Fireworks explode in the sky over Tara in Clark, celebrating both the 4th of July and the Mercer County Bicentennial. (Gene Paulson/Hera
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JULY
- 11 -- State police investigate the deaths of a Lake Township husband and his ailing wife as a homicide-suicide.
- 17 -- John B. Wittenauer, 45, Hubbard, dies in Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, from injuries he suffered in a June 25 motorcycle accident on North Water Avenue, Sharon.
- 20 -- Sharpsville Quality Products Co. files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing assets of $3.8 million and debts of $4.9 million.
- 22 -- Blanche I. Bodesheim, 70, of 2101 Sandy Lake-Grove City Road, Jackson Center, dies when a car driven by her husband, James L. Bodesheim, is hit by a pickup truck on state Route 173 in Worth Township.
- 23 -- A sport utility vehicle crosses the center line of state Route 173 in Mill Creek Township and smashes into a pickup truck, killing the SUV's driver Laurel Urey, 34, of Stoneboro, her daughter Megan, 7, of Sandy Lake, and two of the pickup's passengers Steven Ackerman, 39, and Michele Ackerman, 37, both of Meadville.
- 24 -- Fruit Avenue residents complain to council about street crime in Farrell.
- 27 -- Armand E. Brenneman, Pine Township, is arraigned on charges he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in June.
- 28 -- Jack Russell, Jamestown, dies after a motorcycle accident in Wheeling, W.Va.
- 31 -- Michael Leonetti, Clark, is electrocuted in Cranberry Township, Butler County, in an industrial accident.
- 31 -- Leonard Derr, Sharon, pleads guilty to a July 1999 charge that he molested a 12-year-old boy he had met through the Little League baseball program. Derr was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
Supporters of George W. Bush await his arrival at B&O station in Youngstown during a campaign sweep through the area. After numerous re-counts, Bush was named President-elect a month after the November election. (David E. Dale/Herald)
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AUGUST
- 1 -- Lonnie L. Reinhart, Hempfield Township, dies of a heroin overdose and police say they are trying to find out how he obtained the drugs.
- 2 -- Joseph A. Dyll loses his two-year struggle to start a charter school in the Shenango Valley. Commonwealth Court upheld a decision by a state appeals board denying the Sharon man's application to begin the Shenango Valley Regional Charter School.
- 3 -- Mercer County Housing Authority is awarded a $9 million federal grant to demolish and rebuild the Steel City Terrace housing complex in Farrell.
- 3 -- James W. Kendzor, who admitted to phoning in a February bomb threat to Sharon High School, is ordered to perform community service and pay restitution to the city for the cost of having Sharon police and firefighters respond to the phony call.
- 7 -- Wilmington school directors hire Dr. Michael F. Hink of New Castle as the district's new superintendent.
- 10 -- Rosemary Moses, former Hermitage receiver of taxes, is bound over to court on theft and other charges.
- 14 -- Sandy Creek Conservancy is trying to buy Sandy Lake. The conservancy is trying to raise $2.1 million for the lake near the boroughs of Sandy Lake and Stoneboro.
- 14 -- Clifford M. Stearns, Wolf Creek Township, is killed when his van is hit by a dump truck at noon Monday at state Route 173 and Scrubgrass Road.
- 19 -- Brookfield school officials are investigating reports from angry parents that their kids were subjected to hazing at band camp at Edinboro University.
- 28 -- Ronald Dean Sterrett, Wolf Creek Township, is charged with vehicular homicide and other charges in connection with a July 22 crash in Worth Township. James L. and Blanche Bodesheim died of injuries from the crash.
SEPTEMBER
- 1 -- Armand Brenneman, 44, Pine Township, is bound over to court on 18 charges accusing him of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
- 1 -- Retired Mercer County Judge John Q. Stranahan dies of cancer at Buchanan Commons, Grove City. He was 79.
- 2 -- John G. Sava, former superintendent of Farrell schools, dies of an apparent heart attack.
- 6 -- Paul F. Coulter, 49, Lackawannock Township, is killed in a car-pickup crash in Wilmington Township.
- 6 -- Gary Lenzi, Hermitage, former head of the defunct Mercer County Narcotics Unit, is sentenced to 9 months to 2 years in state prison after his conviction for selling marijuana.
