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Our opinion: Seek answer to vape shop issue

Last week, Warren County joined the list of counties in Pennsylvania to seize illegal marijuana products being sold at vape shops. Authorities confiscated vape products, edible items, and 5 pounds of marijuana totaling an estimated value exceeding $150,000 in retail value from shops in the city of Warren as well as in Conewango Township. The seizures were conducted as part of an ongoing investigation into the unlawful sale and distribution of controlled substances, stemming from complaints from local schools and students in possession of THC products. This is an issue that needs to ...

Our opinion: Budget gap could be much worse

We’re sure there were many Warren County residents who read last week about the school districts’ $2.9 million budget gap between projected revenues and expenses in the 2026-27 budget proposal and wondered how that was possible after closing two high schools in 2025. The answer is the gap would have been closer to $5 million if the school board hadn’t made the difficult decision to close Youngsville and Sheffield high schools. The district is saving roughly $2 million a year by closing the schools - which means the task of balancing the 2026-27 budget between now and May would ...

Editor’s corner: Affordability keeps getting more expensive

Almost every level of bureaucracy is guilty of overusing the word affordability. As prices keep rising — whether due to inflation, at the grocery store or painfully within the last two weeks at the gas pump — that phrase gets repeated more than nightly “Law & Order” reruns. Let’s be clear. If the government is involved, costs are not going down — on the national and local levels. With Pennsylvanians facing rising costs on everyday essentials, House Republicans this week launched their “Freedom Through Affordability” initiative – a plan to deliver tax relief and lower ...

Our opinion: Closing the reassessment book

The accepted rule of thumb when it comes to property reassessments is that roughly one-third of properties will see their assessment increase, one-third will see their assessment decrease and one-third will see their assessment stay the same. But what happens when some of the one-third of properties that increases end up seeing their assessments decreased after an appeal? To some - particularly those who have fought the property reassessment since the process was approved a few years ago - it could mean the entire process was handled incorrectly by the county’s hired contractor, ...

Our opinion: With EMS, someone has to pay

No one should be surprised that the city of Warren is prepared to go to court to recoup payment from Conewango Township for city EMS services rendered to township residents. The city has made no secret about the fact that it wants to be reimbursed for EMS responses outside of the city as a way to recoup costs for services paid for by city taxpayers but provided to non-city residents. One of the reasons city taxes are higher than township or borough taxes is police and fire services - and every time a Warren ambulance responds outside of Warren, city taxpayers are subsidizing a ...

Our opinion: VFD recruitment crisis hits again

Sometimes, we’re not sure people really understand the gravity of the volunteer firefighter recruitment challenge facing Warren County until it literally hits home. It was only a little more than three years ago that the Starbrick Volunteer Fire Department faced the tough choice of either growing or closing. The community, to its credit, came together. The Starbrick Volunteer Fire Department was among those that responded to a fire on Mathews Run Road in February. There was a time late in 2023 that it was up in the air whether or not the department would be able to respond to such ...