Opinion

Action requested to address dangerous intersection in Perry Township

Letters To The Editor August 1, 2026

Editor's Note: The following is a letter submitted to the Columbiana County commissioners and state Rep. Monica Robb-Blasdel. For years I have lived at the four-way intersection of state Route 344 and Cunningham Road in Perry Township. Sitting at the table, I see accidents all the time. A recent head-on, car versus semi disaster violently claimed the life of a woman who doesn’t seem to have seen the approaching semi. There is something about the visibility of this intersection that renders it so frequently dangerous. Let’s prevent future deaths, injuries, screaming, smashed ...

Happiness is a zappy electric deer fence

Local Columns July 27, 2026

“I’m so glad you got the electric fence working,” my wife said. “Yay!!! Finally!!!!” texted grandson Lamppost Head when he read the texted news. He had suffered with me through half a day of trial and error, mostly error, getting the new fence to work that he and I and the other ...

The joy of rent-a-kittens

Local Columns July 20, 2026

“If you write about us fostering kittens, people will know we’re crazy,” my wife warned. Heedless of her good advice, I forge ahead. The dog people will think so anyway, but the cat people will understand. We didn’t set out to be foster parents to kittens. Now it seems the most ...

Act like citizens instead of sports fans

Letters To The Editor July 18, 2026

Dear Editor, Politics are not a team sport. It’s not the same as sticking with the Browns or the Steelers no matter how bad the season. The political process is about choosing the right people who can lead a government in ways that support its citizens. Right now our state government has allowed Ohio to drop from having the fifth best school system in the country (2010) to the 35th. Our infant mortality rate is the fifth worst in the country. Who is suffering from our loyalty to a political team? Our children. In sports the owners of the teams can spend millions to ...

A restorative dose of Lincoln

Local Columns July 13, 2026

When I’m at a loss for a good book to read, I go to the library in our basement and scan the familiar titles on the wide floor-to-ceiling shelves. When I did this late last night, my eye rested, as it often does, on the long row of Lincoln books. I chose a slim volume, “The Wit and ...

Approach of Columbiana County Fair prompts memories of those past

Local Columns July 13, 2026

Sometime in the late 1830s or 1840s, an agricultural “fair was held on the site of a woolen mill on East Washington Street in Lisbon across the street from the R. Thomas & Sons plant. It was a small beginning to what would become a major annual event. It wasn’t until 1846 that a meeting ...