21 WFMJ archives / September 3, 1998 | Riders on The Inverter at the Canfield Fair got a hair-raising experience as they were turned upside down 25 years ago.

September 1 

1998: A New Jersey telemarketer is setting up shop in the former Custom Sound building on Youngstown-Warren Road and says it will employ 170 people at a starting wage of $7 an hour. 

A second New Castle 20-year-old is charged with firebombing the Lawrence County Government Center in April, causing $12,000 in damage. 

Potato chips, snack cakes, and cookies have been replaced at Edison Junior High in Niles with salads, cheese, and crackers. 

1983: Hermitage Township is awarded a $498,800 federal grant to develop 200 acres of land in the Broadway-Freedland Road area as an industrial park.

By 10:30 a.m., some 2,000 customers had passed through the doors of the new Women's Apparel Warehouse in the downtown Youngstown building that formerly housed Higbees. 

Three reputed mob associates from Youngstown are the last three defendants found guilty of conspiracy in an FBI sting operation known as the Jewel Pigeon operation that resulted in the conviction of 38 people. Ernest Biondillo was returned to Ohio to serve time on an unrelated conviction; Richard Dota and Joseph Diorio were released on bond. 

1973: Youngstown veterans will go to court to stop the $1.7 million Central Square renovation if the contract does not spell out that the Man on the Monument will be untouched. 

The planned assembly of 5,000 sporty Chevrolet Vegas with English-designed Cosworth engines and the anticipated production of 165,000 to 200,000 rotary-engine Vegas is attracting considerable attention in Lordstown because of the technological implications for the auto industry. 

The Continental Tamburitzans of Sharon, Pa., will play, sing, and dance to the music of Yugoslavia and other European countries at Salem High School. 

1948: The 102nd Canfield Fair opens with a parade of fire companies in front of the grandstand. 

A property at 224-228 E. Federal Street, condemned as a firetrap, is bought for $18,100 by Bern and Betty Brothers, who intend to demolish it immediately. 

At least 276 house-hungry veterans signed up to own new homes being developed on Youngstown's West Side by the United Veterans Council.