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Guest column/Ohio tourism important

In 2022, Ohio’s tourism industry generated $53 billion in visitor spending, the state’s highest ever. Even with this record-setting year, we need to continue to grow this industry due to Ohio’s robust economic growth setting it on pace to have more jobs than people in the state to fill them. Investing and putting focus on economic development related to Ohio’s travel and tourism efforts are a great way to help grow the population and fill open jobs. The Ohio Chamber recently released its Blueprint for Ohio’s Economic Future, a report that analyzes Ohio’s economic outlook ...

History in the Hills: Life of James Collier

September is my favorite month — not only is it the month of my birthday, but it also is a time when summer is winding down and fall is around the corner. For the past two years in September, I have been fortunate to be a part of the Friends of Beatty Park’s Union Cemetery Historical Walking tour in Steubenville. For history lovers like me, this is a wonderful event. It provides a wonderful opportunity to get out in nature, walk the paths of the cemetery and learn some great history, too. Local historians Jeff Evans, Flora VerStraten-Merrin, along with myself, will lead folks ...

A real numbers game

It seems there are important numbers all around us everywhere we look. Certainly, the numbers on a clock are significant to just about everyone. They let us know just how much time we have to complete an assignment or when we need to be at a specific place. The numbers we find on the calendar also are important — they remind us of special events in our lives, let us know when we have an appointment or serve as a reminder about the relentless march of time. And, while numbers in most cases are completely neutral, they can, sometimes, be exasperating to study, such as when a ...

Guest column/Library board working to serve all area residents

The Public of Steubenville and Jefferson County is one of the greatest assets in our community. It offers many good services and programs, including notary services, museum passes, hotspots, tot times, story hours, crafts, game nights, book clubs and so much more — all for free. The library creates displays to acknowledge many federally designated awareness and celebratory months, including Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March. On a regular basis, awareness months are added. In the summer of 2022, the library added, systemwide, three new displays: ...

Guest column/Don’t judge a book by its cover

Have you watched small children as they play together and noticed that they are so generous, so forgiving, so loving? They accept everyone. They squabble over something and five minutes later they are best friends again. They are honest and unafraid of conflict, going directly to the heart of the matter and resolving it. Everything is black and white — there are no gray areas. They are true, genuine, authentic selves. Over time everything, directed by society, changes. Children go through the stages of development and become less accepting of everyone. (Everyone has biases.) And ...

Guest column/Democracy denied at oil, gas commission meeting

On Sept. 18, about 75 Ohio citizens traveled from all over the state to attend the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission meeting. The meeting was to decide if thousands of acres of public land in Ohio, including Salt Fork State Park, Wolf Run State Park, Zepernick Wildlife Area and Valley Run Wildlife Area, would be open to bidding for oil and gas companies seeking to frack their acreages. Legislation (HB 133) (passed in 2011 under then-Gov. John Kasich) opened up state lands to fracking. However, public outcry against the bill was so intense that Kasich “instituted a “de facto ...