A little more than a week ago, firefighters and emergency medical personnel who serve Belmont County gathered to honor many of their own. The annual Belmont County Fire & Squad Officers Association dinner is always an uplifting event, recognizing the heroism of the past year and the long, ...

It is high time more tax proceeds from natural gas and oil production are used to benefit the local area. State Rep. Jack Cera recently introduced an amendment to the state’s next transportation budget that would make that possible, and we believe lawmakers on both sides of the aisle should ...

Like many other states, Ohio has a semi-transparent system of funding highway and bridge maintenance and construction. The vast majority of state funding for the purpose comes from a tax on gasoline and diesel fuel. More than a billion dollars a year is derived from that source. Gov. Mike ...

Merely finding the owners of rundown buildings that ought to be demolished can be quite a chore. Ask virtually any mayor or city manager in the Ohio Valley. For any number of reasons, those who own abandoned and dilapidated structures in our area often live in other cities across the region ...

Belmont County takes good care of its senior citizens, and that tradition continued last week with an announcement from the Board of Commissioners. For many years, the people of Belmont County have consistently supported ballot measures to fund Senior Services. Those levies have provided for ...

This is a challenging time for the village of Bellaire. Residents of the community and the surrounding area recently received news of two major changes, and neither announcement was positive. First, word was released that St. John Central High School will close at the end of the current ...

Government budgets at all levels seldom seem to be lower than in previous years. On the rare occasions when they are, they often are accompanied by predictions of doom and gloom. Except in Belmont County. There, county commissioners have approved a 2019 budget of $21.9 million — about 2.5 ...

The village of Belmont needs help. Fortunately, Mayor Stan Sobel isn’t afraid to ask for it. Roads and streets in the small community are falling apart. The damage isn’t due to poor construction or standard wear and tear. Instead, it appears to be a result of heavy truck traffic ...

At first glance, U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson’s idea to end the partial shutdown of federal government and address concerns about illegal immigration may sound, well, a bit wild and crazy. But in the context of the theatrics that already have occurred on the matter, it may be worth a ...

School board members and administrators in the Martins Ferry City Schools District are dealing with a slippery situation, and they need to act sooner than later. It was revealed during a board meeting this week that portions of the hilltop campus are slipping away. It seems that soil in two ...

Ohio faces its share of economic struggles. Its unemployment rate in November was 4.6 percent, while the U.S. as a whole saw unemployment at just 3.7 percent. Some regions of the state — including ours — see unemployment considerably higher. Meanwhile, in one of those unusual polls ...

Ohio faces its share of economic struggles. Its unemployment rate in November was 4.6 percent, while the U.S. as a whole saw unemployment at just 3.7 percent. Some regions of the state — including ours — see unemployment considerably higher. Meanwhile, in one of those unusual polls ...

Perhaps village officials in Belmont can solve two problems at once. One challenge, as outlined during a village council meeting earlier this month, is repairing some badly damaged streets and roads in Belmont. Much of the damage was caused by oil and gas industry trucks, it was stated during ...

Christmas has come and gone; fortunately it passed peacefully for most local residents. If the worst had happened, though, qualified people were ready and willing to respond. All across the region, law enforcement officers, emergency medical personnel, doctors, nurses and firefighters were on ...

Bridgeport has been declared in a state of fiscal emergency by the Ohio Auditor’s Office, which notes the village is seriously in arrears in paying back state loans. That means village government will have to operate under the oversight of a special state commission until it gets its ...

At some point, someone may have to pay to clean up chemicals used in a Bellaire dry cleaning shop that has been closed for about 20 years. That “someone” should not be taxpayers in the village. During their meeting last week, Bellaire Village Council members discussed the old ...

Ohio lawmakers are floating some ideas Buckeye State residents may want to watch. House Joint Resolution 19, introduced a few days ago, would make it more difficult to approve proposed constitutional amendments on the statewide ballot. Rather than a simple majority needed for an amendment to ...

Honorable. Decent. Capable. Those are just a few of the terms that have been used to describe former President George H.W. Bush since he died Friday. The son of a senator, he began his own service to our nation at age 18, when he joined the U.S. Navy in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. ...

A U.S. Department of Justice official says there is no evidence “of any health effects people are suffering” from the Heritage Thermal Services hazardous waste incinerator in East Liverpool. But some of those at a public meeting where DOJ Senior Counsel Elizabeth Loeb made the comment are ...

The owner of a dog that injured two other animals in Belmont — and bit one of their owners — may deserve some credit. It appears the owner was trying to comply with the village rule requiring that all dogs be on leashes when they are not on their own property. But, as Belmont Mayor ...