Marlinton Mayor’s Corner

I hope citizens see a certain irony in the advertisement for bids for a trash truck in last week’s paper, which was the same week the trash truck broke down.

The dumpsters have been full since last Thursday.

The Town crew has been using the dump truck to pick up residential garbage and bags of garbage off the tops of dumpsters to help businesses as much as possible.

We try to provide the best service we can to all users.

The good news is the trash truck was back in service by noon Tuesday, and we will be playing catch up for the rest of the week.

Orders Construction was in town Monday, laying out a plan for staging equipment for the water improvement project. Two office trailers and two tool containers were put in place Tuesday morning. Ninth Avenue will be busy in the coming days.

Construction work is planned for 10 hours per day, Monday through Thursday. At some point, there may be some Friday work. This will be outside the norm. I do not have a date for the Cemetery Hill water tank work. But, it will be sooner rather than later.

The Challenge of Change is the challenge for each of us. We are all a work in progress. Anyone with gray hair should recall road-construction projects often had signs that read: Temporary Inconvenience – Permanent Improvement.

West Virginia currently has one of the fastest moving economies in the nation.

It is good not to be last, for a change.

The State was $32-to-$36 million ahead of estimates at the end of July. I have been told the state budget looks pretty good for the next four years.

Even better news is that drug overdoses are down.

On the local level, in 2016 our county moved from #3 to #27 in overdoses in the state.

Education is up.

There are more jobs per capita.

The results are speaking for themselves.

We are going in a better direction.

I believe more things connect us than should be allowed to divide us.