Poolville

In case you don't know it I like to stay away from rumors and innuendo in my posts. In this case the rumor is too news worthy to pass up. One of my inside sources gave me a tip about some clandestine meetings that Wellsville Mayor Joe Sirace and East Liverpool Mayor Jim Swagger have been holding with various other people at Dalonzos-On-The-Hill. My source has been a regular attendant at these meetings and is vehemently opposed to the purpose the two mayors are cooking up that he decided to let it leak.

It seems the two mayors are working on a plan to merge the City of East Liverpool and the Village of Wellsville into one city and rename it Poolville. Even if it doesn't bring in new life into the combined communities they figure there will be a vast economic benefits with the merger. After merging they plan to go all out to annex Liverpool Township into the new city. They want to rebuild the swimming pool at Lake Marwin as a city symbol. Also they believe with all the available land in the the newly annexed township they figure they can entice Seven Flags Over America, a big amusement park company, to build up on the hill by Lake Marwin.

Some other details leaking out of the meetings is the fact that with the increased size and population the two mayors figure their chances of getting more state and federal grants would be greatly enhanced. They want to build a new City Hall somewhere centrally located and sell the buildings they are currently using. This way the problems with the aging buildings would all go away. The number of City Council members would be proportionately determined with a revised map drawn up for the different wards. The former Wellsville would once again become a city. They would determine the mayor of the merged communities with a flip of a coin. They also figure the two school systems will be better off as one entity.

According to my tipster the two mayors are working feverishly to hammer out all the details to have a plan in place in time to get it on the November ballot.

Being stunned I will reserve my opinions until later. I have to digest all the pros and cons before I make any comments. I'm only reporting this as a favor but if there is any truth to this remember you heard it here first.



April Fools ! :-) God bless you Bob Popp where ever you are.

The Whittacre House Site

Here are a couple of more pictures I took yesterday. Pictured above is the memorial stone for The Whittacre House Site. It use to sit alongside the old Potters Bank & Trust building in Wellsville facing Fourth St. It was moved during the remodeling for the now defunct Slammers night club. This historical marker now sits among an old dog kennel, an old beer cooler and what appears to be the lid of a deep freezer. It is only a few feet from where it use to sit. Being in a haze a lot of the time I didn't know what became of it until someone commented about it on Matt Stewart's Ohio River Life blog awhile back.

I would like to propose a challenge to the Wellsville Historical Society and Mrs. Sharon Gates to rectify this abuse of one our historical land marks. I don't think the expense for what I'm proposing would be too much. Mrs. Gates owns that piece of property now and the Historical Society could spearhead the project. If neither party has the funds to undertake this project they could set up the barrels along Main St. some Saturday morning.

All that is needed is a little concrete to build a base for the stone to sit on, a little donated labor to form it up, pour the concrete and a little help from our friends to move the stone a few feet. Thrasher's got that gigantic tow truck that can probably lift that stone and place it on the new base. I propose they place it alongside the building centrally located under that second window.

It would go nice with the gazebo and be in about the same place it was prior to the remodeling. Since Mrs. Gates has shown she is civic minded I'm sure she wouldn't mind kicking in a little and would be more than happy to have it there. It would be unobtrusive no matter what type of business she would put in there.

So many of our historical sites are long gone. They are relegated to memory and fading photographs and not that many people left that remember or can tell you what the picture is. It's my understanding that the Whittacre House was a hotel/boarding house that one time sat on that same spot. If you read the plague on the stone it is really amazing that such prominent people were in Wellsville at one time.

The plaque reads as follows: "Here James A. Garfield, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson spoke. Gen. Lewis Cass, U.S. Secy of State, was a guest, and Gen. John Morgan, C.S.A., "The Raider" was a prisoner of war." At the bottom I could only make out "Wellsvile Historical" some writing blocked by the cooler and "Southwick Chapter 1950". What was the Southwick Chapter? I can just imagine those notables getting off the train there at Fourth St. and walking up to that hotel. Was there a stop there at one time?

