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Our opinion: Two earn another school board term

There is one contested race for the Warren County School District Board of Education between Mary Passinger, the board’s current vice president and a former teacher, and Misty Moore, a challenger with a background in private business. The pair recently took part in a debate in Sugar Grove hosted by the Warren County League of Women Voters that touched on a wide array of topics. Moore acquitted herself well during the forum, but in our opinion Passinger deserves another four-year term on the school board for making the decision to close the Sheffield and Youngsville high schools. ...

Our opinion: Pa. stepping up animal protections

Over the years, television has provided an accurate perspective of the problem — “affliction” sometimes might be the better descriptive word — of hoarding. We’re referring to people who have, in essence, ruined their lives, homes and also, perhaps, relationships because of having collected and having remained hellbent on continuing to collect virtual “mountains” of household and other items “too good” to throw away, sell or give away. In many of the sad and otherwise troubling situations upon which television has focused, homes had become such a repository for the ...

Our opinion: E-bike proposal is a worthy compromise

There have been several proposals in the state Legislature over the past few years that would increase oversight of electric bicycles. But the best, in our opinion, is a relatively simple proposal from House Rep. Jill Cooper, R-Export, who is drafting legislation that would give local governments clear authority to establish their own ordinances for e-bikes. There likely won’t be clear agreement at the state level what e-bike regulation should look like, with issues like licensing, registering and insuring the bicycles likely to lead to the same sort of disagreement we’ve seen ...

Our opinion: Rural tax base needs protection

One thing is clear from the recent state state Senate Game and Fisheries Committee public hearing on the state Game Commission’s land acquisition policy - rural areas are struggling as their tax base erodes from expanding public land acquisition. Local government officials know there are benefits to expanding public land. It does help tourism. Some local companies benefit from oil and gas leases, timber sales and tourism activities. But those benefits often don’t help when the time comes each year to piece together a local budget that taxpayers can afford because so much land here ...

Our opinion: How long is Warren Worx leash?

There have been some successes over the past year under the Warren Worx umbrella. Kinzua Rocks the Wake, which has included Warren Worx, was an unquestioned success. The event could return next fall. Bringing back a rib festival to downtown Warren will be a nice event to get people out and about for a few days in the summer. Boosting wifi connectivity in rural areas is a plus. Helping smaller townships and boroughs undertake planning activities that could bring in grants and state funding for revitalization efforts is a good thing for someone to be doing. A countywide housing study ...

Our opinion: Mixed drinks on tap worth agreement

Nothing, in our opinion, should proceed through the state Legislature until Pennsylvania’s budget is approved. But, state lawmakers continue debating and passing bills nonetheless. Some of those political bills stand no chance of making it to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk. Others have generated some bipartisan consensus - including a bill passed by the state House of Representatives recently passed legislation (House Bill 1702) sponsored by Rep. Dan Goughnour, D-Allegheny, to modernize state liquor laws by allowing businesses with liquor licenses to have premixed cocktails on tap. The ...