Members from two Lima-area churches recently united as one in an effort to show their support for the newly proposed RTA levy.
On April 7 close to a hundred members from both Philippian Missionary Baptist church and Shawnee United Methodist Church stood hand in hand for prayer in front of the Allen County RTA terminal.
“We just thought this was a great opportunity for Shawnee and Philippian to come together again and show support for a service that is vital for people who really need it in the community,” said Bryan Bucher, pastor of Shawnee United Methodist Church.
The newly proposed RTA levy, if passed in May, would increase the sales tax by a tenth of a percent in Allen County. The funding would help support its current services and also help bring back its night and weekend services.
Philippian Missionary Baptist church pastor, Lamont Monford, said these services are important because it helps those with disabilities and it also helps get people to job interviews, work and doctor appointments.
“It’s a necessity,” said Monford. “If people don’t have transportation, they can’t get to where they need to be and RTA has been serving this community for many years and at this point, we need them more than ever.”
Shawnee United Methodist church pastor Bryan Bucher says his church is in strong support of the levy because it helps them transport their latchkey kids during the summer.
“They’re able to go experience the community, learn about our history and do fun things like go swimming,” said Bucher.
The RTA Executive Director, Shelia Haney says she appreciates of the community support and looks forward to the May election.
“When they decided to ride down to the terminal this morning and we all joined hands to say a prayer it was very overwhelming for me to see that the community is coming together,” said Haney.
