People

Ponzani’s Makes Landscaping Dreams Come True

Steve Novotney April 2, 2017

George Strager was the man’s name, and he was a football mastermind who is considered an Upper Ohio Valley legend,...

Grandma’s Illness Inspires Granddaughter’s Career

Steve Novotney March 26, 2017

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

Marketing Strategist Eager To Show Her Hand

Steve Novotney March 21, 2017

She watched it and enjoyed what she witnessed, and that is why Alex Weld finds herself in the middle of...

Native Artist Goes Global with ‘Trash Doves’

Steve Novotney March 17, 2017

Syd Weiler didn’t pay much attention to the pigeons she encountered when walking the streets of Wellsburg as a high...

Wheeling Native Finds Happiness In Dubai

Steve Novotney March 1, 2017

She was raised on South Huron Street on Wheeling Island as a member of the Chaney family, reared as a...

Stobbs Shares Memories of Wheeling Downs

Steve Novotney February 25, 2017

He was a kid whose father was very involved with the local horseracing industry and whose mother didn’t much approve...

Woman Artist Finds Her Passion In Documentary Photography

Maria Kimble February 23, 2017

Rebecca Kiger wanted to be an artist. She attended Shepherd College and set out to find her means of expression....

Colaianni Reshaping Wheeling’s Downtown

Steve Novotney February 19, 2017

He was an unusual student at The Linsly School and not just because he had a hard hat and construction...

Toriseva Tees Off on Watchdog Network

Steve Novotney February 3, 2017

By day she is one of West Virginia’s most respected trial attorneys, and now, in the early evening during the...

Aggie Football in Focus for Wheeling’s Elijah Bell

Steve Novotney January 30, 2017

He could always catch the ball no matter what uniform he was wearing. Elijah Bell was a Little Patriot, and...

Meet the Clay Ninja

Maria Kimble January 25, 2017

“I remember watching him create a few clay pieces on the wheel. He made it look so easy, so effortless,...

Nelson Nailed Her Niche In Wheeling

Steve Novotney January 24, 2017

What she did know was that she wanted to return to Wheeling following her college career. What Susie Nelson didn’t...

Journalist Finds Home, Happiness In East Wheeling

Steve Novotney January 15, 2017

She loves, and not only her husband and their children and not just her folks and his folks and all...

Ihlenfeld Still Dedicated To a New War On Drugs

Steve Novotney January 9, 2017

He honestly did not know. Bill Ihlenfeld, who resigned just over a week ago as the U.S. Attorney in the...

Nick Nardone Shares Memories of His Father

Steve Novotney January 1, 2017

No attractive way exists to explain what Lou Gehrig’s Disease does to the afflicted. In the beginning, daily activities like...

Linsly’s Goodwin Living Dream with NFL’s Falcons

Steve Novotney December 23, 2016

C.J. Goodwin doesn’t believe he ever asked Santa Claus for a football. Never ever. In fact, this 26-year-old graduate of...

Couple Awaits Vote on Non-Discrimination Ordinance

Steve Novotney December 18, 2016

Peter Junkersfeld grew up in New York City, one of America’s largest melting pots of people with a plethora of...

Twain Never Said ”Good As News’ Keeps Me Informed’

Steve Novotney December 14, 2016

He received several writing awards from the West Virginia Press Association, and even more of his stories were “picked up”...

Expats: ‘We’ll Be Home for Christmas’

Steve Novotney December 10, 2016

There’s something here in Wheeling that isn’t there, a draw of sorts that lures hundreds of homecomings each December and...

Minnesota Woman Aims to Impact Warwood

Christina Rieth December 5, 2016

Hello! I’m Christina Rieth, and I’m the PreserveWV AmeriCorps member for the Wheeling National Heritage Area Corporation (WNHAC). I’m originally...

Corpus Christi Celebrates Awesome Authors

Miranda Shaner December 4, 2016

Corpus Christi School had eight finalists in the Ohio County Public Library Awesome Authors Contest. The students were recognized at...

Simple Twist of Fate

Brian Wilson November 23, 2016

This piece of paper may seem insignificant but I assure you that it tells an interesting story with a very...

Drone Interest in Wheeling Area Taking Off

Steve Novotney November 21, 2016

When he first began researching the purchase of a drone, Travis Broadwater couldn’t exactly predict how his wife, Jenna, would...

Bank on These Guys

Jeremy Morris November 21, 2016

“It’s not personal, it’s just business” is an unfortunate cliché in the American lexicon. Few things in life are more personal...

Delbrugge Reflects on Years of Council Service

Steve Novotney November 20, 2016

She listened; that’s for sure, although most of the time the conversations concerned complaints. Speeding, road conditions, vacated land, rental...

