METRO DIGEST || Hospital delays paychecks

Hospital delays paychecks

ELLWOOD CITY, PA.

A small, financially struggling Lawrence County hospital has delayed paying its workers.

Biweekly paychecks due Dec. 21 haven’t been distributed, and employees of Ellwood City Hospital say previous paychecks have bounced.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports Grant White, CEO of the hospital’s parent company, blamed the delayed paychecks on a “significant backlog” in collections. He predicted the hospital’s finances would improve this month, pledging in a Dec. 28 email to employees that “everyone will get paid for their work.”

Man runs from police

YOUNGSTOWN

Police cited a man early Friday for obstruction of justice after he ran away from officers investigating a gunshot-sensor call.

Police were called about 1:40 a.m. to East Ravenwood Avenue on the South Side to investigate a 911 call for gunfire when they saw Carroll Braxton, 28, of Boardman and another man walking in the street at Erie Street and Hilton Avenue. When the two saw police, they ran, reports said.

Braxton led police on a foot chase through several yards before he was caught, reports said. The other man got away.

Officers found a spent 9 mm shell casing on East Ravenwood but Braxton did not have a gun. He was issued a citation and released.

Jailed after firing gun

YOUNGSTOWN

A Bonnie Brae Avenue man was taken to the Mahoning County jail Thursday evening after police reports said he admitted firing a gun during an argument.

Police were called about 7:20 p.m. to Bonnie Brae and Rogers avenues on the West Side for a report of a fight with gunfire. Witnesses told them Leslie Burke III, 19, was arguing with a woman when he pulled out a gun and fired a shot.

Police searched the area and found Burke in a nearby driveway. Reports said he admitted to police he fired a .22-caliber pistol. Police did not find a gun on Burke, however.

He was booked into the jail on a charge of discharging firearms within city limits.

Homeless man sentenced

YOUNGSTOWN

A homeless man was sentenced to eight years in prison Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for a series of robberies in 2016.

Judge Maureen Sweeney handed down the sentence to Bruce Hasley, 25, who pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery and a count of aggravated robbery with a firearm specification. Hasley robbed four people in September and October of 2016 of cash and their cellphones. He used a gun in at least one of the robberies.

Search for schools CEO

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown’s Academic Distress Commission met Friday morning to discuss a search for a new city schools CEO.

Current CEO Krish Mohip’s last day is to be July 31.

The commission will meet again at a future date to be determined to further discuss the matter.

Americore Health, a for-profit company based in Florida that has been buying financially-distressed community hospitals, purchased the facility in October 2017. The hospital was founded in 1913.

Woman pleads not guilty

WARREN

Rebecca A. Renois, 27, of Parkman Road pleaded not guilty in Warren Municipal Court on Friday to drunken driving, child endangering, driving under suspension and failure to stop.

Police said she struck a parked car on Forest Street Northwest on Thursday evening, and they found her a short distance away pushing her car and bleeding. She posted a $5,000 personal recognizance bond, meaning she did not have to pay anything.

Police encountered her on Atlantic Street near Mahoning Avenue at 11:47 p.m. pushing her car. Blood from her nose was on her shirt and pants.

As an officer arrived, she removed a child from the rear of the car. An officer smelled alcohol and found she was driving on a suspended license.

A man approached the officer and told him Renois had struck a parked car on Forest Street and continued driving. An ambulance took Renois and her son to St. Joseph Warren Hospital for treatment.

On NEOMED board

ROOTSTOWN

Gov. John Kasich has appointed Susan Zelman, Ph.D., former executive director, superintendent at the Ohio Department of Education to serve a nine-year appointment as a board trustee at Northeast Ohio Medical University. Her term began Dec. 3, 2018, and ends Sept. 21, 2027.

Zelman, who retired from the Department of Education at the end of 2018, is also president of the Zelman Education Consulting Group. She recently served as senior vice president for education and children’s programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting where she developed policies and programs to integrate public service media into a national reform education agenda.