Tax abatement

Tax abatement
WARREN -- Trumbull County commissioners have approved a 10-year, 60 percent break on property taxes on a $2 million expansion at Atlantis Plastics Inc. in Howland. Howland trustees approved the abatement last week.
The company plans to add $170,000 in improvements to its building on Phoenix Road and install $1.9 million in new equipment.
The company, which makes injection-molded parts and includes Delphi Automotive Systems among its customers, reports that sales have increased by 150 percent over 2002.
Atlantis pledged to add 16 employees to its work force of 59 after the expansion is complete.
Landfill license
WARREN -- The Trumbull County Board of Health has renewed the operating license for a construction and demolition debris landfill operated by Lafarge Corp. in Lordstown.
The landfill was first granted its license in 2002. State law gives the board no option but to renew a landfill license as long as the facility is operating in compliance with the license's terms, said Frank Migliozzi, the board's director of environmental health.
Holiday donation
LIBERTY -- Pupils at E.J. Blott Elementary will make a holiday donation at 10 a.m. Friday of gifts, food and blankets to the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley. Donations also will be made to Beatitude House, a Youngstown-based social-service agency.
Educational aide Adrienne Stark said the effort was started by fourth-graders Jessie Dann and Vinnie Gutierrez. They asked their teacher, Christine Stambaugh, if they could begin the collection.
Stark said the effort spread with first-graders raising money for gifts by doing chores at home. Sixth-graders got Wal-Mart to donate 30 blankets. The pupils also donated food.
Appointed to board
COLUMBUS -- The office of Gov. Bob Taft announced Wednesday that Dr. Gary A. Hyde of Warren was appointed to the State Board of Optometry for a term ending Sept. 25, 2008.
Hyde, who is in private practice, replaces Ronald L. Detwiler of East Liverpool, whose term expired.
The optometry board holds examinations for optometrists, issues licenses, and may revoke licenses and establish rules and regulations governing the practice of optometry. Board members are paid $19.55 per hour plus expenses.
Felonious assault charges
NILES -- An 18-year-old was arrested on three counts of felonious assault after being accused of firing four shots at a group of men in a parking lot.
Eric Jordan, of Camrose Drive, was arraigned Wednesday in Niles Municipal Court, just hours after police had issued a warrant for him.
Reports say Jordan was in a 1982 Oldsmobile Cutlass in the parking lot of Burlington Coat Factory on Youngstown-Warren Road when shots were fired at a group of three men who were in a minivan. The shooting happened around noon Tuesday.
Jordan is free on $5,000 bond on each charge.
Stable after shooting
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 26-year-old Youngstown man was in stable condition this morning in St. Elizabeth Health Center with two gunshot wounds to his left thigh.
Police said Ramon Kimbrough of Bennington Avenue was walking to his car in the driveway of a home in the 200 block of East LaClede Avenue with a 19-year-old woman and a 26-year-old man about 10:20 p.m. Wednesday when he was shot.
Food bank donation
YOUNGSTOWN -- Dominion East Ohio has awarded $5,000 to Second Harvest Foodbank for the purchase and installation of new cold storage doors for the freezer and cooler at the food bank's new facility at 2805 Salt Springs Road.
Second Harvest, currently at 1122 E. Midlothian Blvd., takes occupancy of the new facility in January, donated by Dr. Jacques Politi and his family.
Second Harvest provides food to 200 hunger relief organizations in Columbiana, Trumbull and Mahoning counties.
Man dies in Arizona fire
PHOENIX, Ariz. -- An 82-year-old Youngstown-area man died early Wednesday in a house fire when he tried to rescue two dogs, officials said.
Bob Cassidy got out of the home where his daughter lives but decided to return in search of the dogs, firefighters said. He was found dead on the kitchen floor.
The fire was caused by a malfunctioning television, authorities told The Arizona Republic newspaper.