LVN staff honored by press association

The Lahontan Valley News staff won first-place award in the Community Service category at the Nevada Press Association awards announced Saturday night in Carson City.

The award was given based on the work done for military events and profiles.

Steve Ranson and Aly Lawson won first place in the Best Explanatory Journalism category for their stories on flooding preparation and mitigation efforts by the county and state.

The Fallon-based newspaper competes with both daily and weekly Nevada newspapers of general circulation of less than 10,000.

“I am very proud of the awards the LVN and its staff received. I am particularly honored the judges awarded s both first- and second-place for our community stories. Our veterans’ stories published during the year, which included special sections for Veterans Day and Pearl Harbor, reflect our area’s rich military heritage,” said LVN Editor Emeritus Steve Ranson. “The LVN also won second place in the same category for our stories on our prominent residents who died during 2016 and early 2017.”

Also winning first palace awards:

Aly Lawson in the Best Business Feature category for her story, “60 years in the making.”

Jennifer Guerrero for her story called, A Mother’s Unconditional Love, in the Nonstaff Story category.

Former LVN reporter Michael Sciandra for his story, Marriaga TKOs Robb in Fallon Fights in the Best Sports Spot News story.

Thomas Ranson for his column, “Behind the Plate” in the sports column category.

Laci Thompson for Best Page One Design and for Best Multiple Photo Essay for “Take chances-move forward.”

LVN staff for Best Editorial Page

Second Place

Community service: The loss of life, by Steve Ranson and Laci Thompson

Best sports feature writing: The Working Man by Thomas Ranson

Best local column: Steve Ranson

Best local non-staff column: By the Way by Jeanette Strong

Best graphic designer: Laci Thompson

Best entertainment writing: Soundings by Kirk Robertson

Best special section or campaign: Visitors Guide by Rob Fair, designer

Best feature writing: Grandma with an attitude, by Steve Ranson

Third Place

Best local non-staff column: Almost Clever by Rick Seley

Best editorial writing: Our View by Steve Ranson.

“We continued success with our opinion section, earning first place for our editorial pages and third place for editorial writing. This was a total team effort from LVN’s columnists and editorial board,” Ranson said.