The petition at the Town Hall in Waterville starts out with the words, “To the Editor of the Douglas County Empire Press: We demand that you return the paper to the people.” Readers of the Empire Press there are upset about the lack of local news about the Waterville Plateau, and the loss of photos of people, events and scenery in the Waterville area.
The Empire Press has been published since 1888, and is now run by the Wenatchee World, which has an Empire Press page on its website; when checking it yesterday, we found two Waterville-based stories, one dealing with the town council adding Pioneer Park to the city's historic site list; the other on the opening of the new library in town.
But people have complained about the changes to the printed Empire Press, and are concerned about its future. So there's a meeting this afternoon at the Waterville Library; publisher Sean Flaherty will discuss local news and the future of the paper. That meeting gets underway at 5:30, again, at the Waterville Library.
