Firestone will speak

Firestone will speak
COLUMBIANA -- Kimball Firestone, grandson of the late Harvey S. Firestone, founder and president of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and a Fairfield Township resident and farmer, will be the guest speaker for dedication of a historical marker at Firestone Park. The marker will be unveiled at 6:30 p.m. April 15 across from the park pool entrance.
The Longaberger Basket Co. of Newark and the Ohio Historical Society are providing matching funds with various communities throughout the state to place historical markers in advance of Ohio's bicentennial in 2003, said Leonard Pritchard, president of the Historical Society of Columbiana and Fairfield Township Inc. The local society received a $1,000 grant from the Bridgestone-Firestone Trust in Akron to help pay for the marker, its installation and landscaping, Pritchard said.
Generous, but a fault
SALEM -- A West Fifth Street woman asked police to talk with her 8-year-old son about generosity gone awry.
The boy stole $500 in cash from his mother and took most of it to Buckeye Elementary School on Wednesday, where he began to give it away to classmates, police said.
School officials stopped the handouts and recovered $425. The boy told authorities he had spent $75 on gum.
Police talked to the youngster about stealing and even showed him a jail cell.
Vandalized cars
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Police said someone used gold, white and silver spray paint to vandalize a number of vehicles and houses on four city streets. The vandalism occurred sometime Wednesday night on South Mercer Avenue, Wakefield Drive, Avalon Drive and Catalina Place. Obscenities and a variety of sayings were painted on the vehicles and houses in eight cases, police said.
Taft in Austintown
AUSTINTOWN -- Gov. Bob Taft is scheduled to appear at a ceremony Saturday to recognize members of the Ohio Army National Guard's 838th Military Police Co. for their state mission of airport security. The ceremony will be from 10 a.m. to noon at Austintown Middle School, 5800 Mahoning Ave. The 838th has been performing airport security since October, 2001, and has been reassigned to federal active duty. Major Gen. Paul Sullivan, assistant adjutant general for air, is also to be at the ceremony.
Booze and credit cards
CANFIELD -- Police seized 10 credit cards found in the car of a student at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center on Wednesday morning.
The credit cards were discovered when police searched the vehicle around 10:50 a.m. after a teacher reported that an 18-year-old woman in her class had been drinking. A shot glass and an open bottle of vodka were also discovered.
The student told police she had been drinking with friends the night before and that the vodka must have been left over. She also told police that she didn't know the credit cards were in her car and that they belonged to a friend of a friend.
Passavant Homes flap
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County commissioners say they will ask three families to pull their children out of Passavant Memorial Homes, a Harmarville, Pa., based nonprofit agency that provides residential and vocational programs for mentally retarded and developmentally disabled clients. The organization has recently come under fire from former board members who are complaining that the chief executive officer/president's $200,000-plus annual salary is too high for a nonprofit organization. Lawrence County Commissioner Roger DeCarbo said Thursday that he wants to terminate the county's contract with Passavant Memorial Homes over the flap. However, they must first get parents of those treated at Passavant to agree to move their children to another facility, said Commissioner Brian Burick. Anyone receiving services can choose any facility, and the county is required to pay, he said. Burick said one Lawrence County person is living in a Passavant Memorial Homes facility and two others attend day programs provided by the organization.
Indicted on gun charge
CLEVELAND -- A federal grand jury has indicted a Youngstown man on a charge that he possessed a firearm after he had been convicted of a felony. Charged is Kenneth C. Sharpe, 23, of Fairgreen Avenue.