5 liquor options fail to get enough signatures

5 liquor options failto get enough signatures
LISBON -- Five liquor options will not go on the November ballot because they did not have enough valid signatures, the Columbiana County Board of Elections ruled Thursday.
John Payne, the elections director, said all the options would have allowed Sunday sales of liquor. The issues denied were for the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Salem Precinct 1B; Ricky's English Pub in Salem Precinct 2A; the Original Roadhouse in Unity Township in Precinct Southeast; the Corner Pocket in Leetonia Precinct A; and the Riverside Roadhouse in Wellsville Precinct 1A.
Kerry office to open
LISBON -- The Kerry-Edwards headquarters for Columbiana County will open at noon Saturday at 124 E. Lincoln Way.
The headquarters will serve as the office for Democrats working to elect John Kerry for president, and the rest of the Democratic ticket. The event is open to the public, and will include prize giveaways and a hot dog roast.
Teachers OK contract
SHARPSVILLE, Pa. -- Teachers in the Sharpsville Area School District have accepted the terms of a new contract. Mike Kalpich, chief negotiator for the Sharpsville Area Education Association, said the teachers ratified the agreement Thursday on the first day of the new school year.
Terms of the pact will be revealed in a joint news release later today by the teachers and the school board, he said. The school board ratified the contract Aug. 16. The settlement ends more than 16 months of negotiations and will be retroactive to July 1, 2003. The district's 82 teachers worked all of the 2003-04 school year under an extension of their old contract.
Former jailer surrenders
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A former part-time Lawrence County Jail corrections officer wanted on drug charges has surrendered to police.
David Kennedy, 22, of Ellwood Road was charged with criminal conspiracy to possess a controlled substance and criminal conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.
Police contend that while Kennedy was working as a part-time corrections officer in the jail, an inmate gave him OxyContin and Kennedy passed it to another inmate. Kennedy no longer works at the jail. He was released on $5,000 bond.
New county Web site
LISBON -- The Columbiana County Data Processing Board announced Thursday that a new Web site -- www.columbianacounty.org -- will allow access to the records of many county offices that had their own Web sites. They include the auditor, sheriff, treasurer and clerk of courts. The commissioners' and recorder's offices also plan to become linked to the new site.
Illegal immigrants nabbed
MERCER, Pa. -- Pennsylvania State Police continue to nab illegal immigrants seeking to pass through Mercer County on Interstate 80. Police said they caught four men in a vehicle stopped for a traffic violation in the eastbound lanes in Findley Township around 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
Two were from Peru, one was from Ecuador and one from Colombia. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took the four into custody.
Two immigrants were picked up around 9:15 a.m. Monday in almost the same spot. One was from Sierra Leone and the other from Senegal, police said. Troopers have caught nearly 100 illegal immigrants on I-80 over the past two months.
Turnpike stretch to close
NEW STANTON, Pa. -- Westbound traffic on the Pennsylvania Turnpike between the Bedford (Exit 146) and Somerset (Exit 110) interchanges will be closed between 12:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. Sunday.
Alternative route information for westbound motorists forced to exit at Bedford will be available at the Bedford interchange, turnpike officials said.
The closure is necessary so road crews can remove steel beams from the old overhead ramp bridge at the Somerset interchange. The work is part of the ongoing reconstruction of the turnpike mainline between Milepost 109 and Milepost 122.