Police: Incident at FOP Lodge was a stabbing; reward offered for men connected to incident
Hamilton police are still looking for two men in connection with a weekend shooting at a teen girl’s 15th birthday party at an FOP lodge.
And a reward is being offered to help locate Juan Flores and Oscar Flores, according to police.
Earlier reports indicated the victims had been shot, but that is not the case.
Rancor and rifts: Lakota board member Boddy’s actions lead into next meeting
So far there a no signs the recent contentiousness surrounding the Lakota Local Schools board — and specifically member Darbi Boddy — will subside going into this coming Monday’s meeting.
Since Boddy walked out of the Lakota Board of Education’s last meeting on April 27 — which was a quickly arranged, emergency gathering of the board that saw four members vote to censure Boddy and request her resignation — more divisiveness also surfaced.
Boddy’s campaign and politically allied partner Isaac Adi blasted her in a social media posting soon after the April 27 meeting and decried his fellow, new board member as “stirring the waters (and being) disruptive and disrespectful.”
1 killed in Liberty Twp. crash that involved school bus
LIBERTY TWP. — One person is dead after a crash involving a school bus at Millikin Road and Fieldstone Farms Boulevard.
The driver of the vehicle that hit the bus died. Investigators said there were no students on the bus during the crash and the bus driver was not injured.
Police did not release the identity of the person who died.
Man who calls himself ‘Hercules’ curses at Butler Co. judge, makes violent threats
HAMILTON — A Butler County inmate and a Butler County judge exchanged heated words Monday morning.
Butler County Common Pleas Judge Greg Stephens ordered a short recess during a hearing and when he returned, everyone in the courtroom was told to stand. Everyone followed the orders except Brian Allen Davis, who was sitting in the jury box with seven other inmates.
Davis, 41, of Middletown, was charged with trespass in a habitation, a fourth-degree felony, on Jan. 29. He was arraigned on March 2 and released on an own recognizance bond, according to court records. A bench warrant was issued and he was arrested on May 4, according to records.
Butler County commissioners move to close Care Facility
As planned the Butler County commissioners announced today they will be closing the Care Facility by the end of the year because of COVID-induced staff shortages, dwindling census numbers and ever changing federal and state rules.
The three commissioners have remained steadfast in their commitment to keeping the skilled nursing facility afloat, loaning substantially general fund sums through the years. The three told the Journal-News last month this would happen and they made the formal decision today.
“It breaks my heart to have to close, the residents and employees have become family and no one wants to cause duress to a family. Though, the work during COVID/post-COVID and the toll on staff and residents no longer make sense for a county to operate a skilled nursing home facility and to care, in some instances, for critically ill residents,” Commissioner Don Dixon said. “Government doesn’t have the resources – human, capital, or financial – to operate such a specialized service. The County will deploy necessary resources to compassionately place the remaining residents and assist in finding other opportunities for our employees.”
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Butler County cities still vying for brownfield redevelopment dollars
Butler County cities are still hoping to get some of the $500 million in state money to remediate brownfields and tear down eyesores such as the Middletown Paperboard site and the former Forest Fair Mall.
When the state biennial budget passed, it allocated $150 million for commercial and residential demolitions and $350 million for brownfield remediation. Each of the 88 counties were automatically awarded $500,000 for demolition and $1 million for brownfield remediation, which is the removal of hazardous materials left when industrial, or even commercial such as dry cleaners blight is downed. No local match was required.
Fairfield, Hamilton and Middletown applied for the brownfield remediation grant. Fairfield submitted a $1.4 million application to clean up the old Fairfield Cleaners site. Hamilton wanted $1.2 million to clean up the old Mohawk Fine Papers’ Beckett Mill property. Middletown was hoping to get the full $1 million no-match grant allotted to the county for the $2.8 million project to down the gutted Paperboard site.