It’s true what they say about small towns; word travels fast.

It was my first day working in Othello a couple of weeks ago, and a nice woman at the police department asked me to sit and wait a few minutes for my appointment with Chief Phil Shenck.

I said thank you and looked for a chair. There were four surrounding one table of the spacious lobby of probably the nicest municipal building I’ve ever seen in a small town.

One chair was occupied by a man who appeared to be in his 40s. I could have sat at least one chair away, but I took a chair next to him, said hi, introduced myself, and we shook hands.

“You’re from the Sun Tribune,” he said with a smile and warm welcome, and he introduced himself. He was trucking company owner Adan Garza.

Othello is a small town. Word does spread fast. It’s my kind of town, like Mattawa and Royal City.

I asked Adan if he’s related to the Adan Garza I knew in Toppenish and now lives in Texas. Yes he is. And they were both from the town of Garza-Gonzalez just south of the Mexican border. I don’t think I’ve met a Garza who is not tied to that town in some way.

Both of these men have been successful in business. During his years in Toppenish, that Adan Garza had one of the most popular restaurants in the Yakima Valley.

Everybody knows everbody’s business in small towns, and I see that as positive. The growth of the news content in the Sun Tribune has come from people in Royal and Mattawa willing to give me a call, send me an email and even pictures.

My title is editor, but my function really is news gatherer. My stories come from the people.

I hope you will get in the habit of contacting me. My phone number is 952-7189. My email address is simple: tedescobar@aol.com.

The very first interview I’ve done here originated with a phone call. Othello resident and school teacher Nicki Escobar Sams (my niece) told me about Erika Rattray about a year and a half ago.

Expanding the Sun Tribune to Othello is an exciting new adventure for me. I thought there wouldn’t be more.

So if you see me walking somewhere in the area of Othello, Royal or Mattawa, stop me and say hello. Tell me what you’d like to see in the paper.

As our publisher said after the Outlook closed: “Someone needs to keep telling the Othello story.”

I can think of no one better than you.