Madasyn Lee stories

The West Deer Supervisors on Wednesday tabled an ordinance prohibiting parking on certain township streets in order to re-evaluate language and procedure. Supervisors last month approved advertising the ordinance, which was drafted to address safety hazards in the township’s Cedar Ridge; Grouse Run; Fawn Haven II and III; Oakwood Circle;...

You might not be able to lead a horse to water and make it drink, but West Deer’s Gerry Vaerewyck led his horses to Deer Creek Diner and got a free hot drink for himself. As he and two friends were headed home from horseback riding in Deer Lakes Park...

Noble Environmental is offering a hazardous household waste and e-waste recycling event in West Deer in March for people to get rid of unwanted electronics or household chemicals not typically picked up by garbage haulers. The recycling event will take place at the township’s municipal building from 9 a.m. to...

Deer Lakes School District will return to a hybrid instruction schedule Tuesday, with modified hours that will allow high school students to have nine periods of live instruction per day. Students have been learning remotely since November in response to rising covid-19 cases. Remote learning will still be available for...

The shuttered movie theaters at the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer will reopen this spring under new management that promises cheaper movie tickets. Mark McSparin, president of Michigan-based GQT Movies, confirmed Thursday that the company is taking over the former Cinemark space. It has a tentative opening date of March...

A man was taken to a Pittsburgh hospital Wednesday after he fell asleep while driving and crashed into a utility pole in West Deer, according to police. Police Chief Jon Lape said emergency responders were called to the single-vehicle crash on Middle Road near Steeplechase Circle shortly before 6:30 p.m....

Two men who met on the dating app Grindr face assault charges after they got into a fistfight and bit each other after hooking up at one of the men’s houses, according to a criminal complaint. New Kensington police charged Ryan Christopher Grabigel, 40, of New Kensington with aggravated assault...

A Brackenridge man and woman have been charged with felony child endangerment and other offenses after investigators said they violated a no contact order with two children the man is accused of sexually abusing. Court records show John Godfrey and Shannon M. Godfrey, both 42, were released from Allegheny County...

A Vandergrift man has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after police say he crashed his car while drunk on Friday in Kiski Township. Police said Ryan Lee Nelson, 20, had a blood alcohol content of 0.147% when police found him walking barefoot along the road in...

Frazer has hired a police officer and two recent police academy graduates to replace three part-timers who resigned to take positions elsewhere. Two of the new hires, Andrew Hakos and Alexander Carmody, recently graduated from the Allegheny County Police Academy, police Chief Terry Kuhns said. The third new hire, Olivier...

East Deer residents won’t be paying more in real estate taxes next year despite an increase in spending. Commissioners Chairman Tony Taliani said commissioners approved a $1.5 million budget for 2021 that keeps the property tax rate at 4.9 mills. The final budget, adopted Dec. 31, was roughly the same...

Upper Burrell police charged a Pittsburgh man with robbery, saying he used a friend’s gun to rob the man in his own home, according to a criminal complaint. Tezhon Delvon Thompson, 23, faces felony charges of robbery, burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and illegally possessing firearms. He was released from...

A New York man accused of attacking his girlfriend with a knife in Arnold was arrested Monday after he called 911 asking for help getting his belongings from her house, police said. Police said Thomas H. Smith Jr., 29, of Amityville, N.Y., stabbed and cut his girlfriend after they got...

A Pittsburgh man accused of illegally having two loaded guns – one of them stolen – in a car he was driving Sunday in East Deer stuffed a marijuana blunt down his pants when he was pulled over by state troopers, police said. Police said they pulled over a car...

A Wilkinsburg man is charged with attempted homicide and other crimes after police said he tried to shoot another man and narrowly avoided shooting a 3-year-old girl at Harrison’s Sheldon Park public housing complex last week. Harrison police said after the shooting, Antonio Williams, 20, buckled the girl into a...

Police are investigating after a 17-year-old was shot Sunday afternoon in North Braddock. The shooting was reported shortly before 2:30 p.m. near the intersection of Baldridge and Jones avenues. Police said first responders found the victim to have multiple, non-life threatening injuries. He was taken to a local hospital and...

Karen L. Stein Motosicky loved letting people know what was going on in the Alle-Kiski Valley. A longtime senior news assistant at the Valley News Dispatch in Tarentum, Motosicky, 68, of New Kensington, died of Lewy body dementia on Saturday, Jan. 2. She had been living at Belair Healthcare and...

Brackenridge residents won’t be paying more in real estate taxes next year despite a slight increase in spending. Secretary-treasurer Denise Tocco said council approved a $1.2 million budget for 2021 that keeps the property tax rate at 6.25 mills. The last time the borough raised taxes was in 2018, Tocco...

Fawn Supervisors adopted a $1.9 million budget for 2021 that includes no increase in property taxes. The township hasn’t raised property taxes in at least 24 years. The budget keeps the tax rate at 3.04 mills. “We’re pretty prudent on our expenses,” Supervisors Chairman David Montanari said. “We don’t have...

The owners of a West Deer metal recycling company plan to continue operations and eventually rebuild after their building was destroyed by a fire Saturday morning. “The long-term plan’s to rebuild, absolutely,” said Rick Tibensky, who co-owns TNT Metals with his brother, Joe Tibensky. “Temporarily we have to find somewhere...

Regis I. “Rege” Schiebel lived, breathed and died Knoch blue and gold. Known as “Mr. Knoch,” the “voice of Knoch High School” and the “voice of Friday nights,” those who knew him said you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who wouldn’t do something Schiebel asked of them because he...

A SWAT situation in Pittsburgh’s Larimer neighborhood ended without incident after a search of a home for a possibly armed and barricaded man, authorities said. The incident was reported shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday in the 400 block of Enright Court, according to an Allegheny County 911 emergency dispatcher. UPDATE:...