Brian C. Rittmeyer stories, Page 54

A convicted sex offender was in a relationship with a 17-year-old girl, impregnated her and took video of her performing a sex act, according to charges filed by New Kensington police. Police charged Elmo Thomas Hartsfield III, 28, of New Kensington on Thursday with felony counts of filming a child...

New Kensington residents will see a 1.7% increase in their sewage bills next year. That’s less than the 2.7% increase the Municipal Sanitary Authority of the City of New Kensington imposed for this year. Beginning Jan. 1, the authority will increase its rate for 100 cubic feet from $9.84 to...

Arnold Council dealt a significant setback to a convenience store owner’s plans to sell beer and wine at a new store on Freeport Road. After a public hearing Tuesday, council voted unanimously against Yashvi Oil owner Mike Thakkar’s request for a conditional use for his planned gas station and convenience...

A donation from students at a New Kensington-Arnold elementary school will help a New Kensington animal shelter in many ways, the president of the shelter’s board of directors said. Second graders at H.D. Berkey Elementary School in Arnold collected $450 through a coin drive the week of Sept. 26, teacher...

Plum High School students have new bicycles to ride in physical education classes that will also be used for a new cycling club. The district recently bought 38 Giant Talon 2 mountain bikes from The Bike Lab, a bicycle shop in Plum. The total cost was $20,345, money for which...

New Kensington officials are considering a restriction on the use of jake brakes in part of the city. “Jake brakes” are the common term for the Jacobs Engine Brake, which alters the operation of an engine’s exhaust and allows it to function as a power-absorbing air compressor that can slow...

Average gasoline prices in the Pittsburgh area have increased by about 10 cents per gallon in the past week, while the national average has gone up about 14 cents, according to price tracking service GasBuddy. The average in the Pittsburgh area is $3.99, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 731 stations....

Some “heavier” items are featured on Knead Community Café’s fall and winter lunch menu, which the New Kensington restaurant will roll out Tuesday. The new seasonal breakfast menu will debut Oct. 29. Knead serves breakfast only on Saturdays; it is open for lunch Tuesdays through Fridays. The menus will be...

Butler police arrested a city man Thursday evening after they say he got onto a school bus and threatened students earlier in the day. Police said an officer stopped Clifford Jenkins Anderson, 43, while he was driving and arrested him without incident. In Anderson’s arrest papers, police said a school...

New technologies and equipment will allow Valley High School students to visit places unreachable in the classroom, while Burrell High School students will use them to create products. New Kensington-Arnold will transform its high school’s planetarium into a Think Tank, while Burrell’s “Bucconomics” program will see seniors undertake an economics-based...

Crafters and artisans will be featured in two separate events Saturday in downtown New Kensington. Knead Community Cafe, 1011 Barnes St., will host its annual fall harvest craft and vendor fair from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. That event will be followed by the city’s Downtown Market, sponsored by the...

New Kensington-Arnold Superintendent Chris Sefcheck received his first raise the same night it was announced that he won a statewide award. The school board approved a 2.5% pay increase for Sefcheck on Tuesday, shortly after getting word that he had been chosen to receive an Education Innovation Award from the...

New Kensington is mourning the loss of a respected volunteer firefighter. Chris Ploski was one of the city fire department’s most active members, responding to 200 to 250 calls per year while also working his full-time job, fire Chief Ed Saliba Jr. said. Ploski, who was diagnosed just over a...

A heavily cracked and patched section of a New Kensington road is set to be resurfaced. City council has accepted a $50,325 bid from Tresco Paving Corp. for Valley Street. Valley Street will be milled and resurfaced between Freeport Road and Caldwell Avenue, city Engineer Tony Males said. That distance...

Average gasoline prices are on the rise nationally and in the Pittsburgh area but are still falling across Pennsylvania, according to reports from price tracking services. According to GasBuddy, the national average increased 11 cents per gallon in the past week to $3.78, while the average in the Pittsburgh area...

A business owner who this year received Arnold’s approval for a gas station and convenience store on Freeport Road now is seeking approvals from the city to sell beer and wine there. The first of a number of public hearings and meetings on the requests by Mike Thakkar, owner of...

The New Kensington-Arnold School District on Friday condemned a video it says Valley High School students created and posted on YouTube containing “inappropriate content and offensive language.” The video has been removed and the district has started an investigation, according to a letter to district families signed by Superintendent Chris...

Traffic will be restricted on the northbound Interstate 579 ramp to northbound Route 28 in Pittsburgh on Friday, PennDOT announced. According to PennDOT, the ramp will be narrowed and shifted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., weather permitting. There will also be a lane and shoulder restriction on northbound I-579...

A long-term closure of the ramp from the northbound Highland Park Bridge to southbound Route 28 in Sharpsburg will start Tuesday, weather permitting, PennDOT has announced. According to PennDOT, the ramp will close at about 7 a.m. Tuesday and remain closed to traffic around-the-clock through mid-December. Crews will be doing...

Part of River Avenue in Harrison is scheduled to be closed for two weeks beginning Monday, Allegheny County Public Works announced Thursday. The department said it is allowing the Upper Allegheny Joint Sanitary Authority to close River Avenue between Homer Alley and Chestnut Street in the Natrona neighborhood for sewer...

Resurfacing work will restrict traffic on North Warren Avenue in North Apollo and River Road in Kiski Township the week of Oct. 10, PennDOT announced. Milling and resurfacing work is scheduled to start at 6 a.m. Monday, Oct. 10. Drivers should expect traffic pattern changes and lane restrictions between North...

Hope was on the lunch menu Wednesday at Valley High School. Students were introduced to their school’s new Hope Squad, part of a national youth suicide prevention program, and asked to write positive and inspirational messages on paper hearts that are being placed on a tree in the library hallway....

Plum resident William Sexton will be happy to see the rundown shell of a house that stands practically in his back yard torn down. Sexton said the house, riddled with broken windows, on Siple Street near the turnpike has been an eyesore for several years. “People go in and out...

The Allegheny County Fire Marshal’s Office has released the scene of an explosion that destroyed a Plum family’s home just over five months ago, which will allow it to be cleaned up. Chief Matt Brown, the county’s fire marshal and chief of emergency services, provided a brief update Tuesday on...

Eric Gartley’s journey into the volunteer fire service started on his back porch in Arnold about 24 years ago. There, with his then-infant son, Gartley watched as volunteer firefighters from Arnold Volunteer Engine Company No. 2 responded to a stove fire at a house off Woodmont Avenue. He decided he...