Desert Valley Times news reporter Jesselyn Bickley has taken a position with the City of Mesquite as a Business license clerk and assistant planner according to City Manager Andy Barton. She starts her new job Oct. 19.

Image courtesy of Bickley's Facebook page.

Image courtesy of Bickley’s Facebook page.

Bickley has been with the DVT for two and a half years. She is a graduate of Franklin College in Indiana, her home state.

She recently won three second-place awards in the 2015 Nevada Press Association Better Newspaper Contest including coverage of the new medical marijuana production facility and dispensary in Mesquite. One of her awards was for reporting on the trouble in the Highland Hills subdivision that surfaced last year after it was discovered homes were built too close to an old city garbage dump.

Bickley declined comment for this story saying she simply wanted to fade into the background.