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Some observations on the first weekend in August:
• You don't have to travel too far around our area to see that there's a lot work being done to improve our community.
A good example can be seen at the intersection of Fourth and Dock streets in downtown Steubenville. That's where the Pugliese STEM Academy addition to Steubenville High School sits.
It represents an important addition to the school system, one which will allow students in the Steubenville City School system to be exposed to and explore many new and different career options.
The three-level building itself is impressive, and it has been a welcome addition to the North End of the city. One of the interesting features is the skywalk that connects the addition with the high school building. It crosses an open area that covers ground that up until a few years ago was the portion of Dock Street that connected Third and Fourth streets.
One of the nicest things about the new building is that it has been designed so it can be adjusted to accommodate new programs. That's an important plus, educators say.
"It's a building that's been built to change," Superintendent Melinda Young told staff writer Linda Harris in a story that appeared in the Feb. 18 installment of our annul Progress Edition. "Ten years from now, we don't necessarily want to be teaching the same careers. Kindergartners today … most of the jobs they will be doing haven't even been created. So, the program has to be something that continues to change as society changes."
Residents of the city -- and from around the area -- will be able to see the $20 million, 28,000-square-foot addition for themselves Sunday during an open house. The afternoon will include food trucks, tours and performances by the Big Red band and choir.
• Downtown is not the only section of the city that is seeing some significant changes.
A few weeks ago, for example, officials with Trinity Health System marked the completion of the expansion and renovation project at Trinity Medical Center West. The work took a little longer than anticipated to finish, but the result is a five-story, 183,000-plus-square-foot addition that will improve patient care and make it easier for staff members to perform their jobs.
Since ground was broken on the project in 2019, Matt Grimshaw, president and chief executive officer of Trinity, has promised the addition would help to transform health care not just in Steubenville, but across the region.
Big improvements have been made at Trinity, but getting to the facility remained somewhat of a challenge, as the streets in that area have deteriorated significantly. That's changing as well, as work on the Johnson Road Improvement Project continued this past week.
The long-anticipated project will offer a much smoother drive in the area of Johnson Road from Sunset Boulevard to St. Charles Drive, including Garfield Avenue from Johnson Road to Etta Avenue and St. Charles Drive from Johnson Road to Lauretta Drive.
That's a critical piece of infrastructure in the city -- those roads provide access to the Trinity West complex, the YMCA Wellness Center at St. John Arena, Catholic Central High School and Triumph of the Cross Catholic Church, as well as other businesses and facilities and several neighborhoods.
While that project is wrapping up, work continues on improvements to another important road in the community, Lovers Lane. That project, unlike most road work in the city, required a complete shutdown of a portion of the street. When it's finished sometime in late October, motorists will enjoy wider lanes, and residents in the area will benefit from a storm sewer system as well as a sidewalk stretching from the roundabout to Sunset Boulevard.
• Regular readers of the police reports in the Daily Happenings section of the newspaper have no doubt noticed at least one way the work on Lovers Lane is affecting area motorists -- there has been an increase in the number of citations that have been issued to those who insist on making an illegal left turn from Bryden Road onto Sunset Boulevard during certain times of the day.
It's a tough intersection to navigate, with a steady traffic flow in both directions along Sunset and vehicles entering and leaving several businesses and pulling in to or out of driveways that are located within a couple of hundred yards or so. That's why those left-hand turns from Bryden are prohibited between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m., every day of the week. The city has made it easy for drivers to remember by placing two signs there -- one at the intersection itself and one across Sunset Boulevard that is directly in their line of sight.
Drivers also should keep in mind that some of the streets used to detour around the Lovers Lane work -- including Bryden, East Carlton, Brockton, Pembroke, Preston, Aberdeen and Starkdale roads as well as Efts Lane -- run through residential neighborhoods, which means lower speeds and greater vigilance are needed, and will be appreciated by everyone who lives in those areas.
(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is executive editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times)