It's not a big thing but it is part of our history. Do you think this could be accomplished? I would be willing to kick in. How about you?

The Way It Use To Look

This is a picture I took yesterday of part of Wellsville's flood wall, the Boy with the Boot, and the Wells Avenue bridge. Did you ever wonder what this area looked like before the flood wall? I think the flood wall was built in the 1930s and the Route 7 overpass was built in the early 1970s or late 60s. As far as I'm concerned the flood wall and that bridge has always been there. Both were there before my time. Did ever wonder why part of the street runs right into the wall?

This is a picture of a post card entitled Highland Heights, Wellsville, O. It was printed in Germany and was never sent. There is no date on it but I'm guessing it's somewhere around a 100 years old. At that time there were two bridges. I think the bridge on the left was commonly called the Lisbon St. bridge. You can see the Wells Ave. bridge was very different in those days. Does anyone know if the present Wells Ave. bridge was built at the same time as the flood wall? Check out the trolley crossing it. The boy with the boot is probably the original. A lot of those houses on Highland and Ridge Ave. in the background are still there today. I recognize some of them and the stone wall going up the hill. That hill looks very different today. This picture was before the Roadside Park I wrote about previously was there. I've been told the trolley came from East Liverpool, went down the middle of Broadway on downtown, turned around and made a return trip. The post card was loaned to me by someone who lived in the house over top of the Lisbon St. bridge in the picture. I've also been told that someone speeding down Route 45 tried to turn onto that bridge at a high rate of speed and knocked it into the creek before the flood wall was built. It was never rebuilt. You can still see part of the stone pier along the creek under the Rt. 7 overpass. You can click on either picture to enlarge.

Drag Out

Did you catch the article in this morning's Review? It was about the Wellsville Terminals being cited by the Ohio EPA of being in violation of their EPA permit by allowing drag out of coal dust on the trucks hauling coal out of there. Imagine that??? The finding was the result of a concerned citizen contacting the Ohio EPA. Most of the test results were at or near the Garfield Elementary School.

The testing of the submitted samples found that it was nearly two thirds coal dust and that it came from the trucks not being washed down prior to leaving the terminal. A "company official" said it was because of the freezing temperatures in the winter season. Did we hit the nail on the head or what?

Can you imagine what is happening to the kids on the play ground during recess breathing in that stuff? Their respiratory systems just like their young bodies are still in the developemental stage. Wonder why the children have so many coughs and colds? I would venture to say some of it was their bodies trying to fight off the effects of breathing in the dust. The effects of children breathing in the dust is just one part of the story. What about folks that already have breathing problems? Yea, I'm being an alarmist but in my Baffle article I stated this is a serious problem.

Did we hear it from our village officials? Noooo. It came from the result of a concerned citizen who decided to try and do something about it. Thank you whoever your are. We need more people like you to get actively involved.

What can be done about this problem? Well, the simple answer is washing the dust off the trucks after they get their tarps on. What can be done in the winter months so this can be accomplished? I suggest a simple pole building with heat and the rubber strip curtains like a car wash that the trucks could drive through. Yes it will be an added expense but will it be cost effective over possible fines and legal costs defending against law suits?

Like I said this should be a top priority issue. I'm not gloating that I suggested that "drag out" in freezing temperatures could be the problem. Honestly I did not have any inside information. Thanks Lucille for bringing us up to date on this issue.

Baffled With B.S.???

Did you ever hear something or read something in the newspaper and have the feeling in your subconscious that there is something amuck about the subject you just consciously read? That's exactly what happened to me when I read Lucille Huston's account of this past week's Wellsville Council meeting. Now I know that Mrs. Huston was busy all week covering the Irwin trial over in Lisbon and maybe didn't have time to cross all the Ts & dot all the Is on her account of the meeting. Whatever the case the whole article nagged me subconsciously since reading it this past Wednesday. The more I thought about it the less I felt it was Mrs. Huston's reporting and the more I felt that the Wellsville administration is trying to pull the wool over our eyes. There are three items specifically that bothered me.

