ORCHID: To SCOPE Senior Services, its director Mike Wilson and Trumbull County commissioners for their work toward opening new much-needed senior citizen centers in the county. Wilson recently announced that new activity centers for the spry 60-plus crowd will open in Bristol and Champion townships in early January and in Brookfield later in 2026. Contributions of $13,380 for each of the centers from county government facilitated the openings. Activities, classes and limited food service will be available at each to provide structured fun and socializing conveniently close to home for those communities’ growing ranks of maturing baby boomers. Bristol Trustee Doug Seemann rightly called the new center in his community “fantastic news.” Help make the grand opening of each center as fantastic as possible by calling SCOPE and offering your volunteer help at any of them.

ONION: To those irresponsible citizens who insist on falsely arguing their votes won’t matter in primary and general elections. Certified results released last week from this month’s election clearly disprove their lame excuse for not exercising their democratic duty. Take the Farmington Township fire and EMS levy. It ended in a 152-152 tie and thus failed under Ohio election law. One supporter of that levy who failed to take a few minutes out of their day to go to the polls may have changed the direction of safety services in their community for years to come.

ORCHID: To Adam Smith for being selected 2025 Ohio State Highway Patrol Warren Post Trooper of the Year and to Michelle “Shelly” Higgins for receiving the post’s 2025 Dispatcher of the Year award. Smith of Brookfield has been with the post since 2023, and Higgins of Mecca joined the patrol in 2003. Higgins has been awarded post dispatcher of the year eight times and district dispatcher of the year twice. We wish them both success as they advance now to eligibility for districtwide and statewide honors.

ORCHID: To Vienna Township Trustee Mike Haddle for raising the possibility of contracting police services for the township with the nearby Liberty Police Department. At a time when local governments, particularly smaller township governments, face increasing constraints on their finances, any consideration of cost-saving shared services deserves serious study. Ray Buhala, Liberty’s acting police chief, also is open to the idea and presented a detailed plan recently on how his department could help provide better security services to Vienna without significant cost increases. The proposal merits thorough examination as one viable channel to lessen Vienna’s fiscal challenges while potentially enhancing public safety in the township.

ORCHID: To Hubbard High School’s Future Educators of America Club and its adviser Josh MacMillan for continuing their commendable public-service tradition of visiting Fairhaven School in Niles to lead children in its preschool and workshop programs in a variety of art projects. In last week’s Hubbard Art Day visit, students colored paper winter hats, created a Christmas tree by coloring a specially shaped paper, made a paper cup snowman and engaged in other artistic endeavors under the guidance of the high schoolers. The project, now in its 12th year, wields a double whammy of advantages. It benefits Fairhaven students by providing them an outlet for creative expression, and it benefits the Hubbard students by giving them up close and personal experiences in hands-on teaching of young charges.

ONION: To FirstEnergy, of which Ohio Edison is a subsidiary, for its corrupt actions that finally are being punished by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The electricity utility had paid approximately $60 million in bribes to former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and his associates from 2017 to 2020 to secure passage of a $1.3 billion ratepayer-funded bailout for the company’s nuclear and coal plants. Last week, the PUCO ordered the Akron-based utility to pay more than $250 million in fines and refunds as a result of its seedy and despicable misconduct. PUCO Commissioner John Williams did not mince words in admonishing FE: “Our actions today should also stand as a clear reminder to FirstEnergy of the importance of continuing to reform its corporate culture and work diligently to rebuild the trust of the public.” First Energy should take Williams’ stern words to heart.

ORCHID: To the Youngstown State University Board of Trustees for launching a new era of growth for the higher education institution. The board last week unanimously agreed to accept the property title for the former Eastern Gateway Community College in Steubenville as part of its plan to open a branch campus there. YSU is planning an open house at its new campus in January with classes expected to begin there next summer. The expansion will benefit thousands of potential students in the Steubenville area who lost their nearby access to higher education two years ago. It also will expand YSU’s statewide footprint, increase enrollment and help stabilize its finances. With so many benefits of expansion, we’d hope university officials might consider any options for taking over property in its own backyard — the former EGCC campus in downtown Youngstown.