Western PA Local News category, Page 2593
YWCA Westmoreland names longtime employee as interim director
YWCA Westmoreland County appointed a familiar face as its new interim executive director. Gina McGrath has been with the organization since 1998, previously serving as technology instructor, IT director, and senior program director. She replaces Cindy Leonard, who recently departed the organization after working as executive director since 2018. “Both...
Leechburg Area Pool intends to open this year, even if only for abbreviated season
The Leechburg Area Pool still plans to open this year, but it might be later than originally planned due to the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement posted on the pool’s Facebook page last week, members of the pool board stressed their dedication to opening the Gilpin-based pool. “While we look...
Tarentum Council resists proposal to abolish borough’s planning commission
A proposal to abolish Tarentum’s planning commission and replace it with a committee of professionals and council members was met with resistance from council members who opposed removing borough residents from the zoning and land use process. Borough Manager Michael Nestico argued the planning commission can only make recommendations to...
Pittsburgh seeks $20 million grant for Mt. Washington face-lift
Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington could be in line for a giant face-lift. Officials are set to apply for a $20 million federal grant that would pay for the stabilization of the landslide-plagued hill offering panoramic views of the city. Council plans to introduce a resolution on Tuesday that would authorize an...
Regent Square shop owner faces razor after customers spend $15K online
It took Chris Kaminski more than six months to grow out his thick, reddish-brown beard. It took his wife, Sarah, less than 10 minutes to shave it down to what she described as a “tastefully disgusting,” gunslinger-style mustache extending from his upper lip to his jaw line. “This is what...
Ohio cuts off liquor sales to out-of-state residents in Pennsylvania border counties
Ohio is cutting off liquor sales to out-of-state residents in counties bordering Pennsylvania, a response to “repeated instances” of Pennsylvanians going to Ohio solely to buy liquor, Gov. Mike DeWine said. “Any other time, we’d love to have visitors from PA, but right now this creates an unacceptable public health...
Pennsylvania launches coronavirus job hiring portal
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry launched a job portal Monday, focusing on life-sustaining businesses that are hiring during the covid-19 pandemic. “Many life-sustaining businesses across Pennsylvania are hiring, and this new portal will help connect them with people looking for a job,” said Labor and Industry Secretary Jerry...
4th resident dies at Kane Glen Hazel facility from coronavirus complications
A fourth resident at a Kane Community Living long-term care facility died from coronavirus complications, according to data from Allegheny County. All of the deaths occurred at the Glen Hazel location, where at least 26 other residents tested positive. Four residents’ tests still are pending, and 24 have tested negative....
Pennsylvania State Police training academy closed after staffer positive for covid-19
The Pennsylvania State Police training academy in Hershey will be closed for at least two weeks because a staff member tested positive for covid-19, state police said. The closure impacts 100 cadets, who will continue online instruction from home. Classes for the cadet class had been the only activities at...
North Huntingdon woman accused of intentionally coughing on McDonald’s worker
A 47-year-old North Huntingdon woman who allegedly coughed on a McDonald’s worker and told the person “I hope you get covid-19” has been charged with assault, state police said. Sharon K. Powell is charged with disorderly conduct, harassment, reckless endangerment and simple assault in connection with the alleged incident at...
Procession honoring acting Aliquippa police chief stretches 2 milesVideo
A long line of police cruisers and emergency vehicles with sirens blaring escorted a hearse Monday carrying the body of Aliquippa’s acting police Chief Rob Sealock back home to Aliquippa. Sealock, 49, had been in UPMC Presbyterian hospital since March 26 after suffering a medical emergency while on duty and...
Man in Montgomery County prison is 1st Pa. inmate to die of coronavirus complications
A Montgomery County inmate is the first in the Pennsylvania prison system to die from complications related to covid-19, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections announced Monday. The inmate wasn’t identified by name. He was a 67-year-old black man serving a life sentence for a Philadelphia County first-degree murder conviction, officials...
Wolf: ‘New normal’ will take time, 3 phases of response
While the adherence to the state’s stay-at-home orders is “bending the curve and diminishing the surge” of new cases, Gov. Tom Wolf said Monday he was not ready to predict when he will lift the sanctions against business activity that are crushing the economy. “There is no hard, fast metric...
