Playground Facelifts Continue in Wheeling

Steve Novotney
Many children and parents in the city of Wheeling were pleasantly surprised during their first trip to their neighborhood playground this spring because several of the facilities were refurbished with brand new...

Addict Now Addicted to Motherhood

Steve Novotney
This mother stole her daughter’s piggy bank and the savings inside. The paper and coins totaled about $100, enough to chase those dope-sick days away for a week, and those seven “good” days were rare for Bel...

Chef Shares Recipes for Succcess

Steve Novotney
Chef Chris Kefauver won’t fib. He makes visits to local middle and high schools in order to recruit students to the Culinary Arts Program he chairs at West Virginia Northern Community College’s Wheeling camp...

Spaghetti Dinner Is About Service

Steve Novotney
Smothered in homemade spaghetti sauce and garnished with sausages or meatballs or both, the noodles that will be devoured at Catholic Charities’ 18th Street Neighborhood Center this weekend serve as symbols of ...

They Marched

Steve Novotney
4
They didn’t mind the hours of travel or the protesters who were protesting against them. They had something to do, and that was the March for Our Lives event in Washington, D.C., this past Saturday. Two of t...

Prietsch’s Brick-and-Mortar World

Steve Novotney
1
People. They are the common denominator, as far as Wheeling resident Jennifer Prietsch is concerned. She’s been the general manager of the Macy’s at the Ohio Valley Mall for nearly a year after she and her h...

Changes to Two-Mile Hill?

Steve Novotney
1
The far left of the three lanes along Interstate 70 would become the “slow lane” on the climb up Two-Mile Hill if Ohio County Sheriff Tom Howard gets his wish. Howard, now in his second year of a four-year t...

Perils of War Real for Women, Too

Steve Novotney
They come home, too, except for, of course, more than 500 of the 280,000 women who have been deployed to war zones and killed in action over the past 17 years. They are medics, nurses, pilots, judge advocate...

The Crest That Didn’t Flood

Steve Novotney
1
Devastation. That’s what Lou Vargo with the Ohio County Emergency Management Agency thought would take place. He admits he envisioned a disaster comparable to the damage that occurred in mid-September 2004, ...

#55Strong Returns to Classrooms

Steve Novotney
They had to research a mineral, any one of the 3,800 or so that exist on Earth these days, and they also had to prepare to educate their classmates on it when, finally, an acceptable deal was made to return the...

A Divided Peninsula of Souls

Steve Novotney
4
It is one of the silent cities of the dead in Wheeling, but this one was split, and one half has been forgotten. The Peninsula Cemetery, once the third largest in the state of West Virginia with more than 1,...

Gideon and the Governor

Steve Novotney
2
“If you put money in schools, you’re making smart people. And if you have smart people, then you can make more smart investments.” That’s what Gideon Titus-Glover said to Gov. Jim Justice during a town hall ...

WLU Student Leads Radio Station

Steve Novotney
The original transmitter back in the early 1990s appeared to be from the 1970s, actually, but that’s what Chris Lee had to settle for when optimizing his TV and radio budget at West Liberty University. On th...

Memories of Mac’s Club

Steve Novotney
13
There was a time before Roberto’s Bar became Figaretti’s, before a La-Z-Boy showroom was transformed into TJ’s Sportsgarden, prior to when the Swing Club became Generations Pub and before the Owl’s Nest became ...

A Teacher’s View on Issues

Steve Novotney
He knows he does not speak for all educators and that his words do not carry the weight of 37,000 state public employees, but educator Eric James does know how he feels after nearly 20 years as a teacher and a ...

An Answer to ‘What’s Next?’

Steve Novotney
3
The answer to, “What’s Next?” may soon come into focus for downtown Wheeling, but what maybe-could-might happen within the vacant lots along Main Street remains a literal mystery. The Health Plan headquarter...

It Still Stands

Steve Novotney
7
No one knows about it these days because the signage has been removed, chains block the old access points, and Oglebay officials do not promote its existence in their lodging pamphlets or related material poste...

Harry Hamm’s Plate and His Plan

Steve Novotney
3
No one has ever found it, but there were a few moments when Wheeling resident Chris Hamm thought he may have. It was completely possible that his father may have somehow come into ownership of it since he wa...

Connors Part of Downtown Growth

Steve Novotney
Dean Connors once was best known in the Wheeling area as the wig-wearing, head-bangin’ drummer for the local tribute band “Tongue-n’-Cheek,” but these days he has shed the fake locks for a businessman’s attire ...

Memories of The Eagle Inn

Steve Novotney
3
You could already hear the music as you walked toward the front door from the always-packed parking lot, and immediately you were met by the bouncer who, you knew, would need to see your ID. Once you were gr...

The I-68 Energy Corridor- Part 2

Steve Novotney
1
(Editor’s Note: This is the second of two reports that will update Weelunk readers on the current status of the proposal to extend U.S. Interstate 68 from the Morgantown area to Moundsville.) There are obsta...

The I-68 Energy Corridor- Part 1

Steve Novotney
1
(Editor’s Note: This is the first of two reports that will update Weelunk readers on the current status of the proposal to extend U.S. Interstate 68 from the Morgantown area to Moundsville.) Bob Miller was r...

Zende Predicts Downtown Growth

Steve Novotney
Can growth spread? The economic development specialist for the city of Wheeling believes it can, and after more than five years as the manager of Centre Market, Kurt Zende insists what has taken place inside...

Wheeling 2018 – Part Three

Steve Novotney
1
(Editor’s Note: This story is the third and final of a three-part series that will examine the potential that exists in the Wheeling area as we enter a new year.) It seems simple. It’s a bus stop, after all,...

