Boosting infrastructure will aid manufacturing and drilling for oil/gas

Opinion: December 25, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

Ohioans know what’s needed to help our manufacturing community compete on the global stage.

As a recent survey released by the National Association of Manufacturers shows, a majority of Ohio voters believe investment in infrastructure would have a positive impact on the economy and create more good-paying jobs.

And the voice of support for more investment, especially in energy infrastructure, is coming from all corners of the state, across party lines: Eighty-nine percent of Republicans and 84 percent of Democrats said investing in energy infrastructure would have a positive effect. A resounding 88 percent of self-identified environmentalists also expressed support for developing more energy infrastructure.

This is a united voice pushing for exactly the type of investment that manufacturers need to compete in the 21st century.

It’s time to answer the voice of these voters who understand how important it is to improve and expand the pipelines needed to get Utica Shale resources to market, to more efficiently transport products along our rivers and Lake Erie and to safely move people and goods across our highways and bridges.

Increased public and private investment in these critical systems has broad support among Ohioans because they know it will improve lives and get people to work as our manufacturing base continues to be revitalized. We need to act on this broad support now.

Ryan Augsburger, Columbus

Ryan Augsburger is vice president and managing director of Public Policy for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association.

City plays Santa Claus to hotel, riverfront park

An article in The Vindicator on Dec. 8 identified that Youngstown City Council has agreed to loan a subsidiary of NYO Property Group $2,050,000 interest-free for 30 months with $750,000 forgiven if the loan is paid back on time.

The money will be used in the construction of a new hotel in downtown Youngstown and, once again, the money will come from the city’s water/wastewater fund.

Youngstown City Council, over the last five years, has used monies from the city water/wastewater fund and given grants (free money) for various projects totaling upwards of $3 million. Corporate welfare?

Next month, if you’re a Mahoning County Sanitary Engineering Department customer, your wastewater rates will be 28 percent higher than they were in 2014.

I don’t understand; our rates go up and city council gives and (or) loans (interest free) the money to developers.

Youngstown City Council has also agreed to create a $12 million fund for a downtown amphitheater and riverfront park. Guess where $5 million of that fund is coming from? Yep.

By the way, our sewer rates are going up again in 2018 and 2019 and won’t stop there, because the water/sewer customers are on the hook for the $147 million /17-year (2033 completion) project to decrease wastewater overflows into Mill Creek Park lakes.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus (city council, courtesy of the county water/wastewater customers).

Joe Parsons, Youngstown

Real-life perspective on heroin, drug addiction

222Some insight from a layperson who lost, in the same moment, an acquaintance to a heroin OD and a family member to a huge heart attack (at age 33) after years of abuse of alcohol, opioids and general physical and health neglect. My family member did not do heroin, but he’s as dead as if he did.

He gave me this insight into addiction via difficult lessons during 20 years of living with me as an addict; perhaps it is his legacy to me.

Some addicts smoked marijuana, aka “bud” or “green.” It became prohibitively expensive and supplies became spotty. Such also was the case for opioids such as Vicodin, Percocet, Morphine and others.

Heroin at $10 a hit is readily available just about everywhere. Thus, the exodus to heroin. Addicts eventually need a number of hits a day to get higher and higher.

Fentanyl and Carfentanil have commonly been laced with heroin making it 50 to 10,000 times more deadly than morphine. Addicts hear of other addicts over-dosing on the laced heroin. Instead of running from almost certain death, many addicts run to them hoping for higher highs and feeling they can manage the mix.

They overdose and die or languish near death. Revive, if fortunate, with two to seven doses of Narcan/naloxone HCL.

Wash, rinse, repeat works well for hair shampoo.

OD, revive and repeat works not so well for addicts nor as often.

Addiction, I believe, is a mental illness. It requires treatment facilities to house recovering addicts and long-term structure, support and supervision.

My heart and prayers go all out to those people who suffer, seemingly endlessly, as their loved ones slip into the abyss of addiction, generally with very dire and sad consequences.

Dennis Beck, Liberty