Hey there, good people of Bonners Ferry! Allow me to introduce myself, please and thanks. My name is Mason Lerner, and I am the new assistant managing editor and lead reporter at the Bonners Ferry Herald.

It’s an exciting opportunity to take a leadership position in such a tightly knit community — but it’s also quite a challenge.

Luckily, I’m up for it.

In my last gig as the senior government reporter at the Galveston County Daily News, I covered the local political issues that impacted the island’s residents — who are also extremely tightly knit. Although Galveston has a population of about 45,000, the island is only 35 miles long and two miles wide. Let’s just say, word travels fast when it doesn’t have far to go. 

In my time editing Essentials Magazine — which covered hyper-local news in Bellaire, Texas — I provided the city’s 17,000 residents with news coverage they couldn’t get anywhere else. 

As a business editor in Killeen, Texas — which abuts Ft. Hood, the largest armored active-duty military post in the U.S. — I gained experience covering news for a diverse audience largely composed of military personnel from every corner of the country. I was also a long-time correspondent for the Houston Chronicle, and my work has appeared in national publications such as ESPN the Magazine and Vogue.com. 

I am used to adapting to the community I’m serving. But my resume doesn’t explain why a guy who spent his entire life in the Lone Star State decided to up and move to Idaho with his dog/sidekick Daisy.

It was actually an easy decision. I wanted to live somewhere that hasn’t been terraformed by fast food franchises and big box retailers. I wanted to live somewhere where my first step outside each morning would be a breath of fresh air instead of a blast of glasses fogging heat and humidity. 

But mostly, I think I wanted adventure — and it seems to me this area will offer no shortage of opportunities to find many. I don’t know anything about hunting or fishing, so if anyone wants to get me up to speed, hit me up.

The mountains, trees, and lakes make me feel like I just drove four days from Texas to a completely different planet — and let me tell you the drive wasn’t easy. The 12 or so hours it took to drive out of Texas would be enough to crush a lesser man’s soul. And nearly three hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic in Denver on day two almost broke Daisy and me.

But we kept on trucking — or Honda Civic-ing, as the case may be. 

And once we hit Wyoming on day three, things started getting better. The mountains helped block out the sun that had been searing a hole through my brain throughout the journey, and the scenery started to become the high country I craved — though I will admit I found it a bit overwhelming when I crossed the border between Montana and Idaho and found myself suddenly swallowed up by more nature than I had ever been exposed to all at once.

But that passed quickly. And before I knew it, I was in the Airbnb just outside of Bonners Ferry I had arranged to house me my first week — which turned out to be an unheated murder cabin deep in the wilderness with no electricity or running water. To complete the horror movie vibe, there was a pack of feral cats clawing at the cabin’s exterior as Daisy and I shivered beneath four thick blankets. 

At that point I wasn’t thinking I’d made a mistake — I was imagining the shock my friends and family were in for when they read my obituary stating I had frozen to death in a shack close to the Canadian border. 

But a near tragedy turned to triumph in an instant when I reached out to my new employer to tell them their new assistant managing editor and lead reporter might not show up for work on Monday because he would be an icicle by dawn. As soon as I let them know, arrangements were made to find me temporary accommodations while I search for somewhere to hang my hat permanently. 

That let me know that I had made the right decision. It’s that level of kindness I’m hoping will separate working in Bonners Ferry from my previous jobs. And now it’s my job to provide y’all with the level of unbiased, accurate reporting such a community deserves — and maybe I will even get a few people saying “y’all.” Fingers crossed.