NILES Council approves payments for case

The city will pay $50,000 this year and $24,500 next year and in 2004.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- The city's portion of a settlement agreement stemming from a lawsuit filed over a man's missing remains will be paid in three installments.
Betty Mays of Donna, Texas, formerly of Niles, sued the city and Reese-Wynne-Winyard-McDermott Funeral Home in 1998, in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, contending negligence and seeking unspecified damages.
The ashes of her son, Jody, were found to be missing in 1998 when Mays asked the city-owned Union Cemetery to ship them to her new home in Texas.
The crypt was opened and a cemetery worker found a coffin with a skeleton. It was not Jody, who was 17 when he died accidentally in October 1976 in Spain, where his family lived at the time.
Case settled
The case was settled last week after opening statements. The city agreed to pay $99,000, its insurance company will pay $99,000 and the funeral home will pay $2,000.
City council passed legislation Wednesday authorizing the payment. The city will pay $50,000 this year and $24,500 on Feb. 1, 2003, and Feb. 1, 2004.
Council members also passed legislation authorizing Don Allen, safety-service director, to advertise for bids and enter a contract to replace the roof of the safety complex on State Street. The building was constructed in 1976 and still has its original roof.
Mayor Ralph Infante Jr. said infrared testing on the roof showed that nearly half of the area of the roof is affected by wet insulation. The project involves digging down to the roof's base and replacing the insulation.
The new roof will be of a rubberlike material that bends to different types of weather. The roof material that now tops the building is more susceptible to cracking. The new material has a 15-year guarantee.
The project is estimated at $50,000.
Infante also said he expects legislation to be presented at the next meeting for a 75-percent, 10-year tax abatement on a $10.5 million investment of new machinery for Sharon Tube's Niles Division.
The Hunter Street company employs 63 people and plans to hire about 10 more.