…..I am beginning to think Mike Swartzmiller deserves a feature story. He is the epitome of a man of many interests. While he has been an educator and county commissioner, he has dabbled in a variety of interest such as making furniture and now painting and marketing that painting. He is truly representative of a person who embraces a whole new career in retirement. Not only is his painting capturing attention, but he I realized he has become our local ambassador for reuse of paper products. While to many people a box is just a box, when Mike started painting on cardboard people started looking at box differently. While everyone loves DiCarlos pizza, now they love the box it comes in since Mike started painting on them.
…..This is all because I have a big box to get rid of. I got a new patio table and six chairs and they all came in boxes. I folded the chair boxes into the table box so its quite heavy. But, we’re talking big box……big picture so I call Mike to tell him about my treasure. I know he likes big boxes because I was told of him carrying the box a washer came in down Second Avenue. But, he has graduated into boxes which also have interesting design or names on them. I tell him that he can paint a very big picture on the box, but it is just a plain box. He agrees to come and look at my box and I am happy because if it does not match the potential work of art criteria, it will match the “Mike feels bad for me and carries down the driveway for the garbage” criteria. It’s a win/win for me. By the way check out his latest idea: a picture of Marilyn Monroe that you paint by numbers.
FORM’s start of construction is a visible sign that progress and JOBS are coming to Hancock County. Their material said they anticipate hiring for Weirton factory (known as Factory 1) closer to 2024. Job fairs will be posted, but if you visit their website formenergy.com/weirton-wv-careers you can see the type of jobs the company will be seeking. They list. manufacturing associates, equipment maintenance technicians, facilities associates, production supervisors, production managers, equipment engineers, manufacturing engineers, shipping, warehouse and logistics, environmental health & safety, quality engineers, quality technicians, project engineers and managers, construction, civil and industrial engineers, human resource managers, finance managers, manufacturing leadership.
The New Cumberland Cemetery had a lot of visitors and family members decorated gravesites over the past few days. I think the Avenue of Flags is one of the most touching sights I have ever seen. I wondered today who had the idea to begin the project. Nothing brings home the sacrifice our veterans made then those flags on Memorial Day as the town gathers to say thank you. Despite all our problems in this country, we have it pretty darned good and it wouldn’t have been possible had not our veterans made the continuation of our freedom possible.