METRO DIGEST || Yes votes on Campbell marijuana dispensary

Votes on dispensary

CAMPBELL

City council approved legislation Wednesday that will remove roadblocks for a potential marijuana dispensary in the city. Council members approved two resolutions, one allowing a dispensary to operate in the city and another designating the location – 819 McCartney Road.

The dispensary – OH-Grow – is under consideration by the state for approval to grow and dispense marijuana.

Plea in purse-snatching

WARREN

Charles C. Conley, 36, of Tod Avenue Northwest pleaded not guilty Wednesday to robbing a woman of her purse Saturday afternoon in the Giant Eagle supermarket on Mahoning Avenue.

A Warren Municipal Court judge set his bond at $50,000.

Police said Conley followed a 68-year-old city woman into the store at about 1 p.m. and waited for her to move away from her shopping cart, then grabbed her purse.

The woman also grabbed the purse and a short struggle ensued until Conley broke free and ran. He left in an older, dark Chevrolet Blazer parked in the fire lane. The woman’s purse had keys, debit cards, driver’s license and other items inside, police said.

Conley was booked into the Trumbull County jail at 4:34 p.m. Tuesday, but police did not indicate where he was arrested.

Arrested in robbery

BOARDMAN

Township police arrested a Youngstown man Tuesday who was wanted in a robbery investigation.

According to a police report, the robbery charge against Tyler Verhest, 18, of Neilson Avenue, stems from a Monday incident.

A woman told police that while riding in a car with a friend and another man, the other man demanded her belongings and grabbed her purse. She told police she got out of the car and ran away, and the two men left.

Police later found the vehicle and the woman’s wallet at an unoccupied house on Creed Street, according to the report. Verhest was arrested after he arrived at the police department to file a report and it was discovered he had a warrant.

Mad over McMuffins

WARREN

Two men using the drive-thru at McDonald’s on Parkman Road Northwest early Wednesday brandished a firearm when they learned they couldn’t buy McMuffin breakfast sandwiches.

The men, in an older black Ford Taurus, came through the window about 3:40 a.m. and “were not happy that McMuffins were not being sold at that time,” a Warren police report says.

The driver, who was holding a handgun and wearing a black skull cap and black hooded sweatshirt, called an employee a vulgar name and swore again before exiting the drive-thru, police said. Both men were about 20 years old, a witness said. Police were going to view surveillance video to identify the suspects.

Officials hire lawyer over sewer project

WARREN

The Trumbull County commissioners hired Atty. David Detec of Manchester, Newman & Bennett Wednesday to represent the commissioners and county sanitary engineer’s office in mediation and potential legal action involving the $10.6 million Kinsman sewer project.

The legal action involves MS Consultants of Youngstown, the design engineer for the project. The county paid Marucci & Gaffney Excavating of Youngstown $1.2 million as a result of a 2016 arbitrator’s decision in legal action the county filed against Marucci & Gaffney in the Kinsman project.

The arbitrators said “the greater weight of evidence” showed the problems with the project were caused by poor engineering and project management, not poor construction by Marucci & Gaffney. Detec also worked on a resolution to legal action the county filed regarding a sewer project constructed along state Route 193 in Vienna Township.

Hearing in Infante case

WARREN

An evidence suppression hearing today in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in the Ralph Infante public corruption case will now be at 12:30 p.m. in the courtroom of Judge Peter Kontos.

The hearing had been scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Judge Patricia Cosgrove is presiding over the case by appointment from the Ohio Supreme Court.

The hearing is regarding a motion filed by an attorney for the ex-Niles mayor asking Judge Cosgrove to suppress evidence seized at Infante’s former home on North Rhodes Avenue in Niles on the grounds that he didn’t own it at the time of a Feb. 1, 2016, raid.

Probing cause of fire

YOUNGSTOWN

Reports said the cause of a fire Tuesday evening at a 211 S. Schenley Ave. home is under investigation.

Crews were called to the home around 9:15 p.m. and found a fire on the second floor, reports said.

Two breakers in the home were tripped, according to the reports. Damage is listed at $11,000. There were no injuries.

Testing warning sirens

HERMITAGE, PA.

Hermitage Fire Department will conduct the monthly test of the Shenango Valley weather-warning sirens at 10 a.m. today.

The test will include activation of the Clark, Farrell, Sharpsville, Shenango Township, West Middlesex and Wheatland weather sirens. Citizens are asked to disregard the sirens during the test.