Wheeling 2018 – Part Two

Steve Novotney
(Editor’s Note: This story is the second of a three-part series that will examine the potential that exists in the Wheeling area as we enter a new year.) Is it difficult to believe there are more people work...

Wheeling 2018 – Part One

Steve Novotney
2
(Editor’s Note: This story is the first of a three-part series that will examine the potential that exists in the Wheeling area as we enter a new year.) Believe it or not, the coming of The Health Plan headq...

Novotney’s Top 10 in 2017

Steve Novotney
As Weelunk ingrained itself in our community, many more folks forwarded their story ideas to me far more often than during our first two years of operation. And many of those suggestions did come to fruition...

Christmas Memories at the Mall

Steve Novotney
It was similar to shopping in, say, downtown Wheeling, but with two very notable exceptions. There was that roof, of course, and the warmth, too, inside those glass doors of the Ohio Valley Mall. Once it ...

Tunnels? Under Downtown Wheeling?

Steve Novotney
2
Pinched off water lines and undiscovered water and sewer lines have been the primary cause of the delay involved with the storm sewer separation project along Main Street in downtown Wheeling, but has a tunnel ...

‘It’s a Regional Thing’

Steve Novotney
The Health Plan employees now moving into the insurance company’s new headquarters in downtown Wheeling reside in three different states, and that’s because the compensation is worth it. The same is very tru...

Medical Cannabis – Part Two

Steve Novotney
1
It was an unexpected but welcome development for many when a legislative side road was navigated to get a vote on medicinal cannabis on the floor of the West Virginia House of Delegates. It was late March, a...

Local Families Offered Second Chance

Steve Novotney
Too many children do not have access to an internet-capable computer at home in the Upper Ohio Valley region, but one Wheeling couple hopes to change that reality for families without the means to purchase the ...

Remembering B.E. Taylor at Christmas

Steve Novotney
7
He was a sick kid one year in Aliquippa, PA and ordered to remain home by doctors after he was diagnosed with a kidney disease, so he asked his parents for a guitar and then taught himself how to play it. Th...

Recollections of Rax

Steve Novotney
4
It was our social network before the public release of the Internet. It mimicked those Park Dances because there were people there from everywhere, and it was the place to go for a first date, every date, and e...

It’s About the Grooves at Nail City

Steve Novotney
C’mon! This 26-year-old is just a kid, right? What could he possibly know about vinyl records or the history of music? When he was born, country music had overtaken the forefront from rock n’ roll, and rap m...

‘It’s About Opportunity’

Steve Novotney
This 20-year-old could do this or do that, but there’s also a chance, too, that Andrea Walton could return to her hometown after earning a pair of degrees at Kent State University. “Could” is better than nev...

Midshipmen Thankful To Be Home

Steve Novotney
And they are home, back with their families in their hometowns and away from the rigors of a Midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy. Linsly graduate Colin Kelly is near the middle of his third year, and Wheeli...

Medical Cannabis – Part 1

Steve Novotney
1
(Editor’s Note: This is the first story in a series that will examine medical cannabis and the programs that are under development in both West Virginia and Ohio.) Dana Kovach was raised in Toronto, Ohio, bu...

Respect Doesn’t Fade in Wheeling Area

Steve Novotney
2
When he first returned to American soil nearly 50 years ago, people looked the other way because they did not want to see someone connected to the unspeakable horrors about which they had heard so much. They...

American Veteran Moving Home to Wheeling

Steve Novotney
2
He didn’t leave here because of a lack of options. In fact, he loved his life in Wheeling after being graduated from Wheeling Park High School in 1978. Employment was easy to find, the camaraderie among the ...

Sports Complex Addition for The Highlands

Steve Novotney
5
A goal adopted by the Ohio County Commission a decade ago will finally be realized at The Highlands when a multi-purpose sports complex is constructed and opened to the public in late 2018 or early 2019. Orp...

Peek Inside The Health Plan Impact

Steve Novotney
It’s been referred to as a number of different things. The “game changer.” The “difference maker.” The “cracker plant of downtown Wheeling.” And, well, as “new.” The Health Plan Headquarters, nearly co...

Creek Debris Soon to Be Cleared

Steve Novotney
Receiving approval to clean creeks of flooding debris is very rare, and he will admit it, but the clearing of affected waterways in Ohio County should be completed by the end of the year, according to Emergency...

Knox and His New Fort

Steve Novotney
“Tom Beck.” Those were the first two words Kyle Knox blurted after being asked how he has found himself as the production manager of the Capitol Theatre. Beck served as the venue’s production manager from...

Tunes Set for Inaugural Oktoberfest

Steve Novotney
Even polka found a place at No. 4 in the entertainment lineup for Saturday’s inaugural Oktoberfest at Centre Market, and that’s because, well, it’s polka. “It’s tradition, so I believed it would be great to ...

McLain Flats Adding to Downtown Living

Steve Novotney
She was involved in a conversation that concerned living in the downtown Wheeling area and whether or not the potential would be realized someday in the future. Then the 16 Stone Lofts on Main Street opened ...

Living On $3.87 Per Day Not A SNAP

Steve Novotney
2
$3.87. That’s the daily budget I spent the past two days so I could eat. Why? To prove a point. Three dollars and 87 cents is the average amount of money available daily to those on SNAP, the Supple...

Miller Tackles Stadium Fix to Begin Year 2

Steve Novotney
1
It was crooked and it was obvious. Wheeling Island Stadium was broken, and no one knew how much it was going to cost to repair the concrete slab in the southwestern corner of the grandstand that had shifted....