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County commission must stay focused

Washington County Commissioners outlined their goals for 2025 last week, and their aims are admirable. The challenge now is whether it can all be accomplished. Commissioner James Booth says he’s going to continue to work on broadband access for the county. It seems almost impossible that process is taking so long, doesn’t it? But in this part of the country, Washington County is not alone on that front. Other priorities for Booth included getting sewer for Ohio 7 South, working with Sheriff Mark Warden to get funding to hire environmental officers for the county, and making fire ...

We’ll make more progress more quickly than we think

Ohioans deserve public schools in which students are educated to be informed, productive, critical thinking citizens ready to pursue the next step in their career or educational paths with confidence. Our children deserve more than barely meeting the lowest of standards on that front. But what about kids who aren’t making it to school at all? Think of how much more we are letting them down. According to data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, public school students in the state have an approximately 25.6% rate of chronic absenteeism. It is a problem to which many ...

Do your part in slowing the spread

As the holidays brought many of us closer to friends and family — perhaps in large gatherings where there was lots of hugging, laughing and eating together — the inevitable early-winter surge of illnesses is now upon us. In fact, ahead of the New Year holiday, Memorial Health System announced it was experiencing a high surge in patients with respiratory illnesses. For them, it meant it was time to implement visitor restrictions during what it called “respiratory illness season.” For hospitals, that means limiting the number of visitors per patient, asking that visitors be over ...

It is up to us to reverse homelessness

“No American should face homelessness,” reads the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s news release accompanying the January 2024 Point-In-Time Count Report. Yes, the data is a year old, but each year’s snapshot give us a better understanding of how many in our communities are facing just that. During the look at the number of individuals in shelters, temporary housing and unsheltered settings, researchers found more than 770,000 people were experiencing homelessness on that one night in January. That was an 18% increase from the same point-in-time in ...

Check your home detectors, devices this winter season

Though the winter has been mild for many in our region over the last several days, we have entered a season during which we have even more reasons to be cautious about how we heat and light our homes. Working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are essential. On Christmas Day, four adult family members died in New Hampshire. “While the investigation remains active and ongoing, at this time, investigators believe the victims died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning,” said New Hampshire State Fire Marshal Sean Toomey. Part of that investigation involves examining the ...

Looking toward a fresh start in 2025

We’ve done it. We’ve reached the end of 2024 and are looking ahead to all the possibility 2025 holds. Some may be planning to put 2024 firmly behind them and not look back, others may have much upon which to build from one year to the next. Whatever the case — whether our dreams include making a national project of the year or just working harder on being the best we can be for ourselves and those around us — most of us can agree we are hoping for a year in which we are able to lift up one another and work toward the good of all. On a personal level, there may be resolutions ...