Those are most of the drugs that have killed in this Upper Ohio Valley, according to law enforcement officials in Ohio, Marshall, and Belmont counties. The last decade, though, has been dominated by overdoses involving opioids, including heroin because snorting or injecting the Schedule 1 narcotic is much cheaper than prescription pills.
People pass away every day here in the Upper Ohio Valley, and 99.99 percent of those deaths only are mentioned on a newspaper’s Obituary Page, but in 2019 the public was shocked by a pair of reports out of Marshall and Ohio counties.
We know what patching a pothole looks like, and we’ve witnessed new bridge construction, but never before have residents of the Upper Ohio Valley seen our roadways in such a rotted condition.
It’s true; the days of finding a one-bedroom apartment for $350 a month with garbage and water included are long gone. You can blame the oil and gas workers or you can blame the greed of landlords who want to make more profit from the properties. Regardless of the direction in which you point your finger, the reality remains: We need housing in this valley, and we needed it yesterday.
But, in many ways, Howard dreads most the first significant snowfall in the region, and although the National Weather Service is not forecasting any of the white stuff for the Upper Ohio Valley until the first week of December, it’s on his mind.
For most people, this sign for Route 2 North basically meant it was the way to Weirton. But for those of us who lived in Warwood, it pointed the way home.
