2 injured in shootings

2 injured in shootings
YOUNGSTOWN -- Shootings on the East and South sides of town left two men injured, police said. The first happened around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 700 block of Shehy Street on the East Side. The 24-year-old victim said he heard five to six shots as he was getting into his car and then realized he'd been hit in the right hand. No description of the shooter was given to police. Just past 10 p.m. Tuesday, a 32-year-old West Philadelphia Avenue man was shot in the left ankle when he confronted a man headed toward his car, which had recently been broken into. The suspect fled in a Oldsmobile Delta 88. The suspect was described as a 5 feet 8 inch, 170-pound, 20-year-old black man wearing a black wave cap and black sweatshirt.
Man sentenced
YOUNGSTOWN -- Retaliation may have been the motive of Johnta Lincoln, 21, of Idlewood Avenue, who was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison for shooting a woman. Lincoln pleaded guilty Feb. 2 to felonious assault with a firearm specification and failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer. Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Lincoln to four years for felonious assault; a mandatory three years for the firearm specification, which will be served consecutively; and three years for failure to comply, which will be served concurrently. The victim's uncle was a witness in a drive-by shooting. The assault on the woman was reportedly in retribution for her uncle's role, said Robert J. Andrews, an assistant county prosecutor.
State backs levy
STRUTHERS -- The state Financial Planning and Supervision Commission, which has fiscal oversight for the Struthers School District, approved placing an additional five-year, 6.9-mill levy on the May 2 primary election ballot. The commission's decision, which came at a special meeting Wednesday afternoon, affirmed the same action taken Tuesday by the Struthers Board of Education. The levy would generate about $1,060,000 a year, but only half of that, $530,000, would come in fiscal year 2007, which runs from July 1, 2006, to June 30, 2007, because the school district would not begin to collect the tax until January 2007. The district has been in state-designated financial emergency since May 2005. Joseph Funai, financial planning commission chairman, said the levy is needed for rebuilding district finances.
Wage reconsideration
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Union Township auditors will meet in special session at the municipal building at 7:30 tonight to reconsider wages for township Roadmaster Clair Damon. Township auditors John DeRobertis and Steve Galizia, who was defeated in November by Damon for the supervisor's seat, set Damon's wage at $5.15 per hour. The third auditor, Richard Pauline, did not attend that meeting. Damon has fiiled a court action asking that auditors be ordered to follow state law and set comparable wages for him. During Galizia's tenure as supervisor, Galizia and Supervisor Pat Angiolelli shared the roadmaster job and were each paid $10 per hour. The meeting will be taking place at the same time as the regular supervisors' meeting, which is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Officials back levy
NORTH JACKSON -- School officials are trying to get the word out to voters about the need to pass a 3.85-mill levy that will appear on the May 2 primary ballot. The board of education is meeting at 6 tonight at the elementary school, 14110 Mahoning Ave., to take a final vote on the permanent improvement levy that would provide funding to build a new Jackson-Milton Middle/High School. Treasurer John Zinger said the district is planning to take out a $14.5 million loan if the levy passes and combine that money with permanent improvement money the district has to build the facility. The loan is payable over 30 years, Zinger said.
Student suspended
GIRARD -- A 15-year-old Girard High School student has been suspended from school and may face criminal charges after police say he was found to be carrying a knife on school property. Police reports said school officials and police were conducting a metal detector search of students at 7:50 a.m. Tuesday when an officer saw the student push a folding knife behind some bushes leading to the school. The boy's parents were called and identified the knife as belonging to the student, reports said.