Agency approves pact

Agency approves pact
YOUNGSTOWN -- Downtown's redevelopment agency has approved a contract to build an addition to the state office building. The agreement approved Tuesday is between the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp. and the Mahoning County commissioners and county children services board. The CIC will build the $7.5 million addition to the George V. Voinovich Government Center. The addition, which will house workers from the CSB and the state Bureau of Workers' Compensation, likely will have a different name. The county is financing the project and has the right to name the building.
Court upholds conviction
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Ohio 7th District Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of Jamal Shakoor, who is serving 18 years to life in prison for the January 2000 killing of 31-year-old Benjamin C. Reeves of Bennington Avenue. Shakoor was angry because Reeves was dating his former girlfriend. He shot Reeves six times in the parking lot of Ursuline High School. A Mahoning County Common Pleas Court jury convicted Shakoor in 2001.
Grand jury indicts man
YOUNGSTOWN -- George Wright III, 30, of Almyra Avenue, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury, accused of violating federal firearm laws. Authorities say Wright illegally possessed ammunition after having been convicted in 1996 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court of aggravated drug trafficking.
Open house at school
STRUTHERS -- The board of education will hold a public open house at the newly renovated Struthers Middle School, 800 Fifth Street, from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Police arrest woman
CAMPBELL -- Police charged Heather Ramsey, 22, of Tampa Avenue, Youngstown, with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a drug abuse instrument Tuesday. They said they found a loaded gun in the waistband of her pants and a glass crack pipe inside a pack of cigarettes she was holding. Police arrested her just before 4 a.m. Tuesday in the 100 block of Reed Avenue. According to the report, police were investigating a suspicious man sitting in a parked car when Ramsey approached to enter the vehicle. Officers said they found a loaded .32-caliber revolver on her. The driver of the car was not charged.
2 face drug charges
YOUNGSTOWN -- Two arrests were made Tuesday when police used search warrants at two South Side homes. At 850 W. Indianola Ave., the resident, Denise Leonard, 18, was charged with aggravated trafficking in marijuana. Police said they found 19 packaged-for-sale bags of suspected marijuana on the living-room table. At 1635-37 E. Indianola, John W. Moore, 27, of Garfield Street, Struthers, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, a suspected crack pipe.
Man robs residents
YOUNGSTOWN -- A man in a ski mask entered a house on South Whitney Avenue on Tuesday afternoon through an unlocked screen door, aimed a gun at three residents of the home and demanded cash and pills, reports show. One victim, a 44-year-old woman who takes several medications, gave her pills to the robber. The suspect then rifled through the woman's purse and took $4, police said.
Council meeting called
GIRARD -- Mayor James J. Melfi has called for a special city council meeting at noon Friday to remove amendments from two ordinances approved Monday. Lawmakers approved $83,200 to repair a portion of West Broadway Street and $36,000 to repair Amherst Avenue. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay 90 percent of the cost because the roads were damaged by flooding. Councilman Joseph Christopher, D-at-large, sought and received amendments to the legislation that called for the city not to pay the contractors for the work until the city is reimbursed by FEMA. Christopher said he found out Tuesday that a federal agency can't be committed to debt so the amendments must be removed from the legislation.