METRO DIGEST || Project Snowflake

Project Snowflake

YOUNGSTOWN — Members of a local Jewish lodge are spreading holiday cheer with volunteer work at hospitals.

B’nai B’rith Mahoning Lodge #339 will send members of the service organization to various hospitals to give usual volunteers time off to spend with their families on Christmas. The service is known as Project Snowflake.

Members of B’nai B’rith will cover shifts at information desks and in gift shops today.

For more information, contact its coordinators at (330) 261-4868 or (330) 360-2165 and ask for Neil and Denise Altman.

Woman’s body found

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — A Shenango Township police officer found the body of a woman along County Line Road when he stopped to help a disabled tractor-trailer.

Lawrence County Coroner Russell S. Noga has identified her as Kristiana D. Wilkins, 40, of New Castle.

State police are investigating. The cause of death is not yet determined pending toxicology reports from a Thursday autopsy, said Noga, who noted there were no signs of trauma.

Shenango Officer Brian Magliocca said he stopped to help the truck driver, who was stuck by the side of the road after picking up a load in a nearby industrial park.

He said he looked over the side of a low bridge between Progress Road and Fairground Avenue and saw the body, partly covered with snow, on a bank beside a shallow creek about 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Fire cause determined

WARREN — The Warren Fire Department has determined the cause of a Dec. 12 house fire to be accidental and related to smoking in bed.

Warren Fire Chief Ken Nussle said the fire, which killed Robert Stevens, 63, of 1822 Hamilton Street Southwest and injured Patricia Dematteo, 59, started as a result of Stevens’ smoking in bed.

Stevens, who had limited mobility and slept in a bed in the living room, was determined to be dead at the scene, Nussle said.

Laboratory tests conducted by the Ohio Fire Marshal’s office determined that no accelerant contributed to the fire, Nussle said.

Dematteo was in an upstairs bedroom and went downstairs about 3 a.m. to discover Stevens’ bed on fire. She tried to put out the fire with her hands but failed, Nussle said.

Dematteo suffered burns, was treated at Akron Children’s Hospital Burn Center and released a couple of days later.

Austintown bar robbed

AUSTINTOWN — A township bar was robbed just after closing time.

An employee of Chipper’s Sports Bar on North Edgehill Avenue said she was getting ready to lock the doors just after 2:30 a.m. Wednesday when a male dressed in black entered and pulled out a knife.

The employee said the man came behind the bar where she was standing, pointed the knife at her and demanded money.

She told police she put an undetermined amount of cash from the evening into a black sack. The robber then forced her into the back office, where he made her lie down on the floor, according to a police report.

She said he took a small, black safe from a shelf in the office and her cell phone and left the bar.

3-year wage freeze

WARREN — Trumbull County Engineer David DeChristofaro and workers at his department have reached an agreement on a three-year wage freeze.

The workers’ contract was set to expire April 19, 2010, but the union and management “wanted to demonstrate their commitment to the public that the engineer’s office is a good steward of public funds,” according to a press release from DeChristofaro.

The wage freeze is binding for the first year of the agreement. If no other county unions receive a pay increase in the second or third year, wages will be frozen in those years, too, DeChristofaro said.

DeChristofaro said that revenues for the department are expected to be $1 million less in 2009 than they were in 2008 and that the department likely will spend about $1.25 million less in 2009 than in 2008.