Haverinen joins Journal staff as reporter

RITZVILLE - The Ritzville Adams County Journal has a new full-time reporter.

Rick Haverinen, 75, will be covering community news for the newspaper and he will be the primary contact for anyone wishing to have news items submitted for publication.

"Rick has newspaper experience that will be invaluable to Journal readers," Free Press Publishing owner/Publisher Roger Harnack said. "It's good to have a full-time, experienced reporter back in Adams County.

Haverinen was most recently employed by the East Oregonian in Pendleton, Ore. He has also worked at the Lewiston Sun Journal in Maine and a variety of U.S. military community newspapers in Europe.

"One of my best experiences was interviewing two Army nurses assigned to combat support hospitals during the Battle of the Bulge," Haverinen said. "They didn't get much sleep back then and they were just as heroic as the wounded soldiers they treated."

He is also an experienced broadcaster working in radio and television journalism and commercial production.

"I love to make radio feature stories in the All Things Considered ambient audio style," Haverinen said.

He has had radio feature stories aired by public radio stations in Virginia and Ohio and the American Forces Network in Europe.

His personal addiction is live theater, where he acts and sings and he has become a sound designer for plays, working in multiple "surround" sound sources within the theater to imitate real life as much as possible.

"I didn't have much interest in this until computer programs made it possible to made sound fade in or out and pan by just pressing one keyboard button. The ability to program complex sound cues to play out instantly appealed to my artistic and tech-geek natures," Haverinen said.

He also loves attending play productions as an audience member.

A native of South Paris, Maine, Haverinen said the size of Ritzville reminds him of home, where he occasionally contributed to the Advertiser-Democrat in nearby Norway back when linotype machines provided text to fill the pages and photography was done with chemical processing.

"This looks like it's going to be an updated version of home," he said.

Readers wishing to contact Haverinen can call him at 509 659-1020 or by email at [email protected].

His office hours will generally be traditional business hours Monday-Friday, unless he is out on assignment. The Journal office is at 216 W. Railroad Ave.