By Cody Wagner
Editor’s note: Cody has been a resident of Fernley for most of his life and is the Chair of the Fernley Community Foundation. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the Fernley Reporter, the Fernley Community Foundation, or the City of Fernley.
Fernley is an interesting place. I guess I am so used to living in it that it’s tough to know what being an “outsider” is like. I have become accustomed to the strange idiosyncrasies that come with being a Fernley-ite or “Ferntuckian” as we are often called (I still haven’t figured out if that term is really derogatory or not). My college friends at the University of Nevada always question me about why I moved back to my hometown after college. None of these big city friends would ever consider it, they tell me. Even most of my friends who grew up with me in Fernley would never move back. I guess some of the reason for the return to my hometown was dumb luck, but a lot of it was by design. Even in a small city the size of Reno, you can get lost. Walking through the grocery store without seeing anyone you know was an expected occurrence there. Not in Fernley. “Everybody dies famous in a small town” is the way Miranda Lambert puts it. That is probably more relevant in my wife’s hometown of Round Mountain, population of just under 2,000 located right in the middle of our great state. That would have been a little too small and too “famous” for my taste, I think. Fernley is about the right size for us now and has some of the world’s greatest people. I certainly do not claim to be the spokesperson for Fernley – someone else can take that job – but the combination of my pride in Fernley and history here (and willingness to try my hand at writing) at least minimally qualifies me for the volunteer position of the new monthly opinion writer for the Fernley Reporter.
I first want to thank Robert Perea for allowing me the opportunity to do this. My first memories of Robert are of his professionalism and commitment to covering Fernley during my own high school athletic career, so I think it’s fair to say that he has covered news specifically in our town at a higher degree than likely anyone ever has. I don’t know that he’s had a lot of competition, but his commitment to this job is undoubtable. I sometimes feel like some other media outlets tend to give Fernley an unfair shake with some of the press coverage around our town, but Robert’s writing has always been fair and honest, and I think we can all appreciate him for that.
Through this monthly commentary article, I hope to accomplish several objectives. My first priority is to use this as a platform to promote our community. I can’t promise everything will always be completely positive. There will be times that criticism of various entities, organizations, or people will be necessary. But I do plan to make thoughts expressed in this column as “solution-oriented” as possible, as opposed to lingering on complaints about past mistakes. Another objective is to try to provide some education and facts for our residents in as objective of a manner as I can. Unfortunately, one of the unique aspects of Fernley (and maybe it isn’t that unique in small-town America right now) is that a majority of the opinions of our citizens regarding important matters are formed based on social media, particularly these giant Facebook groups that always amaze me at their number of members. There is no doubt that these groups provide the most effective free avenue for communicating to the most Fernley residents at one time. The downside is that you have to literally have the time to fish through hundreds of posts and thousands of replies to really get any information. And, believe it or not, people can write just about whatever they want on Facebook, true or not – and not everyone always grasps that fact. I hope to provide a better platform for actual information to get out to people that don’t have the time to sort out fact vs. fiction in the mysterious Facebook universe. The final objective I have is to try to highlight some events around town. I am not going to be writing about every little thing. But the idea is to try to prove to the “there’s nothing to do here” crowd that there are some very worthwhile things to do and organizations of which to be a part. Here are my hot takes for this month:
Fernley Proud
Fernley Things to Do
Next month, I hope to jump into more commentary about politics around Fernley and provide some more information about the big deal everyone seems to know something about but no one really fully understands: Consolidated Tax for the State of Nevada.
If you have events that you would like to be highlighted or issues you would like to see me discuss, please email me at fernleycommunityfoundation@gmail.com. I will never guarantee content, but I will try to cover things that I feel are important for Fernley.
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Thank you for sharing your view of Fernley. I moved here in 1970, and and continue to love living here through the many amazing changes.
Love it! Can't wait to read more.
Thank you for tackling this endeavor. I look forward to future reports. Good luck!
Good job Cody. There are so many good things in and about Fernley that we tend not to notice.