All of a sudden, not even three years after Jimmy Weeks created the private Facebook page, the Ohio Valley Road Report, has 50,000 members and attracts more than 50 posts per day depending on accidents, road closures, and unexpected detours.
And it all started when Jimmy Weeks, on a snowy December evening in 2017 here in the Upper Ohio Valley, began sharing online reports about slick roads and local accidents. Once he created the forum, he invited 60 friends to join, and by December 18, the Ohio Valley Road Report welcomed more than 1,100 members.
“I think the page grew very fast because of the ever-changing weather conditions and the road construction all around us at that time of year,” Weeks explained. “People want to know what they might encounter while trying to get to their destinations.
“We are surrounded by major highways, and by Interstate 70 and I-470, plus I-79, I-77, U.S. 40, and all of the small state roads, and because of the terrain around here, the county roads are always an issue when we have bad weather,” he said. “There are a lot of people who travel these roads every day and the page, will likely offer them the updates they’re looking for before they go somewhere.”
Weeks has been interviewed about the page on local radio and television stations, and he has cooperated with the media outlets despite the online outrage he’s been subject to on many, many occasions.
“Because the intent for the page is to focus on local road conditions, so people have been upset that their posts have been deleted because they didn’t relate,” Weeks explained. “I never expected that stuff when I made the page.”
Each Day, Every Day
First responder agencies across the region pay attention to the Ohio Valley Road Report, too, and with the current condition of Interstate 70 in Ohio County travel to The Highlands and to Wheeling Hospital has been difficult and time-consuming for the past 12 months. Lives have likely been saved because of the timing of the members’ updates, and that is what guided Weeks and his fellow administrators in implementing strict guidelines concerning content.
It’s pretty simple, actually: traffic, road conditions, road closures.
“Between our sources and the everyday travelers on our local highways and interstates, we can put up information up on the page as fast as it becomes available,” Weeks said. “Whether it’s a sudden road closure or, unfortunately, an accident, someone is always there to report it. The more people we have on the page, the more info that can get out. The page is almost self-running, really, and the page belongs to the nearly 50,000 people on it. Without them, the page wouldn’t exist.
“Right now, I and eight other administrators monitor the page each day,” he continued. “And we try to moderate the page 24 hours per day because we want to keep it as clean as possible as far as language is concerned. We also delete political comments and posts that bash people for whatever reasons. We really do make every attempt to keep to a road report so the page flows smoothly as what it is supposed to be.”
Fame and Its Price
Others have created mutant pages on social media platforms, one of which was dedicated to attacking Weeks, but the creator of the Ohio Valley Road Report continues to respond to the complaints he receives about the strict content requirements.
Weeks, too, has been recognized when in public, and while most of the interactions have been complimentary, not all have proven to be. Road conditions, though, remain the priority during this time when the orange barrel is more common than newly paved roadways.
“Because of the number of members and what we’ve been dealing with around here right now, the administrators and I discuss how to continue the page nearly every day,” he explained. “We try to keep the page as up-to-date as possible, too, and that is why we delete posts about accidents and closure that have been resolved.
“It’s really been hard to keep everyone happy since I started it, but there are too many people who have come to depend on it to not take it as seriously as we are,” Weeks added. “I had no idea what I created that snowy night, to be completely honest, but it was obviously a needed resource in this area.”
