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Letters To The Editor

Family Recovery Center provides support for military personnel

To the editor: Family Recovery Center provides support for military personnel, veterans and their families. We offer a wide range of comprehensive care options to address the needs for both mental health and addiction related problems. Our goal is to give back to those who have sacrificed so much of their lives for ours by helping them to cope and readjust to civilian life. If you or a loved one is struggling, please contact us at 330-424-1468. Carrie Root, Family Recovery Center, Lisbon

Questions for the Hancock County Commission

To the editor: July 1 marked the 5th anniversary of the Hancock County Commission’s takeover of their county animal shelter. For 20 years, a nonprofit operated the shelter under a annually renewable contract. The county negotiated the shelter financial support level each year. The Commission offered the nonprofit $80,000 from the county budget and the $100,000 annual excess levy funds to operate the shelter for fiscal year 2017. However, they wanted changes to the contract giving the Commission final authority over animals being destroyed at the shelter and indicated animals should ...

Broadband would close digital divide in rural areas

To the editor: Throughout eastern Ohio, in rural communities up and down the Ohio river, homes and businesses lack Internet access and the vital connectivity it brings. The pandemic magnified these challenges for rural communities as our country transitioned to more and more remote work and education. Even though the vast majority of Americans have access to broadband Internet that is among the best in the world, 25 percent of rural communities lack access to broadband infrastructure. That means that just because of where someone lives, they have less access to job opportunities, ...

Praise for the Port Authority and those behind it

To the editor: The recent article announcing the inclusion of our Columbiana County Port Authority in the creation of the Mid-Ohio Valley Port District is tremendous news for our region. In our ever evolving statistics-driven business world, we — Columbiana County — are ideally located with us bordering the West Virginia Panhandle and Western Pennsylvania, for growth in interstate commerce and manufacturing. The Wellsville Terminal is a great springboard for this growth with its river loading and unloading capabilities and it being directly adjacent to Route 7 and in very close ...

Bill supporting right of victims important to Ohioans

To the editor: House Bill 343, which offers updates to crime victims’ laws in our state, was introduced by Representative Andrea White. I am a proud co-sponsor of the bill. HB 343 presents long overdue language that would implement the 2017 Constitutional amendment called Marsy’s Law into state code. It was important to me to support this bill from the outset as a citizen, and even more so, as a father and grandfather, I firmly believe that victims deserve to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect throughout the criminal justice process. I can’t imagine what victims and ...

Lack of action by Hancock County Commission

To the editor: July 1, 2016, the Hancock Commission refused to renew the Animal Shelter Operation contract with a nonprofit which had operated the county shelter for over 20 years. They immediately requested a legal opinion from the W. Va. Attorney General’s Office regarding legal rights to a balance of over $360,000 in Animal Shelter Excess Levy funds raised on behalf of the nonprofit. In March 2017 the attorney general provided a legal opinion stating that neither the nonprofit nor the commission had a legal right to the accumulated funds. He recommended these funds be returned ...