Local News
UPDATE: Man changes guilty plea to no contest
BROOKFIELD — A 19-year-old Masury man charged last January with vehicular manslaughter changed his plea from not guilty to no contest on Thursday.
On Jan. 18, 2009, Joshua Thompson, of 8196 Erie St., lost control of his car while driving on a wet curve on U.S. Route 62 near Bedford Road in Brookfield, swerved off the road and struck a metal pole.
A passenger in the car, Alessa N. Norris, 16, of Brookfield, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Thompson was taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown with serious injuries. Neither was wearing a seatbelt, police said.
Thompson was a senior and Alessa was a junior at Brookfield High School, where she was on the cheerleading squad. Her classmates called her “Le Le” and held several candlelight vigils after her death.
Less than a month after Alessa died, Patricia S. Copen, a 61-year-old Hubbard woman, was killed at the same intersection after police said she drove her car through a stop sign into the path of another vehicle.
Thompson’s sentencing will be scheduled after a pre-sentencing investigation is completed, according to court documents.
A no contest plea is treated the same as a guilty plea in Ohio.
Vehicular manslaughter is a misdemeanor there, and carries a jail sentence of up to six months, and a fine of up to $1,000.
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Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
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City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
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Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
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Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
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City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
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Near-complete addition to let man come home
Although the weather delayed the start of Penny and Paul Strechansky’s construction project by about three weeks, the end of the sawing, hammering and stapling is in sight.
“It should be done by the middle of next week,” Strechansky said of the 15-by-20 foot addition being built onto the back of his garage in Hermitage, which will be the new home of his grandson, David Johnson.
Johnson was critically injured in a car crash June 19, 2009, on what is now Interstate 376 in Lawrence County. The crash rendered Johnson, who just turned 21, blind and brain damaged. He is unable to care for himself.
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Man prison-bound for role in drug buy shooting
It may never be known for certain who fired the two fatal shots that killed a Sharon teen on Nov. 6 on Wallis Avenue during a botched drug deal, prosecutors have said.
But Christopher Swogger, 24, Sharon, was fingered by at least one other suspect as the one whose bullets killed John B. Hosey III, 18, of 422 Meek St. Swogger was sentenced Monday.
Swogger was sent to prison for 1 1/2 to 3 years for having a firearm without a license, ending his role in the criminal prosecutions of the drug deal turned shooting.
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Farrell, Sharon to revisit merger
Times are tough.
In Farrell Monday night, city council heard a grim financial report from City Manager LaVon Saternow.
“It’s not a pretty picture,” Mrs. Saternow said. “We could conceivably run out of cash by the end of the year. I don’t know how to put it more bluntly.”
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Storm takes a toll on village green
Cleanup crews were clearing fallen trees throughout Brookfield Township well into Sunday evening in the aftermath of severe thunderstorm that ripped through the community Saturday before making it’s way to Mercer County.
On the Historic Brookfield Green more than a dozen trees were knocked down by the storm. Several people who lived there watched workers clear fallen branches from the road and their yards Sunday afternoon.
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History comes alive at festival
The ground shook Saturday morning at Pymatuning State Park as men dressed as Union soldiers from the Civil War shot off two cannons. Their rumble could be heard reverberating throughout the park.
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Storm damages trees, wires
