METRO DIGEST || Discussing Hubbard injection well

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct the impact to homeowner's from the Boardman Park levy.

Discussing injection well

HUBBARD

Hubbard Township trustees will have a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. today to address the opposition to the proposed waste brine injection well at 6958 Hubbard-Masury Road. The meeting will take place at the administration building, 2600 Elmwood Drive Ext.

3 people injured in fight

NILES

Three people were injured in a fight but did not require medical treatment in a Sunday-night incident on Fenton Street in which a man fired a gun toward a group of people, but didn’t hit anyone.

The injured people were a woman, 22, of Bazetta Township; a man, 31, of Fenton Street; and a man, 24, of Warren.

Police were called to the home in the 400 block of Fenton at 11:42 p.m. for shots fired. The gunfire followed an altercation outside among a Fenton resident and visitors. Police located bullet holes in a home on Fenton.

Niles Police Chief Jay Holland said the department is working with Warren police to identify the male who fired the shots. He is believed to be a Warren resident, Holland said.

Man reported missing

WARREN

Jerry Hughley, 35, of Hamilton Street Southwest, boyfriend of a woman who was found shot to death early Sunday, was reported missing Monday afternoon.

The Warren police report says Hughley disappeared about 6 p.m. Saturday.

His girlfriend, Brittany May, 28, of the same Hamilton address, was found shot to death on Front Street Southwest near the former Warren Western Reserve High School at 12:06 a.m. Sunday – about six hours after Hughley went missing.

Police are investigating May’s death as a likely homicide while they wait for an official cause from the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office.

A Warren police report from January 2017 said Hughley and May were at Akron Children’s Hospital on East Market Street with their infant.

May was arrested at the facility on a probation-violation warrant.

Official enters no plea

GIRARD

Richard Wittkugle, who faces theft-in-office and tampering- with-records charges after police say he misappropriated more than $10,000 as the Hubbard Volunteer Fire Department treasurer, entered no plea Tuesday at his arraignment hearing in Girard Municipal Court. Bond was set at $7,500.

A preliminary hearing date will be scheduled. Wittkugle has been with the fire department for more than 20 years.

Trustees talk road levy

LIBERTY

Liberty Township trustees discussed a road levy Tuesday that may be put on the November ballot.

The current 1.25-mill road levy expires in 2019. In a 2-1 vote, trustees proposed renewing the 1.25-mill levy and adding 1.25 mills, for a total 2.5 mills for a valuation period of 12 years.

Trustee Jodi Stoyak voted no; Trustees Arnie Clebone and Greg Cizmar voted yes. Clebone estimates the township could get about $517,000 per year from the levy, but he said trustees will have to wait to hear from the Trumbull County auditor to evaluate the total current tax value of township property to determine the exact amount of revenue the levy would generate.

The trustees will vote again to put the proposed road levy on the fall ballot after the auditor’s findings.

Boardman Park levy to be on fall ballot

BOARDMAN

(Editor note: The annual cost for this levy was corrected November 2018.)

Township trustees this week approved a resolution to put a Boardman Park levy on the November ballot.

The park is seeking a renewal of a 0.3-mill levy and an increase of 0.3 mills for capital improvements.

The five-year levy would generate $226,000 per year from the original millage and $279,000 per year from the new millage.

The current millage costs the owner of a $100,000 home about $10 per month. With the 0.3 mill increase, the levy would cost those homeowners $17.87 each year.

East Liverpool man sentenced in Pa. scam

PITTSBURGH

The founder and former CEO of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School has been sentenced in federal court to 20 months in prison on a charge of tax conspiracy, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced Tuesday.

Nicholas Trombetta, 63, of East Liverpool, Ohio, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti.

The court was advised that Trombetta created a series of connected for-profit and not-for-profit entities to siphon taxpayer funds out of PA Cyber and to avoid federal income-tax liabilities.

Trombetta funneled about $8 million from the charter school through an entity then known as NNDS and finally to a company called Avanti Management Group, where Trombetta had free access to the funds.

At the sentencing, Judge Conti also imposed a three-year term of supervised release on Trombetta. She also ordered him to perform community service upon his release from prison.