GIRARD With Girard income tax collections down more than a half-million dollars from last year, Mayor James Melfi said he will veto any legislation that gives a pay raise to a city elected official.
Melfi told city council Monday that he is very troubled by the income tax numbers, which show a decrease from $3,569,154 in 2019 to $3,234,199 in 2020.
“The 2020 income tax collections are a disaster. It is the largest single decline in dollars and percentage in our city’s history,” he said.
Melfi also said major employer V&M Star Steel paid about $206,300 less in 2020 than in 2019, bringing the total income tax down by more than $541,000. The company paid $387,554 in income taxes in 2019 and $181,196 in 2020.
bcoupland@tribtoday.com
GIRARD With Girard income tax collections down more than a half-million dollars from last year, Mayor James Melfi said he will veto any legislation that gives a pay raise to a city elected official.
Melfi told city council Monday that he is very troubled by the income tax numbers, which show a decrease from $3,569,154 in 2019 to $3,234,199 in 2020.
“The 2020 income tax collections are a disaster. It is the largest single decline in dollars and percentage in our city’s history,” he said.
Melfi also said major employer V&M Star Steel paid about $206,300 less in 2020 than in 2019, bringing the total income tax down by more than $541,000. The company paid $387,554 in income taxes in 2019 and $181,196 in 2020.
gvogrin@tribtoday.com
Staff photo / Guy Vogrin
Murder defendant Kemari James appears Monday for a pretrial hearing in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, saying he wants to represent himself at an April 26 jury trial. At right is one of his former attorneys, David Rouzzo.
WARREN A Trumbull County judge on Friday is scheduled to consult with a murder defendant who told him Monday he wants to defend himself at trial.
At a pretrial hearing Monday before Common Pleas Judge Peter J. Kontos, Kemari James, 27, said he has fired his two attorneys because they haven’t taken the charges against him seriously.
Girard police Chief John Norman looks at body camera footage from one of his police officers on Wednesday. Girard has had the devices for its 24 officers since February 2019. The city paid $12,000 for the cameras and data storage.
WARREN The Warren Police Department will be purchasing four body cameras that will be worn by officers patrolling city streets.
Other Valley departments, such as Girard, Niles and the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department, also are using cameras worn by their officers.
The idea of these cameras is endorsed by Valley community activists, including pastors, civil rights leaders, mayors and law enforcement.
The Warren cameras are expected to be assigned to police cars, so they will be spread among multiple officers on any given day.
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Correspondent photo / Sean Barron
Richard Ridener of Vienna carefully places a wreath next to the gravestone bearing the name of his late father, Earl R. Ridener, a World War II U.S. Navy veteran who was among the service members honored during Saturdayâs annual Wreaths Across America event in the Girard-Liberty Union Cemetery in Girard. The elder Ridener died in 2004.
GIRARD Earl R. Ridener spent much of his life in the construction business building homes, but he also had built a foundation upon which sits the legacy of a man who reached far beyond himself, those who knew him say.