Patrick Varine stories, Page 149
Ghost Town Trail named 2020 Trail of the Year by state conservation officials
The Ghost Town Trail that runs from Blairsville to Ebensburg has been named Pennsylvania’s 2020 Trail of the Year by the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Built initially as a 12-mile trail in 1994, Ghost Town Trail was the first in the state constructed using transportation enhancement funding....
Franklin Regional Junior Olympics wrestlers take top spot at Kiski dual meet
The Franklin Regional Junior Olympics wrestling team brought home a first-place finish at the annual Kiski Youth Duals, going 5-0 at the Dec. 21 meet. Team recruitment coordinator Mike Ruane said the team is still getting its bearings early in the season. “This was only our second dual of the...
Bluegrass pickers head to Butler for January Ice Jam festivalVideo
Some of Western Pennsylvania’s best bluegrass musicians will descend on Butler this weekend for the 23rd annual January Ice Jam music festival. Bands will take the stage every half-hour Jan. 10 and 11 as the Days Inn on Route 8 is transformed into a picker’s paradise, with most rooms wide...
Murrysville council approves 1st fracking well
The first signs residents will see to indicate that a horizontal-drilling Marcellus shale well has been approved in Murrysville is probably not what they expected: road improvements. Before work gets going on Olympus Energy’s Titan well — which received Murrysville council’s approval for conditional-use and site plan applications in late...
TribLive Taste Test: Popbar Hot Chocolate on a StickVideo
The plunging temperatures and occasional snow flurries can mean only one thing: it’s hot chocolate season! The TribLive Taste Test Team got a chance to try out a new form of the delicious, decadent dessert beverage, courtesy of the Popbar company: hot chocolate on a stick! Popbar sent a six-pack...
Celebrity basketball game will benefit scholarships for Hispanic students
The Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce will host its second annual Celebrity Basketball Game to raise money for scholarships supporting the region’s Hispanic community. The game will be at 2:30 p.m., Jan. 11 at the Wunderley Gymnasium at Penn State’s Greater Allegheny campus in McKeesport. The game will...
Export council pushes back monthly meeting time
Export council will meet 30 minutes earlier beginning in February. Council voted unanimously Monday to move its monthly meeting back to 6:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month. Councilman James Mahinske was not present. Meetings are held at the borough building, 5823 Washington Ave. In other borough business:...
Monessen mayor attends 1st meeting in nearly 2 years, fires clerk and solicitor
After a 20-month absence from city meetings, first-term Monessen Mayor Matt Shorraw returned to local government Monday night armed with a majority of council votes and an unannounced agenda that angered some members of the public as well as the council members who have essentially run the city since spring...
Inclusive theater to hold January auditions in Murrysville
Acting Up, an inclusive theater group for actors of all ability levels, will host auditions for two upcoming productions. • Auditions for “Once On This Island Jr.,” for actors ages 5 to 18, will be Jan. 22 from 7-9 p.m. at Newlonsburg Presbyterian Church, 4600 Old William Penn Highway, and...
Historical society receives $10K gift to help relocate military monumentVideo
The Export Historical Society has a good jump on relocating Export’s veteran monument, thanks to a $10,000 gift from former borough resident Gary Wuslich. “He noticed that the memorial was a little bit hard to see or recognize unless you knew where it was,” said borough councilwoman and historical society...
Westmoreland bars, clubs weigh pros and cons of going smokeless
Owners of public and private establishments in Westmoreland County had a lot to consider when deciding on a future for smokers at their establishments. “When you hear about a VFW that went nonsmoking and had to go back because they couldn’t sustain themselves, that’s really what it boils down to,”...
Nominations open for Western Pennsylvania Environmental Awards
In 2019, Murrysville officials retrofitted a half-dozen storm water detention ponds, with plans to do the same for about a dozen more. That’s precisely the type of project that should be nominated for a Western Pennsylvania Environmental Awards, given annually by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council. The nomination period opened on...
