21 WFMJ archives / August 28, 1988 | Alice R.  Powers, a community leader who, with her husband Edward, saved the Warner Theater in downtown Youngstown from the wrecking ball, told the summer graduating class of Youngstown State University 35 years ago that every student has been the beneficiary of sometimes invisible influences from “kindly teachers, the companionship of classmates, other students or friends or worthy people.” She died a month later at 81.

August 29

1998: Five new police officers are sworn in, bringing the Youngstown Police Department to a strength of 204 officers. 

The 73-year-old elevator at Warren Harding High School can't accommodate wheelchairs, and Warren Superintendent Jane McGee Rafal says it would cost more than $15 million to bring the school up to the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

Columbiana County Common Pleas Judge Douglas Jenkins dismisses a lawsuit filed by the parents of a recent East Liverpool High student claiming that he should have been ranked second rather than third in the graduating class. They contended that the use of a "B" received on a high school level algebra class taken in the eighth grade should not have been used in calculating high school class rankings. 

1983: The 138th Columbiana County Fair ends with good reviews and with 31,763 paying customers during its six-day run. 

Low visibility caused by dense fog causes the cancellation of an Allegheny Commuter flight from and to Pittsburgh. 

Ohio Edison Co. applies for a $27 million rate increase that would cost the average homeowner $1.40 a month. 

1973: Ohio Edison Co. will spend more than $1.5 billion to design and build a nuclear power plant in Erie County.

The Youngstown Education Association is asking for a starting salary of $7,700 for teachers. The board has offered $7,140.

Donald Whipple, manager of Mosquito Lake Park in Trumbull County, reports that Joyce Gergel, 12, a water skier who was in the ski lane, was killed when struck by another boat that was towing a water skier.   

1948: Youngstown Municipal Airport is turned into a military base by the largest concentration of military aircraft ever to visit the city. Nearly 215 planes with a value of more than $10 million are flown inland to escape a hurricane. 

Twenty thousand people watch 75 fire companies from Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania parade miles under a scorching sun at Conneaut, host of the 16th annual convention of the Northwestern Pennsylvania Firemen's Association. 

The average factory worker earned a record $52.96 a week during July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.