Lorain County JVS: No evening classes

EHOVE Career Center no adult evening classes

Elyria Drivers Exam Station is cancelling road tests, call to reschedule

Elyria YWCA Bingo

All Lorain City Schools sporting events for Tue 2/9 and Wed 2/10 have been cancelled

Oberlin City Schools: All evening activities

Black River Schools: All afternoon and evening activities

Firelands at Fairview boys basketball

Buckeye at Wellington boys basketball

Open Door at Keystone Boys basketball (WEOL’s game)

Lorain County JVS: No evening classes

EHOVE Career Center no adult evening classes

Elyria Drivers Exam Station is cancelling road tests, call to reschedule

Elyria YWCA Bingo

All Lorain City Schools sporting events for Tue 2/9 and Wed 2/10 have been cancelled

Oberlin City Schools: All evening activities

Black River Schools: All afternoon and evening activities

Fairview at Firelands boys basketball

Buckeye at Wellington boys basketball

Open Door at Keystone Boys basketball (WEOL’s game)

Don Golden, president of United Steelworkers of America Local 1104, said about 50 employees have lost their recall rights because they remained on probation and would have to start over in the employment process.

The union represents about 460 employees at Lorain Tubular, many of whom had been out of work. Workers have been slowly returning over the past few months, Golden said.

U.S. Steel spokeswoman Erin DiPietro said the company doesn’t comment on operations except when discussing its quarterly projections and results.

In the company’s last quarterly report, released last month, the company announced its tubular had returned to profitability in the last quarter of 2009.

Read Wednesday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

Elyria Mayor Bill Grace delivers his state of the city address this afternoon. (CT photo by Bruce Bishop.)

ELYRIA — Mayor Bill Grace delivered a lead up to a discussion about possibly placing an income tax increase on the November ballot this afternoon when he delivered his annual State of the City address.

The year 2010 will be the year Elyrians decide if they want to live with reduced city services or give city leaders the additional revenue needed to increase what workers can do, Grace said during a combined meeting of the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce and Elyria Noon Rotary.

“The question will be: Will we continue with the revenue we have and the cuts we have or will we buck the trend and look to have better,” he said.

Grace did not offer specifics about how much of an increase is needed and City Council has yet to formally discussion the proposal. But one thing is for sure: Grace wants to build the city’s resource capacity.

“Which is the politically correct way of saying we need more money,” he said.

Read Wednesday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

Lorain County JVS: No evening classes

EHOVE Career Center no adult evening classes

Elyria Drivers Exam Station is cancelling road tests, call to reschedule

Elyria YWCA Bingo

All Lorain City Schools sporting events for Tue 2/9 and Wed 2/10 have been cancelled

Oberlin City Schools: All evening activities

Black River Schools: All afternoon and evening activities

Fairview at Firelands boys basketball

Buckeye at Wellington boys basketball

Open Door at Keystone Boys basketball (WEOL’s game)

Bason

Corey A. Bason was taken into custody by police between 6:30 and 7 a.m. today, according to Lorain police Sgt. Mark Carpentiere.

Police declined to provide many details of the sexual assault, which is believed to have occurred late Monday at a home in the 6100 block of South Broadway. “It’s obviously an open investigation and we’re still in the process of talking with people,” Carpentiere said. “There is evidence at this point that a sexual assault took place.”

According to police reports, the girl’s mother, 21, was out for the evening and got a call from her sister, who was spending the evening with the 5-year-old. The sister, 23, told the mother that her daughter woke up crying and told her aunt she had been touched by Bason.

The mother drove to her sister’s residence to get the child and take her to Community Regional Medical Center. Hospital personnel advised the mother to contact the Lorain Police SANE Unit.

The girl told her mother that Bason pulled her pants down and sexually assaulted her, reports said.

When the mother confronted Bason about the incident, he denied any involvement, alleging another male who was present at the time, had assaulted the child.

“We’re obviously trying to sort out who knew who and what all the relationships were,” Carpentiere said. “That’s always the hardest part to figure out in a case like this.”

