Community Day

Community Day

LIBERTY

Belmont Pines Hospital, along with the Liberty fire and police departments, will have Liberty’s seventh annual Community Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday on the front lawn of the hospital at 615 Church Hill-Hubbard Road.

There will be a SpongeBob jumper for younger children, games and prizes, clowns, and popcorn, cotton candy, snow-cones, pizza and drinks for free. The Alpine Tower will be open for the public to climb. A bicycle will be raffled. Police and fire officials will answer questions about the equipment that they use. Jim Moran, a local musician, will provide entertainment.

Electricity shutoff

COLUMBIANA

Electricity will be shut off to part of the city for about three hours starting at 10:30 p.m. Thursday to facilitate some maintenance work on the electrical system, city officials said. The areas affected will be south of the Fairfield School Road/Fairfield Avenue Y intersection, all of Kelly Park Road and parts of Metz Road.

Vivo plans to seek re-election in ’12

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

With his medical condition under control, Anthony Vivo said he plans to seek re-election as Mahoning County clerk of courts next year.

Vivo, 53, said he considered retiring in April 2010.

“Last year, I had no clue what my future would be,” said Vivo of Boardman. “But now I feel fine, and I’m happy about being back to semi-normal health.”

The Democratic primary is in May 2012 with the general election in November of that year.

Vivo was first elected in 1994 to fill the two-year unexpired term of his late father, Anthony Vivo Sr. Next year, he’ll be seeking his fifth four-year full term as clerk of courts.

He’s never had a Democratic primary opponent since his first campaign in 1994. The last time he ran for re-election in 2008 was the only time he hasn’t had a general election challenger.

Vivo’s health problems began in 2009 when he had flu-like symptoms on a regular basis.

In March 2010, he woke up with extremely swollen legs and his wife took him to the hospital.

Doctors told him he had multiple blood clots, primarily in his legs.

Before the diagnosis, “I walked around for a few months with blood clots without even knowing it,” he said. “Right now, I can walk with no problem.”

Vivo said it took doctors about a year to determine the blood clots were the result of him being born without an inferior vena cava, one of the two main veins that brings de-oxygenated blood from the lower torso to the right atrium of the heart.

“It’s a rare condition,” Vivo said.

Vivo spent April to July 2010 working from home, and said he then spent a couple of months working at the Mahoning County Area Court in Canfield because it has convenient barrier-free access.

Vivo returned to work at his office in the county courthouse in downtown Youngstown in September 2010 on nights and weekends, when he could park closer to the building than during weekday business hours.

Vivo said he’s worked full time there since March.

brookfield twp. Couple to be repaid for error

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

An error made by the Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer’s office will result in a lump-sum repayment of $1,175 to Edward Petsko and his wife of Grove Street in Brookfield Township.

The Petskos are among 10 property owners who paid a lump sum a year ago as their share of a sewer project known as Brookfield Center Phase 2 at the south end of the Township Square and on Grove Street.

Nineteen other property owners had the cost assessed to their taxes, and they had not begun to pay that assessment yet, so their reimbursement will be taken off of their assessment, officials said Tuesday.

Trumbull County commissioners are expected to approve the change in the charges at their meeting today.

Petsko, reached by telephone Tuesday, said he wasn’t aware of the mistake or the reimbursement he will receive.

“That’s good. I could use the money,” he said. “Some people would get all upset, but I’m not really like that.”

Gary Newbrough, project planning director for the sanitary engineer’s office, said he discovered a mistake in the cost calculation while reviewing Brookfield Center Phase 3 recently.

Phase 3 is also now complete.

Newbrough said the interest charges on the $420,240 Phase 2 and the interest on Phase 3 were all assessed to the people in Phase 2.

That resulted in an overcharge of $37,554, Newbrough said.

It resulted in an overcharge of $2,361 to Kala Realty of North Main Street in Hubbard, which owned three properties that received sewers. Brookfield United Methodist Church was overcharged $1,553 for two properties.

The assessments for the church and real estate company will be reduced the erroneous amount, Newbrough said.

Woman, 74, robbed

WARREN

A 74-year-old Oak Street Southwest woman called police at 12:25 a.m. Tuesday to report that two men in masks had broken into her home, and one of them held her down in the stairwell while the other rummaged in her bedroom. The men were wearing black pants, coats, masks and gloves.

The men left with $2,000 from the woman’s purse, as well as her driver’s license, Social Security card, food stamp card and medical card. The men were gone when police arrived.

Hearing delayed

youngstown

A continuance was granted by Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in a preliminary injunction hearing that had been scheduled Tuesday between OneCommunity and the Columbiana County Port Authority. The hearing would decide whether an injunction would be granted to block the port authority from disconnecting OneCommunity’s access to a fiber-optic cable strand. OneCommunity supplies high-speed Internet access to non-profit organizations including the Beeghly Campus of Akron Children’s Hospital in Boardman. No new court date has been set.

Bullet grazes head

YOUNGSTOWN

A 20-year-old Youngstown man was grazed in the head by a bullet as he was walking on the East Side. The man told police he was walking along McGuffey Road near Stewart Street just after 3 p.m. Monday when he heard someone fire about five shots. He said the top of his head began to “burn,” and he realized he had been grazed by a bullet.

The man flagged down a passing motorist and was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center for treatment. He told police he did not see who fired the shots and does not know of anyone who would want to harm him.

Warren man shot

WARREN

Goodwin Lofton, 46, of Kenwood Drive Southwest was shot in the hip at 12:10 a.m. Sunday at a house in the 2300 block of Hamilton Street Southwest. He was treated at ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital.

Lofton said the shooting resulted after men in masks attempted to break into the house.

