OCTOBER

OCTOBER
3. Mark Pollock, 46, a Shenango Township, Mercer County, volunteer firefighter, dies in a fire in the home he shared with his parents, which had no smoke detectors. His parents, John and Shirley Pollock, both 74, are hospitalized after suffering burns and smoke inhalation.
* Patricia Hura, 58, of Canfield, a longtime Mahoning Valley educator, dies of pancreatic cancer two days after the Columbiana Board of Education accepts her retirement as superintendent.
5. Ming, a tiger taken from a Manhattan apartment after it bit its owner, is relocated to the Noah's Lost Ark sanctuary in Berlin Center.
6. Charlotte Benkner of North Lima, who was born in Germany and will turn 114 on Nov. 16, is now the nation's oldest person and the third oldest in the world.
7. Dr. William J. Timmins Jr., 87, of Warren, former chairman of the Trumbull County Democratic Party, dies in his residence.
8. About 400 hourly workers at Delphi Packard Electric Systems accept a $15,000 retirement incentive, reducing the company's hourly work force to about 4,200. Packard had 8,600 hourly workers in 1985.
* Any displaced Lear Seating employees will be hired first by Intier seating, which will take Lear's place as General Motors Lordstown's seat supplier, an Intier executive says, as Trumbull County commissioners approve a 60 percent, 10-year real and personal property tax abatement for Intier, which plans to build a plant in Vienna.
9. Mahoning County commissioners vote to send two-thirds of the bed tax revenue to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and set aside the other third for a new visitors and convention bureau that would replace the current bureau.
* Citing safety concerns, the nonunion company Cleveland Asphalt of Bessemer, Pa., walks off a West Rayen Avenue paving job in Youngstown after Walter Romano, whose wife owns the company, claims company equipment was vandalized and union workers blocked access to company equipment. Romano's sons, Michael and Thomas, are charged with assaulting Blaine Daugherty III, a laborers' union representative, who was videotaping the job.
12. An 8-day-old lion cub named Boomerang is brought to the Noah's Lost Ark sanctuary in Berlin Center by a New York Post reporter who bought it for $1,000 in Ohio to illustrate how easy it is for anyone to buy a wild animal.
13. Ground is broken for the new $26 million East High School in Youngstown, which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2005.
15. State Auditor Betty Montgomery declares the Bristol Local Schools to be in fiscal emergency, saying the district faces a $785,000 deficit by the end of this school year.
* Hot Rod Supernationals promoter confirms the event will not be held in 2004 due to scheduling conflicts, but expects it to return to the Canfield Fairgrounds in 2005.
* Ground is broken for the $23 million addition to Chaney High School in Youngstown.
16. Judge Robert Lisotto of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court pleads guilty to drunken driving and is sentenced to 180 days in jail, with all but three days suspended. The remaining three days will also be suspended if he completes an alternative school within 90 days. He is also fined $500, with $250 suspended. His driver's license is suspended for six months and he is allowed to drive only to and from work during that time.
17. Mahoning County commissioners vote 2-1, with Commissioner Vicki Allen Sherlock dissenting, to provide $925,000 in additional funding for the county juvenile court after having earlier awarded an additional $172,000 to the probate court. This follows an Ohio Supreme Court ruling upholding the funding requests of the two judges.
20. Dustin Anzevino, 19, the prime suspect in the slaying of Helen P. Koscak, 86, who was found beaten to death in her Belden Avenue residence in Youngstown, is found dead in his brother's residence after apparently committing suicide with a shotgun.
21. St. Joseph Health Center in Warren breaks ground for an $18.8 million addition and renovation that will provide more space for its surgical department.
24. Citing reduced orders, Delphi Packard Electric Systems places 214 workers on indefinite layoff.
27. Michael Hogan, 38, of Boardman, is sentenced to 25 years in prison after a jury convicted him Oct. 24 of the murder of John K. Ruble Sr., 71, who was run over twice by a car and crushed while trying to recover the purse of his wife, Louise, which Hogan had just snatched. Hogan also was convicted of the aggravated robbery of Mrs. Ruble.
* RMI Titanium Co. workers in Weathersfield are locked out of the plant after rejecting the company's final offer Oct. 25.
29. Trumbull County commissioners vote unanimously to fire Tony Delmont, the county maintenance director who has pleaded innocent to bribery, money laundering and theft in office in the county's purchasing scandal.
30. A jury finds Martin L. Koliser Jr., 30, guilty of the aggravated murder of Youngstown Patrolman Michael T. Hartzell and attempted aggravated murder of Donnell Rowe on April 29.
* Occupational Safety & amp; Health Administration investigates the death of Gary Wells, 44, of Youngstown, who drowned in a pond in the Heron's Landing development in Austintown after the canoe he was using capsized as he attempted to remove a fountain from the pond. Vincent Cappitte, 33, of Girard, who also was in the canoe, swam to shore and survived.
* William G. Roesch, 47, of Greenville, a former Greenville police officer, faces up to 30 years in prison and $67,500 in fines if convicted on 12 counts of indecent exposure, indecent assault, open lewdness and official oppression.
* TNS Intersearch announces it is closing its market research telephone call center in Liberty on Dec. 31, costing the Mahoning Valley 353 part-time and three full-time jobs. It is the third call center to close locally this year, following Teleperformance in Austintown and Exterra Credit Recovery in Youngstown, each having employed about 70 people.