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Give ODOT workers the space to get our roads ready

We’ve been spoiled with beautiful fall weather lately, and for most of us, the thought of travel-altering snow and ice still seems far away. Luckily for us, the folks at the Ohio Department of Transportation are preparing now for what we may eventually face. Inspections are underway. At ODOT’s District 10 headquarters in Marietta, mechanics and drivers checked trucks and plows this week. Statewide, ODOT is conducting safety checks, hiring additional mechanics and drivers, replenishing salt stores and getting ahead of the game. Route refresher training helps drivers understand ...

Awareness for homeless youth

Statistics suggest there are approximately 42 million youth without homes in the United States. More than 14,000 of them are in West Virginia according to Lisa Doyle-Parsons, director of the Circles Campaign of the Mid-Ohio Valley. But theirs is a plight with which most of us do not come face to face on a regular basis, as we might with some of the people we have become accustomed to seeing in our communities while we go about our daily routines. During last weekend’s Parkersburg Sleep Out Fundraiser, Denise Hughes, director of the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia, ...

Well-deserved honor

Marietta residents and business owners already know what a treasure we have in Marietta Main Street Executive Director Jen Tinkler. Now the whole state knows. Tinkler was honored as this year’s Ohio Main Street Director of the Year during the organization’s annual conference earlier this month. Tinkler’s nominator described her as being heavily involved — sitting on many boards and making connections with a wide range of other organizations. She finds new partners and, according to her nominator, has taken the organization to levels the board never thought possible. Always ...

Good for O’Malley for speaking up

Ohio voters were not the only ones to raise an eyebrow at an announcement by state Attorney General Dave Yost earlier this week. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley had a thing or two to say about it as well. It turns out, one of the six green card holders indicted for allegedly voting illegally — Ramesh Patel, 68, previously of North Royalton, Ohio — has been dead for two years. The last time Yost’s office was accusing Patel of having voted illegally was in 2018. Despite Yost’s attention-getting effort, according to WOIO the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office ...

National Drug Take Back Day

Tomorrow {{{SATURDAY, OCT. 26}}} is National Drug Take Back Day. Across our region, there will be designated locations for those with old prescription medicines to properly dispose of what’s been taking up space in their cabinets. It’s the safest way to do so. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., law enforcement, municipal, county and state agencies — with the help of states’ attorneys general — will staff Take Back sites. It’s an effort that’s been an important part of the National Drug Enforcement Administration’s work since 2010. “DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take ...

Crucial decisions

In less than two weeks, voters will decide everything from who holds the highest office in the land to whether long-time school levies will be renewed. The social media cacophony may fool some into believing there will be hordes of voters headed to the polls, but past voter turnout figures suggest that may not be the case. According to figures from the secretaries of state on both sides of the rivers, during the 2022 general election in West Virginia, voter turnout was 42.91%. Back in 2020, however, voter turnout was 63.24%. In Ohio, 2022 general election turnout was 52.32%. For the ...