Brian C. Rittmeyer stories, Page 103
Salvation Army faces more need, fundraising challenges as Red Kettle season nears
The covid-19 pandemic is presenting a challenge to the Salvation Army and its iconic Red Kettle campaign. “We’re kind of up against needing to raise more money but it’s also harder to raise money with everything that’s going on,” said Lt. Alex Senak with the Allegheny Valley Salvation Army in...
Alcoa aluminum smelter moving from Station Square to New Kensington’s Voodoo Brewery
A 39,000-pound piece of Alcoa history is coming to New Kensington. A retired aluminum smelting pot that has been displayed near the Gateway Clipper ramp at Station Square since 1990 will be placed in the beer garden outside Voodoo Brewery at Fifth Avenue and 10th Street. “We are in the...
Police: North Huntingdon cat hoarder said animals took over his house
Police said a North Huntingdon man told them he stopped staying at his township home because cats had overrun it. In September, authorities rescued 73 cats from the property on Leger Road and removed 11 that died. Since being surrendered to Frankie’s Friends in New Kensington, another 22 cats died...
Natural gas project to detour West Seventh Avenue traffic in Tarentum
A Peoples Gas project will affect traffic in Tarentum beginning Sunday night. The company will be working in the area of West Seventh Avenue and Mill Street. Work will be done between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. and is expected to last through Friday. Peoples Gas spokesman Barry Kukovich said...
Police: New Kensington man threatened woman with gun, ran from police
New Kensington police arrested a man after a Tuesday morning foot chase who allegedly threatened a woman with a gun. District Judge Frank Pallone Jr. ordered Malachi Supreme Hayes, 23, held without bail in the Westmoreland County Prison to ensure his appearance at a preliminary hearing and because he is...
Highland Tire to pay Highlands $19K to advertise at district sports facilities
Highland Tire will pay Highlands School District $19,000 to place advertising signs at district athletic facilities. The school board unanimously approved the five-year advertising agreement at its meeting Monday. Highland Tire is the first business to place advertising at the the district’s athletic facilities, business Manager Lori Byron said. The...
Police: Tarentum man strangled woman, set clothes on fire
A Tarentum man is accused of strangling a woman and setting a fire in their apartment late Monday. Borough police charged Othniel Lavelle Lineburg II, 34, with strangulation and causing or risking a catastrophe, both felony offenses, along with a misdemeanor count of simple assault and summary charges of harassment,...
More than 100 Highlands students returning to partial in-person instruction
More than 100 Highlands School District students who started the school year remotely because of the covid-19 pandemic will be returning to schools for the start of the second nine-week period, Superintendent Monique Mawhinney said. Nearly 40 students will be going the other way, opting for the district’s fully online...
Police: New Kensington man found with stolen gun he claimed to have taken from a child
Tarentum police said they recovered a gun reported stolen from Stowe after stopping a man they saw riding a dirt bike on a borough road late Sunday night. The man, Brydon Williams-Chambers, 19, of New Kensington allegedly told police he had taken the gun from a child in New Kensington...
Santa to visit Tarentum, Brackenridge, Harrison atop fire trucks in place of canceled events
Santa Claus is coming to town — well, technically, a township and two boroughs. Santa is set to ride through Tarentum, Brackenridge and Harrison atop fire trucks on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 3-5 p.m., with a rain date of the following Saturday, Dec. 12. It’s something new that officials in...
Arnold manager: No tax increase needed to cover deficit from underfunded pension
Various cost savings will help Arnold absorb a 40% increase in its pension costs while avoiding a property tax increase, City Manager Mario Bellavia said. At a council meeting Tuesday, Bellavia said the increased pension obligation would create a deficit in the city’s budget that would need a property tax...
New granite panels installed at Harrison World War II memorial, rededication scheduledVideo
New granite slabs making up the rejuvenated Harrison Honor Roll memorial have been installed, years after efforts to preserve and restore the memorial recognizing the township’s World War II veterans began. “It’s been a long time,” Bill Rudolph, a member of the memorial’s restoration committee, said as he watched the...
