METRO DIGEST || Charged after crash

Charged after crash

AUSTINTOWN

A Canfield woman faces charges after she reportedly crashed her vehicle at South Raccoon Road and Timberbrook Drive early Thursday while driving impaired.

Cindy Bell, 56, of Timberbrook Drive, is charged with operating a vehicle while impaired, failure to control and driving left of center. Police responded to the accident site shortly after 6 a.m., according to a police report. There, they reportedly found Bell inside a vehicle that was straddling a guardrail.

Bell reportedly failed a field-sobriety test and registered a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.194. The state legal limit is 0.08.

She is scheduled to appear in Mahoning County Area Court here Monday.

Pleas in beating case

YOUNGSTOWN

A man who is accused of beating his aunt with a hammer entered guilty pleas Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Timothy Smith, 36, pleaded guilty before Judge Lou A. D’Apolito to charges of kidnapping, aggravated burglary and felonious assault. Prosecutors are recommending 10 years in prison. A sentencing date has not been set.

Smith is accused of forcing his way inside his aunt’s home Dec. 27 in the 2100 block of Bott Street and beating her in front of several children inside the home. He ran away before police arrived but was caught the next day at the bus station on West Federal Street.

Report with water bill

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown Water Department customers will receive copies of a consumer-confidence report with their water bills by July 1.

The report is required by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act Reauthorization of 1996. The information details what is in the water. The city purchases water from the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District and distributes about 16 million gallons a day through 750 miles of pipelines.

For an additional copy, call the department’s engineering office at 330-742-8765.

Victim offers no info

WARREN

Reports said an 18-year-old man who showed up about 8:55 p.m. Thursday at ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound to the stomach refused to give police any information.

An officer asked the victim what happened, and reports said the victim told police he did not know, and said he would not tell police more. He was taken to a hospital in Cleveland for further treatment.

BOE appoints chief

BROOKFIELD

The Brookfield Board of Education appointed Velina Jo Taylor its next – and first female – superintendent at a special meeting Thursday.

Taylor has been high-school and middle-school principal in the Brookfield district since 2001, and was the first woman appointed to that job.

Taylor’s new job begins Aug. 1. No salary details were available in the news release.

Free bike helmets

NEW MIDDLETOWN

The New Middletown Police Department has been awarded 70 bicycle helmets from the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Twenty-four of the helmets already have been distributed. The helmets range in size from extra small, small and medium and are free to anyone who comes to the police department, 10711 Main St., during normal business hours.

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