Real-estate taxes

Real-estate taxes

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning County Treasurer’s office has received a large number of calls and questions regarding prepayment of 2018 real-estate taxes.

The office said it is not in a position to advise taxpayers as to whether prepayment will benefit them in light of the new tax reform bill and asks taxpayers to estimate their prepayment based on the amount they paid in 2017, since 2018 taxes have not yet been calculated.

To prepay 2018 real-estate taxes, taxpayers can pay in person at the treasurer’s office by 4:30 p.m. today or mail payments postmarked by Dec. 31 to the Mahoning County Treasurer, 120 Market St., 1st Floor, Youngstown, OH 44503.

Online payment is not an option for prepaid taxes.

Subway robbed

YOUNGSTOWN

Police were looking Thursday night for a lone gunman with a full beard who robbed the Subway Restaurant, 830 E. Midlothian Blvd., on the South Side shortly after 5 p.m.

According to the police report, the thief, wearing a dark gray hooded sweatshirt and dark gray sweat pants entered the restaurant and ordered a sandwich.

When he came to the cashier, he flashed a silver handgun and ordered the clerk, “Open the cash register and give me all the money and don’t make me do anything stupid.”

The thief left with the cash, the sandwich and the money from the tip jar and ran toward the nearby Turnberry Apartments before jumping into a white SUV that sped away along East Judson Avenue, police said.

Man arrested

YOUNGSTOWN

Reports said a Hickory Court man Wednesday arrested for a charge of domestic violence told police he did not hit his wife, but “I only put her in a choke hold.”

Officers were called about 7 p.m. for a 911 hang up and when they arrived a small child answered the door and told police her parents were upstairs. When police went upstairs, they heard a woman say, “He’s choking me,” before getting inside a bedroom where they found a woman on the bed and Genaro Fontanez standing over her.

Reports said the woman told police she was upset Fontanez would not clean the house, and he followed her upstairs, knocked her down and started choking her.

The woman told her daughter to call 911, reports said. Fontanez was taken to the Mahoning County jail.

Warren firetrucks

WARREN

The Warren firefighters union says three of its six firetrucks are out of service for mechanical reasons that hinders daily operations and response times.

The Warren Fire Department responds to a number of calls each day requiring all its resources be up-to-date and fully functioning. Now, with three trucks out of service, department officials are letting the city know they need those resources back now not later, said John Jerina, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 204, reported to 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner.

The three trucks out of service range in age from 20 to 26 years, creating safety concerns for firefighters and for the people they are trying to protect, said Jerina, who noted two of the trucks broke down at the scene of a fire.

Warren’s fire chief said the broken-down trucks will be back in service within days. Looking to the future, Enzo Cantalamessa, safety-service director, said the city is exploring a grant opportunity that, if successful, might enable the city to buy a new truck in calendar year 2019.

Man shot on West Side

YOUNGSTOWN

A 23-year-old man is being treated for a gunshot wound to the thigh after officers found him about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the living room of a home in the 100 block of North Belle Vista Avenue on the West Side.

Police were called for a shooting and when they got to the house, they found blood and a 9 mm shell casing on the porch. Reports said the victim told officers he was in the driveway when a man approached, shouted and then shot him. The victim managed to get inside, reports said.

A woman in the house told police she came downstairs when she heard a noise and a gunshot and let the victim inside after he knocked on the door. The gunman then pointed the gun at her but she closed the door and he ran away, reports said.

Gun, drugs found

YOUNGSTOWN

Police found a gun and five rocks of crack cocaine about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday after pulling a car over on a South Side street for driving without lights.

Reports said the driver, Quentin Jones, 30, of Pasadena Avenue, was acting nervous when police approached him, and officers could see five rocks of crack cocaine in a cup holder.

Underneath the driver’s seat officers also found a loaded 9 mm handgun.

Jones was arrested on charges of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle and possession of cocaine and booked into the Mahoning County jail. Reports said Jones told police he turned the lights off because he was texting someone then could not figure out how to turn the lights back on.