Popular column continues its hiatus

From my desk

Bob Williams

Enough readers have noticed the absence of the police report and column submitted weekly by Chief of Police Tyler Trieglaff that it bears an explanation.

This issue makes five weeks of indecision on the part of the city council to decide if they plan to go ahead with a plan of censoring Mr. Trieglaff’s usual efforts.

The police report and recurring columns that are submitted in Trieglaff’s unique style are undoubtedly some of the most popular pieces that we publish.

There is an old axiom in journalism that states, “Know your audience.”

Because Mr. Trieglaff is a Frazee native, high school graduate and lifelong resident, it is quite obvious he knows his audience.

That group of readers includes Alfred Bachmann, just one of the many people who have stopped in to inquire about the column.

Could there be anyone more in tune with what and who the “audience” is in Frazee than Alfred Bachmann?

Feel free to look him up on our website or grab a copy of the October 31 Forum where we featured him on the front page after he was recognized for two decades of exemplary service at the Frazee rest area, retiring at the age of 95! Alfred and his wife Marian celebrated both Alfred’s retirement and their 75th anniversary that week. 

The Bachmanns are our audience. They’re also Trieglaff’s audience. 

It was Alfred’s visit to the newspaper office that pushed me over the edge on addressing this topic for multiple reasons.

First, I need to exempt a portion of the council for they did not create this issue.

I have yet to hear any complaints about Mr. Trieglaff’s work from Councilmen Mark Kemper, Mike Sharp or Jim Rader and Sharp is on the personnel committee, which would be in charge of making these types of changes, such as limiting what Trieglaff can share publicly and how he does it.

The two complaints come from Councilwoman Andrea Froeber and Mayor Mark Flemmer.

Before we get to those complaints, let’s note who is making them. 

Neither of those two are natives to Frazee. There are going to be aspects in the way Trieglaff relates to the public that Froeber and Flemmer simply will not comprehend because they aren’t from here.

Know your audience.

What’s worse is the nature of their complaints.

Mrs. Froeber did not like a column that included a mention of vomit. Reading it grossed her out.

Mayor Flemmer did not appreciate a column on people with ugly feet wearing open-toed shoes, sandals or flip-flops. 

It was a humorous column that came out appropriately during the change of seasons when we all would be seeing more gnarly toes in our daily existence.

Furthermore, it was rerun in the paper by request. It had already appeared in print years ago and amazingly did not send the then-city council into panic mode.

Basically, the complaints about the column are based on the personal idiosyncrasies of two people. There is also a slight stink of someone bringing a little too much Human Resources to a small-town, city government. 

The push to sanitize and censor Mr. Trieglaff is at the heart of that stink. The reasons for doing so are not a push from the community.

After 20 months on the job here as editor, I can tell you, outside of Mrs. Froeber and Mr. Flemmer, we have received absolutely zero complaints about Mr. Trieglaff’s published works. At the same time, we have received countless accolades in-person, by telephone, and even notes written on subscription renewals about how much readers enjoy it.

Trieglaff’s work is indicative of the town he serves and protects, the town he grew up in and the town he continues to call home. That familiarity strikes a chord with both those who have chosen a similar lifestyle—to live in Frazee —and provides, what I believe, even more to those who have moved away but want to keep track of what goes on in the ol’ hometown.  

The city council has adversely affected our product for more than a month now by making a mountain out of a molehill. That means they are adversely affecting your product. Think about the time wasted on such a frivolous pursuit.

How can you expect a governing body that is charged with running and improving Frazee to do so if they can’t figure out if they’re going to censor the Chief of Police with city policy in a month-and-a-half?

The city council needs to get to work on things that really matter to this town. There are big, annual, recurring themes here in Frazee that need their full attention: more housing, more retail businesses, having a municipal liquor store that actually contributes to the town’s bottom line—just to name a few.

Another minute wasted on telling Mr. Trieglaff what to do with his column and report is simply more time squandered not addressing real issues.