Commissioner candidate

Commissioner candidate
YOUNGSTOWN -- Jamael Tito Brown, a Youngstown school board member, plans to file nominating petitions Monday to run as an independent candidate for Mahoning County commissioner. Brown, who served as Jay Williams' mayoral campaign manager, said his supporters were collecting signatures on petitions Friday, and he expects to have enough to get on the ballot. He needs 869 valid signatures.
Monday, the day before the partisan primary, is the deadline for independent candidates to file for the November general election. Commissioner David Ludt of Poland, a two-term incumbent, is facing ex-Youngstown Mayor George M. McKelvey in the Democratic primary. The Republicans aren't fielding a candidate in the race.
Inducing-panic charge
AUSTINTOWN -- A Fitch High School student has been charged with inducing panic over threatening messages found in office printers, police report.
Police charged Alex C. Bugno, 18, of Ayrshire Drive, on Thursday after messages were found in two printers.
School personnel determined the messages originated from a computer in the school's media center, where Bugno was confronted, the report said. He admitted sending the messages because he wanted to get out of school, the report said. The messages said that "something will go off that will hurt a lot of people" and "bigger than Columbine," a reference to the massacre that occurred in 1999 at Columbine High School in Colorado in which 12 students and a teacher were killed by two other students.
Bugno is to appear in Mahoning County Court here Monday at 1 p.m.
Driver taken to hospital
NORTH LIMA -- An Austintown man was treated at St. Elizabeth Health Center after a one-vehicle accident on state Route 7 in Beaver Township. The Canfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said Timothy Carney, 24, of Deer Creek Court, was driving south on Route 7 around 1:50 a.m. Thursday when his pickup truck went off the right side of the road and struck a ditch. The truck overturned and struck a pole, the patrol said.
New times for permits
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Sanitary Engineering Department has announced new days and times for Milton Township residents to get permits to be connected to the newly installed water system. Beginning today, permits will be issued from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays at the township fire station on Mahoning Avenue and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, excluding holidays, at the sanitary engineer's business office, 761 Industrial Road. Permits also will be issued Saturdays at the fire station, but by appointment only; call the sanitary engineer's office at (330) 793-5514 Ext. 6405.
Armed robbery
BOARDMAN -- A Glenwood Avenue woman told police that a man pushed a gun into her side and stole her purse as she was approaching her apartment. The woman, 24, told police that she drove into a gated area of the apartment's parking lot, got out of her car and headed into the apartment. She saw a white man in his 20s get out of a car and as she put her key into the building's door, the man pushed a gun into her side, grabbed her purse, asking if she had any money and ran back toward the car. The woman wasn't injured. The purse contained a cell phone, identification, credit cards and $78 cash, report said.
Pool fill-up fundraiser
WEST MIDDLESEX, Pa. -- The West Middlesex Volunteer Fire Department's water hauling/swimming pool fill-up fundraiser is starting. Deliveries will be made throughout the Shenango Valley, as well as Hubbard, Brookfield, New Wilmington, Pulaski, Lackawannock and Jefferson townships. Other locations may vary on an individual basis. For delivery and pricing, call (330) 501-9685, (724) 528-2615 or (724) 528-9931.
Prison workers honored
LEAVITTSBURG -- Karen Willingham has been named corrections officer of the year and Antonio Cardona has been designated employee of the year at the Trumbull Correctional Institution. Willingham, who joined the state prison staff in 1996, serves on TCI's correctional staff fellowship committee and women's issues, faith-based and return-to-work teams. Cardona, who joined the institution in 2004, is an assistant investigator and inspector. Willingham and Cardona participate in fund-raising events at TCI. They are being recognized in conjunction with Correctional Employee Week, which is being observed next week.