Board will interview candidates for seat

Board will interviewcandidates for seat
HOWLAND -- The board of education will interview four candidates Monday to fill the year remaining on the term of board member Eric Moore, who resigned last month.
Seven residents submitted applications for the position, said Thomas Krispinsky, district treasurer. The board picked four to interview: Kelly Harries, consultant; Ronald Knight, retired teacher; Stephanie Shaw, Sprint employee; and Scott Lehman, rehabilitation services coordinator and former teacher.
WRTA's protest denied
NILES -- A protest against a busing program that has yet to begin operations has been denied.
Mayor Ralph A. Infante told council Wednesday a complaint filed in December by Western Reserve Transit Authority in Youngstown against Niles-Trumbull Transit System has been denied because it fails to support the allegations made.
WRTA contended the proposed system in Trumbull County did not have a bid protest procedure in place, had a conflict of interest with Community Busing Service and failed to provide WRTA with enough information to provide a competitive bid.
The complaint, originally filed with the Federal Transit Authority in Chicago, was sent back earlier this year to local officials to handle.
WRTA has five days to appeal the ruling.
'The Dockers Gang'
NILES -- Two suspected members of "The Dockers Gang," as police call them, have been bound over to the Trumbull County grand jury.
Casey J. Ennis, 26, and Michael J. Ressa, 60, both of Philadelphia, are being held in the Trumbull County jail after a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Niles Municipal Court.
Police theorize the pair are part of a gang of people who have defrauded J.C. Penney department stores throughout the East Coast for hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few years.
Ennis and Ressa are each charged with one count of receiving stolen property, one count of criminal simulation and five counts of possessing criminal tools. Ennis is also charged with a count of theft, and Ressa was additionally charged with complicity.
Police said the two were arrested last week after they were accused of shoplifting by a security guard at Eastwood Mall.
Police said they found bogus receipts, several pairs of Dockers pants, blank rolls of Penney's register tape and other items in their car.
Police say the men steal Dockers pants from one store, create a bogus receipt, then return them for cash refunds at other stores.
Items weren't ordered
NILES -- Police are investigating a number of reports from Warren residents saying they are receiving items from a Niles electronics store that they never ordered.
One woman told police a laptop computer and two cell phones from Best Buy were delivered to her Tod Avenue N.W. home last weekend.
Best Buy officials told her someone applied for $2,500 credit in her name via computer and then purchased the items.
Clerk turns down job
NEWTON FALLS -- Finance clerk Marcia Cunningham, who has filled in as city manager since the resignation of Robert C. Eberhart in December, informed council Wednesday night she plans to keep only her clerk job. The announcement comes roughly two weeks after council voted 3-2 to offer the manager's position to Cunningham.
Eberhart, who served as city manager since August 1999, was ordered by council last fall to resign or be fired. He is suing the city in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Special meeting
VIENNA -- Vienna Township trustees will meet in special session at 8 a.m. Friday in town hall.
Barn fire investigated
BLOOMFIELD -- The Trumbull County Arson Task Force is investigating a fire that destroyed a barn on Dunkerton Road today.
The Bloomfield Volunteer Fire Department responded to the blaze at 3:10 a.m.
No other details were available.
Warren artist in show
SHARON, Pa. -- The work of Warren artist Irene Was is featured in "Vibrations; Plus Other Works" opening Friday in the Valley Arts Guild, 10 Vine Ave.
Was, 82, will be recognized at a public reception from 7 to 9 p.m. The show runs through June 30.
Guild hours are noon to 5 p.m. Mondays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays. It will also be open noon to 4 p.m. this Saturday only.