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Lawmakers need to make a move on the Railway Safety Act

Norfolk Southern has suffered another derailment — although this one, thank goodness, was more an inconvenience than a disaster. Monday morning, at the company’s rail yard near Portsmouth, Ohio, eight cars of a train carrying several thousand pounds of soybeans derailed. Three of those cars turned over completely. Scioto County Emergency Management Director Larry Mullins told WCHS the derailment was caused by extreme weather, which led rails at Norfolk Southern’s yard to freeze, thaw, become brittle and break. It’s enough to make one wonder whether knowing such damage was ...

Our work as voters is not finished

As we catch our breath and settle in to the new normal of a political landscape changed by the November 2024 general election, there is not much time before we must turn our attention to the May 2025 election in Ohio. Eligible voters must not sit this one out, believing the heavy lifting is done for a while. In fact, decisions that have a much greater chance of affecting our everyday lives will be made this spring — city councils, ballot issues affecting our schools … there is a lot on which we must weigh in. To that end, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has issued a reminder ...

Wonderful news for all Ohio employers

Ohioans have plenty of reason to worry about prices that just seem to keep going up and up, but there may be good news ahead for the state’s private employers. Because of prioritized health and safety measures in our workplaces — and at least one state agency willing to take into account how the work done by those who pay taxes and fees might make a difference in what needs to be paid — the state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation board of directors will be considering yet another rate reduction in February. “At (Gov. Mike) DeWine’s request, we are proposing a new rate ...

Well done staying prepared

“Every second counts when it comes to saving lives,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said last week. “Next Generation 9-1-1 improves emergency services efficiency, particularly in Ohio’s rural areas where reliable communication infrastructure is essential.” And who is on the forefront of bringing that kind of technology to its residents? Washington and Monroe counties are the first in the state to fully implement Next Generation 9-1-1. Among the features of NG9-1-1 is an increased number of options during an emergency. The system can now receive text messages, for example. The system ...

Local, state officials working for broadband

Washington County Commissioners are working on an outside-the-box approach to increase broadband availability here. But they need a little help. Earlier this month, Commissioner James Booth, county IT Director Donnie Rader, representatives of the county’s grant department and David Brown, with the Southeast Ohio Broadband Cooperative, went to Columbus to meet with BroadbandOhio Chief Peter Voderberg to pitch the new idea. Rather than hang lines on poles, grooves would be etched in the asphalt on the berm along an approximately 1.9 mile stretch of Stanleyville Road. The fiber would ...

Thank you AEP workers

On what one resident described as a “three dog night” in Marietta earlier this week, more than 1,100 customers lost electricity for a few hours — meaning just as the temperatures plummeted to their bitter coldest, many lost the ability to heat their homes. But, according to an AEP spokesperson, the outage that began at 2:24 a.m. was over by 5:23 a.m. because equipment was “replaced and fixed” quickly. That didn’t happen on its own. Knowing the outage was affecting not only residents but Memorial Health System’s buildings (not in any way that affected patients or ...