Italian Festival record set

Italian Festival record set
YOUNGSTOWN -- The fifth annual Mount Carmel Italian Festival set an attendance record and raised more than $20,000 to help maintain the historic Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, according to Tony Trolio, chairman of the event.
He set attendance at 8,000 for the festival held July 10-13 on the parish grounds. The theme was "Something Positive for Downtown Youngstown."
Plans for next year's festival July 22-25 include giving two scholarships to Youngstown State University students, he said.
Accused in wallet theft
STRUTHERS -- Police arrested a 40-year-old Campbell man early Tuesday after he returned to the establishment where a wallet was stolen a few days earlier.
Police charged Earnest Ray Shearer, of Tremble Avenue, with theft after an employee of South Bridge Billiards, 162 S. Bridge St., alerted them that a man captured on videotape removing a wallet from the bar had returned.
According to police reports, the videotape shows the man walking to the corner of the bar, removing the wallet and returning to his seat, finishing his drink and then leaving the bar.
The 32-year-old city woman who owns the wallet told police she received a call the next day from an unknown person claiming he found the wallet in his mailbox. She retrieved the wallet and found it to be intact, but missing $10.
Drug program ceremony
YOUNGSTOWN -- The second commencement ceremony for the Mahoning County Juvenile Court's residential substance abuse treatment program will be at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.
Keynote speaker will be Patrick J. Ungaro, Liberty Township administrator. The ceremony will be at the juvenile court, 300 E. Scott St. The residential treatment program is an intensive, 90-day program aimed at addressing substance abuse among juvenile offenders. It began in Sept. 2002.
CSEA custodial services
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County commissioners voted Tuesday to hire Ohio Industries for the Handicapped to provide custodial services at the county Child-Support Enforcement Agency.
The one-year contract is for $39,586. Because CSEA is an arm of a state agency, the county's maintenance staff does not provide custodial services, county Administrator Gary Kubic said.
OIH was created by the governor's office and gives employment opportunity to people with physical and mental disabilities. The agency also has been hired in the past to do microfilm work for the county.
Purse snatcher gets away
STRUTHERS -- Police are searching for a purse snatcher who made his getaway on a boy's mountain bike after robbing a woman in a plaza parking lot.
The 46-year-old Fifth Street woman and her 22-year-old daughter-in-law were getting out of their car, which was parked in the side lot at the Ben Franklin discount store, 295 Rita Drive, about 11:25 a.m. Tuesday when a blond man in his late 30s or early 40s pushed her back into the car and stole her black leather purse.
The women told police the man ran toward the rear of the Dollar General store, got on a bicycle and headed north.
Although police searched the area, they were unable to locate the suspect or the purse, which contained three bottles of prescription medication, a pager, house keys and food stamp card.
Mill Creek bicycle ride
CANFIELD -- Friday is the registration deadline for the second annual bicycle ride through the Mill Creek watershed Aug. 10.
The 30-mile course, which runs from Canfield to the creek's headwaters south of Columbiana, is rolling to level. A light lunch is included in the $10 registration fee.
For more information, contact Heather Moser at the Mahoning Soil and Water Conservation District, 490 S. Broad St., Canfield, Ohio 44406, or call (330) 533-2231.
Shooting victim identified
YOUNGSTOWN -- The woman shot in the lower jaw and face July 14 on the East Side has been identified as Mildred Ballot, 26, originally from Selawik, Alaska, Lt. Robin Lees, police department spokesman, said this morning. Ballot, who has been staying at the Westlake Terrace housing project, remains hospitalized in stable condition.
Ballot was shot at Shannon Avenue and Carson Street and ran to a house on McGuffey Road asking for help. The case remains under investigation, Lees said.