AK Valley gift dashing group creates food pantry, takes on other community projectsVideo
A new outdoor food pantry in New Kensington where people take what they need and leave what they can is proving to be so successful that those who built it are figuring out how to make it bigger. The pantry outside the Community Clothes Closet was packed full of goods...
Charges filed, arrest warrant issued in North Huntingdon cat-hoarding case
An arrest warrant has been issued for a North Huntingdon man accused of hoarding more than 70 cats that were malnourished and infested with fleas when authorities rescued them from a township home in September. Since being rescued, the cats have been cared for at Frankie’s Friends, a cat rescue...
Tarentum train station restaurant to reopen in December, owner says
The owner of JG’s Tarentum Station Grille said Thursday he intends to reopen the popular restaurant on Dec. 1. The restaurant in a historic former train station in the heart of Tarentum has been closed since March because of the covid-19 pandemic. When the state allowed restaurants to increase their...
New Kensington-Arnold superintendent acknowledges distancing problem in 3rd-grade classes
New Kensington-Arnold School District is working to fix a problem with reduced social distancing in some third-grade classes at Roy A. Hunt Elementary in Arnold, Acting Superintendent Jon Banko said. Distancing in three or four combination social studies/science classes in the grade is reduced from 6 feet to 5 feet...
More businesses, music, food in store for 2nd Tarentum Night Market
There’s going to be more businesses, more food and more music at the second Tarentum Night Market on Thursday. The once-a-month event, held on the third Thursday, is intended to draw shoppers into the borough’s business district by having participating businesses stay open later, from 5-8 p.m. The first market...
St. Joseph students return to school after being cleared from covid-19 exposure
About 15 students at St. Joseph High School in Harrison worked from home for two days until it was confirmed they had no contact with a person from another school who had tested positive for coronavirus, a school spokesperson said Wednesday. “Our soccer team played Serra Catholic over the weekend...
Highlands parents asked to complete survey on children’s schooling model
Parents of students in the Highlands School District are being asked to fill out a survey if they want to change how their children attend school. The district is conducting the survey as it nears the end of the first nine week grading period. Surveys are due by Friday. At...
Cement blocks keeping cars off pedestrian-only road in Harrison
Bollards that blocked cars from driving on the pedestrian-only portion of Center Street in the Natrona area of Harrison will be replaced, Commissioner William Heasley said. The bollards were removed when part of the road, closed to vehicles between Spruce and Pond streets, was repaved, and vehicles immediately began driving...
Allegheny Valley church association going forward with annual hunger walk in HarrisonVideo
Facing an increased need for food brought on by the covid-19 pandemic that also prevents people from gathering for things like fundraisers, the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches is going forward with its annual Walk for Hunger in Harrison on Sunday. The association has held the walk for more than...
New Kensington residents can help paint mural that will brighten gateway to city
A three-story mural will grace a gateway to New Kensington, and residents have one last chance this weekend to take part in creating it. A third and likely final “paint day” for the community mural will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday outside of Voodoo Brewery, 956...
Police: Hockey player assaults referee over holding penalty at New Kensington skating rink
A Buffalo Township man attacked a hockey referee at Pittsburgh Ice Arena in New Kensington after the referee called a holding penalty against him, police said. New Kensington police charged Jeremy Gregory Gilbert, 43, of Buffalo Township with assault on a sports official, a first-degree misdemeanor, in which they say...
New Kensington woman says ‘bad day’ caused her to report someone tried to abduct daughter
A New Kensington woman can’t explain why she told police two people tried to abduct her 3-year-old daughter when, she admits, it never happened. “It was just a bad day,” Jacqueline Charlton, 60, said when reached at her home Wednesday. “I had a lot going on.” Charlton’s report on Oct....
Police: Harrison man high on pot crashes into parked township dump truck
A Harrison man impaired by marijuana drove his car off Springhill Road and into a parking lot at the municipal building, crashing into a parked public works dump truck, according to township police. Harrison police charged Daniel J. Abbott, 30, with driving under the influence of alcohol or a controlled...
