METRO DIGEST || Financial retreat

Youngstown BOE

YOUNGSTOWN

The city school board will have a financial retreat at 5 p.m. today in the caucus room of the I.L. Ward Building, 20 W. Wood St.

School drug sweep

STRUTHERS

Police dogs from the city and several other police departments converged on the high school and middle schools Tuesday morning for a drug sweep. It wasn’t based on any complaints, said police Chief Tim Roddy.

The dogs, including those from McDonald, Hubbard, Canfield, Youngstown and Mahoning County, train together every month and were going to be together anyway Tuesday in Struthers, he explained.

They notified the schools and went in to check lockers and cars in the parking lots. As far as the dogs were concerned, the schools were clean. “They didn’t hit on one single thing,” Roddy said.

Westminster theft

NEW WILMINGTON, Pa.

A former Westminster College employee is charged with three counts of theft by deception from the college. Mary Jane Hake, 39, of Ohltown Road, Austintown, was charged last week, police said.

From 2004 to 2006 in her position of student employment supervisor, she generated 16 student payroll checks in the names of current or former students when those students were not working at the college, police said.

She forwarded the checks to herself without the students’ knowledge, police said.

Police said she forged the students’ names, co-endorsed the checks, cashed them and kept the money. The total loss to the college is $14,690, and Hake has agreed to make restitution, they said.

Howland hydrants

HOWLAND

Howland Fire Department reminds township residents the fire department employs summer workers to check and service hydrants, including painting the hydrants with brightly colored paint.

Residents should not paint the hydrants, said Tim Thomas, acting Howland fire chief. Hydrants are painted specific colors to alert firefighters to the amount of water pressure a hydrant can deliver and to make them visible.

Residents also are reminded to keep vegetation at least three feet away from the sides and front of a hydrant to avoid damage to the vegetation and to allow firefighters to find the hydrant in an emergency.

Prescription fundraiser

WARREN

Dr. Farid Naffah, a Warren gastroenterologist, has set this year’s “Evening Under the Stars,” his fundraiser for prescription assistance for the elderly, for Aug. 20. Naffah recently presented checks for $13,000 each to ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital and St. Joseph Health Center from last year’s event.

4 finalists for chief of Warren schools

WARREN

Warren school board members have narrowed to four the number of candidates for a new superintendent.

Finalists are Kelly Brooks Washington, a coordinator for Akron City Schools; Thomas Gay, president and CEO of School Groups in Michigan; Bruce Thomas, assistant and regional superintendent for Marietta City Schools; and Clifford Wallace, dean of academic affairs for Bryant and Stratton College.

The school board plans to conduct a second round of interviews during a special board meeting later this week.