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OUR OPINION
Fred liked things to be beautiful. I don’t know how much of that came from his wife Susan, and how much was him, but everything the Willenbrocks touched turned out beautiful. The Miner office is a perfect example. I started working here not long after The Miner moved from a storefront on Union Avenue to our current location, a refurbished parsonage that looked like it was taken from the pages of a Pottery Barn catalogue. And the landscaping is something to behold. The charming signs that welcome visitors to Pend Oreille County at both the south and north ends are Fred’s handiwork, as is the Welcome to Diamond Lake and Welcome to Newport signs on Highway 2. (We’ve always referred to them as Fred’s signs.) Centennial Plaza at the south end of Washington Avenue in Newport, with its quaint gazebo, giant Christmas tree and lush flower beds was Fred’s baby for years. Newport High School’s football stadium was a passion project of Fred’s that earned The Miner a Community Service Award from the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.
