Courthouse progress

Courthouse progress

YOUNGSTOWN

Workers from Safway Services LLC of Cleveland removed the scaffolding in front of the Mahoning County Courthouse on Friday afternoon after removal of the copper rooftop statues and re-roofing and shoring up of their deteriorated granite and concrete pedestal.

“We’re in a holding pattern right now,” awaiting funding for the complete restoration of the century-old courthouse, said Architect James Yoder of the 4M Co., the county’s architectural firm for the courthouse restoration project.

Officials don’t know when the front door on Market Street will be reopened as the public entrance to the courthouse. For safety reasons, the south door on Front Street has been the public entrance since May.

North Side tours

YOUNGSTOWN

The second annual Festival of Lights and Holiday Decorations Tour on the city’s North Side will be Monday.

The 90-minute tours of houses on the North Side begin at 5:30 and 7 p.m., starting and ending at Avalon Gardens, 1719 Belmont Ave. Participants will take a WRTA bus around the area.

The goal of the tour is to display the homes and holiday spirit of the citizens of the North Side, said Councilman Jamael Tito Brown, D-3rd, a tour organizer.

Housing meeting

LIBERTY

Trumbull County Planning Commission will have a public meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the Liberty Township Building, 1315 Church Hill-Hubbard Road, to explain the county’s Community Housing Improvement Program grant and other housing assistance.

The programs will focus on the township’s Church Hill area. The CHIP grant assists homeowners with home rehabilitation, repairs and emergency assistance to help prevent foreclosures.

For more information, call Greg Bugnone at 330-675-2480.

Fire damages house

campbell

A fire at 53 Woodland Ave. damaged an upstairs bedroom, the fire department said.

There was smoke and water damage in the rest of the house, which caught fire about 11 a.m. Friday, the department said.

The department estimated $15,000 damage to the house and $10,000 damage to contents.

No one was home at the time, and the cause is undetermined, the department said. A passer-by spotted smoke and called 911.

Boy, 16, arrested

YOUNGSTOWN

Police have a 16-year-old South Side boy in custody after he ran from officers, barricaded himself in a house and is accused of starting a fire.

Officers began chasing the boy, who was wanted in a burglary, Friday afternoon after he jumped from the window of a house on Pineview Avenue. He ran to an abandoned house on Cohassett Avenue.

Officers said the boy set fire to a blanket in an upstairs room. The boy was arrested on the original burglary charge as well as breaking and entering, obstructing official business and arson.