Employees file labor charge

Employees file labor charge
SOUTHINGTON -- The union for nonteaching employees, who say they're on strike, has filed an unfair-labor-practice charge against the school board, saying the superintendent wrongly told them they're absent without leave and instructed them to return to work no later than today.
The Ohio Association of Public School Employees Local 673, which represents the workers who've been off the job since Aug. 25, filed the complaint with the State Employment Relations Board, objecting to a letter Superintendent William Pfahler wrote, which said the workers were AWOL.
Although the union calls the dispute a strike, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has ruled it a lockout, thereby qualifying the employees for unemployment benefits while they're off the job.
As of this morning, nine of the union's 15 members were still on the picket line. Five returned to work within the first two weeks of the strike, and a bus driver returned earlier this week.
Ward meeting set
WARREN -- Councilman Robert Holmes III, D-4th, will conduct a ward meeting at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Hippodrome, High Street N.E. Holmes plans to update residents on the city's proposed sewer rate increase.
Zoning requests denied
MINERAL RIDGE -- Weathersfield Township Board of Zoning Appeals turned down two requests for variances Thursday, both of which concerned garages on residential property.
Mark Shank, Anderson-Morris Road, Niles, sought a variance to allow construction in the township of an attached 18-by-28-foot garage with less than the required 7-foot setback from the side property lines.
John and Dolores Kessler, Oakview Drive, Girard, sought a variance to allow an addition of 312 feet to their garage in the township. The square footage is over the allowable 5 percent coverage of the total property provided for in zoning laws for residential properties.
Town hall meeting
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Ohio Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, along with several area agencies, is sponsoring a town hall meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Choffin Career and Technical Center to address alcohol marketing and its effect on youths' decisions regarding alcohol use.
Other sponsors are ON TASC, Help Hotline Crisis Center, Ohio State University-Youngstown Young Scholars Program, Prevention Partners Plus and the Youngstown City Schools Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program. The event includes a presentation by area high school students.
Home break-in
SHARON, Pa. -- Police arrested Andrew C. Hoffman, 20, of Madison Street on charges of burglary and theft in a break-in at a home in the 300 block of Grant Street. Police said Hoffman is accused of entering the home of an acquaintance through a first-floor window Sept. 2 and removing a small safe containing $1,800 from a second-floor room. He was arrested on a warrant at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at the office of District Justice James McMahon and freed after posting $10,000 bond.
Easter Seals awarded funds
YOUNGSTOWN -- Easter Seals of Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana Counties Inc. has been awarded $6,000 through the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, a private philanthropic trust. The money will be used toward an enhanced telecommunication system that will replace the 13-year-old telephone system at the main Easter Seals center at 299 Edwards St.
A haunted happening
LOWELLVILLE -- Lowellville Haunted Bike Trail and Hayride, sponsored by the Lowellville Firefighters Association and the Lowellville Firefighters Ladies Auxiliary, will run from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 7 to 11 p.m. Oct. 24-26. Admission is $3 per person; children under 6 are admitted free.
Public library book sale
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The New Castle Public Library's book sale will continue through Monday in the Book Cellar, on the lower level of the library. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today and noon to 8 p.m. Monday. Books are $2 a bag. All proceeds benefit the library.