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ORCHID: To veteran Boardman firefighter Bill Glaser for his recent promotion to chief of one of the Mahoning Valley's largest fire departments. Township trustees reportedly voted unanimously last week to appoint Glaser the eighth chief of the 103-year-old force. Clearly his credentials more than warranted his ascension in rank. After all, over the past 25 years, he has served in virtually every position in the 43-member department: firefighter, lieutenant, captain, assistant chief and interim chief. His exhaustive knowledge of the department and of the sprawling suburban community will serve him well in the hot seat.
ONION: To Republican governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and his campaign for producing and airing a vile and personal attack ad against his Democratic opponent Amy Acton, in which Acton's birth mother calls her daughter a liar. Not included in the ad was the full and necessary context that Acton has not seen her mother in five decades and that her stepfather had sexually assaulted Amy when she was 12. While Ramaswamy, President Donald Trump and others defended the ad, we side with those who found it irresponsible, unprofessional and just plain sleazy.
ORCHID: To Hubbard Mayor Ben Kyle for suggesting that the city join the Regional Income Tax Agency. RITA offers a plethora of benefits to its member communities in streamlining tax administration, improving revenue collections and reducing operating costs for the communities it serves. Several other Mahoning Valley communities are reaping those and other assets with RITA. Its professional staff prioritizes efficient and comprehensive collections without the considerable expense of communities operating their own tax departments. Taxpayers benefit as well by gaining access to online filing tools, customer support and centralized remote payment processing. As such, Hubbard officials and council members would be remiss not to take Kyle up on his sage suggestion.
ORCHID: Posthumously to Miriam Fife, victims advocate extraordinaire, who died earlier this month at 86. Since her 12-year-old son Raymond was tortured, raped and murdered 41 years ago, she spared no energy toward not only seeking justice for him but for hundreds of crime victims in the Mahoning Valley and the state. She was actively involved with the Trumbull County Prosecutor's Office, Parents of Murdered Children, the Ohio Attorney General's Victims Conference and assisted in crafting taut victims' rights legislation in the state. Sadly, Fife did not live to see justice carried out for the killer of her son. The earliest the execution of Danny Lee Hill can take place remains several years off. Still, we share the sentiments of county Prosecutor Dennis Watkins on the enduring legacy of Fife: "Miriam was truly a larger-than-life person who will live on in our memories because of her deeds. She was firm, fair and always there for people. She made the world a better place for victims."
ONION: To those nitwits of all ages out there who use this weekend's Halloween observance as an imperfect excuse for despicable and sometimes illegal shenanigans. Such common antics as toilet papering (TP'ing) homes, spray painting buildings or throwing eggs at cars are often dismissed as relatively harmless "tricks," but in fact they constitute criminal mischief or property destruction punishable by fines and sometimes imprisonment. Therefore we urge all festive revelers not to let the cover of darkness embolden them to commit pranks that could send them straight to the hoosegow.
ORCHID: To Boscov's department stores for their generous civic-minded Friends Helping Friends event that took place at its Eastwood Mall outlet last week. Participating shoppers purchased a $5 donation card that entitled them to discounts of up to 25% on selected merchandise. Every penny raised from those donations went to support a variety of nonprofit and service agencies in the Mahoning Valley, including Animal Charity of Ohio. Companywide, Boscov's set a goal this year of raising $3 million to support more than 3,000 nonprofits in the 51 regions where it operates stores. Now that's one colossal bargain those agencies will profit from for the long term.
ONION: To those who take the law into their own hands to express their opposition to Flock safety cameras. A Connecticut man recently was charged in connection with the theft of at least six of the devices in Hubbard and Liberty. While we recognize legitimate concerns against the use of the automatic license plate readers, including those surrounding mass surveillance, civil liberties and data security, the act of stealing them and rendering them inoperable crosses the line from legitimate opposition to criminal vandalism.