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Questions surround fee increase idea

Editorials

Weirton Council is in the process of increasing its Municipal Service Fee, and, while we understand the reasoning behind the thought – to expand and improve fire service in the community – there are some questions about why this specific fee was targeted to bring in the revenue. For those unfamiliar, Weirton’s Municipal Service Fee, as it currently stands, assesses $2 per week from the paychecks of any individual who is employed within the city limits. This newspaper spoke against the implementation of this fee back in 2004, when its stated purpose was for improvements to the ...

Success for the valley’s future

Editorials

When you open Wednesday’s edition and look through the pages of the first installment of this year’s Progress Edition, you’ll find comments that say a lot about the direction the Tri-State Area is headed in. Jefferson County Commissioner Jake Kleineke, for one, is excited about the opportunities for growth that are being seen around the region. “I feel like we’re making steps in the right direction,” he explained while discussing development, adding that when one community scores a development hit, it creates a ripple effect that is felt across the region. That optimism ...

Spring training is right around the corner

Editorials

Are you tired of the cold and snow? Have you had it with experiencing, day-after-day, weather forecasts that call for overnight temperatures that start close to zero and afternoon temperatures that are consistently below freezing? Have you resorted to cursing the groundhog and started to wonder out loud how the woolly bear caterpillars you so carefully studied last fall could have been so wrong? Relax — spring is on the way. And while we haven’t seen the grass in a couple of weeks and the trees are still waiting for their first buds, we would remind you that there’s an even ...

A big splash of those primary colors

Local Columns

When it comes to contesting statewide and legislative races, the West Virginia Democratic Party should be commended for its candidate recruitment efforts heading into the 2026 elections. I don’t say that because I have a specific bias one way or another. But I do believe that a healthy two-party system is important to making our democratic republic work, because the political parties hold each other accountable. According to the state Democratic Party, there are 22 Democratic candidates seeking nomination to 17 of 19 state Senate seats on the ballot for the May primary, some of ...

How do we recharge West Virginia?

Editorials

Governments have only a limited number of ways to support private businesses — large or small. Whether we like it or not, spending taxpayer money is one of them. The question becomes whether the return is larger than the investment — whether that money is being spent prudently. So, one can understand one of the objections to state House Bill 4004, to create the Recharge West Virginia program, from a few who wondered whether it was a good use of taxpayer dollars to support private businesses by incentivizing them to upskill existing employees. (It is harder to understand those who ...

A few surprises and interesting matchups

Local Columns

There were quite a few surprises in the last few days before the registration deadline. In the higher level offices, we had Jeff Kessler, the former state senator announce his intentions of seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in an attempt to unseat current U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito. Kessler joins a field of four other Democrats heading toward the May primary election, while Capito faces challenges from five other Republicans. There are now three Democrats seeking their party’s nomination for U.S. House of Representatives in West Virginia’s Second ...