Reception for fire chief

Reception for fire chief
EAST PALESTINE -- A retirement reception for Fire Chief Merle Stewart will be from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the city park community center. City fire and emergency medical services personnel are hosts of the event. Stewart, 65, retired Thursday after 40 years as a city employee. He has been fire chief since 1973.
Christmas craft show
LISBON -- A Christmas craft show will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center. Career center boosters will also conduct an auction and raffle. Proceeds benefit the career center scholarship fund sponsored by the booster organization. The boosters annually present five $1,000 scholarships and five $250 scholarships to seniors. The $250 scholarships help students purchase tools they need for their trade.
Investigating fire
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The Pennsylvania State Police fire marshal has been called to investigate a suspicious early-morning fire at Michaelangelo's Flea Market on U.S. Route 422 in Lawrence County.
Mahoning Township Fire Chief Poncho Exposito said the blaze started at about 12:45 a.m. today in a 42-foot-by-200 foot pavilion.
Exposito said the building was used to store about 3,000 bales of hay and farm machinery.
Exposito said the fire should not affect the flea market's regular Sunday hours because it did not damage any other buildings.
Owners Kathy Mike and Brenda Mellott could not be reached this morning to comment.
Exposito said firefighters from seven area fire departments had to tear apart the hay and use a special substance to extinguish the blaze. They were at the fire scene until about 6 a.m.
Plea to conserve water
LEETONIA -- Although a break a main waterline has been repaired, Village Administrator Gary Phillips is asking village water customers to continue to conserve water over the weekend while water levels in village wells and storage tanks return to normal. Phillips said the break Tuesday was in a service line off a main line on Hazel Street. Crews repaired the break Thursday.
Man accused of theft
MERCER, Pa.-- State police are looking for a Venango Street man accused of keeping nearly $1,000 raised in a Mercer Area Youth Soccer Association fund drive. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of John R. Schoen, 31, on a charge of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received. Police said the association held a fund-raiser in October and Schoen collected $920 but didn't deposit the money in a bank.
Tax bills mailed out
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning County Treasurer's Office has mailed a third round of property tax bills to property owners who have not yet paid all their taxes due this year. Real estate taxes are generally collected twice a year, but Treasurer John Reardon said he's mailing the third bill as a reminder so delinquent owners can pay their taxes without additional interest and penalties. Those that remain unpaid by Nov. 15 will be certified as delinquent properties.
Ex-official sues county
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County is again being sued by its former chief building official, this time in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Stephen Berry of Trotwood Drive and his wife, Becky, are seeking more than $1 million in damages. The suit alleges that Berry was improperly fired by county commissioners in 1998. A similar suit had been filed in U.S. District Court in March 2000, but was dismissed in August 2002. Berry was hired as chief building official in August 1993.
Not indicted by jury
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Mahoning County grand jury opted not to indict T. Elliot Hough, a former write-in candidate for a seat on the 7th District Court of Appeals, on a felony count of election fraud.
Hough, 62, of Canfield, was charged in June by the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department with two felony counts of election fraud and one felony count of election falsification.
The sheriff's department had said Hough registered to vote in a precinct in which he does not live and also listed false addresses for himself on documents to run for the court seat with the county elections board.
Two of the counts were dismissed Oct. 1 by a county court judge, who bound over the other count to the grand jury that declined Thursday to indict Hough.
Rated as recommended
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Bar Association rates the three candidates running for the Mahoning County Court seat -- Judge Loren A. Popio, Michael B. Dockry and Diane S. Vettori -- as recommended.
The survey was done through a poll of the bar's membership and should not be considered an endorsement.