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Helping businesses start 2025 strong

If it took you several days to dig out, clear your driveway and sidewalk, maybe even wait for the roads closer to your home to be safe enough to drive on, you’re not alone. This past week’s winter storm was likely an inconvenience for you and your employer, with various levels of emergency being declared to keep as many people off the roads as possible. Now, stop and think for a minute about what the loss of those precious days has meant to many of our small, locally owned businesses — particularly retailers and restaurants. If you thought you were done worrying about whether ...

All must do their part to help our credit scores

Some of us may have shied away from looking at our credit scores once the holiday shopping was finished, but WalletHub took a look anyway and found perhaps we’d better do a little work. In its report the States With the Largest Credit Score Decreases, West Virginia ranked 11th in the country. The average credit score in the Mountain State fell by 0.61 percent between the third quarters of 2023 and 2024. In fact, by the end of third quarter of 2024, the average credit score in the state was 647. Ohio is doing a little better, with a rank of 22nd. In the Buckeye State, the average ...

Roll up your sleeves, help save a life

If the weather has been a hindrance to your daily (or weekly) routine, think about what it has meant to organizations dependent upon the help of others to fulfill their missions. For the American Red Cross, January can be a difficult month. Weather is factor, yes, but so is the active cold and flu season, which may make it harder for some to keep blood donation appointments or be eligible to donate. “The start of the new year is one of the most challenging times to collect blood products as the threat of severe winter weather builds and can often lead to widespread blood drive ...

Chamber merger will be good for all

The merger of the Follansbee and Wellsburg chambers of commerce into a single organization representing businesses for all of Brooke County will only help to strengthen the ties of our local communities. The two chambers have done well over the years working to promote and work on behalf of their members, which currently include close to 150 businesses from our area, and coming together as one chamber should provide even more benefit for the memberships. That was already shown last year with the expansion of the Follansbee Chamber’s educational grant program, which now is able to ...

Needle programs need second look

Whether it be willful ignorance or a genuine misunderstanding of the broad range of strategies necessary to tackle a dual public health crisis in Appalachia, elected officials and policymakers are handicapping efforts against one of the major dangers spawned by our region’s substance abuse epidemic. A KFF Health News report followed up on federal health officials’ effort a few years back to assess an outbreak of HIV in central Appalachia. The outbreak has been fueled by the shared use of needles among those who inject opioids or methamphetamine. But syringe exchange programs ...

Appreciating the work of our water employees

The boil orders have all been lifted, but challenges remain for Weirton’s water system. Anyone who has paid attention to the affects of cold weather knows this is a time for a higher-than-desired number of water line breaks in our area. Sudden shifts in temperature aren’t necessarily good for metal, especially pipes buried underground where additional pressure from harder, frozen dirt can add to the concerns. Since the Thanksgiving holiday, though, Weirton has suffered from more than 50 water line breaks, leading to the Weirton Area Water Board, on Dec. 18, to issue a mandatory ...