A new face at the Budge

Funny how moving somewhere you've never lived can feel like coming home.

Hi. I'm Jana Peterson, the new editor of the Duluth Budgeteer News. I started Monday. It's Wednesday today, and I already feel like I've been here a couple weeks.

That's not a bad thing. It speaks to the friendliness of the staff and something more ... that feeling I noted in the first line of this column.

Although I was born and raised in southern Indiana, both my parents called southern Minnesota home. We spent Christmas vacations in Austin and Worthington, plus a couple weeks every summer. When I decided to move back to the States after a seven-year stint (enjoying my 20s) in England, I didn't go to Indiana. I moved to Austin, into the home where my mother grew up.

Minnesota felt like home as much as Indiana.

At the Austin Daily Herald newspaper I met a guy from the Northland. He grew up on Morris Thomas Road and went to Proctor High School. On one of our early dates he took me to the Frank Lloyd Wright gas station in Cloquet.

How could I not fall in love with him after that?

From reporting on the city beat in Austin, I went with my husband to Pocatello, Idaho, and the Idaho State Journal. Our newspaper careers flourished there and I made many lifelong friends.

I also made a discovery about myself. I'm a green person. (Insert Martian jokes or environmentalist jibes here).

Seriously, it isn't mountains that I need or running water -- it's green. Lots of green. Pocatello is in southern Idaho, high desert country, where sagebrush is king and yards turn brown in July unless you've invested in a sprinkler system.

The first time we came home for a summer vacation I thought we'd entered a tropical zone. All the trees and lush greenery were food for my soul, and I hadn't even realized I was hungry.

Then we had twin boys three years after the birth of our daughter, and the drive to get back to the Midwest and grandparents became even stronger.

That was almost four years ago, but we're here now.

I'm happy to be here, and delighted to be the new editor of the Duluth Budgeteer News. I'm hoping to get some dialogue started with long time readers, to learn what you think about Northern Minnesota's largest-circulation weekly newspaper. What do we do well? What don't you like? What would you like to see more of? Why do you read the Duluth Budgeteer News? Do you have any great story ideas you'd like to share?

You can call me (723-1207, ext. 127) or send an e-mail to jpeterso@duluthbudgeteer.com .

Feedback -- positive or negative -- is good. While you're at it, let me know if you'd like to serve on a Reader's Advisory Board I'm looking at setting up. We won't pay you, but we will feed you every two months or so.

I will also be auditioning columnists for the next couple months. I'm looking for a little of everything: Opinion, outdoors, sports, food and general family life. Use the same e-mail address printed above.

Have a great week, Northlanders. I look forward to learning more about you.