METRO DIGEST || WRTA holiday bus

WRTA holiday bus

BOARDMAN

The Western Reserve Transit Authority will debut its holiday bus with an event at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Boardman library branch, 7680 Glenwood Ave.

Santa Claus will arrive at the library on the decorated bus.

WRTA encourages parents to bring kids, who can visit with Santa on the bus and receive special gifts.

The bus will travel all daytime WRTA routes in Mahoning County from Wednesday through the end of the year and at Youngstown’s First Night celebration.

Give input on plant

CAMPBELL

Campbell City Council President George Levendis characterized the state of the city’s water treatment plant as being “near catastrophic failure” and likely needing “millions and millions” of dollars worth of upgrades.

Mayor Nick Phillips will host a town-hall meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at city hall, 351 Tenney Ave., regarding the city’s plan for dealing with the plant. Currently, the city has only $77,000 in its general fund. During Wednesday’s council meeting, Levendis said the city would allow the public to dictate how the government proceeds with the plant, based on the input they receive during the meeting.

Child sex trafficking

PITTSBURGH

A New Castle, Pa., man received a 15-year sentence for sex trafficking of a child, U.S. attorneys said. Ronald Kyle Hartman, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking of a child earlier this month. U.S. attorneys said Hartman traveled to Ohio from Grove City, Pa., with a 14-year-old girl for the purposes of sex trafficking in August 2016. Hartman advertised the girl’s services as a prostitute on Backpage.com. Hartman will serve seven years’ parole upon release.

Church speakers

AUSTINTOWN

Church Women United of the Mahoning Valley will host two speakers from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Wickliffe Presbyterian Church, 45 Idlewood Road. They are Penny Wells, organizer of Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past, and Veronica Dahlberg, executive director of Hispanics of Lake and Ashtabula counties. Dahlberg’s topic will be “The Dreamers.”

The vision of Sojourn to the Past is to inspire high-school students to become successful and engaged citizens and community leaders who promote social justice through nonviolent principles. The students learn and study the principles of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

Dreamers are young people who, under the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors), legislation first introduced to Congress in 2001, are granted a pathway to citizenship who were brought to the United States as children without documentation.

Submit information for holiday services

The Vindicator will publish a listing of area services open to the public in observance of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services will run Dec. 16 on the Religion page. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day services will run Dec. 23 on the Religion page. The deadline to submit information is noon Tuesday. Information should include the church name and denomination, address and time of the services. Include a name and phone number for verification or any questions. Send to Religion, The Vindicator, 107 Vindicator Square, Box 780, Youngstown, OH 44501-0780; or fax to 330-747-6712; or email religion@vindy.com.

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