Brian C. Rittmeyer stories, Page 97
New Kensington-Arnold facing $1.5M deficit in 2021-22 budget
Without a tax increase, New Kensington-Arnold School District is looking at a $1.5 million budget deficit for next school year that would force it to empty its reserves. The school board’s finance committee met virtually Monday to review the district’s proposed final 2021-22 budget. It would spend $38.7 million on...
Highlands considers allowing students up to 4 days of in-person instruction
Highlands School District is considering allowing students to return to school four days a week, with reduced social distancing. The district is now using a hybrid schedule that has students separated into two groups, each of which learns in school two days a week and remotely three days a week....
Highlands community rallies to help 2 Tarentum families burned out of homesVideo
The Highlands community is rallying to support two Tarentum families whose homes were destroyed by fire on Monday. A GoFundMe campaign to help the Lott family had exceeded its $10,000 goal by Tuesday afternoon. The fire is believed to have started in the Lott family’s home in the 200 block...
Tarentum house fire spreads to neighboring homeVideo
Tiffany Lott stood on Tarentum’s Lock Street on Monday afternoon, a blanket draped over her, as smoke billowed from her home and firefighters pumped it full of water. A fire Lott said had started in her home had spread to another beside it, ultimately destroying both. “I am OK,” she...
New craft beer festival may prompt Tarentum to alter alcohol ban
Tarentum Council has approved holding a new craft beer festival at Dreshar Stadium later this year. But in addition to hoping the covid-19 pandemic has waned by late August, council will need to amend borough regulations that prohibit drinking alcohol on borough-owned property. Councilman Brian Snyder, who proposed and is...
Grove City College receives largest unrestricted gift in its 145-year history
From his birth in a Brackenridge garage, to growing up in Harrison, to becoming a business owner in Southern California, Richard Staley says the success he’s found in life has been part luck, part hard work. “At so many points along the way, things could have turned ugly very quickly,”...
Police say driver crashed into gas station in effort to steal ATM
A man crashed a pickup into a Hill District gas station Friday morning trying to steal an ATM machine, Pittsburgh police said. Police and medics responded to the report of a vehicle into a building in the 2300 block of Centre Avenue shortly after 7 a.m. Officers found a large...
Route 356 reopens after crash took out pole, closed road
A stretch of Route 356 between Route 56 and Freeport has reopened after a crash that brought down a pole and wires Friday morning, a Westmoreland County emergency dispatcher said. The one-vehicle crash happened shortly after 5:30 a.m. when the driver of a pickup was pulling into his own driveway,...
Garbage truck smashes into Baden family’s home
No injuries were reported when a garbage truck smashed into a home in Baden Thursday morning. The crash happened at Berry and Wilson streets around 6:20 a.m., Baden police Chief David Christner said. Christner said the truck could not stop as it came down Wilson Street, crossed over Berry and...
Tarentum awards 3rd contract for building demolitions, making 23 set to be razed
Tarentum Council has awarded a third contract for razing dilapidated buildings in the borough. Including two contracts council awarded in January, a total of 23 blighted and abandoned buildings are slated to be torn down, at a total cost of $185,300. Minniefield Demolition Services of West Mifflin bid $69,000 to...
State police charge Beaver County woman in sex assault of teen
A 37-year-old Beaver County woman has been accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. State police charged Janine A. Young, of Beaver, with numerous counts of statutory sexual assault and indecent assault. State police allege that Young had sex with the victim numerous times. Young was arraigned Tuesday and placed...
No injuries reported at O’Hara house fire
No injuries were reported in a house fire early Thursday morning in O’Hara, according to an Allegheny County emergency dispatcher. The fire on Saxonburg Boulevard was reported shortly before 1 a.m. According to an alert on the fire, it went to two alarms, with heavy fire in the two-story dwelling...
Pittsburgh region gets 1-2 inches snow overnight
Only very light snow is expected Thursday morning on top of what fell Wednesday night, National Weather Service meteorologist Jared Rackley said. Between 1 and 2 inches fell around the Pittsburgh area between 6 p.m. Wednesday and midnight, Rackley said. The weather service measured 1.1 inches at its office in...
