LOCAL& STATERecord-Courier

SaturdayMay 7, 2016

Page a4

Eric James Stone, age 21 of Newton Falls trag-ically passed away on Tuesday, May 3, 2016 while playing basketball at the Andrews Wellness Center at Youngstown State University. Eric was born on June 2, 1994 in Ravenna the son of Timo-thy Glenn & Susan Ellen (Westfall) Stone.

Eric was a graduate of Southeast High School. Eric was a junior Elec-trical Engineering stu-dent with a 4.0 grade point average. He was a resident of YSU Weller House and president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Student Branch Region 2 at YSU where he was also a math tutor. Eric loved sports and enjoyed inventing new solar ideas. But most of all he loved spending time with Col-leen Maskarinec who was the love of his life.

A model student and cit-izen, Eric touched the lives of everyone around him and will be deeply missed.

Loving memories of Eric will be carried on by his father, Timothy Glenn Stone of Paris Twp., his mother, Susan Ellen Stone of Paris Twp., brother, Sean Allen Stone of Willoughby, grand-mother and her husband, Mari J. Stone & Mike Louis of Newton Falls, uncle, Jeff Stone, aunt, Angie Stone and many extended family mem-bers. Eric was preceded in death by his grandfa-ther, Glenn Stone.

Calling hours will be held on Monday, May 9, 2016 from 2:00 - 4:00 and 6:00 - 8:00 pm at James Funeral Home. Funeral services will be Tuesday at 11:00 am at the funeral home. Eric will be laid to rest at St. Joseph Cem-etery.

Arrangements have been entrusted to James Funeral Home, 8 East Broad Street, New-ton Falls, OH 44444. (330)872-5440. Family & friends may view Eric’s obituary online and send condolences to his family at www.jamesfuneralho-meinc.com.

(James Funeral Home RC 5/7/16)

Eric James Stone

Martha Sue “Marty” Hatcher, age 67 of Edin-burg, passed away on Fri-day, May 6, 2016.

Visitation will be held

on Monday, May 9, 2016, from 2-4 PM and 6-8 PM at the Edinburg United Church. Friends may also call from 10 – 11 AM at the church on Tuesday, with Reverend Timo-thy Paroz officiating the funeral service at 11:00 AM. Interment will fol-low at Edinburg Ceme-tery.

Condolences and mem-ories may be shared at www.wood-kortright-borkoski.com. Full obit-uary will be published in Sunday’s paper.

(Wood-Kortright-Borkoski 330-296-6436 RC 5/7/16)

Martha Sue “Marty” Hatcher

HIRAM-WINDHAMSherry L. Taylor, 57

years of age,longtime Windham resident mov-ing to Hiram in 2012, passed away Thursday May 5, 2016. Arrange-ments are pending at the Green Family Funeral Home and Crematory Service in Mantua.

(Green Family Funeral Home RC 5/7/16)

Sherry L. Taylor

Carol Jean Gant, 70 of Ravenna passed away peacefully surrounded with love. She will be greatly missed by her children, grand children, friends and family.

A Celebration of Life service with food is being held May 21st at 3 PM at New Beginning Fel-lowship Church, 4567 OH-43, Kent, OH 44240.

(RC 5-6, 7 & 8-16)

Carol Jean Gant (Skidmore)

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330-673-5870 Memorials brought to you bywww.PortageMarbleAndGranite.com

Kasich signs off on sales tax holiday, other bills

COLUMBUS — Ohio shoppers will get a break on back-to-school pur-chases during the first weekend in August, after Gov. John Kasich signed legislation Friday solidi-fying the state’s second sales tax holiday.

SB 264 was one of a half a dozen bills final-ized by the governor, a couple of weeks after lawmakers gave their fi-nal approval.

The sales tax holiday bill had to be signed quickly — law chang-es generally take effect 90 days after the gover-nor adds his signature. With Friday’s action by the governor, SB 264 will take effect in time for the planned Aug. 5, 6 and 7 holiday.

Ohio’s first sales tax holiday took place last August, exempting sales taxes on cloth-ing items priced up to $75 and school supplies and instructional mate-rials up to $20, whether purchased in stores or through online retailers.

The exemption did not cover computers and other electronics,

sports equipment, cloth-ing and hair accessories or higher-priced cloth-ing and supplies.

SB 264 retained the provisions of the original sales tax holiday, setting a second holiday for this year but stopping short of making the occasion an annual event.

A study released ear-lier this year by the Uni-versity of Cincinna-ti’s Economics Center showed that last year’s event boosted sales tax collections by $4.7 mil-lion.

Other bills signed by the governor Friday in-cluded:

n HB 233, which in-cludes provisions al-lowing communities to establish downtown re-development districts to promote economic de-velopment and assist in rehabilitating historic buildings.

n SB 133, which desig-nates June as Scleroder-ma Awareness Month, drawing attention to a group of “rare diseases that involve the hard-ening and tightening of the skin and connec-tive tissues — the fibers that provide the frame-work and support for the

body,” according to an analysis by the state’s Legislative Service Com-mission.

n SB 182, which in-cluded more than two dozen road designa-tions honoring astro-naut and Ohio native Neil Armstrong, former Gov. George Voinovich and other Ohioans.

