21 WFMJ archives  / December  24, 1997 | Jim Loboy, a DJ at Hot 101 radio, took a Christmas Eve plunge into Lake Hamilton 27 years ago to make good on a pledge that he would jump in the lake if listeners brought toys and food items to the station for the Salvation Army and Toys for Tots. 

December 27


1999: The cost of housing inmates continues to rise in Columbiana County, with about $2 million of the county's $10.5 million budget going to the jail.

Edna Pincham leaves the Youngstown Board of Education after serving 16 years, during which she grappled with enrollment losses, bitter teacher strikes and budget deficits.

In its last issue of 1999, Time Magazine named Albert Einstein "Person of the Century."


1984: Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste signs two dozen year-end bills, including giving most elected officials a raise and providing a tax break for industry. He vetoed a raise for the governor from $65,000 a year to $78,000.

A 40-year-old Campbell man shoots and kills himself after holding police at bay for several hours at his Penhale Avenue home. He had threatened to kill his girlfriend and vowed not to be taken alive.

The Reagan administration, predicting a decline in the federal budget in 1985, is now bracing for a deficit exceeding a record $200 billion. 


1974: Serious crime in Youngstown increased 5 percent during the first nine months, compared to a national average of 8 percent. 

Almost one in 20 Ohioans is receiving welfare assistance, state officials say. 

"It's time to start feeling good about our country,"  Youngstown Schools Superintendent Robert Pegues tells 32 Youngstown district cadets and midshipmen at the 21st annual service academy luncheon sponsored by the South Side Merchants.


1949: Three young Farrell, Pa., men are killed when their car leaves Route 7 near Hubbard and strikes a tree. Dead are James Mack, 22; Huey Hook Jr., 18, and Lucius J. Ellerbee, 18.

MacKenzie Muffler Co. in Youngstown, closed for 10 days after its credit was temporarily cut off, resumes operations with hopes of returning to its employment of 300.

Joseph Vaschak, 64,  a Youngstown funeral director widely known in local and national Slovak circles, dies in North Side Hospital of a heart ailment.