Implosion of Dooker’s Hollow Bridge between North Braddock, East Pittsburgh set for Friday
The implosion of the Dooker’s Hollow Bridge between North Braddock and East Pittsburgh has been delayed from Thursday to Friday, according to the Allegheny County Department of Public Works. The 80-year-old bridge carries Bell Avenue in North Braddock and Center Street in East Pittsburgh over O’Connell Boulevard. Crews are removing...
Keystone Oaks students return to classes this week as teachers’ strike ends
Classes in Keystone Oaks School District will resume Wednesday following a teachers’ strike, the district announced. The date when students and teachers must return was revised after the state Department of Education reviewed the district’s calendar. The department determined that the Keystone Oaks Education Association strike can last up to...
Pa. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman makes U.S. Senate run official
Pennsylvania Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman officially launched his campaign for U.S. Senate on Monday. “Now, it’s my turn,” Fetterman said on Twitter early Monday morning. “Let’s get to work.” “This will be the most important Senate race in 2022, so we need to build as much early momentum as...
New Kensington moving on new playgrounds in downtown, Mount Vernon
Plans for a new playground and basketball courts in downtown New Kensington are again moving forward, while residents are being asked for what colors they prefer on new play equipment at another neighborhood park. Council has authorized the city’s engineer to select a contractor from a state cooperative purchasing program...
Rescue dog lifts Harrison cancer survivor’s spirits, saves home from fireVideo
A rescued dog that Harrison’s Michael Groce took in last May wound up becoming his rescuer. After going through three bouts of cancer, through which he lost a kidney and parts of a lung, Groce, 53, found himself permanently disabled and unable to work. His husband of six years, Ron...
Harrison approves demolition contract, awaits officers’ vote on police pact
The Harrison commissioners have approved a contract for building demolitions, as well as a new agreement with the union representing the township’s police officers. A house at 998 Ivanhoe St. heavily damaged by fire in December 2016 is among the three included in the demolition contract. “It will be good...
Visiting therapist coerced woman into sex, New Kensington police allege
A visiting therapist twice took a woman to a New Kensington hotel where he coerced her into having sex, city police allege. William Francis Denney, 62, of North Huntingdon was arraigned Thursday on charges of institutional sexual assault and criminal coercion. He was released on an unsecured $25,000 bond. Denney’s...
Fire damage cleanup keeps some Parnassus Manor residents out of apartments for 2nd night
More than a dozen residents of Parnassus Manor in New Kensington who were put out of their apartments by a fire Wednesday will be able to return Friday afternoon, a representative of the Westmoreland County Housing Authority said Thursday. The 15 affected residents live on the second floor of the...
Arnold police claim city man armed with arsenal threatened to kill officers
Arnold police said they heard the distinct sound of a bullet being loaded into the chamber of an AR-15 rifle when they went into a home near their station after hearing a woman screaming. In a criminal complaint, police said James Earl Huckbaa threatened to kill officers if they didn’t...
New Kensington-Arnold looks to avoid ‘significant’ tax increase in preliminary budget
The New Kensington-Arnold School District is going forward with a preliminary 2021-22 budget carrying a 6.8% property tax increase despite Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget proposal that boost funding for public schools. Wolf released his budget proposal Tuesday. It contains nearly $2 billion extra for schools — a more than 20%...
New Kensington garbage hauler promises to work with city following alleged thefts by employees
Following reports of thefts by its employees, New Kensington says the city’s garbage hauler has promised to improve communication with the city and keep it aware of its trucks’ whereabouts. Representatives of city council met with County Hauling last week to discuss performance issues and resident complaints. “It was a...
Arnold police accuse woman of stabbing man in the back with steak knife
A 36-year-old Arnold woman is accused of stabbing her boyfriend in the back with a steak knife when he tried to leave her apartment last month. Arnold police charged Ch-nelle Elaine Ross with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, child endangerment and drug offenses in connection with the Jan. 19 incident. Ross...
