METRO DIGEST || RoboCats pancake breakfast Sunday

RoboCats breakfast

GIRARD

The Girard RoboCats will have a pancake breakfast fundraiser at the Girard Italian Fraternal Home, 33 W. Wilson Ave., from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Guests are asked to use the back entrance of the building. Tickets are $6 and provide all-you-can eat pancakes with sausage and a drink. Tickets can be bought in advance from the RoboCat team members or at the door.

This year is the team’s fourth year in a row qualifying for the world championship robotics competition, and all proceeds will go toward their travel expenses and competition fees.

Zoldan donates $100K

YOUNGSTOWN

Bruce J. Zoldan, president and CEO of Youngstown’s Phantom Fireworks, announced a gift of $100,000 to the Sam and Sylvia Zoldan Scholarship Fund from the Bruce and Rori Family Foundation. The announcement was made at the annual Phantom Fireworks showroom managers meetings this week.

The Sam and Sylvia Scholarship Fund was established at YSU several years ago by the Zoldan family in memory of their parents and is managed by the YSU Foundation. This gift continues the long-standing support of YSU by the Zoldan family.

The Phantom Fireworks managers meetings were hosted at the Avalon Inn in Howland. Some 250 Phantom Fireworks team members traveled to the Mahoning Valley from different parts of the country to participate in the meetings, in addition to a good number of people from the Phantom corporate offices in Youngstown.

Law dept. shuffle

YOUNGSTOWN

Dana Lantz will no longer be city prosecutor, effective Monday, but is remaining with the city law department.

Lantz will be reassigned to the civil division, focusing on workers’ compensation, and contractual and prevailing wage issues, said Mayor Jamael Tito Brown.

Law Director Jeff Limbian will assume the duties of city prosecutor while remaining in his current job. Limbian is a former city prosecutor.

Fellows Gardens work

YOUNGSTOWN

Mill Creek MetroParks will begin a capital improvement project Monday on the Fellows Riverside Gardens parking lot. The work is expected to continue for several weeks.

Throughout the project, the gardens, located at 123 McKinley Ave., will be accessible and the Davis Education and Visitor Center will be open normal operating hours.

Next week, visitors will be able to use most of the parking lot to access the gardens and visitor center. Access to the parking lot during this project will be limited, with the Price Road entrance being temporarily closed at times.

Visitors will be able to access the gardens parking lot at all times from the McKinley Avenue entrance. In the event of inclement weather, the work schedule will be delayed and adjusted accordingly, park officials said.

Neighborhood cleanup

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning Valley Young Professionals, in partnership with Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and Cardinal Mooney High School, will be cleaning up the South Side neighborhood by the high school, 2545 Erie St., from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. today.

Road detour

NEWTON FALLS

Effective Monday until May 4, South Canal Street in Newton Township, just south of the village limits, between Newton and Niles avenues, will be closed from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. daily due to waterline repair work. The recommended detour route is south on West River Road, west on Pritchard Ohltown Road and north on South Canal.

Brookfield schools

BROOKFIELD

Auditor of State Dave Yost announced Friday that Brookfield schools have achieved financial stability after spending almost five years in fiscal emergency.

The announcement comes more than 12 years after a general fund deficit put Brookfield in fiscal caution in 2005. District officials repeatedly failed to propose a financial recovery plan to address the deficit, leading to declarations of fiscal watch in March 2006 and fiscal emergency in May 2013.

The district has since cut spending by roughly $1.5 million through reductions in staffing and purchased services. Steps taken to refinance bonded debt are expected to save the district and its taxpayers another $2 million in its bond retirement fund.

Just a week before the fiscal emergency declaration, voters passed a continuing levy that generated an additional $618,000 for the district by the end of fiscal year 2014.