Author Steve Novotney

Kayaking local creeks is an activity that has picked up in popularity during recent years, and that is why Lou Vargo and Jesse Mestrovic wish to remind enthusiasts to take every safety precaution and to employ...

It would have been only two years had he not been unopposed and re-elected in June. Now, it will be four years and only four years that Tim Bishop will serve as the mayor of the village of Bethlehem, a...

Anyone who knows Centre Market even remotely well is aware of the large, purple garage door that stands next door to the Wheeling Brewing Company and across Lane B from Coleman’s Fish Market. For years,...

Vacant. That is how this historic North Wheeling building located at 650 Main St. has rested for more than a decade, and now, in order to save and restore the structure, an amputation is needed before...

Candidates running for public office usually make promises they fail to keep once their successful campaigns are complete, but Ohio County Sheriff Tom Howard seems different following his first six months in...

It is a public school system that begins working with children as early as age 3, and it is a district that educated a little more than 5,300 students during the recently completed academic year. Along with...

Noel Clarke will turn 50 years old in 50 days, but he’s not counting on a calendar because, frankly, he does not know how many days remain. He has served as the chief of the Moundsville Fire Department...

He thought he hated it. He believed he would be happier with a “real job” instead. David Comack was really wrong. And that is why downtown Wheeling now welcomes its newest eatery in Tacoholix at...

She owns a perspective not too many young people possess, and that’s because she fully intends to return to the Wheeling area after she has earned her physician assistant graduate degree from Seton Hill...

She wanted to serve the public, so that’s what Ginny Favede did first as a member of St. Clairsville City Council and then as a one of three members of the Belmont County Commission. After eight years as...

In his position as student body president at West Virginia University, Blake Humphrey represents more students than there are people who live in this Friendly City. That’s right. Place that fact into...

New trees, painted benches, spruced up parks, and the installation of a disc golf course are all planned during the “Pride in Wheeling” community event set to take place Friday, June 2nd, at three...

Student athletes at Wheeling Central Catholic High School have collected a lot of hardware this spring, and now the Maroon Knights are set to begin their quest for their first state baseball championship since...

Up and down a tall ladder with a high-rise pack on your back that weighs more than 30 pounds. Check! Then into a ventilation room before dragging a 160-pound human dummy 150 feet. Check! Check! Of...

He grew up here. Most of his family has always lived here. And, now, after three decades, he lives here again. Thomas Wharton, brother of long-time Ohio County Commissioner Randy Wharton, returned to...

Johnny Cash and Billy Joel and Willie Nelson and thousands of local residents all have graced the stage of the Capitol Theatre, and that is one of the reasons why the employees of Kalkreuth Roofing and Sheet...

When he was a kid, he was usually the muddiest ballplayer on the field who couldn’t wait to get back to fishing after the game, and he continued his athletic career at Wheeling Park High School. And then...

Retention. It’s a term most people hear often during conversations about the future of the Upper Ohio Valley. Retention. How do we create a better economic atmosphere so younger citizens will not be...

It’s right there in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, in the shadows of the area’s steel district at 3159 West 11th St. just 165 miles from downtown Wheeling. Ralphie Parker’s house. The...

It was in late 2015 when she first presented during a “Show of Hands” event, and she pitched to the crowd the need for a glass-cutter do-thingy that would allow Cat’s Paw Arts Studio to better streamline...

(Editor’s Note: This chapter is the fourth entry of a series of stories that will focus on the history of the game of baseball in the Wheeling area.)   “It’s Because He Smiled A Lot” It...

There’s a big difference between living with “no evidence of disease” and enjoying remission from cancer, and that is something the Rotriga family tries to convey when they get the chance. Their son,...

It gets darker, cooler, and the air thins with each step toward the section of Mount Wood Tunnel that has collapsed, and when you reach it, the darkness is so dense that you can’t see your hand can’t in...

It says what it says above the main door into the Unity Center in Center Wheeling – “Leave Your Ego at the Door” – but by the time people seek the help that’s inside their self-esteem is the lowest...

It is about a change in the mindset of local government that alters the citizen experience because people are treated more like people. Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott joined a number of Wheeling area...

One housed a mega-popular retail store and the other was so industrial a train traveled through it when necessary, and what took place in both buildings many years ago helped sustain the people of the Upper...

