Years Ago | March 3rd

Vindicator file photo/March 3, 1971 | A row of 1971 Vega 2300s nears the end of the assembly line at the General Motors Corp.’s Fisher body/ Chevrolet assembly line. This photo was taken when the Vega assembly line was open for a press tour in March 1971. Vegas came in 10 colors, including reds, greens, yellows and gold. Each car got a work out on a “mechanical test track” at the end of the line.
March 3
1995: About half of the 50 Western Reserve Health Care employees being laid off are registered nurses and the other half are practical nurses.
Brothers Bryan Freeman, 17, and David Freeman, 16, are arrested near Hope, Mich. after the Ohio State Patrol investigated a report that they and a cousin, Nelson Birdwell III, 18, stayed at the Truck World motel in Hubbard and traced phone records. The trio is accused of killing the Freeman brothers' mother, father and an 11-year-old brother in Allentown, Pa.
The owner of a parking garage on W. Boardman Street argued two years ago that its value for tax purposes had plummeted to $215,000, but the city of Youngstown is now buying the garage for $850,000 in a downtown development deal.
1980: The Youngstown Police Task Force, aided by Mahoning and Trumbull deputies, seize $30,000 in marijuana, $40,000 in cash and arrest a Vienna couple and a Masury man after their hired plane lands at Lansdowne Airport.
Eleven people, including five children and an elderly man, are evacuated from two home2, 139 and 145 Falls Ave., that were heavily damaged by fire. Capt. Norman Stafford is treated at South Side Hospital for minor injuries on his last duty day before retiring.
Two large soft drink bottling plants -- Pepsi Cola Bottlers of Youngstown and Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Youngstown are being struck by the Teamsters Union, Local 377.
1970:
A two-alarm fire destroys a warehouse on Tod Avenue housing the Superior Beverage Co. and Northwest Tomato and Produce Co. The loss is expected to exceed $100,000. A large quantity of government surplus food destined for Youngstown schools is lost.
A spectacular four-car crash in U.S. Route 224 near Poland claims the life of Richard S. Kalna, 16, of Austintown, and injures four other youths.
John Hunter Jr., 58, former principal of South High, suffers a heart attack in his office at the Board of Education building and is pronounced dead at St. Elizabeth Hospital.
1945: Sheriff Ralph E. Elser and deputies sledge-hammer their way through two stout doors into the Savoy Club at 208 W. Front St., confiscating liquor, beer, gambling equipment and making two arrests.
Four grand prizes of $50 each will go to Youngstown public and parochial schools with the largest scrap paper collections. Each school participating will receive $5.
Gunners Mate 3/C George Tarkanish, Oakwood Avenue, is one of a group of naval and civilian personnel rescued from a Japanese prisoner camp in the Philippines.