As St. Clairsville officials near a decision on whether to sell the municipal water system to a private company, it is becoming more and more clear that the city's H2O infrastructure is, well, a wreck. City council members recently were told the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is ...
Surely there is a way Steubenville-area residents with special needs can enjoy a recreation field that also serves those who do not have to cope with physical limits. The idea of a “miracle field” does not have to be an either-or proposition. An organization called Urban Frontier has ...
The situation regarding Ohio Valley Medical Center is no longer just an emergency. It is a looming crisis. News that acute care and emergency medical services at OVMC were being suspended Wednesday came as quite a shock. It’s owner, California-based Alecto Healthcare, had projected OVMC ...
Most people take it for granted that products and services available on the open market are safe. But only vigilance by local, as well as state and federal, regulatory agencies makes that feeling of protection possible. Good for the Jefferson County Health Department, as well as local law ...
The Ohio State Highway Patrol is on a mission — an important one designed to help keep us all safe. This Labor Day weekend marks the conclusion of a two-week period o enforcement focused squarely on impaired driving. The name of the initiative is “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over,” but ...
Voters in every state, including ours, ought to be outraged at what is going on in Maine. There, massive outside intervention in an election is occurring — and the Russians have nothing to do with it. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, made headlines last year when she announced she would ...
More than 10 years ago, a representative for a drug distributor wrote of the opioid products his company was receiving, “Keep ’em comin’! Flyin’ out of here. It’s like people are addicted to these things or something. Oh, wait, people are...” In reply, a sales representative for ...
St. Clairsville, the seat of government for Belmont County, is a divided city right now. The big point of contention is whether or not to privatize the municipal water and wastewater treatment systems. Some city leaders seem to strongly favor privatization — specifically, they want to sell ...
Officials of the Jefferson-Belmont Regional Solid Waste Authority, popularly known as the JB Green Team, probably can get the required percentage of local government entities to approve their spending plans without worrying about Barnesville. Still, they should. Formed several years ago as ...
Many taxpayers would love to have access to details — check by check — on how local officials are spending their money. If you live in Jefferson County, congratulations — the information is at your fingertips, literally. In 2014, the Ohio treasurer’s office launched an online ...
Residents of the Ohio Valley are still reeling from the news that two hospitals we have relied on for more than a century will close in a matter of weeks. But, in true local fashion, many area leaders have pledged to do all they can to save the institutions — or at least some of the most ...
When public officials buy something, they ought to pay the lowest price possible. When they sell something, they should strive to get the most money they can. Most taxpayers would agree with both ideas, we feel certain. It is their money, after all. Monroe County commissioners are facing a ...
When pieces of your municipal building begin falling off, you have a problem. No doubt Martins Ferry officials realize that. The question now is what to do about it. A piece of metal window framing fell from the structure’s exterior last week. It landed in the city building parking lot. ...
The most effective protectors of children are off duty now. They are the school teachers who so often alert the authorities about abused and neglected youngsters. That places a special burden on the rest of us to keep our eyes open and, if we see something, to say something to law enforcement ...
Few things are more important than ensuring that our children are leading safe and healthy lives. That is a big job, though, and sometimes it requires help from many sources. During the school year, parents can almost always count on local public and private schools to help make sure that ...
Belmont County Common Pleas Judge John Vavra clearly was troubled by a defendant he sentenced on Monday. He ordered the 40-year-old Barnesville man be imprisoned for the maximum term allowable, five years. The man had been found guilty of unlawful sexual contact with a minor, a third-degree ...
Apparently, some people cannot read the signs advising that large, heavy vehicles are banned on the Wheeling Suspension Bridge. Perhaps barriers they cannot pass — at least not without damaging their own trucks and buses — will do the trick. A large tour bus driven across the span on ...
Making improvements to the Steubenville Marina is an excellent idea, but also a costly proposition. Especially given the city’s current stressed finances, with millions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure repairs and improvements needed, even making a good start is beyond what local ...
The Upper Ohio Valley lost one of its great leaders last week with the death of John Mattox at age 84. And while those who knew Mattox are grieving his absence, they also know that the contributions he made to our region were so numerous and important that they will endure for generations. ...
Ohio’s fledgling medicinal marijuana industry is not yet fully up and running, but already, state officials are raising questions about the honesty of some of those involved. Two companies in the medicinal marijuana dispensary business are being accused by the state Board of Pharmacy of ...