Jeff Himler stories, Page 5

A giant blade destined for a wind turbine pierced the wall of a Derry Township business Tuesday morning when the trucker hauling the oversize load was unable to navigate a sharp, 90-degree turn on Route 982. “I was standing there, and the next thing you know it was in my...

Officials at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport on Tuesday marked the first milestone in construction of a $28 million terminal expansion, with about a third of the project’s initial phase in place. Completion of the first of three phases is slated for April of next year, according to Scott Kunselman, engineer...

Lakeview Animal Clinic welcomed pets and their owners to its new, expanded Unity building June 30. It’s the culmination of five years of planning and nearly a year of construction. The 7,200-square-foot clinic on Monastery Drive is directly downhill from the practice’s previous location. “Capacity is the biggest change,” said...

Ligonier Valley School District officials are beginning a search for a new superintendent as Tim Kantor, who has held the top administrative post since 2021, prepares to retire with a new title and a yearlong extension of his medical leave. The school board has agreed to pay Peter Emery D’Arcangelo...

Motorists in Hempfield will encounter a single-lane restriction on a section of Donohoe Road beginning Monday. Temporary signals will control alternating traffic while crews complete a slide repair between Georges Station Road and Autumn Lane, in the vicinity of the National Guard office. Work on the PennDOT project is expected...

Derry Community Pool is moving forward with its summer season, but with a reduced schedule. After a shortage of lifeguards caused borough officials to close the public swimming pool several days in late June, Derry Council on Tuesday agreed to trim back the facility’s schedule to six days each week...

Christy Boyd is joining the Ligonier Valley School Board as an appointee four months in advance of appearing on the Nov. 4 ballot for election to the panel. Westmoreland County’s eight judges on Tuesday agreed to name Boyd to a temporary post on the board. She will serve through the...

Alysia Longwell, a Derry Area parent and college instructor, has joined the district school board — at least temporarily. The school board on Monday unanimously appointed Longwell, the sole applicant, to fill a board seat vacated by the June 3 resignation of veteran School Director Kevin Liberoni. Longwell, who lives...

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A note left on the door of their new Hempfield home 21 years ago was the first sign of trouble for Kristie Harvey’s family. It was from a young driver, admitting to having hit a perimeter wall on Harvey’s lot just off the Cedar Street exit of Route 30. It...

A place for everything and everything in its place applies equally to spontoons and shards. Thanks to a new climate-controlled collections storage room in the basement of Fort Ligonier Museum, Meghan Budinger will have separate compartments to safely archive the former iron and brass weapon — a type of personal...

A retiree whose work experience includes examining building plans and completing code reviews is now a new member of Latrobe’s city council. Council members voted unanimously this week to appoint Lenor Rivera to serve on the panel through December 2027. She will complete the term of William Yuhaniak, who cited...

Jase Wiarda occasionally calls a company with a pressure washer to give his rubber duck a bath. “It’s a weird phone call to make,” he said. “People think it’s a prank.” That is, until they realize their services are being sought to clean the “World’s Largest Rubber Duck” — a...

Route 30 eastbound reopened near the Route 119 interchange after a crash early Thursday evening shut it down for hours. The 5:30 p.m. wreck involved multiple vehicles, according to a Westmoreland County 911 dispatcher. Southwest Greensburg firefighters reported in a social media post that the crash involved a tri-axle truck...

Temperatures soaring into the 90s drove plenty of people to the Derry Community Pool on Sunday — but it proved to be too many for the limited number of lifeguards available, prompting an unexpected premature closure of the facility in mid-afternoon. Normally, the pool, owned by Derry Borough, is open...

Single-lane restrictions will be in effect beginning Monday on a stretch of Interstate 70 in Rostraver and South Huntingdon townships and during several weekends, beginning this weekend, on a segment of the interstate in North Belle Vernon and Rostraver. PennDOT said concrete pavement work will trigger overnight restrictions from 7...

Work to replace the leaking roof at Greater Latrobe Junior High will begin this summer and is expected to wrap up during the summer of 2026. The school board this week awarded the roof contract to Island Contracting, which submitted a low base bid of about $6.2 million. That’s about...

Royal Canadian Air Force Capt. Marc-André Plante has taken his CT-114 jet through more than 50 practice runs of the demanding mirror pass maneuver. On Friday, he and eight fellow Snowbirds pilots were scheduled to complete another dry run of that pattern and other elements of the aerobatic demonstration they’ll...

Thousands of people are expected to travel to Arnold Palmer Regional Airport this weekend to view the air show hosted annually at the Unity site. That means motorists should expect traffic to be heavier than usual on routes 30 and 981 in the vicinity of the airport. Traffic tends to...

Area residents who recall swimming at the former Ligonier Beach resort shouldn’t expect to return to take a dip in the now-shuttered Ligonier Township pool, but township consultants have suggested visitors might someday descend into the drained basin of the expansive pool to engage in activities such as climbing a...

Derry Area School Board is looking to appoint an eligible resident to a vacant seat on the panel after a board member’s resignation. The board also is planning to hire a new secondary-level administrator following the recent departure of the high school principal for a position at another district. The...

A block-long Latrobe street bordered by parking lots for the town’s hospital is among a dozen streets that are slated for improvement in an upcoming city paving project. Derry Construction was awarded the $367,343 contract for the project — including extensive work on Taft Street. which intersects with Second Avenue...

Greater Latrobe School Board on Tuesday approved a 1-mill property tax increase to help raise local revenue for a final 2025-26 district budget of $68 million. District business administrator Dan Watson had recommended a 2-mill hike to help Greater Latrobe prepare for future capital projects as it deals with school...

Greater Latrobe School District is looking to eliminate elementary Spanish instruction in its proposed 2025-26 budget as most school board members want to limit any potential tax increase to less than 2 mills. The board is expected at its meeting Tuesday to vote on finalizing a budget with $68.4 million...

PennDOT is planning the following work on roads in Westmoreland County during the week beginning Monday, weather permitting: • Paving will take place on Route 380 in Washington and Bell townships and on Stone Church Road in Hempfield Township. • Patching will take place on Route 30 in Ligonier and...