About 2,000 older Belmont County residents are helped by the county Senior Services agency, reported its director, Gary Armitage, last week. Armitage’s report, made to Belmont County commissioners, was a reminder of the importance of local government services to senior citizens. Armitage ...
A dispute between the city of Steubenville and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission appears to be a case of two strikes, you’re out. Rather than argue with the umpire — the CRC in this situation — municipal officials should accept the call and move on. Last fall, former Steubenville ...
A little more than a week ago, motorists on Interstate 70 in Belmont County were caught off guard by a sudden blast of winter weather. On Feb. 8, after scattered snow showers had fallen across Ohio throughout the day, a band of heavy snow blown by strong winds caused “whiteout” conditions ...
What do the words “supine” and “cadaverous” have in common? More than you might think, including the fact that they carried a local scholar to victory on Thursday evening. After successfully spelling both words correctly at the end of the annual Belmont County Spelling Bee, ...
As news reports last week indicated Ohio has at least two confirmed cases of the Wuhan strain of coronavirus, most health officials urged calm - and suggested the virus that has so far killed approximately 170 people is not the killer that should have our attention. According to the U.S. ...
Judges at all levels of our criminal justice system have tough jobs to perform. They must carefully consider the facts of each individual case they hear and find a way to balance them with the requirements of the law as they hand down sentences to convicted offenders. In one ongoing Belmont ...
A presidential election will define the political climate of 2020, with more than a half dozen serious contenders on the Democratic side and President Donald Trump the presumed Republican nominee. What some area residents may not realize, though, is that time to ensure you can participate in ...
An East Liverpool school bus driver arrested Saturday on a drunk driving charge faces more severe penalties than if he had been in his private car, we are pleased to report. Still, legislators in both our states ought to consider even harsher penalties for similar offenses. On Saturday ...
Ohioans should vote for the best people to serve them in the judiciary, not for the political party they prefer. The state’s system of nonpartisan elections for judges and state Supreme Court justices is a step in that direction. Some in the General Assembly think Ohio ought to take a ...
The smallest River Pilots in school at Hannibal have achieved something big — they earned recognition from the Ohio Department of Education. River Elementary School recently received a School Performance Award from the ODE. The honor was awarded for progress made during the 2018-19 school ...
Thank heaven she will be all right. That is the appropriate and no doubt widely shared reaction to an accident Monday in which a 10-year-old girl was struck by a car after she got off a school bus. Second in some minds will be the question of how this could have happened in our area. It ...
We know that criminal activity comes with a high cost, but for one local community, it is literally costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of extra dollars. For years, Belmont County has been forced to house jail inmates at facilities outside the county. That is because the jail - ...
Institutions of higher learning often compete against one another, frequently in subtle ways. It is a pleasure, then, to recognize three colleges in our area are cooperating in a way that is of very real benefit to students. Officials of Bethany College, West Liberty University and ...
It appears there’s a growing problem in the United States that will prove costly in terms of both health and money. That problem is obesity. A new report published in the New England Journal of Medicine predicts that more than half of all American adults will be obese by 2030. Because it is ...
The most effective, courageous firefighters in the world can do little to save property — and lives — without water. In municipalities, that requires that all fire hydrants must be kept in good repair. At least 14 of them in the village of Woodsfield need to be replaced. Municipal ...
Virtually any time efforts are made to ensure elections are honest and fair, critics claim voters are being “disenfranchised.” But should everyone attempting to vote be permitted to do so? Of course not. Cannot Democrats, Republicans and independents agree that there have to be some ...
For many years, our region has struggled to keep its young people from leaving to seek higher-paying jobs and a better quality of life in other parts of the country. That exodus has been reflected in the annual population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. It recently came to ...
Some school officials in our area are considering joining the significant number of others throughout the United States who have authorized staff members to carry firearms while at work. The idea is that armed educators and school service workers can protect students in the event of an ...
Sometimes, we in the Ohio Valley find ourselves understanding children in the back seats of our cars demanding to know, “Are we there yet?” For years, we have been on the road toward construction of an ethane cracker plant in Belmont County. We are not there yet. Last week, on ...
Today is a day that is all about gratitude. Gratitude — the state of being thankful — can be transformative. It can change an ordinary day into a day of thanksgiving. It can make mundane tasks more meaningful. It can transform entire lives. So, as we observe our many Thanksgiving ...