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Letters to the Editor

Financial fairness in open enrollment

Editor: Ohio’s open enrollment policy allows students to attend school in a district other than where they live. Local districts retain the right to decide whether or not they will open their doors to students outside of their community. As school funding fluctuates, many districts see open enrollment as a way to increase revenue. For open-enrolled students, the effects are certainly positive. They can access preferred classes, programs, sports teams and friends. For the schools, both the one losing and the one gaining the student, the effects are mixed. In 2016, “Weighing the ...

Family unfriendly

Editor: I am blessed to be a lifelong resident of Columbiana. Although I have never lived anywhere else I have traveled to many places here and some overseas and I am truly blessed. That said I am troubled by the increase of liquor in our community. Columbiana used to be a dry community. I remember 3.2 beer back in the day. When the American Legion wanted a liquor license someone from the Legion came to our house asking me to sign a petition to get it on the ballot. I declined and was told this is just to get it on the ballot, but I still said no, I don’t want to see them get ...

One great pool

Editor: I have heard people talking about the swimming pool at the East Palestine City Park. They say it is the best, cleanest, well life guarded, available swimming lessons, senior walking pool and cheapest in Columbiana County and possibly the state of Ohio. I personally have life guarded and taught swimming in Cleveland and Painesville, Ohio, in Texas while in the military and Canada YMCA boy’s camps and can say without a doubt, it is one great pool The people who care for this pool, its extensive maintenance, heating and general upkeep should be congratulated. It is a very ...

The frontline

Editor: Not unlike 1776, today God, country and revolution are at the forefront of the battle for these United States of America. Freedom and liberty bonded in faith and guarded with resolve remains vital to sustaining our republic. Conflicts of ethnicity, cultures, values and ideologies anchored in religious beliefs are the battlefields. Theology and ideology profoundly reflect each other. Every ideology has intrinsically a declaration of a god, whether it is the One True Living God or a god which is sought to displace Him. Even the ideology of atheism inevitably faces an ...

Real red flags

Editor: Gov. Kasich in April proposed gun legislation so “Ohio law be changed to automatically incorporate any future changes to federal gun regulations into state law” writes Julie Carr Smyth of the Associated Press. Kasich ignores states’ rights, a staple of the American Constitution, and seeks for Ohio to ape the federal government’s laws — as if the federal government is some kind of golden standard. Without knowing the future of federal leadership, locking Ohio’s plight to an unknown is incredibly foolish. Kasich’s policy writers also introduce an alarming “red ...

Against it then, against it now

Editor: In the wake of reporter Tom Giambroni’s two-part story on issues related to the Columbiana County Jail, I’d like to remind the citizenry that privatization of the county jail was not a unanimous decision of the three-member county Board of Commissioners at the time. I sat on that board and fought voraciously against privatization, expressing at that time 20 years ago the issues that have come to light in recent months. Despite the reported money-saving maneuver, a private company is a for-profit company, so one can anticipate corners would be cut somewhere. Before the ...