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History in the Hills: Riding the rails of history

If you were to ask me what my favorite job was during my career, I would have a hard time giving an answer. Worst job? That’s easy, but best job, that’s tough. Certainly one of my most favorite jobs was working for the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. My wife and I both worked there and it was a time in our life when we had no children and no real responsibilities, so it was a time to be young and fun. My wife worked in the USS Requin, a cold war era submarine that was on its way to the pacific when World War II ended. She gave tours, greeted visitors and worked in ...

Guest column/Don’t forget to consider the possible consequences

In school we learn about cause and effect: What we do at one point will have impact at another point down the line. You can look at this in a negative way — choosing to do something you know has high risks, and you will receive your consequences (AKA effects) of your actions. Or you can look at things from a positive point of view: What you have done hasn’t worked so you are willing to change your actions by making better choices and staying focused to get yourself to a better place. This can work for anyone, not just those folks who are in recovery. Or perhaps everyone at ...

Guest column/Here’s why those who run the MWCD are hypocrites

The Fifth National Climate Assessment, released in November, pointed out that in order to keep climate impacts from worsening, we must stop any new fossil-fuel projects. In September, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “Humanity has opened the gates of hell, horrendous heat is having horrendous effects. Distraught farmers watching crops carried away by floods. Sweltering temperatures spawning disease. And thousands fleeing in fear as historic fires rage.” Even though Pope Francis has expressed his concerns over climate change in his 2015 encyclical, and “some 354 ...

Making our area shine

It was just after 6 p.m. on Nov. 24 when Joe Wallace looked out at the many hundreds of people who had gathered in Fort Steuben Park to take part in this year’s Steubenville Lights Up the Night event and helped to put the evening into perspective. “I think it just shows — you know, with all of the people here. It started here, and now it’s spreading throughout downtown. It’s really becoming such a special tradition,” said Wallace, who was enjoying the festivities while preparing to help perform one of the most important duties of the evening through his dual roles at the ...

Guest column/Beware the risks that can come with drug mixtures

We have spoken a number of times about the dangers, the high risks, involved with substances bought off the streets and the dealers who some people trust with their lives. Actually, the dealers don’t care. If they cared they wouldn’t deal to you. A couple of weeks ago, the Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center released a public safety bulletin “alerting Ohioans to an increasing number of illicit drug samples found to contain mixtures of various unpredictable and potentially deadly drugs such as carfentanyl,” which is estimated to be 100 times stronger than fentanyl. Fentanyl is ...

Land bank does its job

The Jefferson County Land Bank has been serving the area for nearly 10 years, but not everyone understands exactly what it does. “Land banks are not a part of local government. A lot of people think they are going to call the county commissioners and complain that they want the land bank to take care of this or that,” Ray Agresta, chairman of the land bank’s board of directors, explained to members of the Steubenville Rotary Club during their Nov. 15 meeting. “Land banks are quasi-government agencies that are governed by a board of directors that is created by statute,” ...