"Five years after Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel's once-thunderous mill went idle, the only sound here is that of the oldest parts of the plant being dismantled.
The demolition began about a day or so before a red carpet rolled out at the White House for a state dinner featuring a dress worn by the first lady that cost more than the salary of a police officer in this town.
The demolition still was going on last Wednesday, at the same time that Vice President Joe Biden boasted about the positive impact that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the stimulus — had on America's Rust Belt, on the fifth anniversary of its signing into law.
“The closest we got to stimulus money was a grant to pay for the salary of a police officer for a year,” said Steve Maguschak, Mingo Junction's administrator and police chief.
A policeman for 30 years (and the police chief since his brother retired), Maguschak became the town administrator last year when operating funds ran too low to cover a full-time employee in the post.
You have to wonder if this career law enforcer — whose father died in the line of duty in 1970, after being shot by a fugitive — feels insulted by the $13,944 grant to pay a policeman's salary."...
