EXHIBIT 99

                 PRESS RELEASE OF WAYNE SAVINGS BANCSHARES, INC.



            Wayne Savings Bancshares to Consolidate Bank Subsidiaries

      WOOSTER, Ohio, June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wayne Savings Bancshares,
Inc. (Nasdaq: WAYN) announced today that Wayne Savings Community Bank and
Village Savings Bank, FSB, the Company's direct and indirect banking
subsidiaries, will be merged. Village Savings, established in 1998, currently
operated as the federal stock savings bank subsidiary of Wayne Savings Community
Bank, will be merged with and into the parent company, Wayne Savings Community
Bank. The Company concluded that significant cost savings and operating
efficiencies could be achieved by discontinuing the separate corporate existence
of Village Savings.

      Charles F. Finn, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company,
stated, "It is important to note that while the merger will result in
efficiencies and add to the Company's overall competitiveness, we will continue
to operate the Village Savings office as a branch office of Wayne Savings
Community Bank. Customers should experience no change in the level of service
they have come to expect. Wayne Savings Community Bank will continue to operate
as a community bank in the North Canton, Ohio area."

      The merger is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to be
completed in the third quarter of 2003. Established in 1899, Wayne Savings
Community Bank, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Wayne Savings Bancshares, Inc.,
has nine banking locations in Wayne, Holmes, Ashland and Medina Counties, in
addition to its Village Savings Bank, FSB subsidiary in Stark County.