Joe Napsha stories

Irwin borough council will see two new members join two reelected incumbents, based on unofficial results from Tuesday’s election. One newly appointed incumbent failed to win a full term. Councilman Tyler Baum, a Republican, led all candidates with 23.6 of the vote in his bid for a second four-year term...

Yough voters gave all four incumbent school board directors another term in Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial results. Jared Filapose of Sewickley, current board president, led the ticket with 23.3% of the vote, followed by Linda Knor of Herminie at 20.3%. Matt Gardner of South Huntingdon, board vice president, received...

A retired Army officer has won a two-year seat on the Mt. Pleasant Area School Board, according to unofficial results from Tuesday’s election. Republican William Johnson of Mt. Pleasant Township received 51.6% of the vote, while Democrat Kathleen Ceroni received 44.8% of the vote. Ceroni, a retired Southmoreland High School...

A Charleroi-area food processing plant scheduled to close by the end of the month could remain open if a deal is reached with a prospective buyer, a federally appointed business receiver said Wednesday. “We are negotiating with the buyer… and expect an agreement with an investment group” within a week,...

A former Allegheny County detective accused of injecting his teenage son with a steroid in 2019 to boost his football performance intimidated the youth into lying to prosecutors about the case, the son testified Tuesday. Raymond W. Bonacci, 59, of Murrysville, was held for trial in Westmoreland County Court on...

As Irwin Borough faces almost $170,000 in additional costs from contractors and a designer to convert its century-old building into a modern first-floor government office, council members Monday balked at some of those estimated bills. The project started this year at $1.1 million. The proposed bills for new change orders...

A proposed 4.4-gigawatt natural gas-fired power plant south of Homer City, intended to power a nearby data processing center, is drawing scrutiny over its possible massive water demands on a local stream. The Homer City Redevelopment Co. plant would siphon water from Two Lick Creek to feed the data centers...

Four Yough School Board incumbents and one challenger are running for four seats on the board in the Nov. 4 election. Three of the incumbents — Matthew Gardner of South Huntingdon, Linda Knor and Monica Ustazewski, both of Herminie – won on both the Democratic and Republican tickets in the...

Irwin voters will be able to choose from five candidates, including three incumbents, running for four council seats in the Nov. 4 election. Councilmen Tyler Baum and Frank Rossi, both Republicans, are seeking reelection to another four-year term, while Fonda Dalbow, appointed to council in July to replace Ron Romeo,...

Two candidates with teaching backgrounds are running for a two-year term on the Mt. Pleasant Area School Board. Democrat Kathleen Ceroni, 74, of Mt. Pleasant Borough, and Republican William K. Johnson, 82, of Mt. Pleasant Township, will square off in the Nov. 4 election. Ceroni, a retired Southmoreland High School...

An Irwin house was extensively damaged by fire Thursday afternoon. Multiple firefighters departments responded to the fire at the two-story house at the corner of Sixth and Warden streets. The fire was reported at 1:15 p.m. The owner was not home at the time of the fire, and no injuries...

Westmoreland Intermediate Unit employees and the special needs students they serve got a bit of good news Tuesday, along with potentially bad news. The good news for them is that the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit 7 board approved a $2 million revenue anticipation note that will hold off any layoffs or...

An Irwin man, whose lifelong fascination with Halloween started when he was a youngster, spent two months and thousands of dollars to create a haunted audiovisual experience in his backyard. The creator of the unique experience, called the Haunted Path, is Jesse Vargo, 38, who worked with his husband, Nick...

The tradition of running in a race in Greensburg on Thanksgiving morning to burn off calories before gobbling down a big meal returns this year with the 34th Greensburg Turkey Trot on Nov. 27. The race begins and ends at the Westmoreland County Courthouse on Main Street. It attracts thousands...

The Westmoreland Intermediate Unit wants to borrow $2 million to keep services and programs operating during the ongoing state budget crisis, the organization’s leader said. If the Intermediate Unit board of directors approves borrowing the money through a revenue anticipation loan, it can avoid disruptions through the remainder of the...

As Jim Alexandre looks out the window of his Haitian Resource Center office in downtown Charleroi, he wonders how his community will handle its latest challenge — the closure of a food processing plant that will eliminate 250 jobs by the end of October. “In general, it’s the newest problem,”...

Youngsters in Irwin Borough will have a chance to don their Halloween costumes and go to businesses in downtown Irwin for a trick-or-treat from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, followed by a parade along Main Street. Registration for the parade will be held 1 to 3 p.m. at the S&T...

The long-awaited $25.4 million demolition and rebuilding of the Norwin Knights stadium is scheduled to begin early next month, as long as the fall sports teams are no longer using the field, school officials said Monday. Norwin Superintendent Natalie McCracken said following the school board meeting that the contractors can...

Inside Amazon’s massive 1.1 million-square-foot New Stanton warehouse, a constant hum of moving parts and people fills the air as packages travel along a seemingly endless matrix of metal rollers. The decidedly modern facility, with a nonstop flow of packages, has an equally large appetite for workers. TribLive received an...

A North Huntingdon man’s attempt to sell guns in the family’s banquet facility was rejected by a zoning panel. The North Huntingdon Zoning Hearing Board last week rejected an appeal from James Stratigos, owner of JGS Arms LLC, for an occupancy permit for a gun shop in a section of...

A financially troubled Charleroi-area food processing company plans to close at the end of the month, eliminating 252 jobs in that mid-Mon Valley area where the economy is reeling from the recent losses of a glass-producing plant and a pasta-making plant. Fourth Street Barbecue Inc. started laying off workers at...

Michele Rubin of Murrysville still talks to her son every day, though he died in April 2017. Paul E. Lucas was 21 when he died of a fentanyl-laced drug overdose April 13, 2017, after what his family explained in his obituary was “a long battle with substance addiction disorder.” Rubin,...

Dawn and Scott Wilson can’t figure out why a state mining engineer decided the cracks in the basement of a home they own in North Belle Vernon were caused by dry soil rather than mine subsidence. They also were told the cracks existed before they purchased mine subsidence insurance, thus...

Ligonier native Debbie Castellan was watching the Fort Ligonier Days parade Saturday with her daughter, granddaughter and great-grandson, while reminiscing what the parade was like growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. “It was, like, 15 minutes long. We’d walk down the street and come back home,” said Castellan, a...

A man was killed in a Saturday morning crash on Darlington Road in Ligonier Township. Westmoreland County Coroner Tim Carson identified the man as Mark Maley, 65. The crash was reported around 11 a.m., a Westmoreland County Public Safety supervisor said. According to Darlington fire Chief Kurt Rose, Maley was...