New Trees Add Fall Color

After only one season's growth the new trees on Broadway in Wellsville are beginning to add to the fall colors. Here are a few pictures I got a couple of weeks ago. You can easily imagine that in a few years time Broadway Park will be a spectacular and colorful show place when fall rolls around.

As always you can click on any of the pictures to enlarge.

ole nib

Veterans Day 2008

Tomorrow is Veterans Day, "a day dedicated to the cause of world peace...", as declared by President Woodrow Wilson in a proclamation back in November 12, 1919. From then until 1954 it was known as Armistice Day. In 1938 Congress moved that it be celebrated on the 11th day of November that year and each year after. The end of WWI armistice was signed on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour. It is a day to honor all vets, living and dead, for the sacrifices made to preserve world peace. It is as appropiate today as it was back in 1919.

Pictured above is a couple of shots from St. Elizabeth Cemetery and Springhill of the job the Veterans Memorial Council and members of Boy Scout Troop 19 did placing flags on graves of veterans up there. Those two organizations should be commended for the work they did up there. There are flags all through the cemetery.

Tomorrow afternoon starting at 1:50 a program will be held at the high school to commemorate Veterans Day. Keynote speaker will be Army MSgt Terry Berry, Retired. The program is open to all. I believe the program is sponsored by the Veterans Memorial Council. Those group of people have for years now kept this day a special event in the ville.

Thanks to those folks for remembering all us vets and thanks to all those vets who answered the call of duty throughout the history of this great nation.

ole nib

Lyle Williams

It is with regret that I'm writing this to report the death of former Congressman Lyle Williams this past Friday. Mr. Williams was a good friend of Wellsville. Through his knowledge, contacts and generosity he was influential to many of the accomplishments in the ville in the past few years.

Mr. Williams was born in Philippi, WV, August 23, 1942. At some point in his early years his family moved to Ohio and he graduated from North Bloomfield High School which is north of Youngstown. After graduation from high school he started out as a barber. He got his start in politics as a Board of Education member for his alma mater. He then moved on to be a Trumbull County Commissioner before running and being elected the first Republican Congressman from the Mahoning Valley since 1936. He served three terms in Congress starting in 1979. That Congressional District included the Wellsville area. After his time in Congress he worked for a time in the Office of Surface Mining in Washington. For the past several years he was the Executive Director of the National Association of Subacute & Post Acute Care also in Washington. NASPAC is a political action committee for the health care industry. His home was in Warren.

Mr. Williams funeral will be in Warren this coming Wednesday. Our condolences and sympathy go out to the Williams family. In our opinion Lyle was one of the good guys and we surely appreciate all he has done for the ville.

Rest in peace Lyle. Oh, and thanks for all you did. You'll be missed. Pictured above is Mr. Williams when he spoke at the Pete Amato Boardwalk on October 14, 2007.

ole nib

Post Election

Kim, you can breathe now. This one is in the books in more ways than one. From what I've been reading in the papers you did good with only a few minor glitches. For the most part it all went smooth. Congratulations to you and your staff.

That's for Wellsville's Kim Meek, Director of the Board of Elections. She got the job at the BOE not too long ago and was recently appointed director. She was a little tense about being able to get it all organized when I talked to her a couple of months ago. I think she did herself proud.

What an election it was. I can't recall seeing this much interest in a Presidential election since JFK back in the early 1960s. Kennedy was the first Catholic elected to the nation's highest office. Doom & gloomers said the USA is going to be run by the Pope.

Now it will go down in history that the 44th President is the first black man to hold that office. Although Obama didn't carry Columbiana County he did win a majority of the popular vote and had a lopsided win with the electoral votes. Someone on here said we elected an unknown. Not any more. The print media is making out like bandits with running additional copies of Wednesday papers for the people that want to save copies of the election results. Saw on the news yesterday that the NY Times ran an extra 200,000 copies.

It was interesting to read about all the first time voters. A lot of them were people who just didn't bother before. When I was at the poll voting I heard one fellow remark to the precinct workers that this was the first time in 20 years that he has voted. Wonder what brought him out this time.

Nationally the Democrats will have the majority in both the House and the Senate. Hopefully that will be helpful in getting the nation's business accomplished. Only time will tell. From I've been reading the economy is going to be the first priority. They are already kicking around another stimulus package. That's not the answer to our economic woes but for the time being just about anything will help.

Getting down to the local level not all my selections won but I can't complain. Penny Traina got a very convincing win and and although he didn't make it John Soldano had a very respectful showing getting nearly 47% of the vote for Sheriff. I was surprised that the Wellsville cemetery levy passed. I'm glad it did but around these parts levies are tough to get approved, especially replacement levies.

I was disappointed that only 68% of registered voters voted. I thought it would be higher with the absentee and early voting options. We even had beautiful weather. Guess some people just don't care.

Now it is all over except for the provisional ballots and some absentees. Obama lost the county by over 3,600 votes. I would love to see the demographics by area on that.

ole nib

You Decide

Sheltergate II remains a point of contention between Village Council and the administration. At this week's council meeting the bill remained tabled. The bill is $5,625 for repairs and putting in electrical service to the two picnic shelters up in Hammond's Park.

