North Side cleanup

North Side cleanup
YOUNGSTOWN -- The North Side Eagle Eye block watch will have its annual cleanup day Saturday.
Volunteers should assemble at 8 a.m. in the parking lot of New Grace Baptist Church at Fairgreen and Wirt streets. Volunteers are asked to bring yard tools. The block watch will provide gloves, trash bags and refreshments.
Boil-water alert lifted
YOUNGSTOWN -- A boil-water alert has been lifted for those affected by a service interruption Monday so crews could relocate a line as part of the 711 connector project.
The water has been declared safe to drink for those in the 2400 and 2500 blocks of Belmont Avenue, plus all tenants of Union Square Plaza.
Crews relocated a waterline on Belmont between Gypsy Lane and Granada Avenue.
Check fraud
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 35-year-old Youngstown State University student told police that two of her student loan checks were fraudulently signed and cashed at a downtown bank. According to police, each of the $1,843 checks were cashed at Bank One. One was cashed May 5, the other May 10 by two different men.
The bank notified the Youngstown woman of the transactions Wednesday.
State of the schools
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown city school district's Urban Congress will sponsor meetings on the status of the schools at 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Both sessions are at the Choffin Career and Technical Center, 200 E. Wood St.
The event will include remarks by Superintendent Benjamin L. McGee, an update on the schools construction project, a report on the academic direction of the district, a report by the district's student advisory board and discussions regarding the small high school communities initiative and the early college high school project.
For further information, call (330) 744-6930.
Cleaning up cemetery
YOUNGSTOWN -- The 7th Ward Citizens' Coalition will have a cleanup of the Powers Estate Cemetery at 11 a.m. Saturday. The cemetery is at the end of Lenox and Pine Hollow avenues.
Youths from the Mahoning County Juvenile Justice Center will assist. The coalition has done the cemetery cleanup the past nine years.
ATV confiscated
YOUNGSTOWN -- Police recovered a blue Yamaha Blaster four-wheel all-terrain vehicle reported stolen in Kent after a concerned citizen overheard men riding all-terrain vehicles along North Schenley Avenue on Thursday evening say that one was a stolen vehicle.
The driver, a 21-year-old Youngstown man, told police that he bought the vehicle at a flea market about six months ago.
The ATV was reported stolen in March 2001.
No charges have been filed against the driver, but the vehicle was confiscated.
Victimized by scam
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 51-year-old Hilton Avenue woman fell victim to a scam after she received a telephone call informing her that she'd won a $350,000 sweepstakes.
According to police, the woman was given a number to the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., and a toll-free number to inquire about the sweepstakes by a man who told her she would have to pay $4,200 to ensure prize delivery via "sonic air" between 4 and 5 p.m. today. The price to ensure delivery was later reduced to $1,725, and was to be mailed to a man in Costa Rica, police said.
The woman told police that she had sent the man a check for $19.95 April 23 for a release.
Girl reports rapes
YOUNGSTOWN -- Police are investigating the rape of a 14-year-old Ohio Avenue girl.
According to a police report, the girl's mother notified officers after her daughter left her a note detailing several instances when a 28-year-old neighbor would come to their house while the mother was at work, ask to use the phone and then force the girl to have sex with him.
The girl told police that the man raped her a couple of times a week between the second week in March and May 9. The girl said that she didn't report the rapes sooner because she feared the man.