Wants early release

Wants early release
YOUNGSTOWN -- John Scott Bloyer has filed documents in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court asking for early release from prison.
Bloyer, 44, of Sigle Lane, Boardman, is serving one year for pandering obscenity involving a minor.
He was sentenced in April by Judge James C. Evans.
Bloyer is a former volunteer announcer for the Boardman Little Spartans football program.
He was charged after authorities found sexually oriented pictures of children in his truck, including some of young girls in sexual bondage situations.
He also was sentenced to a year in prison for similar charges in Trumbull County, and faces similar charges in Springboro, Ohio.
Village hall renovation
LOWELLVILLE -- A $92,000 renovation of village hall is expected to be completed by Jan. 10.
The work began late last week with electrical upgrades, according to Phil Alfano, village administrator.
The work will also include installation of a new shingled roof, complete renovation of the auditorium including new light fixtures, refinishing the hardwood floor, repairing damaged plaster and new paint.
Ground floor offices, council chambers and hallways will have wall paper stripped, new paint, new ceiling tile and in some areas, new carpet, he said.
Grave memorials stolen
YOUNGSTOWN -- Cathy Kusnic of Austintown says she takes good care of her parents' grave sites at Calvary Cemetery and, for the third time since June, she discovered a theft.
Over the weekend, she said, she discovered a brass vase with a fall flower arrangement worth around $50 missing.
Kusnic said that, in June, an arrangement of mums was taken from her parents' graves, which are near the mausoleums, and in July, balloons for her father's birthday were stolen.
Don Goncy, cemetery superintendent, said he's not had any other reports of thefts, just Kusnic's.
With 100,000 burials, there is the occasional theft of brass vases, he said.
Police chase, arrest
YOUNGSTOWN -- After a Thursday afternoon police pursuit from a parking lot in the Westlake Terrace housing projects, Phillip G. Tunanidas, 53, of Parkway Drive, Poland, was arrested on charges of criminal trespass and failure to comply with a police order.
A check revealed that Tunanidas was wanted on warrants from Mahoning, Trumbull and Portage counties.
When police, who were in the parking lot on Griffith Street in response to drug complaints, approached Tunanidas' car, he sped off, reports show.
Funding meeting
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A meeting this week with Dennis Yablonsky, Pennsylvania secretary of economic development, concerning funding for Millennium Park in Lawrence County was promising, said Linda Nitch, executive director of the Lawrence County Economic Development Corp.
"It was a positive meeting, and it's a work in progress," Nitch said.
LCEDC requested the meeting after state officials informed the group that it was only eligible for $4 million of the $15 million that Gov. Ed Rendell had promised to the project last year.
The LCEDC was not able to provide the necessary one-to-one private match for the entire $15 million. Department of Community and Economic Development officials have said LCEDC can apply for other state funding sources to pay for the project.
Millennium Park is a proposed 500-acre high technology park in Neshannock Township.
Purse falsely claimed
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Police said a purse left behind by a woman dining at Applebee's Neighborhood Grille & amp; Bar on South Hermitage Road was stolen by a man claiming to be her husband.
The victim and her real husband left the restaurant around 11 p.m. Thursday, and the woman later realized she had left her purse. She called the restaurant only to learn that someone else had already claimed her purse.
Police said a waiter discovered the purse and was taking it to the office to turn it in when he was stopped by a man who said the purse belonged to his wife.
The waiter gave him the purse after the man pointed out the table where it had been left, police said.
The thief was described as a white man in his 50s with a gray beard and gray hair.
Express lanes closing
NEW STANTON, Pa. -- Both the eastbound and westbound E-ZPass Express lanes at the Pennsylvania Turnpike's mainline toll facility at Warrendale will be closed for a time Saturday for routine maintenance.
The lanes will close at 8 a.m. and are expected to reopen no later than 4 p.m. Turnpike crews and state police will be on hand to assist traffic control, turnpike officials said.