Interstate 80 roadwork to start near state line

SHENANGO TOWNSHIP — PennDOT is beginning repairs on Interstate 80 near the eastbound rest area about 1.5 miles from the state line due to mine subsidence, or shifting soil, associated with long-closed coal mines.

Work is set to begin the week of June 23 and to be finished in late September, PennDOT said in a news release.

Eastbound work will require round-the-clock lane restrictions. Westbound work will require daylight lane restrictions and normal traffic flow during the weekends. 

Normal traffic patterns will be restored in both directions during the Fourth of July and Labor Day holidays.

The contractor is Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc., Grove City, and the federally funded project costs $2.4 million.

Work includes drilling and filling subsurface mine voids, repair of existing pavement, milling, and repaving with asphalt. 

Ohio trucker used rig to steal diesel, police say

HERMITAGE — A Trumbull County asphalt and trucking company owner was arraigned Friday for using a truck trailer with a hidden vacuum system to steal 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel from a Hermitage convenience store.

Hermitage police charged 56-year-old Larry Donaldson of North Bloomfield, Ohio, with theft, conspiracy and possessing instruments of crime — in this case, a pickup truck trailer that contained the vacuum. Police say the truck’s engine powered the vacuum and a hose was lowered through a trap door in the trailer into underground diesel tanks at the Tic Toc Food Mart BP station on East State Street.

Police say Donaldson stole the fuel on April 27, and two other times in 2005.

Police said they received an anonymous tip about Donaldson May 27 after publicizing the thefts and pictures of the pickup and trailer allegedly used in the thefts.

Witnesses told of Donaldson bragging about stealing gasoline for years, police said.