Food Bank to hold 1st drive-up distribution in Butler
The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is holding its first drive-up emergency food distribution event in Butler. Food will distributed Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Butler’s Alameda Park. The event is part of the Food Bank’s new drive-up distribution model to reduce the spread of covid-19. Each...
Monroeville Chick-fil-A donates meals to UPMC facilities
Monroeville’s Chick-fil-A last week donated $350 worth of food to three UPMC retirement facilities in the area. Elizabeth McKenna, a UPMC spokeswoman, said the food fed more than 100 staff at Beatty Pointe Village in Monroeville, Seneca Hills Village and Seneca Manor, both in Penn Hills. “What a wonderful gesture...
Ambridge police chief who died of coronavirus was retired Pittsburgh officerVideo
Ambridge police Chief Mark J. Romutis was lauded as “the people’s policeman” in a statement on the borough’s Facebook page. But he was more than that, former colleague Robert Swartzwelder said Monday. Romutis was “just an all-around wonderful guy,” said Swartzwelder, a Pittsburgh officer who is president of the Fraternal...
Delmont will hold April council meeting with arrangements for online access
Delmont council will hold its monthly meeting at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday at the borough building, and while the public is permitted to attend to the extent that social distancing is still possible, the borough has provided links and contacts to either view or listen to the meeting. Members of the...
AHN, UPMC spearhead plasma program that could treat coronavirus
Plasma from people who have recovered from the coronavirus could be a tool in helping critically ill patients recover from the virus, and the region’s two largest health care providers are working together to help facilitate those transfusions. Vitalant, previously the Central Blood Bank, is working with UPMC and Allegheny...
Another covid-19 death in Westmoreland County; total now 13
Officials on Monday reported the 13th coronavirus-related death in Westmoreland County. Coroner Ken Bacha said the latest death was yet another person connected with a local nursing home as all but one of the county’s fatalities have been linked to senior living communities. State health officials on Monday continued to...
Cops: Man jailed after assaulting girlfriend twice in Youngwood apartment
A 32-year-old man was ordered held in the Westmoreland County Prison on $10,000 bond on charges of harassing and physically assaulting a Youngwood woman twice in seven hours Sunday and early Monday, state police said. Nicholas A. Cole of Latrobe was arrested on multiple criminal charges of harassment and simple...
Pennsylvania’s online liquor sales booming despite tricky website
Patience is said to be a virtue — and it’s a necessary one for those using Pennsylvania’s Fine Wine and Good Spirits website to get their fill of libations. The state Liquor Control Board has randomized access to the site to control traffic and is filling an unspecified number of...
Pennsylvania reports 17 more coronavirus deaths as total cases top 24,000
Seventeen more people died from coronavirus in Pennsylvania, state health officials said Monday, and the total case count now tops 24,000. The death toll, which includes two new deaths in Allegheny County, stands at 524. Officials said one inmate from SCI-Phoenix in Montgomery County died. About 1,179 health care workers...
Pittsburgh man killed after motorcycle hits deer in New Kensington
A man was killed and a woman hurt Sunday night after the motorcycle they were on struck a deer in New Kensington, police Chief Bob Deringer said. The crash happened shortly after 9 p.m. on Route 366, Stevenson Boulevard. According to Deringer, a 49-year-old man from Pittsburgh was operating the...
Adapting: Coronavirus restrictions keeping beloved Excela volunteer from his roundsVideo
Editor’s note: Adapting is a regular series spotlighting the ways the coronavirus pandemic is changing the everyday lives of people in Western Pennsylvania. “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?” The line to Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” resonates these days...
Stay-at-home order has spurred increase in home renovation projects
Pennsylvania’s stay-at-home order has allowed Albert Trombi to devote more time to do-it-yourself projects around his Vandergrift home. “I can’t do anything else,” said Trombi, 72, who has built a deluxe woodshop above what a relative calls Trombi’s “Garage Mahal.” These days, Trombi is staying busy doing work such as...
