Ungaro to speak to group

Ungaro to speak to group
YOUNGSTOWN -- Former Youngstown Mayor Patrick Ungaro will speak on the state Route 7/state Route 11 Connector and what it will mean to business development in the Gypsy Lane/Belmont Avenue area at 6 p.m. Monday at a meeting of the Northside Concerned Citizens.
The meeting will be in the Gathering Room of Park Vista Retirement Center on Fifth Avenue.
Ungaro, who is administrator for Liberty Township, served several terms as mayor of Youngstown.
Superintendent search
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown Board of Education has approved the hiring of a firm to conduct a search for a new superintendent.
The board voted to hire Hazard, Young, Attea & amp; Associates Ltd. of Aurora, Ill., said district spokesman M. Mike McNair.
McNair said the firm would be paid $19,000 plus out-of-pocket expenses.
Superintendent Benjamin L. McGee will resign in June 2004 to pursue a doctorate degree.
McNair said the firm will research the district's needs by consulting administrators, board members, parents and community members, advertise the position, interview candidates and select finalists. The board will make the final hiring decision.
The board had considered soliciting proposals from other firms before the hiring, but McNair said they chose the Illinois group after evaluating others.
Tentative teacher pact
YOUNGSTOWN -- The school board and the Youngstown Education Association teachers union have reached a tentative agreement on a contract that would replace the current pact that expires June 30.
Neither district spokesman M. Mike McNair nor YEA President Will Bagnola would discuss terms of the agreement.
Bagnola said union members will review the document and vote Tuesday on ratification. Board members reviewed the contract issues during a private meeting Thursday, but took no formal action on contract items.
Burchfield museum
SALEM -- The Burchfield Homestead Museum, 867 E. Fourth St., will be open to the public from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday and continuing each Sunday through October. Admission is free.
The remainder of the year, the museum is open by appointment only.
The museum is in the boyhood home of painter Charles Burchfield, recognized by experts as one of America's best watercolorists. Burchfield died in 1967.
On Sunday, visitors will be shown a video interview of artist ViktorSchreckengost, who spent a week painting with Burchfield in the 1920s.
Salem power outage
SALEM -- About 500 residences and businesses on the city's east side were without electricity for nearly two hours Friday.
The outage occurred about 10:25 a.m. Friday, said LuAnn Koch, Ohio Edison area manager.
It was caused when a squirrel chewed the protective coating on a primary electric line along state Route 45 near Snyder Road, just south of Salem.
When the squirrel contacted the wire itself, the animal was electrocuted and the line shorted out, causing it to break and fall, Koch said.
Power was restored about 12:30 p.m.
Girl, 16, faces charges
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A 16-year-old Youngstown girl faces juvenile charges in Pennsylvania, accused of driving a man to and from a bank that he robbed.
Police said George Penson, whose last known address was a motel in Boardman, told them he had the girl drive him to Call's Plaza in Neshannock Township on March 26, where the First National Bank was robbed. He admitted doing the robbery, Neshannock Township police said.
Penson faces federal charges in several bank robberies in Pennsylvania and Ohio, police said. A federal grand jury in Cleveland indicted him on those charges earlier this year.
Police said the 16-year-old girl has been charged with criminal conspiracy and receiving stolen property.
Drug possession charge
YOUNGSTOWN -- Police charged Rahsie L. Garner, 24, of Idlewood Avenue with possession of marijuana after they found a large bag of the suspected drug hidden in his underwear.
Police say officers discovered the bag while conducting a weapons search during a traffic stop near Williamson Avenue and Market Street about 1:50 p.m. Friday. Police also found an empty .40-caliber shell casing in Garner's orange 1999 Chrysler.
Shortly before officers pulled Garner over, they'd received a report of shots fired from an orange Chrysler in the 100 block of East Avondale Avenue.