(Editor’s Note: The following is the first in three stories looking back at local news of 2009, as reported in The Daily Sentinel.)

POMEROY — The Meigs County community began 2009 with a new slate of county officials, taking their places in office just in time for a major snow and ice storm.

January

“Out with the old, in with the new” became an unofficial slogan in the halls of government, as new county officials and district legislators took their posts.

Two new County Commissioners, Michael Bartrum and Thomas Anderson, joined veteran Mick Davenport on the board. It is a political first for the three-member board: Republicans, Democrats and Independents are represented equally.

Peggy Yost assumed the position of County Treasurer, Diane Lynch that of Clerk of Courts and Colleen Williams, Prosecuting Attorney. State Rep. Debbie Phillips, D-Athens, was sworn in as State Representative for Ohio’s 94th district, and her predecessor, Jimmy Stewart, R-Albany, became the first Ohio senator since the mid-20th century to call Meigs County home.

Health care took center stage in preliminary discussions of how federal economic stimulus funds might benefit the community. A study completed by Ohio University’s Institute for Local Government and Rural Development examined the possibility of a free-standing Emergency Room and how that might best serve the community’s health care needs.

The first federal stimulus funds began to appear in the headlines, as Meigs County officials learned of their share of a $1.2 million program designed to eliminate the blight of abandoned, foreclosed homes.

In Racine, village officials began preliminary discussions on developing a new retail area in the town, which will ultimately include a Dollar General Store and a new home for the Racine-based Home National Bank.

American Municipal Power signed a contract with the Bechtel firm, the general contractor for the $3.25 billion power plant it planned to build in Meigs County. By year’s end, the entire project would be dead in the water.

A winter snow and ice storm crippled the community, putting more than 8,000 people out of electricity — including all of Middleport. The storm would cost local governments more than $100,000.

February

Years after people here decided coal mining was an industry of the past, the Gatling coal company made Meigs County a coal-producing Ohio county once again with the opening of its Racine-area mining operation.

Two disappointing economic news items came nearly back to back. American Electric Power decided to shelve plans to build a clean-coal electricity generating plant in Meigs County, and Century Aluminum announced it would close its Ravenswood, W.Va. plant and lay off 650 workers remaining there. Many were from Meigs County.

Speed was an issue in Pomeroy, where village officials dropped the speed limit on 35 mile per-hour streets to 25, leading some to claim safety considerations while others decried the decision as a speed trap.

Doris Jackson, an 83 year-old Tuppers Plains resident, was found murdered in her home in the Arbaugh Addition, days after she and her vehicle were reported missing. A Wood County, W.Va. man, Charles Williams, later pleaded guilty to killing her during a robbery gone awry.

March

Local communities began to reap the benefits of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus program. Nearly 60 proposals from Meigs County’s local governments and private businesses were submitted to a state website for funding consideration.

Mid-Valley Christian School in Middleport was nearing completion on converting unused space in its church building, the former RC Bottling Co., into a new school facility for its growing student body.

Buyers of Meigs ChamberBucks, a gift certificate program of the Meigs County Chamber of Commerce, found the certificates useless after the company issuing them, CertifiChecks, filed for bankruptcy.

Peoples Bancorp announced it would close the Rutland branch of Peoples Bank at the end of June. It was one of two branches closed by the bank.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and other dignitaries dedicated Pomeroy’s new Bridge of Honor. Meanwhile, the old Pomeroy-Mason Bridge was demolished.

Meigs Board of Developmental Disabilities announced it would seek bids on a reduced construction project, realizing long-held plans to expand the Carleton School and Meigs Industries in Syracuse.

Meigs County Commissioners took action to cap fees paid to defense counsel in capital murder cases at $25,000 per case, just days after Charles S. Williams, Parkersburg, W.Va., was charged in the strangulation death of Doris Jackson, Tuppers Plains, in February.

April

As federal stimulus funding began to trickle into local communities, Family Health Care, the non-profit general medical practice based in Chillicothe, announced it would expand its staff in Middleport with a stimulus award.

Paula Rizer was charged with aggravated murder after her husband, Kenny Rizer, Sr., was found dead in his recliner at the couple’s Lovett Road home.

Meigs County Commissioners announced plans to seek funding for a free-standing 24-hour emergency room at property owned by the Meigs County Community Improvement Corporation near Meigs High School.

A Middleport police officer, Steven Koebel, was placed on leave, and James Gray IV was hospitalized after Koebel shot him in the face after a high-speed chase from Middleport to Pomeroy.

Gray later admitted he had been drinking, and was sent to prison. Koebel resigned, and is now a co-defendant, along with the village he worked for, in a civil suit filed by Gray.

After several weather-related delays, the Pomeroy-Mason Bridge, built 81 years ago, fell into the Ohio River after its center section was detonated.

Stephanie English and Robert Harrison II, passengers in separate vehicles, were killed in a four-vehicle car crash on Ohio 143.