Metro digest || Santa in Liberty

Santa in Liberty

LIBERTY — The township will have a holiday gathering today at the township administration building, 1315 Church Hill-Hubbard Road.

Santa Claus will arrive at 4 p.m. Township trustees will provide refreshments.

Santa in Girard

GIRARD — Santa will visit with children from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. during the Junior Women’s Club Christmas bazaar planned from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at Girard city gym, 100 W. Main St.

Santa will arrive by firetruck.

Girard Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring the visit.

Body still unidentified

WARREN — Police do not yet know the identity of the woman’s body found around noon Friday in a vacant house on Mercer Avenue Northeast, Warren police said Friday night.

An autopsy will be conducted to determine whether foul play was involved.

Bicyclist robbed

YOUNGSTOWN — A bicyclist was robbed at gunpoint around 4:40 p.m. Friday near a beverage store at Market Street and Philadelphia Avenue on the city’s South Side.

The bicyclist, 53, said he had stopped at a stop sign, then heard someone behind him yell, “Yo!” and saw two teen boys, one wearing a red covering on his face holding a handgun. They took the cell phone and cash from his pockets.

The victim said the boys appeared to be age 15 or 16.

Meeting to focus on house

CAMPBELL — Mahoning County District Board of Health officials said Friday they will meet with city council members about a house that’s under a cleanup deadline.

Barbara Muscolo, who owns the house at 600 Porter Ave., has been given until Dec. 29 to clean the house of trash and animal waste from more than a dozen cats and two dogs that were removed by Animal Charity in October.

A health district sanitarian said he gave Muscolo an extension because she is making progress. But neighbors told city council at its Wednesday meeting that they have been dealing with the smell from the house for 12 years, and they are concerned she will not be able to clean it up by herself.

Council members said they want to meet with the case sanitarian, Angelo Italiano, but he said Thursday the health district was not going to participate in a meeting. By Friday morning, however, a meeting was set to take place between council members and Matthew Stefanak, county health commissioner, and Mary Helen Smith, director of environmental health.

The meeting is set for 6 p.m. Monday in council chambers at the city building on Tenney Avenue.

Housing-rehab funding

YOUNGSTOWN — The YWCA on Rayen Avenue on the city’s North Side will receive almost $600,000 in federal stimulus money for the rehabilitation of housing units.

The Y was awarded $589,578 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Housing Tax Credit Exchange Program, according to a news release. State Rep. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th, announced the award in a news release Friday.

The money will be used to rehabilitate 30 affordable housing units owned by the YWCA. The housing is designated for homeless women and families. The funding comes as the YWCA is engrossed in a multimillion-dollar capital campaign for facility renovations.

Job training, assistance

WARREN — U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, announced that the workers of Severstal Warren Inc. displaced by recent job losses will receive job training and placement assistance from the U.S. Department of Labor.

“This favorable decision made by the Division of Trade Adjustment Assistance was extremely critical,” Ryan said in a press release issued Friday. “The benefits will help ensure the workers will get the training and job placement assistance they need to be successful. This cushions the blow, but we will not be happy until that plant is pumping out steel and all the workers are back earning a good living.”

The Warren mill, which used to be known as WCI Steel, has been idle since early this year. Steel-making operations were shut down in October 2008. About 1,100 hourly and salaried workers are laid off.

Shooting reported

WARREN — A 33-year-old Homewood Avenue Southeast man reported that he was shot in the upper arm while standing in the lawn in front of his home at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

The man said a black Lumina approached him coming from Youngstown Road. As the car pulled up, the driver blew the horn, then the person fired one shot and continued onto Niles Road, he said.