It’s great to have a hand in this newspaper again. My wife Christine and I look forward to continuing the Cooke family tradition of ownership in this institution, which was purchased by my great-grandfather in 1911 and has been in operation since 1874.
It’s been eight years since she and I moved from this community. With the economic hardship after Alcoa’s closure, there was no way this paper would continue to feed everyone here, so my sister became publisher and Christine and I went in search of greener pastures. After my sister passed away, we have been working to keep it in the family.
For those who have not kept tabs on us, we now reside in Fredericksburg, where I run the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post and Christine teaches writing courses at the University of Texas-San Antonio.
Our sons, who were little guys when we left, are now teens. Esten, graduated in three years from Fredericksburg High School and will begin next month a year-long exchange program in Germany as part of the Rotary International Youth Exchange. Will, our youngest son, will be a sophomore at FHS. He is showing promise as a musician and loves to play basketball.
I have learned a lot from my time in Fredericksburg, about how that community has prospered. The Germans who founded it were frugal, but forward-looking. They invested in things of permanence, like the limestone buildings that line Main Street, and they grew their businesses slowly but surely. They welcomed visitors to their peach stands, then to their downtown shops, and now to their winery tasting rooms. There always was a spirit of Gemutlichkeit, which means warmth, friendliness and good cheer. That’s important as Rockdale seeks to grow.
Fredericksburg proper has fewer than 12,000 permanent residents. But over the past 40 years, they have grown their tourism to about 2 million visitors per year. Those visitors spend close to $100 million each year in that town. The sales taxes generated from those sales offset property taxes for local homeowners by six cents per year.
I share that only to encourage locals to invest in good things.
We can take a lesson in staying positive and keeping Rockdale as tidy as possible. Let’s keep this town clean and welcoming like those Germans did in Fredericksburg, and build toward the future.
From our standpoint, for this newspaper to continue supporting the community, we must be supported by the community. Many entities already are working on their fiscal 2019 budgets.
We ask that this paper, the longest-running business in Rockdale, be considered as a part of your marketing plans and subscribing if you are a resident or business. We will sincerely appreciate it as we build this paper alongside this town as it rebuilds itself.
It’s no use playing Monday morning quarterback about this town’s past or its present challenges. One friend just told me, “Rockdale has a lot of good in it. Some people just never look for it.” He’s right.
What we can take from Fredericksburg’s example is to stay positive and do everything we can to make Rockdale attractive to both potential businesses and residents.
Whatever we can do at The Reporter, we are ready to help. I’m grateful to the staff here which has weathered the changes to this town and our family.
We’ve decided to reinvest in Rockdale. We hope others will do the same and invest in us as a community institution. Thanks for reading.
—kec—
Please email me at kencooke@rockdalereporter. com. I’d love to hear your comments and ideas for stories. Thanks for reading and thanks for the support.
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