METRO DIGEST || New Medicare option

New Medicare option

YOUNGSTOWN

Residents in nine Ohio counties, including Columbiana, Mahoning, Stark and Trumbull, have a new option for Medicare coverage under the national Allwell brand that unites Buckeye Health Plan’s family of local and regional Medicare plans under one umbrella, effective Jan. 1, 2018.

Medicare is a government health insurance program for people 65 or older. It may also cover certain younger people with disabilities, as well as those suffering from end-stage renal disease. Medicare beneficiaries can compare and purchase a plan that will meet their health care and budget needs during the open-enrollment period.

Consumers and their family members can compare and purchase products on Buckeye’s website: Advantage.BuckeyeHealthPlan.com. Allwell from Buckeye Health Plan’s products include a variety of benefits such as dental, hearing and vision services, and a 24-hour nurse advice line.

New police contract

NILES

City council approved a new contract with the Fraternal Order of Police on Wednesday that contains a 2.25 percent wage increase, but the city’s patrolmen will never see the hike in the form of take-home pay.

“The increase will be automatically deducted to cover the city’s contribution to our pensions,” said Patrolman Richard Bailey, Niles FOP president. “The city’s financial situation left us with no alternative but to accept.”

Niles has been in state-declared fiscal emergency for three years.

The FOP represents 23 Niles patrolmen. Officers are represented by another bargaining unit. The contract, which runs till June 2019, eliminates municipal contributions to the patrolmen’s pensions. Council unanimously passed the agreement as an emergency measure.

Neighborhood harvest

YOUNGSTOWN

ICU Blockwatch and St. Dominic’s Church invite the public to a free neighborhood harvest from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday in the gated lot at the corner of Cottage Grove and Auburndale, across from Horizon Science Academy.

The event will include food, candy, popcorn, a bounce house, music by DJ Ira Cross, and presentations by the police and fire departments. Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Costumes are not permitted.

The event is sponsored by Conroy’s Party Shop and Southside Recycling. For information contact Victoria Allen at 330-360-8460.

YSU lecture

YOUNGSTOWN

Shaul Kelner, associate professor of sociology and Jewish studies at Vanderbilt University, will visit Youngstown State University on Tuesday, to present “Forgotten Lessons of Jewish Activism: How American Jews Mobilized to Fight for Human Rights in the USSR (and Saved American Jewry in the Process).”

In his lecture, Kelner will explore the structural and symbolic dimensions of the American Soviet Jewry Movement’s mobilization strategies, drawing lessons for activism and community-building today.

The free public lecture is at 5 p.m. at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor (Steel Museum), 151 W. Wood St. YSU Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies is sponsoring the lecture.