METRO DIGEST || Liberty Fill-A-Cruiser event Saturday

Fill-A-Cruiser event

LIBERTY

The township police department will be collecting nonperishable food items, personal-care products and cash donations for families in need for the seventh annual Fill-A-Cruiser event.

The collection will be at the Giant Eagle on Belmont Avenue from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Donations also will be accepted at the administration building at 1315 Church Hill-Hubbard Road until Monday.

Aptiv to offer buyouts

HOWLAND

IUE-CWA Local 717 has reached a memorandum of understanding with Aptiv management that offers buyouts to 23 workers at the former Delphi plant in the township, 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, reported.

21 News reported that under the agreement, Aptiv is offering a $100,000 severance payment and six months of paid health care to 12 production workers and 11 tool and die employees. The buyouts are being offered in exchange for equipment investments at the plant, the TV station reported. Employees to whom the buyouts were offered have until Saturday to accept.

Gift from Tod family

BOARDMAN

Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley unveiled a wall dedicated to contributions of the Tod family, received a $100,000 gift from the Tod Family, and marked relocation of the hospital’s Community Outreach Education and Support Center from Southwoods in Boardman to the Beeghly Campus at 6505 Market St.

Hospital leadership, including Grace Wakulchik, president and CEO of Akron Children’s, were on hand to help celebrate contributions the Tod family has made by unveiling a wall that highlights its support over the years. Members of the Tod family were present for the ceremony Tuesday.

Recognition of the family coincided with an open house at the hospital’s Community Outreach Education and Support Center. The center provides health education and clinical programs.

Polivka: Hire CT

WARREN

Trumbull County Commissioner Dan Polivka proposed hiring engineering company CT Consultants of Youngstown for up to $5,200 per month to replace a planning commission employee who recently resigned.

Polivka told planning commission members Tuesday bringing in CT temporarily would give the planning commission more time to find a permanent replacement for someone to handle zoning and plats (maps drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land), the job Rich Fender did before he resigned Nov. 7.

But planning commission members decided to seek bids from three engineering companies before deciding what to do.

Polivka agreed, adding he suggested CT because they had “done work for us in the past.”

Rich Center kids visit YSU dental students

YOUNGSTOWN

Senior students in the Dental Hygiene program at Youngstown State University will get experience treating patients with special needs when students from the Rich Center for Autism visit the YSU Dental Clinic in Cushwa Hall today.

Fifteen children from the Rich Center, ranging in age from 4 to 15, will get free exams, cleanings and fluoride varnish from two dozen dental hygiene majors.

The exams are part of a course that focuses on preparing YSU students to treat and manage patients who have special needs, such as autism spectrum disorder, said Ruth Palich, assistant professor and clinical coordinator of dental hygiene at YSU.

Lecture at YSU tonight

YOUNGSTOWN

Dr. Mack Frantz will give a lecture on Response of Louisiana Waterthrush and their Benthic Prey to Shale Gas Development at 7 p.m. today in Youngstown State University’s Cushwa Hall, Room B100.

The speaker series is sponsored, in part, by The James Dale Ethics Center.

The event is free. There is parking at the on-street metered-parking spaces along Lincoln Avenue and nearby streets. Additional paid parking is available at the M-30 Deck on Wick Avenue and the M-70 surface lot at the corner of Fifth and Grant avenues (across from McDonalds) for $5.

Anyone needing assistance should call the YSU Student Security Service at 330-941-1515.

AAA safety awards

YOUNGSTOWN

Three local police departments have won awards from AAA East Central for increasing safety on the roads.

The Canfield and Newton Falls police were given a “Silver Award,” while the New Middletown Police Department received a “Bronze Award.” The three were among 45 Northeast Ohio police departments that were honored recently.

Drugs, weapons found

WARREN

Hiding places inside a GMC Yukon were not enough to stop police officers from finding drugs and weapons.

Donald E. Jones Jr., 37, of Oak Street Southwest is facing five felony charges of carrying concealed weapons, drug possession and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Not-guilty pleas were entered Tuesday in Warren Municipal Court, and Jones is in the Trumbull County jail without eligibility to make bond.

Officers were called to the Sunoco Gas Station, 805 W. Market St., at 3:01 a.m. Sunday and heard loud music coming from a Yukon, then saw the vehicle leave the gas station. Officers stopped it on Main Avenue and smelled marijuana inside.

While searching, they found a loose “kick panel” in the center console and found a scale inside, then found a container with suspected marijuana residue in the center console arm rest.

They lifted up the cup holder in the console and found two loaded handguns and suspected heroin, cocaine and pills in a jar.

They seized cash in Jones’ pocket and shoe totaling $9,050. Jones pleaded not guilty to playing loud music in a motor vehicle.

Multiple charges for teen

WARREN

Police arrested Le’Taryon C. Powell, 17, of Northwest Boulevard Northwest, on aggravated menacing and vandalism charges, accused of threatening police officers and damaging a police cruiser after being stopped for a red-light violation on Summit Street Northwest.

Police made the stop at 7:37 p.m. Monday after seeing Powell’s vehicle run a red light. He said the light was still yellow, and the traffic stop was illegal. He told officers to “get away from my car.” He refused to leave the vehicle and yelled at officers, then later got out and was handcuffed.

Once in the back of the cruiser, he kicked the car door and “spit all over the rear seat,” police said. As officers wrote out a slip so Powell’s car could be towed, Powell threatened to kill and assault officers. He also threatened corrections officers at the county juvenile justice center when he was taken there.