Once upon a long time ago the Buch & Donavan Drug Store, the Rose Bowl, the Minute Market, and Ye Olde Alpha were on one side of it, and on one the other side Wheeling College, the Pleasanton ball field...

It is a swath of acreage most know nothing about and nearly no one has ever seen because it’s a tucked-away, municipal garbage dump the city of Wheeling has blockaded for good reasons since the early...

It is an event that represents a chance for enthusiasts of the local arts scene to gain an insider perspective of a dozen Wheeling area artists. On April 29, 12 different painters, writers, jewelry...

It was The Windmill, and it will be The Windmill once again. That means its four unfurled sails will rotate once again if Dan Millhouse has anything to say about it. “So far, we’ve managed to get the...

(Editor’s Note: This introduction is the third entry of a series of stories that will focus on the history of the game of baseball in the Wheeling area.)   “Belle Isle was Yankee Stadium” There...

“Staza” does the navigating, and he follows the lead as this “man-and-his-dog” partnership float their way down Big Wheeling Creek. “Water recreation is definitely an asset we have here in the...

The land has been sculpted, the posts set, and soon the fencing will go up, and the grass will be planted at the Fitzsimmons Family Dog Park in East Wheeling. The two-acre facility will be located near the...

If residents of Wheeling refuse to take their surroundings for granted, then they can experience some unusual sights in all corners of this Friendly City. These photographs were captured during the past two...

UPDATE: West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice did veto Senate Bill 437 today in Wheeling and now the legislation will initially return to the Senate for override consideration. If Senate leadership refuses to...

Mom was involved with the Park Players and was a member of the record-setting speech and debate team at Wheeling Park High, and Dad has long been a master musician who now specializes in the bass guitar as a...

The Senate voted 19-15. The House of Delegates voted 56-44. And now Senate Bill 437, legislation that would eliminate the West Virginia Greyhound Breeders Fund, rests on the desk of Gov. Jim Justice, and...

George Strager was the man’s name, and he was a football mastermind who is considered an Upper Ohio Valley legend, but during the 1987 football season at St. Clairsville High he couldn’t recall his...

Editor’s Note: This is the first chapter of a series of stories that will focus on the history of the game of baseball in the Wheeling area.   A Man and His Game The pitcher’s mound moved depending...

Genevieve Adeline Margaret Sampson Luzadder. Over and over. Genevieve Adeline Margaret Sampson Luzadder. Genevieve Adeline Margaret Sampson Luzadder. Genevieve Adeline Margaret Sampson...

There was that hum of about 65,000 cars and trucks zipping east and west every day, but Jim Hangler doesn’t hear that any longer. This American veteran, a Purple Heart recipient for his duty in Vietnam,...

“Walkability.” By now the term is widely known, and the definition is simply, “a better environment in which to walk.” Yup, that’s it, and Wheeling officials continue to work in partnership...

She watched it and enjoyed what she witnessed, and that is why Alex Weld finds herself in the middle of the conversation in the city of Wheeling. Weld was hired this month by Wheeling Heritage as the new...

(Editor’s Note: This introduction is the first entry of a series of stories that will focus on the history of the game of baseball in the Wheeling area. If you have information and/or photos you would like...

Syd Weiler didn’t pay much attention to the pigeons she encountered when walking the streets of Wellsburg as a high school student at Brooke, but one day at Loring Park in Minneapolis a flock of them caught...

It was the l-o-n-g-e-s-t dinner in the history of award dinners, but at least for some the extended wait began with apple pie. And it gave each and every one of the 38 members of Wheeling Park High’s...

They threw their poop at people. It’s true. It happened. Those monkeys and their poo-flipping at visitors at Wheeling Park were a reality during several decades in the first half of the 20th...

It is true that the Health Plan project within the 1100 block of downtown Wheeling is the first privately funded new building project since the mid-1980s, so the members of Wheeling Council and Mayor Glenn...

It’s a city surrounded by the rolling hills of the Appalachia Mountains, and one employee of the city of Wheeling believes those ridges can be utilized more as recreational and a form of fitness for local...

It was a shortcut for kids from both sides of the “The Path,” and it transported us to different worlds depending upon which side you lived. If you were raised along the Walnuts, Poplars, Maples, and up...