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ORCHID: To Warren City Councilman Greg Greathouse for his proposed new ordinance that would give preference to local bidders in the awarding of contracts with the city. Greathouse, D-3rd Ward, proposed that the Warren Board of Control award contracts to companies with a presence in Trumbull County if their bid is not more than 5% higher and no more than $20,000 higher than the lowest dollar bid submitted by nonlocal bidders. Though the councilman pulled the proposed legislation from City Council's most recent meeting for some additional modifications, the move would illustrate the city's commitment to supporting businesses in its own backyard and merits swift passage.
ORCHID: To current and former members of the Niles McKinley High School Marching Band for rightfully celebrating the 100th anniversary of the band at the school's recent homecoming game. About 200 alumni of the band from over the decades formed a supersized ensemble along with current band members to mark a century of making and marching to music at the home of the mighty Red Dragons. Orchids, too, to the Cleveland Browns and the NFL Foundation for awarding the high school a $200,000 grant for new turf that night that will keep football players and band members alike well grounded for years to come.
ORCHID: To state Rep. David Thomas, R-Jefferson, for co-sponsoring new bipartisan legislation that would require power companies to compensate and reimburse their customers for prolonged residential outages. The Ohio Power Outage Relief Act, co-sponsored by a Lakewood Democrat, would require FIrstEnergy and other power-producing utilities to give automatic credits up to a full month's charge for outages lasting longer than 16 hours under noncatastrophic weather conditions. Thomas, who represents portions of the Mahoning Valley, makes eminently good sense when defending the premise of the bill: ""This is a basic question of responsibility. If a business fails to deliver the service people pay for, the customer deserves a remedy. Being a monopoly shouldn't give an electric utility a pass."
ONION: To Medical Properties Trust of Birmingham, Alabama, for its ongoing inattention to the massive and now long-closed former Trumbull Regional Medical Center in Warren. Warren Mayor Doug Franklin recently announced he had corresponded with the trust, telling it the "immediate physical security and ongoing maintenance of this campus have reached a critical point that demands your prompt attention." Franklin specifically cited significant safety hazards, growing potential for unauthorized access and the creation of severe public health problems. We hope in the short term the problems the mayor addressed will be fully addressed. In the long term, we hope a new and reputable hospital can acquire the space to bring relief to the dire healthcare desert in the Greater Warren area.
ORCHID: To the Warren-based 11th District Court of Appeals for issuing two related rulings last week that collectively should set aside specious arguments that Danny Lee Hill should be spared his date with death for the torturous rape and killing of 12-year-old Raymond Fife in 1985. In separate decisions, the court struck down Hill's "motion to certify a conflict" and his "application for reconsideration" earlier decisions that affirmed that Hill is not intellectually disabled. Now that Hill can no longer claim such a disability, we hope nothing more will stand in the way of his scheduled execution on July 18, 2029 -- 44 years after commission of the grisly crime.
ORCHID: To Warren Library Friends for resurrecting a much needed volunteer support group for the main branch of the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library. The longtime former support group, Friends of the Warren Library, fizzled out during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the county's largest public library without a formal outside mechanism for funding, programming and other types of assistance. Leading the charge is Lauren Mathews, who has supported the library for decades and will serve as president of the newly organized group's board. We wish it well as it establishes an ambitious agenda, which includes a meet-and-greet event with Akron author Amanda Flowers on Oct. 20.
ONION: To Stephen Comisar, aka "The Don of Con," for his decadeslong record of swindling millions of dollars out of unsuspecting victims in Ohio and elsewhere. Comisar, 64, now out of prison and living in Los Angeles, has hosted a podcast titled "Scam Junkie" since 2023. His three convictions in the 1990s include a telemarketing scam linked to horse racing, fake oil well investments and bilking an Iowa man out of $125,000 for purported investments in foreign casinos and a fake TV quiz show. Though he claims he has mended his ways, the FBI believes otherwise. Just last week, he was charged in U.S. District Court in Cleveland of carrying out a new $7 million rip-off fraud against a Massillon couple.