By the time you have settled in to start reading this, the new year will have arrived.
Like every year, 2022 brings with it a sense of hope, a feeling that the future ahead of us is at least a little brighter than the past that is behind us.
That said, we cannot forget that we remain in a pandemic, and that variants of COVID-19 will continue to affect us. The extent of that -- and of how we and our elected officials will respond -- remains among the big unknowns as the new year begins.
But there will be plenty of positives -- every expectation is that growth will continue along both sides of the Ohio River. Exciting plans are in place for the area around Three Springs Drive in Weirton as well as the Jefferson County Industrial Park. The Geary A. Bates Jefferson County Airpark should continue to see increasing numbers of operations in the coming year.
Weirton's new city manager, Michael Adams, has been on the job since October and is looking ahead to his first full year on the job, one that will likely see a site selected for the city's proposed public safety facility.
Two of the area's chambers of commerce will have new presidents. Kate Sedgmer will be replacing Tricia Maple-Damewood as head of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, while Eric Fithyan will be replacing Debbie Puskarich as head of the Follansbee Chamber of Commerce.
Educational opportunities will grow. The new Indian Creek High School will open to students late in the current school year, the culmination of a project that saw Cross Creek Elementary School open late last summer and renovations made at Hills Elementary School. All of the district's students now will attend state-of-the-art facilities.
Steubenville City Schools expects to open its new baseball and softball complex in time for this spring's seasons, and will continue to work toward building its new STEM complex which, when completed in the fall of 2023, will create a campus that will extend for nearly two blocks along Fourth Street.
And, expansion will continue at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, with plans being finalized for the construction of the Christ the Teacher academic and conference building and expansion in the school's nursing program.
Oil and gas will continue to play important roles. Work is nearly complete on the Shell cracker plant in Monaca. And, construction of a plant in Dilles Bottom remains a possibility.
Sometime this fall, the first vehicles will be able to cross the new bridge that will link Brilliant and Wellsburg. In addition to providing a much-needed additional river crossing, the structure figures to lead to increased economic activity in southern Jefferson County on the Ohio side and southern Brooke County on the West Virginia side.
While growth in our region will continue, the two organizations that are among the driving forces in our region, the Jefferson County Port Authority and the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle, will continue to press forward.
Government will have a new look on many levels. U.S. Reps. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, and David McKinley, R-Wheeling, will be seeking re-election in areas that will look a little different, thanks to the redistricting that followed the 2020 Census. Ohio voters will have the chance to choose a replacement for Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who has decided not to seek re-election.
Closer to home, Wintersville will have a new mayor in Michael Petrella, while Tracy McManamon (2nd Ward), Royal Mayo (4th Ward) and Michael Hernon (6th Ward) will be new members of Steubenville City Council.
Voters also will be asked to choose a replacement for Democrat Thomas "Bo" Graham, who announced several months ago that he would not seek re-election to his longtime seat on the Jefferson County commissioners.
We will be the first to tell you that our crystal ball has been, well, a little dysfunctional in the past, which means we will not be making any firm predictions about what you can expect. That said, we can safely say there will be twists and turns along the way that residents of the Tri-State Area will be talking about for years to come.
Everything points to 2022 as being an interesting year.
We hope it's a good one for all of us.