School closing

School closing
NILES -- School officials had not determined if Our Lady of Mount Carmel will re-open Thursday, after the school was closed today because of staff illness and difficulty finding substitute teachers. More than half of the teachers are sick with an upper respiratory infection, school officials said today.
Teacher pact OK'd
LORDSTOWN -- The board of education has approved a new contract with its teachers. The board OK'd the contract with the Lordstown Teachers Association on Tuesday by a 3-0 vote. Members Roxanna Holton and Scott Thomas were absent.
Today, members of the state-appointed fiscal planning and supervision commission will meet to vote on the pact. The district has been under a state-imposed fiscal emergency, but voters approved a five-year, 6-mill levy in November that generates $770,000 annually.
Facing drug charge
NILES -- A 32-year-old Masury man faces a drug charge after police say they bought the painkiller OxyContin from him.
Robert J. Nagy of Broadway Avenue was being held in the city jail pending arraignment today on a charge of trafficking in drugs.
Police Chief Bruce Simeone said members of the Niles Narcotics Unit and Trumbull County Drug Task Force took Nagy in custody Tuesday after buying several OxyContin tablets from him at McDonald's restaurant on Main Street. Police said more arrests are expected in the three-month investigation.
Resident dies in fire
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The Pennsylvania State Police fire marshal is looking into the cause of a blaze that killed a Shenango Township man. State police said William Charles Schlemmer, 53, of 726 Harmony Baptist Road, died in the fire at his home at 6:20 p.m. Monday. No other details about the fire or Schlemmer's death were available from police this morning.
Heart attack death
MERCER, Pa. -- An inmate at the State Regional Correctional Facility in nearby Findley Township has died of a heart attack. Superintendent Gilbert A. Walters said Arthur Fields, 53, collapsed while leaving the minimum-security's gymnasium Monday. Fields was transported to Sharon Regional Health System, where he was pronounced dead, Walters said. Fields was serving a sentence of five to 20 years for rape and indecent assault on a 1995 conviction in Philadelphia. He had been at the prison here since 1998.
Roadside cleanup
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Nearly five tons of trash and metal were picked up on Hawthorne Road in Taylor Township by PA Clean Ways, a volunteer environmental group. Volunteers found numerous discarded television sets and paint cans as well as lawn waste. The recent cleanup was videotaped and will be used to help create an educational video. The cleanup tape will be used as part of a placemat contest being organized by the group, the Lawrence County League of Women Voters and the Lawrence County Recycling and Solid Waste office. After watching the video, youngsters will be asked to design a placemat based on the video and emphasizing drinking water protection. The overall winner will receive a $100 savings bond and others will receive $50 bonds. The contest is open to youths 8 to 18.
Charged in threats
SHARON, Pa. -- Police said Robert N. Hercules, 32, of Dickens Place remained in Mercer County Jail today after he threatened a female acquaintance and a Sharon police officer. Police said Hercules got into a fight with a woman on Dickens Place around 4:30 a.m. Saturday and assaulted her. When police arrived, he threatened to come back and attack her again, police said. When he was being arraigned later in the day at the office of District Justice James McMahon, he became unruly and threatened to kill the wife and children of one of his arresting officers, police said. McMahon ordered him held on charges of making terroristic threats, simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct.