Intersection upgrades

Intersection upgrades
COLUMBIANA -- A nearly $793,000 project to improve three key intersections on the city's north side is to begin this summer after city council agreed to borrow money for the task.
Council voted Wednesday to borrow $200,000 for the city's share of the job, the balance of which will be funded by the state, city manager Keith Chamberlin said today.
The loan will be paid back in about four years from the city's capital improvement and license plate tax funds. The interest rate is expected to be about 2 percent.
Plans call for installing turning lanes and making other upgrades at the intersections of state Routes 14 and 46 and state Routes 14 and 164.
The intersection of state Routes 46 and 164 will get a traffic light.
Indicted in child porn
LISBON -- A Wellsville man is accused of possessing images taken from the Internet that portray minors who are nude or engaging in sex acts.
David Simms, 51, 1007 Main St., was secretly indicted recently by a Columbiana County grand jury on 41 counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material and on six counts of having sexually oriented material involving minors.
The first charge is a fifth-degree felony bearing a maximum 1-year sentence on conviction. The second charge is a fourth-degree felony with an 18-month maximum sentence if he's convicted.
There is no indication that Simms knew any of the minors in the material, authorities said Wednesday.
Simms is free on a personal recognizance bond.
Sewer plant filters
SALEM -- City council authorized the utilities department to replace two filtering units at the city's sewer plant.
The project, approved Wednesday by council, is expected to cost about $164,000, which will be paid from utility department funds.
Council President Dave Ventresco attended his first council meeting Wednesday after missing the two previous meetings for unspecified medical reasons.
Ventresco was charged by police in March with writing a bad check and domestic violence. The two unrelated episodes, which are pending, were misunderstandings, Ventresco has said.
Turkey hunter alarm
SALEM -- Four city police officers responded to a call of an armed man dressed in camouflage walking in the 1200 block of East Sixth Street near the high school.
Police determined that the man, a city resident in his 40s, had been hunting turkeys, which explained the camouflage and the 12-gauge, unloaded shotgun he was carrying. The firearm had been made inoperable by the hunter.
Police said today that the man wasn't doing anything illegal. The event occurred about 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Suit over police dog
YOUNGSTOWN -- A former Mahoning County deputy sheriff is suing Sheriff Randall Wellington, the sheriff's department and the county commissioners for costs he incurred while caring for a police dog.
In a suit filed Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, Howard Santilli says he cared for Gill, his canine partner from 1991 until Gill retired in 1996 and through the animal's death in 2002.
Santilli claims he was directed to care for Gill and was assured he would be reimbursed for expenses, including veterinary bills, food, licenses, medicines and vaccinations. He said he was rebuffed when he attempted to negotiate a reimbursement agreement. Santilli was a deputy sheriff until December 2001.
Sentenced for selling coke
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Poland man will serve four years in prison for two counts of cocaine trafficking.
Shawn Willis, 31, of South Main Street, was sentenced Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Judge John M. Durkin also suspended his driver's license for six months and ordered that Willis' 1995 Toyota Avalon and $2,420 be turned over to authorities.
Willis was one of seven men indicted for operating what authorities called a major drug network that sold some 330 pounds of cocaine, mostly at bars in the city's suburbs and on the West Side.