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ORCHID: To art students in Youngstown State University's Community Engagement Internship program and to the management of Blooming Crazy Flowers and Gifts in Boardman for their collaboration that resulted in a massive and colorful public art mural for all to enjoy in the heavy-traffic Market Street area of Boardman. The mural serves as a supersized gift to the township to mark the shop's roots in the Mahoning Valley and its 50th anniversary in business. The YSU students also received talented help from a large contingent of Boardman schools students and residents. Like the many other public art murals created by students in the program, this unique artwork humanizes and brightens the streetscape and gives Boardman residents another reason for community pride.
ORCHID: To current and former members of the Boardman High School Marching Band for rightfully celebrating the 100th anniversary of the band at the school's recent homecoming game against Warren Harding. About 300 alumni of the band from over the decades formed a supersized ensemble along with about 150 current band members to mark a century of making music and marching to music at the home of the mighty Spartans. Given the band's stellar reputation as consistent state and national award winners, band members rightly deserved the right to toot their own horns!
ORCHID: To Top Property Holdings of North Lima for breaking ground on the promising Youngstown Technology Park on the West Side of Youngstown last week. The first phase of the $4.8 million project will feature a 50,400-square-foot class-A industrial building ready for occupancy. As Greg Toporcer, Top Property owner, aptly put it, "We have watched opportunities pass over the Mahoning Valley because we did not have space ready to show a prospect." We're confident the new tech park in Youngstown will copy the success of Phase 1 of Top Property's most-recent similar project in North Jackson, which already has been fully leased to businesses.
ONION: To outside super political action committees for sponsoring toxic and sleazy televised ads for candidates in this year's hotly contested races for U.S. Senate from Ohio and for Ohio governor. The high-stakes Senate election between Republican Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown has drawn nearly $300 million with the overwhelming majority coming from outside groups. Legitimate criticism of those ads, as well as those focused on the governor's race between Democrat Amy Acton and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, cite extreme personal attacks, policy distortions and the unauthorized use of local news footage. We hope as the campaign enters the final weeks, such advertising will focus squarely on the positive qualities and platforms of the candidates -- and not mudslinging toward their opponents.
ORCHID: To the Mahoning County Commissioners, the Youngstown Board of Education and the Western Reserve Port Authority for working together cooperatively to provide the former Williamson Elementary School in Youngstown to the county elections board. In so doing, the longstanding problems plaguing elections board workers at their substandard headquarters in Oakhill Renaissance Place will at last be solved. The former school building is about 100 years younger than Oakhill, a former hospital, and therefore lacks the myriad problems of water leaks and other health risks its employees have had to endure for years. It's also centrally located to the bulk of the voting populace of Mahoning County and is on a Western Reserve Port Authority bus route. We urge all parties to proceed with all due speed so the new headquarters can open in time for the 2027 general election.
ONION: To the many reckless speeders along state Route 11 in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties for endangering the safety of themselves and other motorists along the busy highway. According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the number of crashes along that 100-mile corridor increased to 247 in 2025, including the crash that killed respected OSHP Trooper Nicholas P. Cayton in Canfield last October. Motorists have been clocked at speeds exceeding 100 mph. That's why the patrol wisely has launched an intensified high-visibility presence in that corridor through Oct. 31. Troopers, with assistance from local law enforcement agencies, should spare no mercy toward those lead-footed speed demons this month and every month.