We in the Northern Panhandle are West Virginians, yet we sometimes feel we have more in common with southwestern Pennsylvania than with the rest of our own state. Well, now's our chance to find out just how much we have in common with our neighbors to the east.
It's the same in a way with some residents of East Ohio, who are as likely to visit Pittsburgh as Columbus or Cleveland for big-city shopping and cultural experiences.
As we reported several days ago, a new organization has been formed, in essence to find out what we and our neighbors want out of life - ours, our children's and our grandchildren's. It is the Regional Visioning Project. It is intended to work with residents of five counties in Ohio, 10 in West Virginia, 14 in Pennsylvania and one in Maryland. Included are Brooke, Hancock, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel, Tyler, Belmont, Jefferson and Monroe counties.
What the heck is a "visioning project?" I asked Allen Kukovich, the project's executive director, during his visit to our office Thursday. He was here to explain the initiative (and, presumably, to enlist the newspaper's support).
At first glance, the RVP sounds very much like something many of us have seen several times down through the years: another "comprehensive planning" campaign. Kukovich insists it is no such thing. "This isn't about planning, it's about action," he maintained.
What Kukovich and others involved in the RVP are after is a "to-do list." That agenda will be based on what residents of member counties "want your communities to look like in 20 years," he added.
How will what people in our region want be determined? By asking them. Kukovich said he hopes that opinions can be obtained from as many as 20,000 residents of the region. That certainly should provide an idea of what we want.
But will we agree? Will people in Garrett County, Md., want the same things as those in Monroe County, Ohio? Will folks in Wheeling support an economic development in Pittsburgh (we didn't during the early 19th century, as those who know the history of the Suspension Bridge know)? Will leaders in Jefferson County, Ohio, believe the best use of federal economic development funds is a project in Bedford County, Pa.?
That's one of the big challenges, Kukovich admitted. Obtaining consensus - and more important, regional cooperation - will be one of his priorities. He plans to begin the process soon, with meetings involving members of Congress and state legislators representing the 30-county region.
If that consensus - and a spirit of trust among public officials in the RVP counties - can be achieved, it's possible more federal money than ever before can be attracted to the region, Kukovich said. He's absolutely correct. That many members of Congress, voting - and dealing behind the scenes - together could have real clout.
It's worth a try. A substantial number of elected officials and community leaders in the 30 counties seem to think so. Among them, representing our area, are: Weirton attorney Dan Guida, who is chairman of that city's Downtown Business Civic Association, and Susie Nelson of Wheeling, executive director of the Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley.
Nelson, who was with Kukovich during the Thursday visit, agreed that working with the 14 southwestern Pennsylvania counties may be in the best interests of those of us in the Northern Panhandle and East Ohio. But the fact that so many of those involved in the RVP live in Allegheny County has not escaped her. She told me that one reason she is eager to work with the project is that, "I'm not going to let them forget about our little sliver" of counties.
An old friend and colleague, Jim Fitzsimmons, passed away last week. For several years he and I worked together as reporters covering Wetzel and Tyler counties for the News-Register and The Intelligencer.
Jim was much, much more than a reporter to his neighbors in New Martinsville, however. He was one of those rare men who truly was a pillar of his community. A glance at the obituary we published Thursday provides the documentary evidence of that. What it doesn't indicate is that Jim was as at home getting his hands dirty for a worthy cause as he was sitting on a board of directors. He was both a workhorse and a visionary for New Martinsville and Wetzel County.
I have many fond memories of "Fitz." The one that comes to mind most is of the day he and I were invited by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to watch demolition of the locks at the old Ohio River dam made obsolete by the existing Hannibal Locks and Dam. The Corps decided to use high explosives to destroy the massive concrete locks. Mention explosions and any newspaperman worth his salt will grab a camera and go. We did.
Before the explosives were detonated, we were all told that we had to follow the Corps official's directions precisely. We were stationed inside a sturdy brick building, 50 to 100 feet away from the locks. We were told that there would be a countdown - but that when we heard "fire in the hole," it was absolutely, positively, you'd-really-better-do-this mandatory that we all duck down under the sills of the open windows. Wouldn't want anyone to get hit by flying debris, would we?
Jim and I glanced at each other. We waited, checking the cumbersome old Yashica cameras that had to be held at waist-height while the photographer looked down through a focusing screen. "FIRE IN THE HOLE," we heard. We immediately fired away with our cameras -and got some really good pictures that we'd have missed had we ducked as instructed.
What I remember about that day was that Jim - most of the time a very mild-mannered fellow - wasn't about to miss that picture, even if it did mean taking a bit of a risk. As I was hitting the shutter on my camera, I saw him out of the corner of my eye. It was just as the shock wave from the blast hit, and it was blowing his necktie back over his shoulder.
He wasn't flinching, not even a little bit.
That's the "Fitz" I'll remember.
Myer can be reached via email at: Myer@news-register.net.