Harry Funk stories, Page 9

Beyond his three adult children and 11 grandchildren, Judge Dwayne Woodruff sometimes is greeted by younger folks introducing themselves as “one of your kids.” When his wife, Joy, heard such a statement for the first time, the judge had to explain that the person was someone he met through juvenile...

Today’s soggy patch of dirt is tomorrow’s new school. On the rain-soaked afternoon of Jan. 9, Bethel Park School District officials hosted a groundbreaking for a a $133 million elementary center to replace the five buildings now in operation. Despite the weather, members of the community packed the space under...

Pine-Richland School Board is scheduled to vote Jan. 22 on programs of studies for the high school and middle school for 2024-25. During the board’s Jan. 8 planning meeting, administrators presented information on updates to the programs, which have been subjected to continuous review and modifications since their introduction in...

With the start of a new year, Jax Ramirez started guitar lessons. “He made his first G chord,” his mother, Missy, reported, and if all goes well with the online instruction, he soon will be jamming to the likes of Ozzy Osbourne and AC/DC. Befitting a boy about to turn...

Four years of performing with the Duquesne University Tamburitzans wasn’t quite enough for Frank Bozicevic. So after he graduated, he remained involved the multicultural song-and-dance ensemble by driving its tour bus. Along the way, he and one of the members at the time started dating, and eventually they married. Today,...

While active in the U.S. Marine Corps, Devlin Robinson fought in both hotbeds for post-9/11 American military action, Afghanistan and Iraq. He was in the same general age range of two Army servicemen from near his Bridgeville home, a few years older than Russell Kurtz of Bethel Park and slightly...

Signs dotting Franklin Park’s Brook Park neighborhood show a smiling young man, either giving a thumbs-up in front of the car he restored or celebrating his graduation from the University of Dayton. Perhaps the cheeriness exhibited in the photos prompts passersby to smile, themselves, until they notice the word “memorial”...

Retirement has arrived for Timothy Little, who attended his final council meeting as Monroeville’s municipal manager on Dec. 12. Council voted unanimously to advertise an ordinance appointing his successor, Alexander Graziani, with a vote on his approval expected in January. The ordinance includes approval of a contract that establishes the...

A billboard with rotating digital images may be coming to Business Route 22 in Monroeville. On Dec. 12, municipal council voted 3-2 to grant a request by Wolfgate Devco LLC for a conditional use as permitted in a municipal C-2 commercial district, paving the way for what is proposed as...

An increase in Gateway School District’s real estate tax rate is capped at 5.3% for 2024. The school board voted Dec. 5 to approve a resolution vowing not to exceed the index established for the district by the state Department of Education. Legislation adopted as Act 1 of 2006 calls...

A 1.15-mill real estate tax increase will be the maximum in Hampton Township School District for 2024-25, and early projections have the number slightly lower. The school board on Dec. 4 approved a resolution not to raise the rate by more than 5.3% over the current year, a figure that...

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part story. Read the first part. During its 106-year run as a Heidelberg family business, Wright’s Seafood Inn doubled as home for its owners, starting with W.C. and Mary Wright with the opening of the Valley Hotel in 1898. Great-grandson Dave Davis...

No-Shave November is extending into “Don’t Stop December, January and February” for Hampton police officers. Members of the department are participating in the annual effort to raise awareness about cancer while raising money for charity by letting facial hair take its natural course. “Our department policy, when it comes to...

As the longtime president of Bethel Park Council, Tim Moury has worked on municipal budgets each year going back to the 1990s. His final effort in that regard comes with a tough choice: raising the real estate tax rate by .75 mills and the municipal portion of the tax on...

Under what now is Interstate 79 as it passes through the westernmost part of Bridgeville, a settlement flourished nearly a millennium ago. Historian John Oyler remembers some related local folklore. “Anybody my age who grew up in Bridgeville heard about the Indian mound on Gould City Hill all their lives,”...

Combine one of the holiday season’s biggest stars with a seriously stretched vehicle, and you get to deliver a slew of seasonal cheer. That’s what the organizers had in mind with a load-a-limo event featuring the Grinch, which was held Nov. 25 event in the parking lot of Dr. Cleveland...

During their Thanksgiving vacations, Sara Impellicceiri and members of her family would partake in free holiday dinners. “But I never helped volunteer for one, because I just never had the opportunity,” the Bethel Park High School junior said. “So being able to do this has been a great experience.” She...

Bridgeville’s real estate tax rate is expected to remain the same next year, maintaining a consistent level since 2019. Borough council plans to vote Dec. 11 on adopting the 2024 budget, which calls for a rate of 6.5 mills on buildings and 10 mills on land. The budget for the...

As renovations to Gateway Middle School continue well past the initially estimated completion date, more money is going toward the effort. The school board on Nov. 21 voted to approve $341,793.70 in change orders, representing deviations from the original scope of the project, with the bulk of the added expense...

The motto for the Hampton Band Association’s 12th annual Holiday Extravaganza could be: Bake it ’til you make it. “Our goal to the kids is to have 10,000 cookies,” high school band director Chad Himmler said. “So that’s what we are trying to do.” Besides the main attraction of music,...

Six decades after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a frequent lecturer on the subject agrees with the original official version of what transpired: “Even all these years later, I generally have come out and said, ‘The Warren Commission, I think, got most of it right.’ ” Bethel Park resident...

Deciding not to mess with success, the Hampton Boys Basketball Boosters Club is bringing back what turned out to be a fan favorite. The trick-shooting, slam-dunking showmanship of the Harlem Wizards returns to the township after an initial visit for a 2022 fundraiser. “We didn’t know what to expect the...

Perhaps you’ve marveled at someone taking a piece of paper and folding it to produce the shape of a bird or flower. That general practice served as Madonna Yoder’s introduction to origami. “It started with making my own toys during church services,” the Monroeville resident said. “I would sit there...

Editor’s note: This story will conclude in the December issue of the Signal Item. For fans of fine dining, Wright’s Seafood Inn was something of a paradise. Fans of singer Joni Mitchell will know the rest of the story. Yes, a parking lot now stretches across the spot that the...

Pay a morning visit to a coffee shop and watch the baristas be bombarded by beverage orders That would be right up Kendal Astor’s alley. “I love the stress and the pressure, like when there’s a whole line of things,” the Chartiers Valley High School senior said. “I work really...