- 7 -- Richard Curtician, 42, Greenville, is sentenced to 1 1/2 to 12 years in a state prison for vehicular homicide while driving drunk in the 1998 death of Katherine V. Hovis.
- 14 -- A group of Wheatland parents want the borough to leave Farrell Area School District and affiliate with West Middlesex Area School District.
- 17 -- Jacob Rigby, 21 months, Sharon, dies after the car in which he was riding was hit in the rear on North Hermitage and Colt roads in Pymatuning Township.
- 18 -- Jamestown Area School District sends a group of students and teachers to Harrisburg to show how the district, an Excellence in Education award winner, patterns its curriculum to meet state standards for reading, writing, speaking and thinking.
- 20 -- Two administrators are suing Dr. Charles Cagno and Reynolds Area School District, claiming they were demoted because they were suspected of being involved in an investigation of the superintendent by the state Auditor General's office.
- 22 -- Anthony J. Arci, 20, Masury, turns himself in to police on charges connected to a bomb threat left on an answering machine at Brookfield Middle School.
- 29 -- State Rep. Michael Gruitza formally enters a rehabilitation program for first-time drunken driving offenders in connection with his April 25 arrest in Dauphin County.
- 28 -- Legionnaires' disease-causing bacteria aren't found after a nearly two-month federal investigation at Reznor, but a report by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration stops short of giving the Mercer manufacturing plant a clean bill of health.
- 28 -- Sharon accuses Brookfield of allowing raw sewage to flow into the city's West Hill.
OCTOBER
- 4 -- Pete Chiodo, Sharpsville, a supervisor, is injured in an industrial accident at AK Steel Sawhill Tubular Division's Sharon plant.
- 3 -- Adam Lynn, 18, Sharon, a former F.H. Buhl Club life guard, pleads guilty to the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl at the club in May.
- 4 -- After nearly 45 years in business locally, Gene and Theresa DeSantis decide to close DeSantis Beer and Pop in Sharon and retire.
- 5 -- Reynolds Superintendent Dr. Charles M. Cagno is suspended for five days without pay as punishment for misusing school vehicles and property.
- 6 -- A traffic accident after school takes the lives of Lakeview High School students Mark A. Nestor, 17, Sandy Lake, and Tara Lynn Smith, 17, Carlton.
- 9 -- Gertrude Buzga, 80, Hermitage, is killed in a collision at Connelly Boulevard and Smith Avenue.
- 10 -- UPMC Horizon says it will build a $4.5 million center in Hermitage specifically to handle women's health care.
- 11 -- The number of violent crimes reported in Mercer County drops two percent in 1999 compared to the previous year, according to an annual state report.
- 11 -- Sharpsville council let the public know Wednesday that Consumers Pennsylvania Water Company wants to buy the borough's water treatment plant.
- 12 -- Nick Vargo, 82, East Lackawannock Township, dies after his car collides with a state police cruiser on state Route 173 in Pine Township.
- 13 -- Hempfield Elementary teacher Jon W. Ross, 39, Hempfield Township, is acquitted of charges alleging that he took advantage of an 18-year-old Thiel College intern under his charge and sexually assaulted her.
- 14 -- Rebecca M. Simmons, 18, Jamestown, is killed in a crash on Cannon Road in Lake Township.
- 15 -- Production and maintenance workers at Werner Co., Sugar Grove Township, reject a 5-year contract proposal in a 506-103 secret-ballot vote by United Steelworkers Local 3713-01.
- 17 -- West Middlesex Area School Board votes to spend $7.2 million on renovations and additions to Oakview Elementary School.
- 17 -- Trinity Industries Inc. says it will close its Greenville Rail Car Division in December.
- 24 -- Brian Stafford, a Sharpsville native who is director of the U.S. Secret Service, speaks to members of the Sharpsville Service Club.
- 24 -- FNB Corp. says that Peter Mortensen will retire as the company's chief executive officer. Gary L. Tice was named as his successor, effective Dec. 31.
- 25 -- HON Industries, an Iowa-based office furniture company says it will open a $27 million factory in Keystone Regional Industrial Park, Crawford County, that promises 250 jobs in northwestern Pennsylvania.
- 26 -- Bradley K. A. Bobby, 34, dies in a work accident at his Lake Road, Jefferson Township, home.
