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Our opinion: Help students in closings

The Warren County School District is making the right move in closing Youngsville and Sheffield high schools. Many students and parents are upset — and it’s up to the district and the students’ new schools to make them feel welcome. One way to do that, in our opinion, is to allow students who started their high school lives at Youngsville or Sheffield to keep some of the pieces of their schools alive until the students who started in the closed high schools graduate. For example, there is no harm in allowing Youngsville and Sheffield students to wear their old school’s ...

Editor’s corner: There’s no slowing rapid evolution of health care

One of three Chautauqua County hospitals is proposing a change in operations that is a game-changer for the community and rural health care throughout the nation. In a news release from Allegheny Health Network last week, AHN Westfield Memorial Hospital announced it would be pursuing a rural ...

Our opinion: Noting the dangers with alcohol

The word “transparency” is now big among Americans. Especially on the governmental front — local, state as well as national — anger pours forth when the public learns about secrecy having prevailed, especially regarding an important, controversial issue that impacts them directly, such as one that causes an increase in certain fees or their taxes. Sometimes the lowest levels of government end up sparking the biggest, noisiest outcrys and furors, as a result of people not having been accorded an early heads-up regarding relevant goings-on about which they deserved expeditious ...

Our opinion: Keeping focus on riverfront

Development of the Allegheny River in the city limits has been a hot topic over the past few years. On Wednesday, city residents got a chance to take a look at the latest iteration of development plans and, more importantly, an opportunity to give feedback before work begins in earnest later this year. There was a brief presentation updating the public on the details and reasonable timelines for the various phases of the development. The first area - and closest to construction - will focus on installing a boat ramp to facilitate easy access to the Allegheny River. A floating dock ...

Our opinion: A necessary, needed choice

Warren County School District board members have made the right decision to close two Sheffield and Youngsville high schools. It wasn’t an easy decision. Board members surely knew their decision wouldn’t be popular. They’ve heard the arguments. They listened to the impassioned pleas to keep the schools open. But a year after taking a half-step by sending some Sheffield students to Warren Area High School for core classes and then busing them back to Warren when they are done with those courses, the board decided it was time to take the plunge. People are upset. That’s ...

Our opinion: Seeking transparency in campaigns

We can understand the concern and even apprehension by news that spending on Pennsylvania’s 2024 political campaigns was dominated by a small number of donors. We understand the fears and worries that our politics can become beholden to a small number of influential parties, serving their needs and not the needs of the middle class or of our rural communities. But we must caution that past efforts to curb this perceived influence have carried their own risks. We believe we should live in a free society, exercising our God-given rights as we see fit. And the right to argue the ...