County GOP sets meeting

County GOP sets meeting

WARREN — The Trumbull County Republican Party will have its monthly breakfast meeting at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Mocha House Restaurant, 467 High St. N.E. The executive committee also will meet at the breakfast. All people are invited to attend to help set the groundwork for the 2009 and 2010 elections.

Also available at the breakfast will be tickets for the 94th Annual William McKinley Banquet on Jan. 30 with guest speaker John R. Kasich, an author and former congressman from Pennsylvania. For more information, call Robert Davis at (330) 883-4755.

Robber on foot steals cash

YOUNGSTOWN — A Campbell man who stopped at a red light on South Avenue near Pyatt Street on the South Side was approached from “out of nowhere” by a gunman and robbed of $68.

The man told police he had just left work at Ohio Edison around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and had the driver’s side window rolled down a bit to smoke when the gunman came up on foot and demanded money. The suspect fled westbound on Pyatt, and the victim drove to another area and called 911.

Abatement recommended

YOUNGSTOWN — City council recommended a tax abatement for a commercial printing company to relocate to 122 Oak Hill Ave.

City Printing plans to invest about $1.5 million to relocate from 36 W. Wood St., near the Youngstown State University campus, to a larger location on the city’s South Side.

Council approved legislation Wednesday recommending the 75 percent, 10-year real-property tax abatement. The final decision on the abatement rests with the city’s board of control, which is expected to approve it.

Wallet robber drives off

YOUNGSTOWN — A Rhoda Avenue woman who went to the post office at 2030 Mahoning Ave. had her wallet and a bank envelope snatched from her purse by a man who announced she’d stolen the wallet from a lady down the street. The victim tried to block the robber’s exit at 4 p.m. Tuesday, but he pushed her to the ground and drove off in an orange Chevrolet Cavalier, police said.

Gun shipment obstructed

YOUNGSTOWN — If you’re the woman who tried to ship five handguns to Arizona — next-day delivery for $127 — from FedEx on Salt Springs Road, they didn’t leave town. An employee who became suspicious of the shipper’s address and the weight and balance of the box opened it a bit Tuesday and saw the barrel of a gun. A security specialist who then fully opened the box found the firearms wrapped in a white T-shirt and called police. Two of the guns had been reported stolen, one from Beaver Township in 2005 and the other from Riverside County, Calif., in 1993. The five handguns were taken by agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. As of Wednesday, the woman had not been arrested. She listed a New Castle, Pa., address on the FedEx shipment.

Stolen cash register found

YOUNGSTOWN — Coitsville police aided city officers after a cash register was taken from Thomas Ceramics on McCartney Road on the East Side and the two suspects fled in a red Chevrolet Cavalier. Coitsville Chief Mike Morris, who heard the theft call on the police radio Tuesday afternoon, found a car matching the description of the Cavalier in the Walgreen’s parking lot on McCartney and a teenage boy inside. The Campbell boy told Morris that his uncle grabbed the cash register. The uncle was not found and the boy was not arrested pending further investigation. The cash register was located inside a trash bin, where the boy said it would be, behind a business on Jacobs Road.

Police probe bar TV theft

YOUNGSTOWN — The owner of Utopia bar on East Midlothian Boulevard gave police the names of four men he suspects may have had something to do with the theft of six 42-inch flat-screen TVs worth $10,000. The theft was discovered Tuesday. The alarm wire had been cut near the roof and the back door was wide open, police said. The theft remains under investigation.

Attempted abduction

WARREN — Police are investigating an attempted abduction just before 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon at the corner of Washington Street and Waverly Avenue Northeast.

A 12-year-old girl was waiting for her sister when a man in a white, full-sized van with red stickers pulled up, got out, grabbed her by the arm and tried to drag her into the van. The girl “screamed that she was not a prostitute” and the man let her go, a Warren police report said. The man fled north on Vine Avenue, police said.

County seeks pro engineer

WARREN — The Trumbull County sanitary engineer’s office will receive help from the new Trumbull County engineer, David DeChristofaro, while officials look for a replacement for interim county sanitary engineer Scott Verner.

Verner, appointed to the job in August 2007, resigned effective Jan. 2, which leaves the sanitary engineer’s office without a professional engineer on staff, said Paul Heltzel, county commissioner.

Certain documents handled by the sanitary engineer’s office can be reviewed and signed only by a licensed engineer, Heltzel said. DeChristofaro holds an engineer’s license.

Board names officers

MINERAL RIDGE — Weathersfield Board of Education has named Marilyn Besoiu president for the year, and Cheryl Basista as vice president.

Board meetings will continue to be on the third Wednesday of the month at the middle school library, but will be at 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. The meetings of June 17, July 15 and Aug. 19 will start at 9 a.m.

Woman shot in New Castle

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — A woman was shot at the Crestview Gardens apartment complex.

The injury is not life-threatening, New Castle police say. The shooting occurred around 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Police did not release the name of the shooting victim and did not have a suspect in custody as of late Wednesday. Police also didn’t provide information as to what led to the shooting.