State Rep. Valerie Gaydos introduces bill to shrink state legislature
After being in office for about a year, state Rep. Valerie Gaydos, R-Allegheny, thinks there might be a few too many seats in the chamber. Gaydos, 53, of Aleppo, recently introduced legislation which would cut legislative districts in Pennsylvania from 203 to 151, a move that would require amending the...
Helltown Brewing to host Tecmo Super Bowl tournament in Murrysville
For Dave Samuelson, tasting room manager at Helltown Brewing, the Sega Genesis console represented the apex of his video-game playing days, and one of the games Samuelson remembers playing best is Tecmo Super Bowl. “It was the first (football) game that had the real players,” said Samuelson, 45. “It had...
State police, Fayette DA will discuss possible North Union murder-suicide
State police said they suspect murder-suicide after the discovery of two bodies in a North Union Township home on New Year’s Day. Troopers were dispatched to a Republic Street home in the Fayette County township just before 4 p.m. on Jan. 1 for a report of two deceased individuals. Troopers...
Penn-Trafford telethon raises more than $65,000 for Make-a-WishVideo
Penn-Trafford students raised more than $65,000 to help local children through the Make-a-Wish Foundation at their annual telethon Dec. 19. See the video above for a few numbers that will help put this year’s telethon in perspective....
Franklin Regional superintendent to be keynote speaker at chamber prayer breakfast
Gennaro Piraino, superintendent of the Franklin Regional School District, will give the keynote address at the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce’s annual prayer breakfast on Jan. 31. Piraino is the Superintendent of the Year as chosen by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. The breakfast will mark the 45th year...
Former Pittsburgh man pleads guilty to his part in multi-state drug-trafficking ring
A former Pittsburgh resident pleaded guilty to his part in narcotics trafficking on Thursday, one of 37 defendants charged as part of a multi-state, large-scale investigation by the Greater Pittsburgh Safe Streets Task Force. According to U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady, John Fedorka, 36, pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy and...
Ohio men plead guilty to string of regional pharmacy robberies in 2018
Two Ohio men pleaded guilty to their part in what law enforcement officials said was a rash of well-orchestrated pharmacy burglaries in 2018. Mohammed Jibril, 19, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, and Arthur L. Worthy II, 21, of Columbus, Ohio, each pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy to commit armed pharmacy...
State police ID suspects in Westmoreland Mall assault
Three men who allegedly assaulted a girl inside the Westmoreland Mall in Hempfield Friday night have been identified by the state police in Greensburg. Police said in a tweet early Saturday morning they identified the suspects, but did not reveal their identities. Police did not reveal if any charges have...
Fire knocks out Comcast service in at least East Deer, Springdale, New Kensington
The fire that quickly consumed a home in East Deer and damaged two others has also burned through Comcast lines in the area, affecting service that was not restored until after 10 p.m. “This fire burned fiber of ours. We just got access to the site 15 minutes ago,” Comcast...
Unity woman touts importance, ease of donating stem cellsVideo
While attending a Goo Goo Dolls concert at the Palace Theater in 2016, Cassandra Nedelco of Unity didn’t think twice about getting her cheek swabbed at a booth run by nonprofit DKMS, an international group that seeks to match stem cell and bone marrow donors with patients in need. It...
State rep Bob Brooks files for reelection in House’s 54th District
State representative and former Murrysville mayor Bob Brooks filed for reelection in the House’s 54th District. He will host a petition signing kick-off event from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Jan. 28 in Murrysville. “When I ran for state representative two years ago, I pledged to focus on people, not politics,...
Western Pa. received plenty of rain in 2019, but a record is unlikely
This year may have been one of the wettest in Pennsylvania history, but it’s got a few more inches to go if it wants to top the list. As of Friday , the Pittsburgh area recorded 51.64 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service. Normal average annual precipitation...
Christmas Eve stabbing in New Stanton leads to assault charges
A couple’s fight late on Christmas Eve left a man with stab wounds and a New Stanton woman facing aggravated assault charges. State police initially responded to a 911 call from the mother of Julie L. Thomas, 21, who said she’d received text messages from Thomas that Jamel C. Miles...