The first is the coal dust problem that just won't go away. It seems to be an annual occurrence. If memory serves me correctly the solution last year was to have the trucks hauling the coal hosed down before leaving the terminal? Could it be that when the problem raised it's ugly head this year it was winter with freezing temperatures and the hosing down just wasn't being done? Councilman Joe Soldano & the mayor were both quoted as saying the EPA has been contacted previously. Well, duh, have they been called recently? I don't know about the folks in our administration but to me this is a very serious problem. Coal dust not only makes our homes and property ugly in appearance it is also very unhealthy to breath. Just ask any coal miner that got Black Lung Disease. Yea you're right Mr. Surace. "Our residents don't deserve it". This should be a top priority issue. It needs to be dealt with now and not be put on a back burner hoping it will go away.

The second item that disturbed me is the sidewalk at McGraw's. New Village Administrator Jim Saracco said they will have the sidewalk replaced once the danger of frost has passed. Come on Jimbo. We're talking about pouring cement - not planting tomatoes. Ask Rick Williams. You can pour cement in cool weather. With the coming of spring the chance of a severe frost has greatly lessened. Are we going to have to wait until Memorial Day or later for that eyesore to be corrected? Every time it rains there is more dirt washing away and going into our sewer system.

Finally, the third thing that raised my dander was the brief mention of the condition of our Village Hall. Now we have bricks falling off the front of the building. The solution is to rope off the sidewalk. Brilliant! Is there a danger of the wall collapsing? What's the latest on the needed roof repairs? When the building was built was part of the old Standard Electric building used? Is there ground work being laid for hitting us with the need for a new building? Just what is going on? From figures thrown around previously the roof repair is going to be very costly. What's the current thinking of taking care of this problem? Is anyone concerned about the safety issue?

There's an old saying that says "If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance baffle them with bull". Are we being baffled?

The Old Roadside Park

Someone commented last week in the article about flooding up on Wells Avenue saying they remember the Roadside Park being completely under water. This photo of a photo is of that park which was located at the corner of Route 45 and Wells Ave. in Wellsville. The overpass for Rt. 7 runs through it today. This was half of the park. The other half was across Rt. 45 and it had a big picnic shelter with multiple tables.

Part of the Roadside Park was the Memorial that faced Wells Ave. This is another photo of a photo. You can see the roof of the big shelter behind the flag pole. The hillside in the background is Ridge Ave. The Memorial and park was wiped out with the building of the four lane Rt. 7. These canons were moved to Springhill Cemetery and can be seen there to this day. Do any of you Wellsville historians know if these canons were of WWI or WWII vintage? I don't but I do remember the park and all. The small building along the fence to the right was an outhouse.

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them. Check out the old cars in the top picture. I don't know who the photographer was or when the pictures were taken. I'm guessing early 1950s.

Rumored Drug Busts

If true the County Drug Task Force must have been busy in Wellsville this week. Heard a rumor that arrests were made Wednesday at a house on Center Street near the Wellsville Middle School. Then I heard a second rumor that another known drug dealer was recently arrested and hauled away in hand cuffs.

I can't verify the validity of these rumors. Can anyone elaborate on these? They may just be small town gossip but then again I wonder. There has been nothing in any of the local media other than the arrest of Kareem James. It's not unusual for our village officials to "play their cards close to the chest" and I think that is a big mistake on their part.

If our village officials think that sweeping the dirt under the rug is making Wellsville a more attractive place they are sadly mistaken. We can't deny that drug activity is getting bigger and bigger in Wellsville. This illicit activity has sadly permeated all sectors of our society. People know this and they want to know what is being done about it. If arrests are made and charges filed it needs to be reported. Otherwise we can only assume that the official attitude is lacking. On the other hand if every pusher, dealer or distributor that gets busted has their story and mug publicized it would show that an effort is being made to clean up our fair village. That would make Wellsville, in my humble opinion, more attractive. I doublt that it will ever be completely cleaned up but I would feel better if we were told they are trying.