CCA contract renewed
CCA contract renewed
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County commissioners renewed a contract Tuesday with Community Corrections Agency to provide probation services to the county's common pleas court. The annual contract, which was approved at $41,000, includes supervision of people placed on probation and presentencing reports, court officials said. CCA, on Market Street, has performed such services for the county for at least 15 years.
St. Pat's Day stops
YOUNGSTOWN -- The St. Patrick's Day traffic blitz resulted in 69 stops on Interstate 680 and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Police said they issued 42 speeding tickets, six seat belt tickets and 17 warnings and charged four drivers who had suspended or revoked licenses.
Charged with rape
NILES -- Police have charged a 37-year-old man with raping a 15-year-old girl. Stephen A. Kapuchuck is in the Trumbull County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bond. On Tuesday, Municipal Judge Thomas W. Townley set a preliminary hearing for 9:30 a.m. March 31. A police report says the accused is the boyfriend of the accuser's mother and purportedly assaulted the girl Sunday.
Boys shooting BB guns
YOUNGSTOWN -- A complaint to police that three teenage boys had shotguns and were firing the weapons from the bleachers at the Borts Pool baseball diamond turned out to be boys with BB guns, reports show. Police confiscated the BB guns and released the boys to their parents.
Memorial fund
CHAMPION -- A fund has been created in memory of Andrew Hopkins, the 18-year-old Champion High School graduate and Hiram College freshman who died March 13 of injuries he suffered in a March 2 traffic accident in Burton. The fund was created to defray the family's unexpected expenses and establish a legacy for Hopkins. Contributions to the Andy Hopkins Fund may be made at any Cortland Bank branch.
United Way hits goal
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The United Way of Lawrence County has reached its yearly fund-raising goal for the first time in five years. Gayle Young, executive director, said extra donations from individuals in the last week helped the agency reach $600,000. The group was shy about $4,000 of that goal last week, she noted. A victory dinner and annual meeting was Tuesday at the Villa in New Castle. Young said this was the first time since the Sept. 11 tragedy that the Lawrence County United Way has reached its fund-raising goal.
Bus driver suspended
AUSTINTOWN -- A bus driver has been suspended by the Turning Point residential center for people with mental disabilities after he slapped a disabled man who had hit him on the back, a township police report says. The Mahoning County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities is investigating. The disabled man, 26, of Austintown, was slapped while he was boarding a bus at a daytime workshop for Turning Point on Friday. Police report that the man began to yell at the driver, then struck the driver twice on the back; the driver in turn slapped his face.
Bridge replacement
HILLSVILLE, Pa. -- Work replacing the bridge on Old Pulaski Road in Pulaski Township will begin April 3, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The old structure will be removed beginning at 7 a.m. that day and the bridge should remain closed through early August. The bridge, which carries an average of about 370 vehicles each day on Pa. Route 4005 over McClanghan Run, is about 265 feet north of the Heather Heights Road intersection. The project will replace the current structure with a new box culvert. Motorists should expect changing traffic patterns when traveling through the area and allow extra time. The prime contractor for the project is Shingledecker's Welding Inc. of Franklin, Pa.