothills in 2002, a car became a necessity.

“My sisters had lived in this area for like 35 years and I’ve always spent a lot of time up here, but I never really thought I would live here,” he said. “But then my mother decided to move up here and I felt isolated with her leaving. I have a really strong sense of family and I didn’t want to be the last person left down there. She wanted me to move up here and I thought she was crazy, but I started thinking about it and realized that it was a cool opportunity. I ended up liking it up here. I like the smaller population and the variety of things to see. It’s a beautiful area and the attitude here is nice and people are pretty cool. Plus I am an avid gardener, and this is a nice environment to have a garden.”

Upon arriving to the foothills, Mark’s first job was at Orchard Supply where he worked for three years. Mark then got a job at Twain Harte Market, where he first met the Sierra Mountain Times graphic designer, Luis Torres, who was getting lunch at the market.

“We got to know each other and began talking about graphic design and one day Luis called me from out of the blue and asked me if I would like to work for the paper,”

Mark answered yes, and in July of 2008 he became the paper’s artistic director.

“I have enjoyed working for the paper and I am excited to see what Tim’s influence will pan out to be,” he said. “It sounds like it is going to be a lot more stylish…which sounds really good. It is going to be a good looking paper.”

Mark enjoys reading trade magazines on graphic design and his favorite TV show is Arrested Development. For music he enjoys the Delrubio Triplets.

“I doubt many people have heard of them,” said Mark. “There are only two now, but they were these crazy Hungarian women that played guitars and wore Gogo boots. But if there was a song that best described me it would be, “Dude Looks like a Lady” by Aerosmith.”

A person who inspires him is architect, Phillip Johnson.

Angel Sepulveda, Calaveras County Sales Manager: Angel was born in Walnut Creek on August 8, 1983, but found herself growing up in different locations through her childhood.

“It seems like I lived in every town in the valley, but for the most part I grew up in Manteca and Stockton.”

After graduating high school in Stockton, she went to college in Southern California.

“I didn’t like it down there at all, so when I was 20 I moved to Twain Harte and went to Columbia College,” she said.

After Columbia she moved to Sacramento where she lived until about six months ago.

“My husband, Mike, and I didn’t enjoy living in Sacramento very much and when we had the opportunity to move back we jumped at it…we would take any excuse to come back,” she said. “I love living up here. I enjoy the community and people and the beauty. There is nowhere else this pretty. So we were excited when my husband’s job transferred him up here in the summer. Yet for awhile I still had to commute to my work down in Sacramento and I was getting really burnt out on the drive and I didn’t like being away from my family.”

Yet fortunately she lived next door to Luis Torres, graphics designer for the SMT.

“Luis told me that the paper’s sale manager, Hope Nessl, was going on maternity leave and the paper needed someone with sales experience and because he knew I had that experience from my previous job, he asked me if I wanted to come and work for the paper. And I said, ‘Sure, that would be great!’”

Angel started in September and has been a great addition to the SMT staff.
“I love it,” she said. “I am super stoked on it and I am looking forward to the new look of the paper and the content and what we are going to be doing. I look forward to the readership continuing to grow and spreading out in the surrounding counties.”

When asked what she enjoys doing in her free time, she responded, “I don’t have free time! I have a three-year-old! But she is my inspiration. When I can I like to read and shop.”

Angel enjoys a wide variety of books but enjoys the works of John Grisham and Pearl S. Buck and Amy Tan. When watching TV she enjoys the show Heroes, but her all time favorite show is Friends. Her all time favorite band would be U2 and the song that best describes her would be
“Apres Moi”, by Regina Spektor.

The Sierra Mountain Times would like to thank everyone who has been a part of the paper, whether on staff or as a volunteer, or as someone who has submitted an article or a letter. However, most of the credit goes to you, the faithful readers. Without you, this paper would not be possible. Thanks for picking the paper up at the local drop stops and even taking it with you on your travels! With your help and feedback, the paper will only continue to improve. After all, it is YOUR paper!  We wish all of you a happy New Year and we hope that the changes find you well…