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Some thoughts …
• While election season has not really started to heat up yet, there still has been plenty of activity around the area.
In the past two weeks, we have seen visits from a candidate for governor -- Democrat Amy Acton -- both of Ohio’s candidates for the U.S. Senate -- Republican Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown --and one of the candidates for secretary of state -- Democrat Allison Russo.
That sort of activity shows that candidates and their parties still are interested in our part of the state and what the residents here have to say. When you consider that three of those four visits were by Democratic candidates, that makes it easy to think those stops are even more interesting.
The region has been solidly Red for many years, so many that it’s easy to think that’s not a trend, but just the way things are. As we’ve seen, that’s not always the case.
You have to look back several decades, but 40 or 50 years ago, the Democrats had a solid hold on the region, and the successful Republican candidate was tough to find.
It’s an example of how things can change -- and a reason why Ohio’s Senate race is among the most closely watched in the nation. Should Husted retain the seat, it will be tough for the Democrats to accomplish their goal of taking control of the Senate. And, in any case, whoever wins will have to run again if they want to stay in office beyond 2028.
Will the results we see this year be different from those we have seen during the past several decades? It’s impossible to say right now.
New poll numbers, whenever they are released, make for interesting conversation, but, as has been seen in a growing number of elections across the nation, the figures they show might not be as accurate as were once thought.
So, how will this year’s elections turn out? No matter what anyone thinks or whatever poll you consider to be the most predictive of actual outcomes, we really won’t know for sure until late in the evening of Nov. 3 or early in the day on Nov. 4.
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Our area got another shot in the arm on Aug. 13 when the Jefferson County Innovation Center was dedicated.
Located across from Muth Field and next to Hills Elementary School on the same Mingo Junction campus that includes Indian Creek Middle School, the building will offer education resources and serve members of the community.
While the building will house an alternative school and a partial youth day treatment facility for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, it also will be the home of a walk-in express care clinic operated by WVU Medicine, and a job assistance center run by the Jefferson County Community Action Council that will house a satellite office of Ohio Means Jobs.
The last two will be available to residents of Mingo Junction and the surrounding areas.
It is a 14,000-square-foot, single-story building that cost $6.5 million to build -- and all of that money came through the Appalachian Community Innovation Centers Grant Program. Indian Creek was one of 14 recipients in the state that shared in the $88 million that was awarded in 2023.
The addition is important to the school district, Mingo Junction and the entire area. And, making sure district residents are able to have access to its facilities is important.
“During the past 14 years, we have built three new buildings and have made renovations to another,” Dr. Ted Starkey, a longtime member of the Indian Creek Local School District Board of Eradication, said during the dedication ceremony. “Someone mentioned that the things we have done in those past 14 years have exceeded what had been done during the past 40 years.”
He was referring to the construction of the middle school, the new Indian Creek High School and Cross Creek Elementary School, as well as the upgrades that were made at Hills.
“We’re proud of that, and we’re happy about that,” Starkey continued. “What I want to tell you is that during the planning and during the design if all of those new buildings, there was a common theme -- including things in those buildings that would serve the public on a day-to-day basis, or on an occasional basis, because we thought the taxpayers deserved that. We planned for it, and we put it in place.”
He pointed to the walking track that circles the baseball field, and added that members of the public can use the Lester Carney Track (named after the Wintersville High School graduate who won a silver medal in the 200 at the 1960 Olympics in Rome) at Robert F. Kettlewell Memorial Stadium on the high school campus in Wintersville.
“We consider our wonderful auditorium at the high school to be a public asset,” Starkey added.
That facility has hosted public forums, public meetings and other events, including the Nov. 2, 2022, presentation by writer Jeff Hatcher, a 1976 graduate of Wintersville High School, as part of the Herald-Star Speaker Series.
“And so, while this is new, it’s important to consider that there has been a driving vision in the Indian Creek Local School District to do this very thing all along from the beginning, and this is a culmination of that.”
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This year’s edition of the Fort Steuben Summer Concert Series has come to an end, but you still have a couple of chances to enjoy outdoor music this summer. The monthly Monday Music Madness series, sponsored by the Brooke County Area Chamber of Commerce, concludes at 6 p.m. Monday, when Hot Wired performs at the Follansbee Park Gazebo.
And, the Inspire Toronto Concerts at the Gazebo Series comes to an end Wednesday at 7 p.m., when Pocket Change performs.
(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is senior writer of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times)