Bason was arraigned this morning in Lorain Municipal Court and is being held on a $1 million bond.

Navy Petty Officer, First Class Jeremy Wilson (’97 graduate of Clearview) is currently off the coast of Haiti helping those in need. |Interview

The two men who started Gorilla Pit Strength Gym in Mentor join Les to talk about their affiliation with the World Natural Strongman Federation, now  coming to the U.S.! |Interview

Get  you basketball fix tonight on WEOL! Tim Alcorn talks about ALL the action. |Interview

CT Photo Chief Bruce Bishop snapped this picture as he drove his Jeep on state Route 58 between Oberlin and Wellington about 10:15 a.m. He said roads are getting slick.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning beginning at 7 a.m. today and running through 7 p.m. Wednesday.

According to the warning, low barometric pressure will move through the area overnight.

Snow started falling around Lorain County throughout the morning, and just about everywhere was seeing flakes by 10 a.m. CT Photo Chief Bruce Bishop snapped the picture at left while driving on state Route 58 between Oberlin and Wellington about 10:15 a.m. He reported that streets were getting slick.

Frequent periods of snow will continue into Wednesday evening. The forecast is for 2 to 4 inches by sunset today, with another 3 to 5 inches falling tonight, followed by additional snow on Wednesday.

The projected total is 6 to 9 inches of snow. Winds, shifting from northeast to northwest, are expected to rise tonight into Wednesday, creating blowing and drifting snow.

No schools had closed or announced delays as of Monday night.

The city of Lorain has issued a citywide emergency snow ban. Parking is not permitted on any city street starting at noon today until 6 p.m. Wednesday. The ban will take effect in the business district after regular business hours. Violators may be ticketed or towed.

If you must be on the road tomorrow, you can check road conditions online at www.buckeyetraffic.org.

And listen online to The Chronicle’s police, fire and EMS scanner by clicking here.

Tait will team up with WEOL-AM 930’s Tim Alcorn to call the West Shore Confer­ence showdown between league-leading Bay and the second-place Rangers.

Tait returns to the local basketball scene after missing last year due to the flu. The longtime announcer has teamed with Alcorn once a year for a number of years to call the names of local ath­letes over the airwaves. It’s an experience that Tait enjoys because the high school game is one where “the players are still playing for all the right reasons.”

Alcorn, who has many fond memories of broadcasting with Tait, says that a game at Keystone is the one that sticks out but not because of the game itself.

“We were trying to get up onto the broadcast platform at the old gym,” Alcorn said.

“The JV game was still going on and we are trying to get Joe up the ladder. I swear that every set of eyes in the place was on us and not the game.

It had to be quite a sight.”

No doubt that it will be quite a thrill for both teams Friday when the broadcast Hall of Famer comes to town.

Contact Hans Schneider at hanshans@verizon.net or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

An almost-buried fire hydrant on Abbe Road in Elyria. Firefighters ask homeowners to clear snow from hydrants in case of a fire. (CT photo by Bruce Bishop.)

ELYRIA — After last weekend’s snowstorm, hundreds of city fire hydrants are buried under several inches of snow — or feet, when you factor in what has been plowed on top of them — and firefighters must spend extra time digging each out before they can attach fire hoses in the case of a fire.

As a result, city officials are asking residents and business owners to dig out the fire hydrants in front of their homes and businesses.

“It only takes a few minutes and it is time firefighters do not have to spend at an emergency scene,” said city Safety Service Director Chris Eichenlaub. “Time is critical when we arrive at a fire scene and when every minute counts, clearing a fire hydrant is one more thing firefighters would have to do.”

City officials don’t want residents to stop at just the fire hydrants. Residents and business owners have an obligation to remove snow and ice from the sidewalks in front of their homes and business.

“We are asking residents to address their sidewalks in a reasonable amount of time,” Eichenlaub said.

With another storm expected today, that reasonable amount of time hopefully will be sooner rather than later, Eichenlaub said.