Guest Column written by State Representative Dorothy Pelanda. On June 10, 2012, KMS Actuaries of Manchester, New Hampshire released a much-awaited $240,000 study of the five Ohio pension systems. Ohio’s five statewide retirement systems are the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS), the School Employees Retirement System (SERS), the Ohio […]

Guest Column written by State Representative Dorothy Pelanda. On June 26, 2012, the United States Supreme Court is expected to announce its decision on the various cases challenging all or part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known commonly as “Obama Care”. I had the privilege of attending a National Conference on Health […]

Guest Column submitted by Greg Rose, Chair of United Way of Marion County’s Community Investment Committee. In any organization or businesses reliant upon customers or donors, it is important to ask those you are serving what they think and then respond to their suggestions. Marion County United Way does this through an annual survey which […]

Guest Column written by State Representative Dorothy Pelanda. The Tourism Economics report released in May, 2011, which measured employment in 2010, said that 326,964 Ohio jobs were directly related to tourism, while another 112,109 jobs were indirectly linked to tourism (i.e. hotel workers, gasoline stations, and grocery stores). Taken together, Ohio tourism supported 439,073 jobs, […]

Guest Column written by State Representative Dorothy Pelanda. With the newest geological maps showing lucrative shale beds in two-thirds of Ohio, there is an explosion of interest in what shale contains, how it can be safely extracted and what it represents to Ohio’s economy. The discovery of shale is the newest chapter in Ohio’s 150 […]

Guest Column written by Troy A. Ruehrmund, Board Chair of United Way of Marion County. As National Volunteer Appreciation Week approaches, I‘ve realized how inspired I am by our local volunteers. They help in so many ways: coaching sports and mentoring children, helping neighbors file their taxes, cleaning up parks, responding to disasters, stocking food […]

Guest column written by Marion Red Cross volunteer Ralph Smith I once heard a story about a beachcomber who was walking along a beach. An observer could see him take a few steps then stop, bend over, pick something up and toss it into the waves. Then the old beachcomber would walk a little further […]

Guest Column written by Paula Roller, Executive Director of Turning Point, explaining the agency’s reaction to the recent murder of Amy Aldrich. Wednesday, February 8, around dinnertime, the Marion Police Department was called to the scene of a homicide on Bartram Avenue. On Wednesday, February 29 two men were indicted on felony charges in what […]

Guest Column submitted by State Representative Jeff McClain who represents Marion County. There is a direct relation between creating jobs and developing Ohio’s workforce. Available jobs are essentially worthless unless there is a trained and capable workforce ready to fill them. Likewise, training individuals for the workforce is only as valuable as the number of […]