Patrick Varine stories, Page 166
Murrysville Medic One will hold open house for new garage
Murrysville Medic One officials will host an open house next month at their new garage off Sardis Road. “We want to invite the public in to see all the stuff that we’ve got and how the building looks,” said Medic One spokesman Matt Stromberg. Wet winter weather slowed construction on...
Pitt professor’s inventions recognized by Smithsonian, patent office
Babe Ruth. Honus Wagner. Thomas Edison? When it comes to collectible trading cards, inventors are not usually the first thing that comes to mind. But Rory Cooper, director of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL) at the University of Pittsburgh, was recognized Saturday by the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of American...
Murrysville teen pens play emphasizing importance of arts and humanities
Ariel Rockman, 18, of Murrysville thinks people should place more value on the arts and humanities. It led her to pen her first play, “The Intervention,” staged in late April as part of the Shady Side Academy Senior School’s Original Works Theatre Festival. The play tells the story of Harry,...
Manufacturing employees volunteer at food bank in Delmont
Anthony Beckley, vice president and general manager for Murrysville manufacturing company Dormont, was used to occasionally taking a work day and doing volunteer work with his employees. “I’d done a lot of it in my previous jobs at GE and Abbott Laboratories,” Beckley said. A little more than a year...
‘Game of Thrones’: Series finale goes back to where things began
***WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD THROUGH THE SERIES FINALE OF ‘GAME OF THRONES’*** ***SERIOUSLY, LIKE THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH*** ***TO THE VERY END*** In the end, it was all about the Starks. This series began and ended with the members of House Stark. Sure, the prologue introduced the Night’s Watch and what...
Murrysville sets fracking well hearing for next month
A public hearing on a proposed Titan well pad off Bollinger Road in Murrysville is scheduled for June 19. Murrysville council will host the 7 p.m. hearing on the unconventional gas well in council chambers at the municipal building, 4100 Sardis Road. The Titan pad, proposed by Canonsburg driller Huntley...
Murrysville police anticipate joining multi-agency Community Response Team
Tom Seefeld started a Community Response Team when he was police chief in New Kensington 20 years ago, with the goal of having some officers specially trained for high-risk events such as active shooters or barricaded gunmen and serving drug warrants. Now chief in Murrysville, Seefeld is about to be...
Memorial Day events set in Murrysville area
White Valley AMVETS will host Memorial Day activities, including an honor roll and rifle salute, throughout the Star’s coverage for the 73rd consecutive year. Their schedule will be: • 8 a.m. at the Export American Legion on Kennedy Avenue • 8:30 a.m. at Murrysville Cemetery • 9:15 a.m. at Hills...
‘Games of Thrones’ petition to remake final season nears 500,000 signatures
***WARNING: SPOILERS THROUGH SEASON 8, EPISODE 5 OF ‘GAME OF THRONES’*** Nearly a half-million petitioners at Change.org are ready to mount a dragon and burn the final season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” to the ground, very similar to what Daenerys Targaryen just did in the most recent episode, “The...
Franklin Regional middle-schooler’s photos on display at Westmoreland art museumVideo
When Tai Thomasson of Murrysville picked up his mother’s film camera a few years ago, he wasn’t expecting his photos to be published in “Murrysville Living” magazine. The 14-year-old certainly wasn’t expecting about a dozen of them to become part of a month-long exhibit on display at the Westmoreland Museum...
‘Game of Thrones’: Breaking down ‘The Bells’Video
***WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD THROUGH SEASON 8, EPISODE 5 OF ‘GAME OF THRONES,’ AND MILD BOOK SPOILERS*** House Thrones’n’at was once again divided when it came to the penultimate episode of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” series. This week Cassie Nedelco, Tammy Painter and Patrick Varine discuss whether we buy into Daenerys...
Greensburg man loved cycling, Scottish heritage
David Hamilton and some of his closest friends were avid cyclists, and when they found out the Regional Trail Corp. was planning to bring part of the Great Allegheny Passage through his hometown of Van Meter in Fayette County they sprang into action. “They called themselves ‘The Over the Hill...
