Valley climate-change group sets 1st meeting

Valley climate-change group sets 1st meeting

YOUNGSTOWN

The first meeting of a local organization to focus on climate change will take place at 7 p.m. Monday at First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1105 Elm St., across from Wick Park.

More than 25 people have formed a steering committee to begin formation of the Mahoning Valley Panel on Climate Change.

Frank Bishop of Poland said the group organized in response to a letter to the editor in The Vindicator last month from Professor Lauren Schroeder of Youngstown State University. In it, Schroeder argued universities, businesses and government at all levels must become part of the solution to global warming, not part of the problem. Schroeder also urged formation of a local organization to fight climate change.

Disaster Unemployment Assistance deadline

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning County residents must apply for federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance before the Monday deadline, says the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Applicants must be unemployed as a direct result of storms on May 27 and May 28; must be U.S. citizens or qualified aliens; must not qualify for regular unemployment insurance benefits from any state; must live in one of the 11 counties included in the recent federal disaster declaration (which includes Mahoning); and must establish the lost work was their primary source of income.

Those whose workplaces were damaged or destroyed or who were injured during the storms are also eligible. Benefits will be available for up to 29 weeks, beginning the first full week after the storms. Interested applicants may call 1-877-644-6562 toll-free.

Dismissal of eminent domain suit overruled

YOUNGSTOWN

Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court this week overruled the dismissal of a Mill Creek MetroParks eminent domain suit.

The motion to dismiss – filed in June by attorneys for the defendant landowner, Diane Less of South Range Road – argues the MetroParks doesn’t have the authority to appropriate privately owned land for its proposed bike trail, nor that said trail is necessary for the public good, and that a MetroParks letter stating its intent to take the land is invalid.

Judge Durkin ruled if elements of the MetroParks’ petition are presumably true, it would be entitled to take the land through eminent domain powers granted by the state. “We’re in the fight for the long haul,” Less told The Vindicator on Friday.

Voting Rights Act vigil

YOUNGSTOWN

State and community leaders will have a vigil at 8 p.m. Tuesday at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown, 1105 Elm St., to call on Congress to restore the protections in the Voting Rights Act and ensure every eligible voter can cast ballots free from discrimination.

The VRA was signed into law Aug. 6, 1965. It was the most comprehensive piece of legislation passed to ensure voting rights were awarded to all citizens, especially racial minorities.

Sponsoring the vigil are First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown, United Returning Citizens, Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past, League of Women Voters of Greater Youngstown, and HOLA Ohio.

Area road projects

The Ohio Department of Transportation announced road projects in Trumbull and Mahoning counties.

In Trumbull County, state Route 7 in Hartford Township just north of state Route 609 will be closed from Monday to Wednesday for a culvert replacement. The detour will be state Route 305 to state Route 193 to state Route 88.

In Mahoning County, U.S. Route 62 and state Route 630 in Green, Boardman and Canfield townships next week will have various daily lane restrictions for resurfacing until further notice on Route 62 between the Columbiana County line and state Route 446 and Route 630 between state Route 170 and the Pennsylvania state line,

This $2.5 million resurfacing project is scheduled to be completed by late September.

Sales-tax holiday

COLUMBUS

The back-to-school Ohio sales-tax holiday will take place through Sunday. In 2018, state lawmakers passed legislation making this three-day, back-to-school sales-tax holiday a recurring holiday each year.

During the sales-tax holiday, there will be no state or local sales or use tax on school and teaching materials that cost up to $20 each. The exemption will also apply to certain items of clothing costing up to $75 each.

2 men shot, injured

WARREN

Two city men, both 24, suffered major injuries from gunshot wounds on Lane Drive at 2:25 a.m. Friday.

Police were called to Lane for the possibility of multiple gunshot victims and found one man in the home with a gunshot wound of the back and the other man across the street with a gunshot wound of the chest.

Both men were taken to various hospitals. The police report does not mention any arrests having been made nor any updated condition of the men.

WARN Act notice filed

AUSTINTOWN

The Watkins and Shepard Trucking Inc. terminal along Victoria Road may be impacted by its owner Schneider National’s decision to end delivery services of large products to businesses and consumers.

A WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act notice filed Thursday in Wisconsin, where Schneider is headquartered, indicates 85 administrative employees will be let go before Sept. 30.

The company has not filed a similar notice in Ohio regarding the Austintown location, which is one of 26 terminals nationwide at which “First to Final Mile” services will be shut down over the next several weeks.

In an article published Thursday in trucking business publication FreightWaves, Schneider CFO Stephen Bruffett said each of the company’s FTFM facilities carry varying lease obligations and those with longer terms could be subleased.

He added though some tractors and trailers used for the FTFM service would be redeployed, some drivers would not.

4-car collision

NORTH LIMA

Ohio State Highway Patrol responded to a four-car collision that occurred about 5:23 p.m. Friday on Renkenberger Road.

Four cars were waiting to turn left heading north and the back car hit the one in front of it, according to the patrol report.

The driver at fault, Ashley Davis, of Boardman, had minor injuries and was cited for assured clear distance ahead, said Trooper Brian Cowles.