News In brief

Borough Councilman Christopher Concert made arrangements Sunday for Santa to visit town early on a fire truck with help from Swoyersville Hose Co. 279 Broderick Station and Hose Co. 379 Maltby Station.

Also assisting were the police department and the community ambulance. Concert said he plans to make the event an annual tradition.

U.S. District Judge Joel Slomsky on Monday recommended former state Sen. Robert Mellow serve his 16-month prison sentence at Federal Correctional Institution-Canaan near Waymart, Wayne County.

The federal judge modified Mellow's sentence to include the recommendation based on conversations with federal prosecutors and Mellow's attorneys.

Mellow was sentenced Nov. 30 for his guilty plea to conspiracy to commit mail fraud for using Senate staff to do political work on state time, and to under reporting his income on his 2008 tax return.

William M. Jones, president and CEO of the United Way of Wyoming Valley, has been elected to the board of the United Way of Pennsylvania.

Jones, of Mountain Top, was vice president and COO of Volunteers of America of Pennsylvania for 12 years before joining the United Way in January and has been associated with many local non-profits. He and his wife, Janet, have two daughters: Caroline, 16, and Rachel, 14.

Sno Mountain announced it has bankruptcy court approval for financing that will enable it to operate throughout the 2012-13 ski season.

The funding, negotiated by Sno Mountain's bankruptcy trustee, Gary Seitz, was provided by Wynnewood Capital Partners LLC.