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Snow Goes, Cigarettes Stay
Photos by Shelley Hanson
Sanitarian Charles Fisher on Tuesday checks out cigarette butts littering mulched areas in front of the Wheeling City-County Building.
March 10, 2010
WHEELING — Once covered by layers of snow, hundreds of cigarette butts litter the area in front of the City-County Building.
Workers and visitors often can been seen smoking on the building’s front porch. And since there currently is no ashtray or urn for folks to use, some smokers flick their butts on the porch, onto the sidewalks and Chapline Street, and into mulch surrounding decorative bushes owned by the county. A few years ago, a smoldering cigarette butt caught dry mulch on fire in front of the building, prompting a visit by the Wheeling Fire Department.
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Emergency Alerts Phoning Homes
March 10, 2010
WHEELING — Ohio County’s emergency managers are working on new methods to quickly inform people of chemical spills or other potential disasters.
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Seals: Explain Salary Increases
March 9, 2010
WHEELING — Councilman Vernon Seals has no problem with City Manager Robert Herron granting 8- to 11-percent pay raises to the city’s department heads. He just wants to know about it in advance from now on.
“That wages and salaries ...
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$13.5M Weirton Budget Finalized
March 9, 2010
WEIRTON — City Council has given its stamp of approval to Weirton’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Council members during their Monday meeting unanimously approved the $1.
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Top Headline Poll
Should Ohio County’s smoking ban be extended to outside areas surrounding buildings?
Yes
47%
No
53%
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Betsy Bethel
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Getting Away With the Girls
Tue, March 2, 2010 @ 3:53PM
My mom, sister and I had our annual girls' getaway weekend last weekend. Every February, we rent a cabin somewhere for the weekend just the three of us, to catch up and bond and do fun girly stuff. It's important for us to get away together because we truly are three peas in a pod, yet we no longer live in a pod. In fact, we haven't lived in the same house for 25 years. My sister lives in suburban Dayton, my mom in the North Georgia mountains and I in Martins Ferry. Whenever we are together on other occasions, our attention is divided between children and siblings and other parental units. The girls' getaway gives us a chance to break up the monotony of gray winter days and bring some life-giving sunshine into each other's lives, if only for a brief time. Last weekend, we rented a cabin at Dillon State Park outside Zanesville, which we all recommend highly. From the maintenance guy who shoveled our porch and sidewalk after Friday's snowfall, to the thick towels and soft sheets, to the super-cleanliness of the place, we were quite pleased. Our itinerary included four main goals: eat out, shop at the antique and pottery places outside Zanesville, play Scrabble and watch chick flicks. While going about our weekend activities, I had several "things-that-make-you-go-hmmm" moments.
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Joselyn King
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Lacking an "A" Effort
Tue, March 9, 2010 @ 11:34PM
What's in a name? A lot when politics is involved, and it's an election year. The League of American Voters -- that's "American" voters, not the League of Women Voters -- is attacking U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., and other House Democrats for their support of health care reform legislation proposed by the Obama White House and now before Congress. The ads run frequently. Anybody but me notice that the group consistently misspells "Alan" as "A-l-l-a-n?" He has been in office for 28 years, and you would think someone there might have seen the name. A-hem. . .maybe they're not from West Virginia? You would think if gunslingers were coming in from out of town, they could at least shoot straigh.
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Mike Myer
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Obama attempting power grab
Wed, March 3, 2010 @ 5:37PM
President Barack Obama's suggestion that liberals in the U.S. Senate should use the budget reconciliation process to pass his cherished health care bill is nothing more than a grab for power. Unable to gain the 60 Senate votes he needs to shut off debate on bills and force votes, Obama wants to use reconciliation to achieve passage on a simple majority vote. It already has been pointed out that reconciliation never was intended for such use. It is a tool established to deal with purely budgetary matters. But if Obama is victorious in using reconciliation for the health care bill, it will be Katy bar the door for other items on his agenda. The question now is whether he can convince 51 Democratic Party senators to go along with him. Let's hope that enough of them join Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., in just saying n.
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Phyllis Sigal
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When Is a Chair Not a Chair?
Fri, February 26, 2010 @ 11:29AM
When is a chair not a chair? asks a Pittsburgh Web site. The answer? When it's a parking chair. What a phenomenon. You see them sporadically in Wheeling — my neighbor across the street places one out whenever there is snow. Another neighbor down the street uses one to save his spot from Woodsdale Elementary School parents and teachers. But in Pittsburgh – they are everywhere. We spotted dozens last weekend when visiting my daughter. The snow was crazy there ... still piles and piles in the streets. The side streets were ridiculous. But even Fifth Avenue was blocked in places by deep banks of snow. If you hadn't dug out a space, you were out of luck if you needed to park. In fact, we had to park in the Regent Square neighborhood, and my husband just backed our car into a snow bank until it fit in the spot. Apparently, the practice of using parking chairs dates back to at least the 1950s, and maybe even earlier, says Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia, "The practice is common throughout areas of the United States susceptible to large amounts of snow and where curbside parking on residential streets is the norm, especially in the Northeast. The items used have sometimes been referred to as 'Pittsburgh Parking Chair' due to their use in the city of Pittsburgh. ..
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Heather Ziegler
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Cinders
Sat, March 6, 2010 @ 9:36PM
Now that the snow is melting, all those gritty black cinders are more evident than ever. In fact, for walkers and runners, they are down right dangerous. Has anyone tried to walk down Chicken Neck Hill or run across the Bridge Street bridge in Elm Grove? I have seen plenty of track teams on the run as of late and I wonder how many may have taken a spill on the cinders. It would be nice if a street sweeper could clean the sidewalk along Chicken Neck Hill. As for the sidewalks on the bridges, I guess we will have to wait for Mother Nature to rain them away. I would be happy to sweep up the cinders in front of my house, deposit them in a bucket for reuse by the state road. But they would have to come and get them because I would not be able to lift the bucket when it's full. Perhaps I should hold onto that bucket at least until April as the Farmer's Almanac is talking more snow for March. Let us hope those old farmers are dead wron.
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