Patrick Varine stories, Page 120
Murrysville area ‘On the move,’ Feb. 4, 2021
The following are local accolades, achievements and announcements from the Murrysville Star’s coverage area. To submit an item, email pvarine@triblive.com. • • • Emily Wang, a fifth-grade student at Heritage Elementary School, placed third in the Pennsylvania Council of Financial Literacy’s Stock Market competition. Wang and other students started with...
Murrysville area events, Feb. 9, 2021, and beyond
Here are news briefs and event listings for the Murrysville Star’s coverage area. Submit an event or a news brief by emailing pvarine@triblive.com. Delmont library to host several events on Feb. 13 The Delmont Public Library will host its second monthly “Swap and Sell Saturday,” where patrons can drop off...
Bloomfield gallery Boxheart will feature artists from Lawrenceville, Uniontown
Working with clay during his first ceramics class at Corning Community College, just over the Pennsylvania border in New York, Travis Winters thought for the first time that art was something he could do long-term. “It opened up my eyes to what art was,” said Winters, 35, who now lives...
‘Flags Over Murrysville’ founder marks project’s 30th anniversary
Editor’s note: Neighbor Spotlight is a monthly feature that aims to let our readers learn more about the people in their communities who are working to make them a better place, who have interesting stories to tell or who the community feels deserve “15 minutes of fame.” If you would...
Export to begin towing illegally parked vehicles
Export officials want residents to know that “no-parking” signs are not just suggestions. And they’re going to start towing cars to make sure the message comes through loud and clear. “We are serious about no-parking areas,” Mayor Joe Zaccagnini said at Monday’s council meeting. “We will have your car towed.”...
Murrysville will hold public hearing on earned-income tax hike proposal
Murrysville council will take public comment March 3 on what could be its first tax increase in 13 years. The public hearing will explore a proposal to double earned-income taxes from the current 0.5% to 1%. “This goes back to our fiscal analysis and the need to identify alternate revenue...
National Alliance on Mental Illness will host youth-focused virtual conference Friday
As Christine Michaels, CEO of the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ Keystone Pennsylvania chapter, prepares for the group’s first virtual conference on Friday, she can’t help but think of her own family. This year’s conference, “Closing the Gap: Prioritizing the Needs of Traumatized Youth,” will focus on the impact that...
Covid figures tallied for the week of Feb. 2, 2021, for Murrysville area
The most recent data from the state Department of Health shows 1,171 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Murrysville area since the pandemic started in March. Of those positive results, 65 cases were reported in the past seven days. The health department on Monday released figures for the three ZIP...
Johnstown Rotarian will hike the Appalachian Trail to help fight polioVideo
When Owen Standley set out to lose a little weight, walking 2,200 miles along the Appalachian Trail was not the plan. But when Standley, 34, of Ferndale, Cambria County, joined his wife in a diet and exercise plan, it included a journaling assignment to list something he thought he could...
Franklin Regional wants to improve high schoolers’ experience during 2nd semester
Ron Suvak, principal at Franklin Regional Senior High School, said his goal for 2021 was simple: To ensure students’ second semester experience is better than the first, educationally, socially and emotionally. Suvak presented school board members with the results from a recent survey of high school students, focused on their...
Ghost kitchens creep across Western Pa., offering revenue boosts for struggling restaurants
For those who believe, ghosts come in a wide variety of forms: floating orbs of light, haunting voices or, as in the opinion of famed fictional ghostbuster Raymond Stantz, “a full-torso, free-floating apparition.” As it turns out, so do “ghost kitchens”: food-world phantoms that put emphasis on flavor rather than...
Mother of Sorrows in Murrysville prepares for covid-safe Catholic Schools Week
Catholic Schools Week, which begins Sunday, is going to look a little different this year at Mother of Sorrows School in Murrysville. But the fact that it’s happening at all — with a Jan. 31 appointment-only open house — is a testament to the ways the staff and the families...
