Ashtabula school closes after gun threat
JEFFERSON - Classes were canceled Friday after a student threatened to bring a gun to Jefferson High School, according to Tribune Chronicle news partner WYTV Channel 33.
The student was arrested Friday after making the threat on Facebook, and another student is being addressed by police for making a similar threat, said district Superintendent Douglas Hladek.
The Ashtabula County high school basketball game against Lakeview on Friday also was canceled.
Hladek also said the decision was made by the district and local law enforcement officials in the wake of last week's deadly mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
McDonald council honors outgoing clerk
McDONALD - Village council this week recognized Clerk Rocco Tondo for his nine years of service to the community.
Tondo, who attended his last meeting on Wednesday, is leaving the position at the end of the month.
Mayor Glenn Holmes presented Tondo a proclamation for his work.
Council passed a motion to create a fiscal officer position effective in 2013, which will become a combined clerk and treasurer position and have the new person handle duties of both jobs.
Holmes will appoint someone to the position at council's organziational meeting at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 2, when he will also give his annual address to the public recapping the past year in the village.
In other business this week, council approved the Geauga-Trumbull Solid Waste Management District's 15-year plan. The district provides recycling and other services to the district.
Legislation transfers land to Lordstown
WARREN - Federally owned land in Lordstown will be transferred to the village in a national defense spending act headed toward President Barack Obama's desk.
The village will receive for free about seven acres of property north of the Ohio Commerce Center on state Route 45, but it must always be used for public purposes and cannot be sold.
Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill said the village has ''a couple leads'' on what to do with the property, but declined to discuss specifics.
U.S. Rep. Timothy J. Ryan, who was able to include the transfer in the spending act, said in a news release Thursday that the property ''can be used to provide additional opportunities locally for education or economic development.''
The U.S. Army-owned land is the site of the old Kunkel Reserve Center.
Four students arrested in assaults, indecency
WARREN - Four Warren G. Harding High School students were arrested Thursday morning in separate incidents.
According to reports, two female students had an argument that escalated into a physical assault. The minors were fighting in the hallway of the school when administrators and school security responded. Each was pulling the other's hair and had to be separated.
No major injuries were reported, and officers and school authorities will consult with the juvenile prosecutor regarding the filing of charges, according to reports.
In other incidents, officers were advised by the school principal of a student urinating in the courtyard as well as an assault on a student, a police report states.
Tribune Chronicle