TODAY'S VINDICATOR HEADLINES

Youngstown school board took no action at its meeting Tuesday to place a renewal of the school district’s 10.7-mill property tax levy on the November ballot. Board President Brenda Kimble said she expects to call a special meeting within the next few days to further discuss the four-year levy, which generates more than $5 million per year and costs the owner of a $50,000 home $164 annually. “We need to be able to justify the levy renewal to the community. We want to do right by our children. But we need to be better informed before we act.”

The new Amazon delivery station in North Jackson employs about 200 part- and full-time associates and will be hiring more warehouse employees and delivery van drivers. Amazon spokesmen gave a tour of the 43,000-square-foot station to area media and community members Tuesday afternoon.

The facility, which opened in June, is hiring seasonal associates and leadership positions. Pay starts at $15 an hour, and there are varying benefit packages for both part- and full-time positions.

Local Gold Star families shared tears and received salutes during a ceremony Tuesday in Austintown honoring their husbands, brothers and sons who died in the line of duty.

Austintown trustees and local veteran activists dedicated six benches that will remain outside Quaker Steak & Lube restaurant. They’re engraved with the names of servicemen from Austintown, Boardman and Champion townships who died in three conflicts: World War II, the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. The benches will be spread out around the restaurant for patrons to sit and reflect, said Ken Jakubec, a veteran advocate and longtime Quaker Steak employee who helped organize the dedication alongside veteran Leo Connelly Jr.

The Ohio Democratic Party will have a Thursday event at 1:15 p.m. outside the former Northside Regional Medical Center on Gypsy Lane in Youngstown to criticize the economy under Donald Trump on the two-year anniversary of the president’s speech at the Covelli Centre in which he vowed to return the area to its steel-mill glory days. “Don’t sell your house. ... Do not sell it. We’re going to get those values up. We’re going to get those jobs coming back, and we’re going to fill up those factories or rip them down and build brand new ones. It’s going to happen,” Trump said. Since then, Northside closed, the GM complex in Lordstown idled – which caused other companies on its supply chain to go out of business – and The Vindicator announced it would shut down Aug. 31. The event is being coordinated with the Democratic National Committee as part of a campaign in eight states, including seven that Trump won in the 2016 election.

The race is on to provide a temporary and then permanent fix to get about 55 people back into their homes near Kinsman Lake after ia causeway washed out Saturday morning. The rain-induced washout eliminated the only road in and out of the Lakelands neighborhood and damaged homes. The Trumbull County commissioners signed a resolution Tuesday declaring a state of emergency because of the flood damage. The declaration will be sent to Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Emergency Management Agency in hopes it will lead to financial assistance for repairs.

The Youngstown State University Foundation on Tuesday announced The Marjorie Hartman Foundation established a scholarship and endowment to benefit YSU students enrolled in the pre-veterinary track in biology and chemistry. Applicants are required to live in Mahoning, Trumbull or Columbiana counties or Mercer or Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania, and be a full-time YSU student with at least a 3.0 GPA. Hartman, who lived in Austintown, created the foundation shortly before she died in 2008 to help fund and promote animal welfare in the Mahoning Valley.

Poland Municipal Forest Board is on track to add an additional deer exclosure to the forest to preserve a section of land to allow plants to thrive unhindered by deer grazing. Forest board member Ian Renne, a professor at Youngstown State University, will give a talk on white tail deer at 7 p.m. Aug. 15 at Poland Library. The board also will be advertising for bids for the Mauthe Bridge restoration project Wednesday.

The judge in the corruption trial of ex-Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone, former city Finance Director David Bozanich and downtown developer Dominic Marchionda is requiring the prosecutor to provide grand jury testimony from two key witnesses to the defense. Meanwhile, Sammarone’s attorney filed a response to the prosecutor’s objection to the former mayor’s motion to separate his trial from the other defendants. Sammarone, Bozanich, Marchionda and 10 companies owned by the latter were indicted Aug. 20, 2018, on 101 counts, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, aggravated theft and tampering with records involving city development projects. The trial is scheduled to start June 1, 2020.

Washington Prime Group, the company that owns Southern Park Mall, plans to demolish the former Sears Auto Repair Center. Renderings of the company's mall redevelopment were published exclusively in The Vindicator April 28 and involve green space for outdoor events and exterior-facing retail, dining and entertainment.

An agreement to sell Campbell’s water treatment plant and its customers to Aqua Ohio is being fine-tuned, officials said. The agreement was to be completed by Tuesday, but

Jennifer Johnson, Aqua Ohio area manager for the Struthers Division, confirmed the entities were still refining the terms.

Aqua Ohio has offered the city $7.5 million.

And in sports, Youngstown boxing trainer Jack Loew has returned to his former South Side Boxing Club location at 331 Erie St. Loew said he wants to remain in the sport as either a manager or promoter, but realizes his days as a trainer are numbered. He said his current location at 1714 Market St. was paid for, but had turned into more of a fitness place serving only 10 boxers. “I was paying $1,200 monthly when you include utilities, insurance and taxes, and wasn’t bringing in that amount each month,” he explained.

He sold the current facility to Corrections Corporation of America.

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