Franklin Regional to present survey on high school student concerns at Feb. 1 meeting
Franklin Regional administrators on Monday will present the results of a high school student survey aimed at addressing educational concerns that have arisen during the covid-19 pandemic. Superintendent Gennaro Piraino said some students want more in-person instruction — the school’s current hybrid model has two groups attending in-person class two...
Murrysville upgrades its information system for code enforcement
Murrysville’s new code enforcement officer is taking the lead in helping the municipality upgrade the system it uses to track information about properties. Code enforcement officer Josh Steele said the system, bought in the 1990s, has reached the end of its usefulness. “It works really well for what it does,...
Murrysville-area criminal charges filed, Jan. 28, 2021
The following charges are filed with Export District Judge Charles Conway. All persons charged have the right to a preliminary hearing and are innocent until proven guilty or pleading guilty before a judge in the Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas. • Jessica L. Cochran, 45, of Jeannette with possession...
Parks foundation raising money for sensory pathway at Murrysville Community Park
The Murrysville Recreation Department is seeking ways to keep the public engaged during the winter, through exercise promotional programs and other activities. It also is making sure those efforts are inclusive, working with its nonprofit foundation on a fundraiser to create a sensory pathway along one of its park trails....
Events in the Murrysville area, Feb. 4, 2021, and beyond
Here are news briefs and event listings for the Murrysville Star’s coverage area. Submit an event or a news brief by emailing pvarine@triblive.com. East Suburban Artists League hosts Michigan artist The East Suburban Artists League will welcome guest speaker and president of the Detroit chapter of the Colored Pencil Society...
TribLive Taste Test: Dutch snacks!Video
Dutch snacks? But why, you ask? Well, as we all know, Jan. 30 of this year marks the 372nd anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. It brought an end to the Eighty Years’ War between the Dutch and Spanish and the arrival of Dutch independence...
Feds seek to boost pandemic student nutrition card benefits by 15%
The federal government plans to issue Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer cards to eligible schools and students beginning in early spring, following President Joe Biden’s executive order last week boosting those benefits by 15%. Through P-EBT, eligible students receive temporary emergency nutrition benefits loaded on EBT cards used to purchase food....
Covid numbers tallied Jan. 25 for Murrysville-Export-Delmont area
The most recent data from the state Department of Health shows 1,106 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Murrysville area since the pandemic started in March. Of those positive results, 62 cases were reported in the past seven days. The health department on Monday released figures for the three ZIP...
Westmoreland symphony’s next livestream to feature Cleveland cellistVideo
There is certainly no love lost between Pittsburgh and Cleveland’s football teams. But unless he tries a dirty tackle on the conductor, no one is likely to boo cellist Mark Kosower, even if he does hail from the Browns’ hometown. Kosower, principal cello for the Cleveland Orchestra, will be the...
Murrysville-Export Rotary donates cots to emergency management team
The Rotary’s motto is “People Helping People.” So when Murrysville-Export Rotary President John Hartman heard that a longtime law enforcement friend needed some help, he was ready to go. Both Hartman and Murrysville Police Capt. Chuck Tappe underwent police training together. But neither was anticipating the need that arose. “Last...
Delmont library’s ‘soft’ grand opening continues through SaturdayVideo
The new Delmont Public Library building is a tribute to the people who helped build its past and a monument to future possibilities. The library began the first day of a three-day soft grand opening Thursday, spreading out the celebration in light of health and safety concerns over covid-19. Grand...
Events in the Murrysville area, Jan. 21 and beyond
Here are news briefs and event listings for the Murrysville Star’s coverage area. Submit an event or a news brief by emailing pvarine@triblive.com. Delmont library to host French program The Delmont Public Library will host a “Love My Library” program on Feb. 13. Or, as the French would say —...
As covid crisis deepens, opioid crisis continues in the background
As President Joe Biden settles into office amid the coronavirus pandemic, nonprofits and organizations battling drug addiction are urging the new administration not to lose sight of the national opioid crisis that predates covid-19 and has not slowed. “At the same time the coronavirus death toll grows, there is another...