Global Wheeling: Yemeni Woman Makes Simple Request

Kafa Saeed November 20, 2016

I am a Yemeni woman who wants for my country the best of development in all aspects of life. I...

Wheeling’s Golden Core

Jason Koegler November 10, 2016

This isn’t a sports story.  It’s not a sentimental story.  It’s not a “glory days” story. It’s a story of...

From NYC to the OV

Elizabeth Diker November 5, 2016

The following is part of a Vandaleer.com series from partner Preservation Alliance of West Virginia.  The series focuses on young...

Chief Helms Returns to Duty After Scary Crash

Steve Novotney October 28, 2016

It’s a motorcycle cruise this couple has taken for several years during the third weekend in each July simply so...

W.Va.’s Poet Laureate A Student Of Life

Steve Novotney October 22, 2016

This Poet Laureate’s pace when he’s publicly reading his work is sometimes somewhat swift and steamed, but when Marc Harshman...

‘Jingles the Clown’ Not Amused with Local Arrests

Steve Novotney October 8, 2016

It has made this clown cry. People have asked “Jingles” if they could take photos of her while lying on...

A Vagabond Comeback for Chef Matt Welsch

Steve Novotney October 7, 2016

He realizes people have been wondering, and he respects the fact. That’s why Matt Welsch, known to many as the...

Eckhart House Offers World Of Wheeling History

Steve Novotney October 6, 2016

He is most informed of the years important to Wheeling’s history, and she is well versed in the classic traditions...

Charles Wishes A Return to Wheeling’s Streets

Steve Novotney October 4, 2016

He’s an extremely impatient patient. He wants out. He wants to return to “his streets.” Charles Waldrum even celebrated his...

Schultz ‘Top Cop’ in Mountain State

Steve Novotney September 29, 2016

Wheeling Park Pool. Deep end near where the high drive once stood. Twelve-and-a-half feet of all water and, of course,...

The King and Oglebay

Steve Novotney September 26, 2016

Arnold Palmer Recalled by Oglebay’s Randy Worls He knew it would spoil, but the child didn’t seem to care, so...

Culture and Community Growing in South Wheeling

Josh Smith September 26, 2016

The city of Wheeling, W.Va. has a rich and colorful history. Wheeling was home to many prosperous businesses including iron,...

Local Film To Debut At Marquee Cinemas

Steve Novotney September 25, 2016

Brains or muscle? Accountants or killers? Need? Or greed? All the above are involved in this 35-minute street drama, and...

Koslik Peddles Her Way to Nation’s Capital

Steve Novotney September 14, 2016

It rained. Ok, so it actually poured. A lot. On her. At times, in fact, the rainfall seemed to be...

My Town: Benjamin Andrews

Bill Hogan September 13, 2016

I started dating Mary Ann in the late 1940s. Incidentally, dating in my day was asking a girl out for...

Storch Reveals Experience with Recent Stroke

Steve Novotney September 10, 2016

She’s got this work ethic, you see, one that wakes her early but leaves her up late, and that’s because...

Duffy Home For Dream Job at Wheeling Jesuit

Steve Novotney September 9, 2016

So there he was in the middle of Manhattan, and he was alone because he elected not to attend a...

Life in the Valley is Inspiration for Hip-Hop Artist

Josh Smith August 22, 2016

Whether you live in the suburbs of the Ohio Valley or in the metropolises around the country, everyone listens to...

Ohio County Schools: Part 4 – Free Nutrition

Steve Novotney August 14, 2016

(Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of articles featuring Ohio County Schools, the district’s new superintendent, and...

Bedway Molding His Career In Wheeling

Steve Novotney August 7, 2016

He’s always known he needs to work with his hands to create something because that’s what he’s always done since...

Ohio County Schools: Part 3 – Football & T.W.B.A.I

Steve Novotney August 6, 2016

(Editor’s Note: This is the third story in a series of articles featuring Ohio County Schools, the district’s new superintendent,...

Ohio County Schools: Where I Grew Up

Brian Cook, Ed. D. August 4, 2016

Sometimes people walk into your life and turn right around and walk away out of your life. However, there are...

“Coach” Sam Andy: 1940 – 2016

Steve Novotney August 2, 2016

He fought for what he believed in whether he was a coach, a teacher, a member of the Ohio County...

Ohio County Schools – Part 2 – Education Process

Steve Novotney July 29, 2016

Uniform and phone-in participation policies, the non-renewal of the former superintendent, no-shows by BOE members, tax decreases and then increases,...

Do Something: Community Fitness Challenge

Alyson Hurley July 28, 2016

Liberty Distributors President Mark Peluchette is named winner of inaugural ‘Community Fitness Challenge for Executives’   Naming an overall winner...