METRO DIGEST || Patriot Boulevard?

YOUNGSTOWN

Interstate Boulevard in Austintown could soon be named Patriot Boulevard.

The Mahoning County commissioners voted Thursday to set a public hearing on the name change.

Local veterans organizations and advocates including Leo Connelly have pushed to change the name of the road near the intersection of Interstate 80 and state Route 46.

The Austintown Township trustees have already approved the potential change.

City appointment

YOUNGSTOWN

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown announced the appointment of Michael Durkin as the city’s superintendent of code enforcement and blight remediation.

Durkin will be paid $52,806 annually and starts the job Monday.

Durkin served as Liberty Township’s fire chief from 2002 to 2014. Before that, he was with the Youngstown Fire Department as a lieutenant from 1991 to 1999 and as a captain from 1999 to 2002.

“With Mr. Durkin’s extensive experience in fire safety, EMS and blight remediation, he will be an incredible asset to the city of Youngstown,” Brown said. “I look forward to the knowledge and expertise that he will bring to the city.”

Schools on lockdown

YOUNGSTOWN

Two Youngstown elementary schools were on lockdown late Thursday morning after shots were fired on Delason Avenue on the South Side, according to a report from 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner.

School officials told the television station Wilson and Taft elementary schools were placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure. No one was injured.

Police were called to the scene just after 11:30 a.m. Youngstown school officials say the lockdown lasted about 20 minutes before it was lifted.

Attack at gas station

YOUNGSTOWN

Police are still looking for two men who attacked a 60-year-old man and took his car as he was putting gas into the vehicle at a South Side gas station.

A city police officer late Tuesday ran across a man on the ground who said his car was stolen.

Reports said the officer was driving about 11:50 p.m. past a 505 E. Midlothian Boulevard gas station on the South Side when he spotted a man on the ground and asked if he needed help.

The man told police his car was stolen by two men as he was getting gas. Police searched the area but did not find the car, reports said.

Woman faces charge

BOARDMAN

A Youngstown woman faces a charge of inducing panic that resulted from a suspected overdose in September.

Haley Secre, 25, of West Evergreen Avenue was picked up Wednesday on a warrant.

Secre was one of two people paramedics revived Sept. 29 after suspected overdoses at the Wagon Wheel Motel on Market Street.

Robert Rosenberg, 23, of Youngstown also faced a charge of inducing panic from the episode, but that charge was dismissed.

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