Roads to close

Roads to close

Youngstown

Mill Creek MetroParks will close several roads on March 4 for the Road Runners Club Distance Classic Half Marathon. New Cross, Cross, Bears Den, West Cohasset, Valley, East Park, West, West Glacier, Robinson Hill and Memorial Hill drives will be closed from 6:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Betras sworn in

YOUNGSTOWN

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted swore-in Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras as a member of the county board of elections.

Betras took the oath of office Monday in Columbus.

Also, Husted approved the reappointment of former county Republican Party Chairman Clarence Smith to the elections board. County court Judge Joseph Houser will swear-in Smith Monday.

Smith has served since 1998 while this is the first appointment for Betras. Both are four-year terms.

Pleads innocent

WARREN

Andre Ervin of Warren pleaded innocent Monday in Warren Municipal Court to criminal charges for the 57th time in the past nine years.

His latest arrest, on Friday night, came 17 days after he was released from the Trumbull County jail after serving 60 days on a sexual-imposition charge. Ervin, 48, is being held in jail without eligibility to make bond until his next hearing March 8 on a charge of criminal trespass.

A clerk at Circle K, 606 North Park Ave., reported at 8:12 p.m. that Ervin was on Circle K property despite not being allowed there. Ervin harasses customers and drives away business, the clerk said.

Officers were called to the store multiple times in the days before Friday regarding Ervin but officers had not found him, police said.

Man makes threat

WARREN

A driver for the private company Community Bus Services called police at 8:44 a.m. Monday to report that a man had walked up to the bus and made a threatening remark to her. No students were in the bus.

The man, described as 6 feet tall and wearing camouflage clothing, referred to the Irish Republican Army and said the organization blows up buses, the driver said. The bus was at Parkman Road and Maxwell Avenue Northwest at the time, but the driver left that area and called police from the Austin Village Plaza on West Market Street, police said. Warren City Schools said the bus was on a special-education route for the school district at the time. No bomb was found on the bus, the school district said.

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