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ORCHID: To Champion High School graduate Randy Gradishar for his enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton last week. Gradishar, a standout player for Champion High and The Ohio State University, went on to spend 10 seasons in the 1970s and '80s as a star linebacker with the Denver Broncos. He played along with Tom Jackson as part of the famed Orange Crush Defense and is considered to be among the greatest defensive players in Broncos history. We congratulate Gradishar on this well deserved, but long overdue honor.
ORCHID: To AP McDonald LLC, an affiliate of Applied Partners LLC, for recently purchasing the now-shuttered McDonald Steel plant for $3.2 million from McDonald Industrial Land Co. AP McDonald is preparing now to dismantle the facility and plans to work with McDonald, Trumbull County and Ohio officials on industrial redevelopment on the site. James M. Grasso, McDonald Steel Corp. president, said: "AP has successfully redeveloped decommissioned industrial properties across the country, and we're confident that success will be repeated in McDonald." Mahoning Valley residents know all too well that many abandoned steel mill properties sat dormant for decades as a visible reminder of the steel industry's demise. We commend AP McDonald for its rapid initiative to reinvent the property into constructive use.
ORCHID: To the Girard Board of Education for taking action last week to prevent any recurrence of its approval of its boondoggle of a contract for the district's former treasurer that gave him an outlandish $461,187 salary for fiscal year 2023. An investigation of the fiscally irresponsible pay for Mark Bello revealed that the full school board had been kept in the dark about late changes to the treasurer's contract that netted him the extravagant paydays. We were pleased that the board has taken quick action to implement a series of controls -- including clear presentation of changes in an employee's contract and their financial impact on the district -- to avert any repeat of that embarrassment to board members and school district administrators.
ONION: To the growing ranks of disgusting fraudsters who use the telephone and internet to scam billions of dollars from Americans each year. A recent Prime Time feature in The Vindicator reported that such fraud, particularly against senior citizens, has reached epidemic levels. Elder fraud complaints to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center rose 14% last year, with losses skyrocketing to $3.4 billion. We join the Justice Department in urging private businesses -- tech, retail, banking and telecommunications sectors -- to tighten controls to make it harder for scammers to defraud seniors. Meanwhile, seniors and their loved ones should resist any heavy-handed sales pitches that sound too good to be true. They most likely are.
ORCHID: To participants in last weekend's CanStruction fundraiser at Eastwood Mall and to the marketing team at the Cafaro Company for proposing the idea. Seven teams representing various Valley businesses built seven colorful and decorative statues for display inside the mall built completely with cans of food. The completed designs -- ranging from a rocket ship to an ear of corn to a hamburger with all the trimmings -- are on display through Labor Day at the mall. What's most gratifying, however, is that all of the approximately 5,000 cans of nonperishable foods will be donated to the food bank to help in its noble mission of feeding the growing ranks of food-insecure individuals in our midst. Who says charitable work cannot be fun?
ONION: To motorists throughout the Mahoning Valley who are too lazy or too incompetent to park properly and legally. In Girard, Mayor Mark Zuppo is mad as hell and won't take it any more. Kudos to Zuppo for announcing at a recent city council meeting that a police officer has been hired with one prime duty to monitor illegal parking. Residents have complained about cars parked in front of fire hydrants, cars parked on both sides of a narrow street, cars parked at an intersection blocking traffic and other parking perils. We urge police in Girard and all other communities in the Valley to strictly enforce any and all parking regulations.
ORCHID: To Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins for strongly opposing parole for a convicted killer from Warren. Watkins has written an appeal to the Ohio Adult Parole Authority urging it to deny early release for Maximillian Bell, 46, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 1996 in the death of Mark Heltzel, brother of the late Trumbull County Commissioner Paul Heltzel. Watkins wrote, "(Bell) is 46 years old and remains dangerous to society. Under all criteria, in our opinion, he is a sociopath and will not obey laws and rules if released ... this man is a societal risk to others. There is a fuse burning and common sense suggests there could be an explosion." We concur and urge the parole board to deny his release after a hearing scheduled this month.
editorial@tribtoday.com