At a Property Committee meeting this past Monday Councilwoman Rosie Goss was quoted in the MJ as saying "go up there and see rotten wood and nails sticking out". So, I did. Got some pictures too. You can click on any of them to enlarge.

The work was done to shore up the shelters and a large portion of that bill was for the electrical work. Each shelter has a circuit breaker. In the large shelter on top of the hill I counted six outlets and two in the smaller shelter. About $4,700 of that bill was for the electrical work. The remaining portion was for the shoring up.

Since I've been accused of trying to micro manage on a computer I'll reserve comment about my feelings on this situation. You folks feel free to express your comments. Councilman Joe Soldano is suppose to meet with the owner of the construction company in an effort to resolve the situation.

ole nib

VOTE !!!

Polls open at 6:30 tomorrow morning and remain open until 7:30 tomorrow evening. That's 13 hours to give you time to get there. The weather is suppose to be great and big turn outs are expected. Be part of this history making election.

To find a sample ballot go to http://www.columbianacounty.org/BOE/Forms/sample_ballot.pdf. To find the location of your polling place go to http://www.columbianacounty.org/BOE/Forms/pollling_locations.pdf. All locations are handicapped accessible. To find local issues go to http://www.columbianacounty.org/BOE/Forms/local.pdf. To find all the state issues go to http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/upload/elections/2008/gen/2008SampleBallot.pdf and scroll down. They are all there.

Voting is not a duty. It is a privilege afforded us that not all countries in the world have for citizens to express their opinions. It is a privilege that should not be abused or ignored. It only takes a few minutes of your time. Get to the polls and exercise your privilege.

There's no excuse.

ole nib

Election Thoughts

This coming Tuesday is Election Day. As Americans our right to vote goes back to the beginnings of this nation. Many good people fought for this privilege, some have died. By voting we, as citizens, get to chose who will govern us from the President all the way down to local levels. I've always felt that it is our duty to go to the polls and vote in every election. How you vote is your personal decision. It is no one else's business. It's up to you if you want to share your thoughts about the different candidates, issues and levies. If you don't bother to register and vote you have no right to whine & complain about the way things turn out. You can but for me it falls on deaf ears if you don't exercise your right to vote. For me your esteem is extremely low as an American citizen. It's that important to me.

For President I'm endorsing Obama. We simply can not afford another term of Bush policies. My dad was a staunch Democrat. He felt that people that vote Republican don't know or remember what this country went through in the Great Depression. In today's times financial conditions are very similar to the conditions that brought on the Great Depression. Just about all those conditions came about with nearly eight years of Bush at the helm. We definitely need new leadership in the White House.

I also like Charlie Wilson to keep representing us in Congress. He has worked hard for us especially here in the ville. He calls himself a conservative democrat. I don't see him changing his ways. I like what he has done in his first term and I think he will continue to be the best person to look out for our interest.

On the state level I like Charlie's son Jason Wilson. Since being appointed State Senator he has devoted a lot of time to us in this county and in the ville. Linda Bolon has also proven great to us locally as our State Rep. I feel both will continue trying to do good things for us and think they should be given another term.

On the county level I'm going for Dickey-Myers and Wellsville's Penny Traina for Commissioners. I was torn between Jim Hoppel and Myers. Hoppel is from this part of the county but in the last couple of years I got the feeling that he is getting weary of the job. I think it is time to get someone fresh in there to fill that seat.

I've already endorsed Wellsville's native son John Soldano for Sheriff. Did you see the picture of Ray Stone at the debates in the MJ? He had that deer in the headlights look in his eyes and looked like he is ready to drop. The job of sheriff is very demanding and I believe John is up to the challenge. He is well qualified and I think he will do a commendable job for us.

I'm sticking with the incumbents for County Treasurer and Recorder. I think for Nick Barborak and Craig Brown have served us well. They have both proven responsible doing their jobs and I see no reason to change now.

I think there is only three levies for us to consider in the village. One is for Jobs & Family Services. They want to double the current Children Services levy from .75 mills to 1.5 mills. The Wellsville School District is asking us to renew a 2 mill permanent improvement levy. This levy is earmarked for safety especially for the school buses. The third levy is a 1 mill replacement for the cemetery. By designating it as a replacement levy will change the tax collected based on current land values.

There will be five state issues on the ballot. There was originally six but Issue 4 was withdrawn. I'll freely admit I haven't done much in studying the issues but there are two I want to mention. Issue 5 deals with the "pay day loan" business. They are trying to change the restrictions put on them by the state. You have to vote yes on this issue to keep the rules as they now are. The other issue is Issue 6 which is for the gambling casino proposal. Although I believe that casinos are eventually going to come to Ohio this deal doesn't sound like it's in the best interest for us Ohioans.

Like I mentioned above how you vote is your business. These are solely my thoughts and how I feel. The important thing is to get out and vote. If you're unsure where your poll is you can check it out on the Board of Election web site. Just go to http://www.columbianacounty.org/ and click on Board of Elections on the left hand column.

See you at the polls...

ole nib