Tax bills mailed out

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 on 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 -- The 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, said Kathi McNabb Welsh, bar president.
Deliberations resume
YOUNGSTOWN -- Jurors resumed deliberations today in the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court trial of Christopher Love and Robert Blackshear. The men are charged with murder in the July 1999 death of 44-year-old Olivia Hubbert.
Witnesses said Hubbert was kicked in the head multiple times during an altercation outside a house at the Victory Annex complex on the city's East Side. Jurors deliberated about 61/2 hours Thursday before being sent home by Judge Robert Lisotto.
Grass-cutting contract
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city will look into contracting out the grass cutting of at least its parks and playgrounds, said Joseph McRae, parks director.
McRae told the parks board Thursday he wants to see if contracting out grass cutting at 10 playgrounds and four parks is cheaper than doing the work in-house. A contract would free up city workers to do other jobs, he said.
Passage or failure of the proposed city income tax will dictate if the idea is even feasible, he said.
Underage alcohol sales
YOUNGSTOWN -- For the second time, police issued citations for Ibrahim Samara, manager at Gina's Drive Thru, that charge him with the illegal sale of alcohol and tobacco to an underage person.
Vice cops sent a 16-year-old into the Glenwood Avenue store at 5:45 p.m. Thursday, then confiscated the purchase -- a bottle of malt liquor and pack of cigarettes.
Samara, 25, of Clifton Drive, Boardman, was found guilty in September 2001 of selling tobacco to an underage person. Municipal Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly gave Samara 10 days in jail, suspended it all, fined him $50 and placed him on six months' nonreporting probation.
In August, Samara was found guilty of disorderly conduct, a minor misdemeanor, and received a $100 fine. The charge had been amended from discharging a firearm in the city.
Altercation in court
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 20-year-old Boardman man was charged with assault and criminal damaging after an altercation between him and a police officer in municipal court Thursday morning.
Rory Stephenson of West Boulevard was charged with kicking Officer Rodney Lewis, who was working court detail, and damaging the officer's eyeglasses. Lewis also suffered a thumb injury in the scuffle. The report did not say what prompted the 9:30 a.m. altercation.