21 WFMJ archives  / February  3, 1985 | About 400 people attended a Sunday afternoon rally at the Mahoning Country Club 40 years ago sponsored by local unions to send a message to General Motors that the community is behind the effort to attract the Saturn auto plant to the Valley. 

February 2

2000: Youngstown State University trustees suggest financial realities may make it impossible to keep a pledge to freeze tuition for two years. Outgoing President Leslie Cochran says, "The best-laid plans are not always in the control of the institution."

Richard C. Beringer, former superintendent of Howland Local Schools, says the Christian Alternative School for Teens at Living Lord Church will educate teenagers who do not fit the mold of traditional students. 

An Alaska Airlines jet with 88 people aboard plunged into the Pacific Ocean off Oxnard, Calif., after the pilot reported an issue with the trim stabilizer and asked for clearance for an emergency landing.   

1985: Veteran councilman Herman P. Starks opens his campaign for mayor by blasting incumbent Patrick Ungaro, charging that Ungaro has failed to develop an economic recovery plan.

Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow atop Gobbler's Knob at 7:28 a.m. and saw his shadow, predicting at least six more weeks of winter.

The Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac 2000 assembly line at General Motors Lordstown plant is shut down due to a parts shortage, idling 4,500 workers. The van plant, which employs 2,800, is still operating. 

1975: John H. Yerian, 63, of Poland, owner of one of the oldest and largest independently owned insurance agencies in the Youngstown district, dies at his winter residence in Florida.

The Youngstown State University Board of Trustees adopts a mission statement for the last quarter of the century stating that the university's responsibility "is to be prominent as a leader in its service region of Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties in Ohio and Lawrence and Mercer counties in Pennsylvania."

Jack and Barbara Rees bought a 145-year-old farmhouse for $200, took it down piece by piece from its site on New Buffalo Road, and rebuilt it on a six-acre site on Turner Road. 

1950: Mahoning Valley industrial plants, experiencing an acute water shortage a short time ago, now have all the water they need and are wasting about half a billion gallons a day. 

A two-pronged attack is mounted to unseat Byron Wade as chairman of the Mahoning County Republican Party. A candidate will challenge Wade for precinct committeeman in precinct D of the 5th Ward, and candidates opposed to Wade are running in other precincts. 

Marjorie Catchpool Barres of Brookfield sails for Munich, Germany, where she will work with displaced persons for the World Council of Churches.