Girard school board OKs levy for ballot

Girard school boardOKs levy for ballot
GIRARD -- The board of education approved a resolution Wednesday to place an operating levy on the November general election ballot.
Superintendent Marty Santillo said the Trumbull County auditor will set the actual millage, noting it will be between 5 and 6 mills. A mill generates about $140,000 annually for the district.
The district, which is in state-imposed fiscal caution, is expected to be $300,000 in the red at the end of this year and $1.4 million in debt by the end of 2004.
Jack O'Connell, board chairman at the Girard Multi-generational Center, will serve as chairman of the levy committee.
"It will be absolutely critical we pass it," Santillo said.
Juveniles attack jogger
NILES -- A group of juveniles assaulted a man while he was jogging at a local school.
The 20-year-old Scott Street man told police he was at Mount Carmel School at 2 a.m. today when five juveniles attacked him.
The man had a cut above his left eye and went to a local hospital for treatment, reports said.
McDonald keepsvillage finance clerk
McDONALD -- The village finance clerk not only gets to keep the job but gets a retroactive raise, too.
Council declined to act Wednesday on a measure to combine the part-time finance clerk and treasurer jobs into one part-time fiscal officer position.
Since the matter was tabled at a previous meeting, it died on the floor Wednesday.
It's the second time this year the ordinance died from a lack of action.
Instead, council approved the final reading of legislation to do away with the pay tier system for the finance clerk.
Rocco Tondo, who was appointed to the job in March, will get $1,100 per month, retroactive to April 1.
Councilman Jay Ryan cast the sole dissenting vote, saying he was not opposed to the pay but to making it retroactive.
Teen died of heart ailment
MECCA -- A 16-year-old girl who was found dead in her back yard died of a rare heart ailment, the Trumbull County Coroner's Office said.
Kailee Oliver had a genetic heart ailment and died of natural causes, said Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, the county's forensic pathologist, who performed an autopsy Wednesday.
The teen-ager was found around 5:40 p.m. Tuesday at her home at 1090 Housel-Craft Road.
State OKs grantfor park land protection
BAZETTA -- The Ohio Public Works Commission has approved a grant that would protect 135 acres as park land.
The commission, through the Clean Ohio Fund, has approved $640,000 for Trumbull County to buy the land, which extends from Elm Road to Mosquito Creek.
The grant requires that the land be set aside for preservation.
The owner of the property, American National Bank, is donating the remainder of the land's value. It was appraised for $955,000.
4-H Junior Camp
WARREN -- Trumbull County 4-H Junior Camp, open to all children 9 to 14, will be at Camp Whitewood in Windsor from July 27 to Aug. 2.
The $180 fee covers lodging, classes, snacks and medical insurance.
Call Jim Hill at the Trumbull County Extension Office, (330) 637-2437.
Plaza's water is shut off
WARREN -- City crews turned off the water today to the vacant Parkman Road Plaza.
The city has ordered the plaza demolished.
Christopher Taneyhill, chief building inspector, expects demolition to start in about a month.
Man died from drugs
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Mark A. McNulty, 40, of Lafayette Street, Sharon, died of a cocaine and morphine mix.
Cris Loutzenhiser, Mercer County deputy coroner, said a toxicology study showed a lethal combination of the drugs in McNulty's system.
He ruled the death accidental.
McNulty was found along Lynnwood Drive on June 6, and earlier this week, police arrested Emce A. Jones, 41, of Parke Drive on a charge of abuse of a corpse and criminal conspiracy.
Jones acknowledged that McNulty died in his apartment and that he and another man dumped the body early June 5, police said.
Jones is in the Mercer County jail on $10,000 bond.