21 WFMJ archives / January 7, 1962 | Vindicator Photographer Lloyd S. Jones captured the brilliant glow of the area's last Bessemer plant at Republic Steel's Brown-Bonnell plant on E. Front Street 63 years ago. For decades, Bessemer converters lit up the sky throughout the Mahoning Valley.

January 5


2000: Area stores report that the year 2000 opened with a surge in returns of kerosene heaters, kerosene, and generators bought in anticipation of Y2K power outages. Some stores are honoring the exchanges, while others are balking. 

The Columbus restaurant chain Max and Erma's is finishing up a new restaurant across from the Eastwood Mall in Niles. 

Girard Hardware is closing its 96-year-old store at 52 West Liberty Street, a sign that it is increasingly difficult for independent hardware stores to compete with large chains. 


1985: The Ohio Supreme Court issues a landmark decision overturning 40 years of precedent by recognizing a gradual injury as eligible for workers' compensation benefits. The case involved an employee at the Lordstown General Motors Plant who suffered a herniated disc not from one specific incident but from the repetitive stress of lifting batteries into cars on the assembly line. 

The Jamestown Paint and Varnish Co., Jamestown, Pa.'s only industrial concern, will mark its 100th anniversary with a $750,000 expansion.

According to a survey by the Ohio Consumers ' Counsel, Youngstown ranks fourth among Ohio's eight largest cities in monthly utility costs at $136. Toledo was highest, at $159, and Canton was lowest, at $124. 
 

1975: Over 100 teenagers from Ursuline, East, Wilson, North, Liberty, and Cardinal Mooney high schools spend Saturday mornings entertaining handicapped children at the Ursuline Center. 

Ohio's growing shortage of natural gas is expected to seriously impede industrial development plans in the state and the Mahoning Valley and endanger existing jobs. 


1950: Eight people, including the manager of Modern Manor at 4036 Mahoning Avenue, a janitor, and six patrons, are held at gunpoint for 10 minutes by two bandits who escaped with $2,500.

Recent rains added about a billion gallons of water to Mahoning County's depleted storage reservoirs, flushing the sluggish and filth-laden Mahoning River. However, the Meander Reservoir's level remains more than 10 feet below the top of the dam. 

Residents of Halls Corners, the Trumbull County village home to the notorious Jungle Inn, begin a campaign to unincorporate to get rid of a "dictatorship in the village administration."