Among other desig-nations was language designating a section of U.S. Route 127 in Pauld-ing County in memo-ry of U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Ran-dall Smith, State Route 39 in Ashland County in memory of Fireman First Class Irving Eu-gene Peters, sections of S.R. 7 in Mahoning and Columbiana counties in memory of Army Chief Warrant Officer Don-ald V. Clark and Cor-poral William F. Bratt, and a portion of S.R. 82 in Trumbull County in memory of Lance Cor-poral Stanley J. Sliwin-sky.

n SB 239, which des-ignated Aug. 7 as Ohio Purple Heart Day, hon-oring “the service and sacrifice of combat-wounded veterans.”Marc Kovac is the Dix Capital Bureau Chief. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.

By Marc KovacR-C CapiTal BuREau

nn SECOnD Tax hOliDay SET fOR aug. 5-7

Legislation would protect farmers from civil lawsuits

COLUMBUS — Leg-islation that would pro-tect farmers from civil lawsuits when visitors are injured during hay-rides or other agricul-ture-related activities is headed to Gov. John Kasich’s desk for final enactment.

The Ohio House passed SB 75 on a vote of 92-1 this week, about six months after the Ohio Senate OK’d the legislation with a similar lopsided vote. The law changes will take effect 90 days after the gover-nor adds his signature.

Among other provi-sions, SB 75 would pro-vide immunity from li-ability in civil actions if visitors are injured via the surface of the land, the actions of domestic animals or other dan-

gers associated with a working farm.

Farmers would have to post warning signs noting the risks and in-forming visitors of the new law, with specific re-quirements for the size and placement of the placards.

Additional language would ensure that farm-ers playing host to agri-tourism activities re-main eligible for current agricultural use valua-tion, or CAUV, for prop-erty tax purposes.

“Agriculture is a tough business to be in, and anytime we can put more value added onto the agricultural com-munity, the better off we are going to be as Ohio-ans,” said Rep. Tony Burkley (R-Payne), who sponsored a companion bill in the Ohio House that passed a year ago.

“What this bill does is provide a little civil lia-bility protection for the things that are inherent-ly in the nature of agri-culture.”

The legislation was supported by the Ohio Farm Bureau Federa-tion.

“Having this bill pass opens the door for more farmers to participate in agritourism activities or expand their operations because it provides clarity on several regu-lations and addresses concerns about liabili-ty,” Executive Vice Pres-ident Jack Fisher said in a released statement. “Having supplemental income from agritour-ism activities will help some farmers keep their farmland.” Marc Kovac is the Dix Capital Bureau Chief. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.

By Marc Kovac | RECORD-COuRiER

Ex-trooper charged with stealing guns

aSSOCiaTED pRESS

DElaWaRE — a former State highway patrol post command-er accused of stalking a subor-dinate’s wife after their affair has separately been charged with stealing guns that were evidence when he was a pa-trolman in central Ohio.

The Delaware County prose-cutor says two guns were found in fired lt. William Elschlager’s Marietta home — one firearm that was supposed to have been destroyed, another logged as hav-ing been returned to its owner.

a spokesman says the patrol quickly ended his employment in february after learning of the allegations.

nn Bill WOulD pROviDE iMMuniTy if faRM viSiTORS aRE injuRED

Grand jury to hear case of beating death of boy, 5

aSSOCiaTED pRESS

MiDDlETOWn — a grand jury will consider the case against a mother and two others charged after her two sons were found seriously beaten at a motel and one of the boys died.

The hamilton-Middletown journal-news reports all three women waived preliminary hearings friday, against their lawyers’ advice.

five-year-old alexander Ste-phens, of licking County, died april 29 after authorities re-sponding to a call found him and his badly injured 6-year-old brother at a Middletown motel. authorities say the boys were beaten by their mother and her friend while staying in a tent near the great Mi-ami River.

investigators say the chil-dren were struck after one took food.

Their mother, Theresa hawkins-Stephens, was charged in municipal court with mur-der, felonious assault and en-dangering children.

a message was left friday for her attorney.

ohio woman gets 6 years in toddler’s beating death

DayTOn — a southwest Ohio woman who pleaded guilty to involuntary man-slaughter in her toddler son’s beating death has been sen-tenced to six years in prison.

a prosecutor’s spokeswom-an says 28-year-old Crystal laurel was sentenced fri-day in Dayton in the 2013 death of 19-month-old Ta-kota hasty.

The Dayton woman’s at-torney didn’t immediately return a call seeking com-ment friday.

laurel’s boyfriend, Dustin Rybak, was sentenced in March to 18 years in pris-on in the child’s death. he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, child endan-gering and tampering with evidence.

prosecutors say Takota died a day after being hos-pitalized with bruises, abra-sions and burn marks. an autopsy found he died from blunt force trauma to the head and neck.

authorities say laurel and Rybak used makeup to con-ceal the child’s injuries.

Shooting of swans by oDNr officials is questioned

CanTOn — The killing of non-native swans by state wildlife officials to make way for native ones has up-set some northeast Ohio-ans who object to the kill-ing and who say residents weren’t warned.

The Repository in Canton reports representatives from Ohio’s Department of natural Resources killed two non-na-tive mute swans at a bog in jackson Township last week to make way for native trum-peter swans.

State wildlife officials say they’ve been trying to de-crease the mute swan pop-ulation since at least 2006 and stepped up efforts two years ago.

They say the invasive swans are known for aggression and chasing away native birds. Trumpeter swans are consid-ered a threatened species.

But residents near jack-son Bog say the mute swans weren’t aggressive and neigh-bors weren’t given any notice before the shooting.

Car Crashes in Kent

KEnT pOliCE DEpaRTMEnT phOTO

Traffic was tied up at Haymaker Parkway and South Wa-ter Street in Kent on Friday afternoon when a car crashed into the wall in front of the police department. Informa-

tion about the crash was unavailable at press time.

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