Controlling board will help fund building demolition

Controlling board will help fund building demolition

YOUNGSTOWN — The state Controlling Board agreed to give $854,935 to the city to clean up and demolish a North Side building material facility closed since 1989.

The city first sought money six years ago for the YBM Corp. site. The controlling board approved the allocation Monday from the state’s Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund. YBM was a ready-mix concrete company on Logan Avenue and Hubbard Road and previously was known as Youngstown Building Material and Fuel Co.

The cleanup includes the removal of asbestos from the site as well as the demolition of nine structures on the property.

The total project will cost about $1.1 million, with the remaining balance coming from the city, which has owned the 9.31-acre property since 2002.

The city wants to turn the property into a site for light industrial use.

Attorney pleads innocent to several charges

WARREN — Atty. Michael Rossi pleaded innocent to several charges after being picked up for driving under the influence Saturday morning.

Rossi, blood-alcohol level was .174 at the time of the traffic stop, more than twice the legal limit of .08, appeared in municipal court Monday on charges of operating a vehicle impaired, resisting arrest, assault on a police officer and having an open container.

Sgt. Charles Mendenhall of the Warren Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said he made the traffic stop just after midnight Saturday morning, after Rossi’s vehicle went left of center several times on Elm Road near the Giant Eagle plaza.

Mendenhall said Rossi refused to cooperate, even after several attempts to subdue him. The entire exchange was caught on the trooper’s dashboard camera.

“Mr. Rossi kept trying to put his hands in his pockets, and he was asked to stop. ... At that point I told him to turn around, but he tried to go around me, and he began resisting,” he said. “He kicked me in my upper groin and thigh area. He was pretty disorderly throughout the entire stop.”

The lawyer is scheduled back in court sometime next month.

Teen says he was robbed

BOARDMAN — A 17-year-old East Huntington Drive boy says he was robbed over the weekend in the Southern Park Mall parking lot.

The teenager told police that he and two friends were in a mall restroom about 5:30 p.m. Saturday when two men entered and asked if anyone had change for a $20 bill.

The boy said that he did, and he and his friends followed the two men to a car in the parking lot.

The men told the victim to sit in the car and his two friends to go back inside the mall. The friends complied and the victim stayed in the car.

One of the men grabbed the victim by the throat and pressed something against his side, demanding his money and bank card.

The boy then got out of the vehicle and fled back toward the mall. The vehicle left the lot.

Fire damages home

YOUNGSTOWN — The occupant of 632 1‚Ñ2 Belmont Ave. told firefighters he was awakened by the sound of glass breaking and then saw flames outside the second-floor bedroom. No injuries were reported from the fire at 4 a.m. Sunday. Firefighters said the roof caved in. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Damage was set at $30,000 to the property and contents.

YMCA offers swim lessons

BOARDMAN — The Davis Branch of the YMCA is offering members and nonmembers two free orientation sessions for those interested in swim lessons. The sessions are at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Davis branch, 45 McClurg Road. The Boardman Y’s next series of swim lessons run from March 2 to April 11. For more information, visit www.youngstownymca.org.

Brick program planned to underwrite renovation

CANFIELD — Sister Jeanne Cigolle, director of the swimming pool at the Ursuline Center, is heading a brick tribute program to underwrite a $200,000 renovation at the bathhouse.

She said 10,830 bricks are needed to build the addition that will include showers, restrooms and changing rooms for men, women and families. Once the renovation starts, it will take about five months.

For a donation of $20, supporters may buy a brick. The bricks themselves won’t have names on them. Donations made in memory of deceased people will be listed on a memorial board; other donations will be listed on a tribute board. Checks, made payable to the Ursuline Center with pool program in the memo field, should be sent to 4250 Shields Road, Canfield, Ohio 44506. For information, call Sister Jeanne at (330) 792-7636.

Sister Jeanne said the pool was built in 1970 for the Ursuline Sisters. But as their lifestyles and ministries changed, the nuns used the pool less and the order decided in 2002 to open it up to other programs. Pool activities include rehabilitation sessions, swimming lessons and water aerobics.

Attempted robbery

GIRARD — City police are still looking for a man who attempted to rob a restaurant employee making a deposit at the Chase Bank on West Liberty Street. According to police reports, the 28-year-old woman went to the bank’s deposit window at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday. After depositing funds from her employer and returning to her car, a man pulled open the car door and demanded she hand over the money. The woman, reports said, told the man she already had deposited the money.

The man dumped the contents of the woman’s purse looking for the money, then threatened to kill her and her family if she called police. The man ran off in the direction of the post office.