Delmont council approves work on borough building
Delmont council members are looking to replace aging items in the borough building, a structure described by public works head Bill Heaps as having “the body of a 30-year-old and the insides of a 100-year-old.” Council voted 5-0 to begin preparing engineering specifications for replacing the building’s aging roof, and...
Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics will host open house
The Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics will host an open house May 18 for those with an interest in flight-related careers. Representatives from Endeavor Air will be at the school’s main campus, at the Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin, to talk with prospective students. PIA President Suzanne Markle said the...
No injuries after plane crashes on takeoff at Arnold Palmer airport
No one was injured Tuesday night when a plane crashed during takeoff from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity, officials said. A single-seat experimental jet was taking off to fly locally shortly before 8 p.m. on Tuesday night, county emergency officials said. For an unknown reason, the plane crashed, a...
Sportsmen’s group will host annual fishing derby at Sloan Elementary
The 32nd annual Sportsmen and Landowners Alliance of Murrysville Fishing Derby will be held May 19 at Sloan Elementary School on Sardis Road. Registration begins at 8 a.m. and fishing will start at 9 a.m. Hourly prizes will be awarded and at 2 p.m., trophies will be awarded to the...
Franklin Regional eighth-graders prepare to stage ‘Seussical Jr.’
Franklin Regional Middle School students will host performances of “Seussical Jr.” by the eighth grade performing arts class this weekend. The show will be at 7 p.m., May 16-17 in the Little Theater at the school, 4660 Old William Penn Highway in Murrysville. Tickets are $7 and will be available...
Mt. Pleasant fixture owned service station, founded ambulance service
Jack Caruso Jr. is fairly certain that almost everyone in Mt. Pleasant knew his father, Jack Sr. “He was a figurehead in Mt. Pleasant forever,” he said. “You could ask anyone in town and they’d have their own little story about my dad.” As the owner of a longtime service...
Here’s where Franklin Regional school board candidates stand on the issues
As the primary election nears, 13 candidates are jockeying for general-election ballot spots in the Franklin Regional school board race. Below are Q&A responses and biographical information for each candidate. RICHARD ARNOLD • Age: 74 • Education: Bachelor’s degree from Slippery Rock University; master’s degree from West Virginia University; doctorate...
Murrysville police K9 retires after nearly a decade of service
Scott Kettren will continue riding around Murrysville as a police sergeant, but he may find himself glancing over his right shoulder for at least a few weeks, expecting a furry friend to be there. Kettren’s partner, Murrysville police K9 Argos, retired this month and will spend his days at Kettren’s...
‘Game of Thrones’: Did you see Aaron Rodgers? If so, where?
***WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD THROUGH SEASON 8, EPISODE 5 OF ‘GAME OF THRONES’*** Divisive as it was, there’s at least one thing we can all agree on: Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was in last night’s “Game of Thrones” episode, “The Bells.” We remain, however, a house divided on where...
‘Game of Thrones’: The Dragon Queen comes to King’s Landing
***WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD THROUGH SEASON 8, EPISODE 5 OF ‘GAME OF THRONES’*** Last week, my fellow “Thrones’n’at” panelist Cassie Nedelco was upset about several aspects of “Last of the Starks.” I thought it was great — not necessarily the choices that some of the characters made (PET YOUR PET, JON....
13 candidates compete for Franklin Regional school board seats in primary
The Sloan “elementary campus” project is not the only reason the Franklin Regional school board primary is so crowded, but it’s certainly near the top of the list for many of the 13 candidates competing for six seats. “As a former senior public school administrator, I can unequivocally state that...
Hannastown man grew up in Italy before opening Latrobe barber shop
Shirley DaRold joked her father was older than sliced bread. Except it’s not really a joke: the first commercial loaf of sliced bread was sold in Missouri in 1928. By that time, Luigi “Fast Louie” DaRold was already 3 years old and had moved from Murrysville’s White Valley neighborhood across...
Murrysville retires one officer while bringing another aboardVideo
Murrysville’s police department added one officer and lost another May 10, swearing in Officer Anthony Talamo on the same day that longtime K9 officer Argos retired. Talamo, 27, is a Murrysville native and a 2010 Franklin Regional graduate. Chief Tom Seefeld, who served as Talamo’s training officer at the police...