- 27 -- Wheatland Tube Co. announces it may be sold to Tyco International Ltd., a $30 billion conglomerate. In December, Wheatland Tube announced the deal was off and the company was no longer for sale because, among other things, Tyco feared a delay in regulatory approval because it would own a major part of the tube industry.
Michael Varso, Hermitage, gets a flu shot from nurse Susan Szymkiewicz Nov. 28 at the Shenango Valley Mall. The flu vaccine was in short supply for most of the flu season. (Tiffany Wolfe/Herald)
NOVEMBER
- 1 -- United Steelworkers at Werner Co., Sugar Grove Township, ratify a five-year labor contract.
- 2 -- Negotiators for the defunct Sharon Steel Corp. and United Steelworkers strike a deal that could enable up to 1,700 retirees -- depending on their retirement date -- to share in an estimated $750,000.
- 3 -- Development promoters celebrate Iowa furniture maker Hon Industries' decision to locate in an industrial park on the border of Crawford and Mercer counties.
- 7 -- Local terms in state and federal legislatures are decided with the election of state Rep. Michael Gruitza, Hermitage, D-7th District; state Rep. Richard Stevenson, Grove City, R-8th District; U.S. Rep. Phil English, Erie, R-21st District; and U.S. Rep. James Traficant, Poland, Ohio, D-17th District.
- 13 -- Jennifer and Rick Barborak, of Sharon, hope to form an environmental organization to look out for the Shenango River.
- 15 -- Trial for Leon R. "Luggo" Grande, Hermitage, who is charged with the May 1 killing of Deborra DeSantis in her Sharpsville home, is postponed until 2001.
- 16 -- Odette Pacsi, a former manager at National City Bank's Farrell branch office, pleads guilty to stealing more than $500,000 from the branch over 10 years.
- 17 -- Anthony J. Arci pleads guilty to inducing panic at Brookfield School District in connection with a bomb threat he left on a school answering machine in September.
- 17 -- Andy A. Byler, 23, of Pulaski, dies in East Lackawannock Township when a tree he was cutting down falls on him.
- 21 -- Nicole M. Phillips, the Masury woman charged with lacing her 2-month-old son's bottle with a lethal dose of a painkiller, pleads guilty in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to involuntary manslaughter.
- 27 -- Flu shots offered at Shenango Valley Mall draw a crowd of 754 people willing to stand in line to buy the vaccinations.
Katherine Todd, right, is consoled after a Dec. 18 fire at her home at 339 N. Oakland Ave. in Sharon. The fire started in her Christmas tree, consuming gifts, and causing smoke damage throughout the house. (Salena Carr/Herald)
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DECEMBER
- 1 -- Mercer County Industrial Development Authority approves a plan to use $11 million of public funds to develop the former Westinghouse Electric Corp. plant on Sharpsville Avenue in Sharon.
- 1 -- Gerald Walter Spohn, 35, Hermitage, dies after a head-on crash on South Keel Ridge Road, Hermitage.
- 2 -- Arthur A. Lace, Conneaut Lake, dies in a crash on state Route 173 in French Creek Township.
- 5 -- Sharpsville Quality Products Co. halts operations.
- 11 -- Hermitage school directors vote not to renew Superintendent Dr. Louis C. Mastrian's contract.
- 11 -- Pulaski Township supervisors formally fire former police chief William R. Hogue.
- 13 -- Robert T. and Leslie A. Kozar both die in a murder-suicide in Perkins Restaurant in Hempfield Township.
- 13 -- James R. Clark, Grove City, starts a 37-month prison term after pleading guilty to federal charges of bank fraud.
- 20 -- Frank J. DeVault dies after a collision with a tractor-trailer on U.S. Route 62 in Sandy Lake Township.
- 21 -- Richard K. McConnell, owner of The Queen of Hearts dance club in West Salem Township; is among 8 suspects accused of operating a major cocaine distribution ring.
- 21 -- A bitter dispute surfaces between local agencies and James E. Winner Jr., developer of the former Westinghouse Electric Corp. site.
- 22 -- William J. Meeker, 59, of Fowler, falls through the ice and dies while fishing on Pymatuning Lake.
- 28 -- Fire damages Fred W. Kloos and Son Service Station, 982 E. State St., Sharon.
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