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Action needed in site cleanup delay

Here’s perhaps the quote of the past week: “The urgency of this situation cannot be overstated. We are operating quickly to make sure contamination can be avoided and we protect Ohioans and the waterways we share.” That from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost who is seeking to have Austin Master Services and its operator, Brad D. Domitrovitsch, held in contempt of court for failing to clean up an oil and gas drilling waste processing facility near the Ohio River in Martins Ferry. That facility, in a portion of the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel plant, allegedly holds about ...

Cheers & Jeers

CHEERS to news that the Black Horse Inn and Underground Railroad Museum will receive $3.9 million in state grants to renovate the historic inn and move the museum from Flushing to that Morristown location. JEERS to word that Austin Master Services failed to meet the court-imposed deadline for it to clean up and remove toxic waste from its Martins Ferry facility. CHEERS to St. Clairsville Area Chamber of Commerce for launching a series Food Truck Fridays in the city. It is an expansion of a trend that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. JEERS to news that the first fatal overdose of a ...

Stop shopping for puppies

Many Ohioans are animal-lovers. We have pets we love and do our best to take care not only of them, but of other animals when the opportunity arises. Yet too many still purchase dogs rather than adopting from animal shelters. Puppy mills are big business in Ohio — we are second only to Missouri on the Humane Society of the United States’ “Horrible Hundred” report this year. Twenty of the 100 problem puppy mills on the list are in Ohio. “Our report is the tip of the iceberg — as shocking as circumstances are in licensed puppy mills, there are many operations that aren’t ...

Ensure police officers get trained

Across Ohio, law enforcement agencies continue to have a hard time recruiting new officers. Perhaps part of the reason is that incident after incident shows a few in some of those same agencies are either receiving poor training or are disregarding their training — either way forcing the public to question whether they can be trusted. Earlier this month, officers from the Canton Police Department apprehended Frank Tyson in a bar, after he was suspected of leaving the scene of an accident. Bodycam footage released by the department shows the officers entering the bar, an altercation ...

FENDing off addiction

Battling the substance abuse epidemic that has crippled Appalachia is a multi-faceted fight. Among the tools requested by law enforcement has been a way to help stop the flood of fentanyl at its source. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has finally managed to get something done about that. With the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, the president will now have the ability to sanction drug traffickers and gangs. (FEND stands for fentanyl eradication and narcotics deterrence.) “The FEND Off Fentanyl Act is a sanctions and anti-money laundering bill to help combat the country’s fentanyl crisis ...

Keeping taxes in check

You’re not imagining things. Taxes just keep getting higher and higher — at least when it comes to property taxes. Axios reports median property taxes in Ohio rose 23.1% from 2019 to 2023. That’s higher than the national average increase of 21.6%. Axios quoted CoreLogic data that says median property taxes on U.S. single-family homes rose to $2,877 in 2023 from $2,367 in 2019. In Ohio, those figures are $2,530 in 2023 up from $2,054 in 2019. Home prices are rising across the country, too, with the annual income required to afford a median-priced home up an astounding 23.8% ...