Years Ago | September 30th

21 WFMJ archives / September 29, 1956 | The last of several large billboards calling attention to the Youngstown Area Community Chest drive 68 years ago was checked out by James M. Hughes, chairman of publicity for the drive, and Carl Englehart, chairman of the display division of the publicity committee.
September 30
1999: Thirty-one people from as far away as New Zealand and as close as the Youngstown State University campus have applied to succeed Dr. Leslie Cochran as president of YSU. A 15-member search committee will begin going over the applications.
U.S. attorneys allege that when mob boss Lenny Strollo wanted to forestall the closing of a dump in Coitsville Township as a favor to a friend, he provided monthly bribes that were delivered by a disbarred attorney, George Alexander, to then-Mahoning County Prosecutor James Philomena.
Delphi Packard Electric Systems, one of the giants of the Mahoning Valley economy, is hiring workers for the first time in four years, but not at a rate that keeps the workforce from shrinking. While 200 will be hired, 1,600 are retiring.
1984: Under President Reagan's proposed 1985 budget, federal aid cuts to Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana, and Ashtabula counties would total more than $100 million.
Vindicator business editor George R. Reiss writes that a decrease in gasoline prices has spurred renewed sales for big cars, which is causing some problems for the big three—General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—which must meet lower average fuel economy targets.
Myron Howard, who lost his steelworker's job when he was 18 months short of retirement, is embarking on a new career at 53, opening a funeral home in a former church at 1755 Shehy St.
1974: Vandals damaged 17 classrooms in Jefferson Elementary School, and thieves took classroom and office equipment from Grant Elementary.
A parts shortage caused by a strike at a supplier plant shuts down the van plant at the General Motors Assembly Division in Lordstown.
Gerry Bloomberg and Leo Muller, two professional performers who have called the Youngstown Playhouse home for many years, join 52 other singers, dancers, and performers in "Gypsy," opening Oct. 11 to mark the Playhouse's 50th anniversary season.
1949: Six federal and state revenue agents who spent seven days keeping a still under surveillance in woods off Jacobs Road in Hubbard Township were undone by a squirrel. As the moonshiners finally approached their still, a squirrel ran over to the agents' hiding place. The moonshiners saw them and fled.
Youngstown steel plants, capable of producing $2 million to $2.5 million worth of steel daily, will be dark by midnight, idling 45,000 to 50,000 workers as a strike deadline expires.
The Census Bureau estimates that 989,000 veterans live in Ohio, 740,000 of whom are World War II veterans.