Council fills vacant spot

Council fills vacant spot

POLAND — Village council Tuesday night selected a retired engineer to fill the nearly six-month vacant council term. Ted Heineman was chosen from a field of seven people who applied. Heineman also served on the village’s stormwater advisory team and cemetery board and is a member of Town One Streetscapes. Council also approved a third reading to place a 2-mill renewal levy on the November ballot. It will raise $109,889 annually for five years.

Hospital groundbreaking

BOARDMAN — A ceremonial groundbreaking event for the new Mahoning Valley Hospital was to be held this morning. The event, which was by invitation, will be at Mr. Anthony’s Banquet Center, South Avenue. The new 28-bed, all private room hospital will be located on South Avenue, next to Cellular One and across the street from its current location within Greenbriar Acute Rehabilitation Hospital. The total project cost is estimated at $11.8 million. Construction is expected to be completed by late 2008.

Park death an accident

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Coroner’s office has ruled the death of a Mill Creek Metro Parks worker who backed his lawnmower off an embankment an accident. An exact cause of death hadn’t been determined as of Tuesday. Lennill Bush, 78, of Hillman Street, was mowing grass as part of a work crew around 1:30 p.m. Monday when he backed his lawn tractor up over a curb and kept going, backing off an embankment and dropping 12 to 14 feet into a ravine, landing in a creek bed, said park Police Chief Nathanial Pinkard. Another employee witnessed the accident, he said. Bush was a seasonal employee at the park for about five years, Pinkard said.

$15,000 in fire damage

YOUNGSTOWN — Damage was estimated at $15,000 in a fire at the home of Betty and Barry Garhammer at 969 Canfield Road. Firefighters said the occupants were alerted by smoke detectors around 5:40 a.m. Monday and got out of the house safely. The first crew on the scene reported heavy smoke showing at the back of the roof and attic area, firefighters said. The cause is under investigation.

Promotional examination

WARREN — The promotional examination for the position of sergeant on the Warren Police Department will be administered Sept. 27 at the operations department. Applications for this position will be accepted today and July 25 between 1:30 and 3 p.m. at the Warren Police station. All eligible officers must have served in the rank of police officer on the Warren Police Department at least five years from the date of original appointment to the date of such promotional examination.

Route 164 car crashes

Two separate car crashes Tuesday on state Route 164 in Columbiana and Mahoning counties left several people injured. At about 12:45 p.m. in Fairfield Township in Columbiana, two people were injured, apparently not seriously, when Paul Kudler, 87, of Woodland Road, New Middletown, who was stopped westbound on state Route 558, pulled out from a stop sign and struck a car driven southbound on Route 164 by Harry McKee, 75, of North Beaver Street, Lisbon. McKee’s car ended up in the ditch, according to a spokeswoman for the Lisbon Barracks of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. McKee and a passenger in his car, Pauline McKee, 81, also of North Beaver Street, were taken to Salem Community Hospital for treatment, the OSHP said. Hospital officials have no record of them being admitted, however. Kudler was cited for a right-of-way violation. Details were sketchy Tuesday night about a four-car crash in Beaver Township in Mahoning on Route 164 near the intersection of Garfield Road at 7:40 p.m. According to a spokeswoman for the Canfield Barracks of the OSHP, at least three people were taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center for treatment. Their conditions were unknown late Tuesday night.