Fire official will retain post while OVI case is resolved

Staff report

coitsville

Assistant Township Fire Chief Chris Manack will keep his post now that his operating vehicle while impaired case is resolved.

“We have no plans to do anything. He’s been covering the department well,” said Phyllis Johnson, township trustees chairwoman.

Johnson said in October that trustees were waiting for the disposition of the case, which was heard Dec. 7 in Girard Municipal Court.

Manack was charged with OVI refusal, meaning he refused a breath test, after he was stopped in Coitsville on state Route 616 July 24.

He pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of “physical control.”

It was the second time in two years Manack was charged with OVI. He was charged in Struthers in July 2009 and pleaded no contest to that charge in August 2010.

Manack has been running the fire department for about a year since the retirement of Nick Pope.

Johnson said Tuesday there are no immediate plans to fill the position of chief.

She said the trustees are evaluating a reorganization of the fire department.