Thursday, December 22, 2005
One-lane restrictionsplanned for I-680
YOUNGSTOWN -- Interstate 680 in the city will have various one-lane restrictions in either or both directions between Steel Street and Gibson Street through Friday. These restrictions will occur from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Theft charge bound overto county grand jury
STRUTHERS -- A felony theft charge against Carmine J. Ramunno, 23, of Edison Street was bound over to a Mahoning County grand jury Wednesday. City Prosecutor Carol Clemente-Wagner amended the charge from burglary to theft, the clerk of court's office said.
Ramunno, who was fired after being charged, had been a Mahoning County Sanitary Engineer technician working on a database system. His work entailed recording the location of all manholes with a Global Positioning System. He is accused of taking jewelry from an Overlook Boulevard home on Dec. 8 while working for the county engineer. He was hired full time in August.
Zoning hearing canceled
MINERAL RIDGE -- A hearing todayon Weathersfield Township Zoning Commission's approval of a zone change Dec. 7 to a planned unit development for 14 acres at Country Meadows Estate, off County Line Road just east of Four Mile Run Road, has been canceled and will be rescheduled. Mark IV Builders plans to build an estimated 92 condominiums in a gated community.
Officials probe fire
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- City officials are investigating a fire at a Reynolds Street office complex that was started after a break-in at a physician's office Tuesday.
Fire officials said someone broke into the doctor's office at Plaza South and set a small fire in front of the physician's filing cabinets. They said most of the office files were damaged or destroyed. No one was in the building at the time, they said. Firefighters responded to the scene around 7 p.m. and the blaze was contained within 45 minutes. About $10,000 in damage was reported.
Cleanup after blaze
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Cleanup efforts at the Central Building at 101 S. Mercer St. continued Wednesday after a fire that broke out at the office building Monday night.
City fire officials said they responded to the blaze around 7 p.m. and it was contained by 10 p.m.
Damage was estimated at $50,000. No injuries were reported. The five-story structure houses several state offices including the health department's vital records division and the labor and industry department's workers' compensation bureau.
Three vehicles entered
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Someone entered at least three unlocked vehicles parked along Hazel Street sometime Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning and took an undetermined amount of cash, Hermitage police reported. Police said cigarettes were also stolen. They said there are no suspects in the matter.
Man reports shooting
WARREN -- A 34-year-old city man told police a man he knew fired shots at the car he was driving at 2:18 a.m. Wednesday outside the Power House Bar on Mahoning Avenue, Northwest, where he had been drinking with a friend. The victim said he saw the suspect, with whom he had spent time in prison, standing in the bar's parking lot as he and his friend were leaving the bar. After the victim and his friend entered a car, the victim said the suspect ran into the middle of Mahoning Avenue and opened fire with a revolver, striking the car several times on the driver's side, but causing no injuries to the occupants. Police recovered two bullets from the scene. The victim said he didn't know why the shooter would want to kill him. Police asked the victim if it had anything to do with several thousand dollars he had in his pocket, but he denied it.
High-speed chase
AUSTINTOWN -- Police chased theft suspects at speeds up to 80 mph on state Route 11 north and Interstate 680.
Police said the chase began after an officer got a report that the suspects had stolen items from the Get Go at 5163 Mahoning Ave.
The officer chased them onto I-680 and stopped the chase at Meridian Road.
Another officer reported that he had stopped the suspects' car Monday, and he had the identity of the driver.