Police arrived as a result of a 911 hang-up call and found blood on the lower half of the front door and in other areas inside the house.

No one was home, so an officer entered through an open window. He found suspected heroin, pills, electronic scales and syringes in the master bedroom.

Juveniles nabbed in Niles

NILES

Police arrested four male juveniles at 4:20 a.m. Sunday as they were walking near Niles-Vienna Road and charged them with receiving stolen property, criminal trespass, violating curfew and other offenses.

Following a tip from a resident, Officer Mike Biddlestone located four juveniles hiding behind a tree on Elaine Court. Each had stolen items in his pockets and backpack. Three of the four were carrying large hunting knives.

Among the items recovered were three GPS systems, two Ipods, one wallet with cash and credit card, one digital camera, one Bluetooth headset and miscellaneous cash and electronics.

The juveniles were later released to their parents.

Fire kills Youngstown woman in home she lived in 83 years

By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.

AND ROBERT GUTTERSOHN

news@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Firefighters found Patricia Conway, who died during Tuesday’s South Side house fire, in the same second-floor bedroom in which she was born.

“No one else has ever lived in that house,” said her daughter, Tammy Taylor-Dickey, who fought back tears while describing her mother.

Tuesday afternoon, Taylor-Dickey, her husband Josh Dickey, and neighbors Stacy Crouse and Kevin Runkle stood outside the 109-year-old home, handed down to Conway by her father who built it in 1901.

Fire crews were called out at 3:17 a.m. to 123 E. Chalmers Ave. for a home fully engulfed. Firefighters were informed that the house had two occupants — Hilbert Taylor and his 83-year-old mother Conway.

Mahoning County Coroner’s office ruled Conway died of smoke inhalation.

Neighbors and family described Conway as a community-driven woman whose life was built around family. Taylor-Dickey said her mom helped raise the grandchildren and was a great storyteller.

“She was still as sharp as a tack,” Taylor-Dickey said.

She and Conway would sit in the backyard swings, talk and identify the birds in her her yard.

Conway was particularly fond of birds.

“The birds would sit outside and wait for her to come out,” Taylor-Dickey said.

“She would even take in feral cats to be spayed or neutered,” said Crouse, who lived next to Conway with her fianc Runkle for a year.

Conway was a member of St. Stanislaus Church for 34 years and spent much of her time cooking for it.

“She would always say, ‘I need pinchers,’” Taylor-Dickey said referring to the constant flow of pirogies Conway made for the church.

The last conversation Taylor-Dickey had with her mother was about food.

“She called to remind me to make linguini for this Sunday,” she said. “She kept calling to remind me.”

Investigators continue their search today for the cause of the blaze.

When firefighters arrived at the house, Taylor, no age given, was standing outside the house with unspecified burns to his body. Taylor had called 911 from a cellphone while standing on the roof of the porch to avoid the flames.

Taylor was treated by paramedics at the scene, then transported to the Akron Burn Center for further treatment.

Taylor-Dickey said her brother was in critical but stable condition.

Reports say firefighters attacked the blaze with hoses from the outside so that a search for Conway could begin.

Firefighters did eventually find her on the floor near a front window in a second-story bedroom. Firefighters used ladders to remove her through an upstairs window.

She was not breathing and had second- and third-degree burns on various parts of her body. A second crew of paramedics worked unsuccessfully to revive her.

The building and contents of the house were almost a total loss at $12,000. The house and contents had been valued at $14,900.

Firefighters found no working smoke detectors in the home.

Mom: No justice for slain daughter

By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.

jgoodwin@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The mother of a murdered 20-year-old woman said she doesn’t feel she is getting justice for her daughter from court officials.

Melissa Floyd, mother of Melesia Day, spoke in reference to the case pending in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court against her daughter’s accused killer 21-year-old Patrell Scott.

Scott, of Park Vista Drive, appeared Tuesday for arraignment. He wore the county-issued orange jumpsuit and shackles, but sat talking with other inmates and occasionally smiled and laughed during the conversation.

Day lived for six days in an area hospital after being shot in the neck June 23 at her Tyrell Street home on the West Side. She died of complications from that wound June 29 at St. Elizabeth Health Center.

Scott originally had been charged with felonious assault, but those charges changed after Day died. Scott is the father of Day’s young daughter.

Floyd said it is unfair Scott “can laugh and talk” with others after being accused of killing her daughter. She anticipated a murder charge would be filed against Scott after her daughter’s death, but is disappointed and angry that didn’t happen.

Scott is charged with felonious assault, involuntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence and a firearm specification.

Floyd said she was also hoping to see Scott’s bond increased from the $55,000 amount set in Youngstown Municipal Court on the felonious-assault charge. The bond remained at that amount, but can be revisited by Judge James Evans, who will preside over the case.

Floyd said the $55,000 bond makes it more likely for Scott to be released from Mahoning County jail. She said she and her family have received threats over the Internet.

“I am mad because he is going to bond out,” Floyd said. “That means he can come after me, come after my granddaughter or come after my family. It’s not fair he could kill my daughter and get out.”

Scott remains in jail until he appears before Judge Maureen Sweeney of common pleas court Aug. 29 for a parole violation hearing on a previous carrying concealed weapons charge. He is due back in Judge Evans’ court on the new charges Aug. 16.

Floyd said her granddaughter witnessed the shooting and has been traumatized by the experience. She said the young child has recounted the events to family members in detail and is receiving therapy.

Floyd believes her daughter was a victim of domestic violence and controlled by Scott. There are police reports detailing past fights between the couple. Floyd said she hopes to start a nonprofit support group for other victims of domestic violence.

“I don’t want any family to go through what we are going through. It is so hard, and we are going through so much,” she said.