Commissioners expected to suspend Lohr
WAYNESBURG – Greene County commissioners today are expected to suspend John Robert Lohr as a member of the advisory board for Greene County Children and Youth Services.
Lohr, of Ceylon Road, Cumberland Township, is in Greene County jail on charges he raped a young boy placed in his care numerous times during a four-year period. He was charged by state police Aug. 22 with rape by forcible compulsion, two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, corruption of minors and indecent assault by forcible compulsion.
During their agenda meeting Wednesday, the commissioners proclaimed the month of September 2013 Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Month. The proclamation is designed to raise awareness about the disorder, which is a set of mental, physical and neurobehavioral birth defects directly resulting from alcohol use during pregnancy.
John Fox, director of drug and alcohol services, reported that his office is identifying and working to educate at-risk women in the county about the harmful effects of drinking during pregnancy.
The disorder, which affects 40,000 infants every year in the United States, is completely preventable by abstaining from alcohol during pregnancy. The annual International FASD Day is observed Sept. 9, with the date reflecting the ninth day of the ninth month of the year to represent the nine months of pregnancy.
Following the brief agenda meeting, the county prison board, meeting at the jail on Rolling Meadows Road, got to view the progress of the construction of the new kitchen at the jail.
The $592,000 new kitchen became necessry when the county’s lease with the Corner Cupboard Food Bank expired. Until the kitchen is completed, hopefully by December, Warden Harry Gillispie said, county and jail personnel are using the food bank’s kitchen facilities to prepare food for jail inmates.