Valley News Dispatch category, Page 628
Vandergrift Community Watch provides Thanksgiving dinner to 40 families
Forty families in Vandergrift will have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner this week thanks to the town’s Community Watch and donations from community establishments. The Vandergrift Community Watch organized Thanksgiving packages for the families, complete with turkeys, potatoes, vegetables and more. In the four years his group has been putting on...
Leechburg adds part-time police officerVideo
Miranda Tasker is completing her second week as a part-time police officer in Leechburg. Tasker, 28, originally of Butler, also works as a part-timer in Allegheny Township and Vandergrift and serves as an Air Force Reserve security officer in Youngstown. Tasker is an Indiana University of Pennsylvania police academy graduate....
Harrison police arrest man, woman near township police station allegedly with cocaine; gun found near toddler
A Sheldon Park man accused of selling drugs close to the Harrison police station was found sitting on a couch with a loaded pistol under a seat cushion and a 1-year-old nearby, police said. According to an affidavit, no one answered the door when police serving an arrest warrant yelled...
Harmar again considers lowering property taxes for homeowners
For the third time in four years, the Harmar supervisors want to decrease real estate taxes for township homeowners. The tax cut would come in the form of homestead tax exemptions that reduce the assessed value of homes for tax purposes. Allegheny County offers homeowners an $18,000 decrease in the...
Plum School District capital improvement plans bolstered through Regency sale, bond refinancing
Plum School District officials sold Regency Park Elementary and refinanced four bonds to bolster capital improvement plans. School board members voted unanimously on both measures Tuesday night. “We’re not taking on any additional debt (for capital projects),” board member Steve Schlauch said. “We actually have a plan in place to...
Tarentum couple sell vegan-inspired apparel from their home
Dan and Deborah Angeloni considered themselves outsiders in the fashion industry until a misfit donned one of their designs. Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein, original guitarist for the punk rock group the Misfits, regularly wears a T-shirt featuring a cow’s head below the word Meatless, a vegan-inspired play on the band’s...
Volunteers spruce up Leechburg’s Riverfront ParkVideo
Leechburg’s Riverfront Park and its gazebo have gotten a facelift thanks to volunteers and donations from local organizations. “It came under disrepair, and we had a lot of people hanging around here that didn’t belong here, so we decided early in the summer to start working here,” Mayor Wayne Dobos...
The Stroller, Nov. 27, 2019: Events in the Alle-Kiski Valley
Butler Lions plan annual Christmas tree sale The annual Christmas tree sale sponsored by the Butler Lions Club will begin Friday at Trinity Lutheran Church, 120 Sunset Drive, Butler. Hours will be noon to 5 p.m. Friday. The sale schedule is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 1 to 5...
Customers flock to Glen’s Frozen Custard as season draws to closeVideo
Tuesday’s mild weather prompted many devoted followers of Glen’s Frozen Custard to race to stands in Springdale and Lower Burrell before they close for the season at 10 p.m. Wednesday. Many customers went to scoop up Glen’s traditional cones, while others went for seasonal favorites such as homemade pumpkin roll...
West Deer approves new hires, resignations
After nearly 40 years of working with West Deer, administrative assistant Cathy Sopko is retiring. Supervisors last week approved the hire of Sopko’s replacement, Jodi French, at a wage of $16.56 an hour. “I really enjoyed working with the township and working with the people here,” said Sopko, 65, of...
Father of New Kensington cop killer denied house arrest while awaiting trial
Gregory Baucum Jr. won’t have his bond lowered or be released from jail on house arrest while he awaits trial. Baucum, 49, is the father of convicted New Kensington cop killer Rahmael Sol Holt. Baucum is in the Westmoreland County Prison, awaiting trial on charges of threatening or intimidating witnesses...
Christmas events planned in the Alle-Kiski Valley
Apollo The Apollo Christmas Parade and Party will be from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Dec. 6 in the Apollo Plaza. The parade will begin at 6:30 p.m. and proceed down Pennsylvania Avenue and North Second street into the plaza. The Apollo-Ridge High School Chorus will sing and the Christmas tree...
Crash causes outage, delayed start for Highlands ElementaryVideo
Highlands School District issued a two-hour delay for its elementary school in Tarentum on Tuesday. According to the district, a crash late Monday evening caused a power outage. Power was to be restored by mid-morning Tuesday. The delay affected only elementary students and staff. HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY FAMILIES: Due to an...
The Stroller, Nov. 26, 2019: Events in the Alle-Kiski Valley
Boy Scouts to sell Christmas trees in Allegheny Township Boy Scout Troop 551 of Hyde Park is conducting its annual Christmas tree sale beginning Friday at Stanford Home Center, 1173 Route 356, Allegheny Township. Hours will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 4 to 8 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m....
Tarentum boy scores big with campaign to bring turkeys to needy familiesVideo
A Tarentum boy bothered by an unflattering description of hockey players decided to do something to prove them wrong. Wesley Westerman, 14, plays hockey for Highlands and the Vipers, a youth team in Lower Burrell. He attends cyber school through Highlands Middle School. He read an article and saw a...
Aspinwall author watches his novel jump from page to film
For Aspinwall’s Philip Beard, a punctuating moment in an 18-year journey came when he and his daughter watched actress Sadie Sink of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” shoot a scene in Kennywood Park for a movie based on his novel, “Dear Zoe.” “It’s surreal not only hearing my words coming from the...
Meadows off-track betting in Harmar robbed
A man claiming to have a gun forced an employee to open the cash room at The Meadows off-track betting facility in Harmar about a hour before the facility was scheduled to open at 11 a.m. Monday, police said. The man already was inside the locked building and surprised the...
New Kensington pushes back garbage pickup because of Thanksgiving
Friday garbage pickup in New Kensington has been pushed back a day, according to the city. The city said in a news release that garbage normally scheduled to be picked up on Friday would be picked up on Saturday instead because of the Thanksgiving holiday....
Thousands of miles apart, Oakmont brothers stay close through fishing
Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series that features Alle-Kiski Valley residents and the notable things they do. A love of fly fishing and a love of helping people thousands of miles away has bonded a pair of Oakmont brothers. Matt Geppert and his older brother, Sam, grew...
Highlands hopes to address deficiencies in grade school English, math and science
Highlands School District appears ready to go to work to remedy deficiencies from a state performance measure. Assistant Superintendent Cathleen Cubelic said the Pennsylvania Future Ready Index showed Highlands students are not meeting state averages in a number of categories. The three testing categories were: state assessment measures, on-track measures...
Allegheny Valley School District considers fortifying wall of Veterans Memorial Stadium
Allegheny Valley School District officials are considering fortifying the Lincoln Avenue wall of Veterans Memorial Stadium in Springdale. “It’s pretty evident that the wall is continuing to move,” Matt Pitsch of Senate Engineering told the school board last week. The large block wall of the stadium where the Springdale Junior- Senior...
Rite Aid gives former pharmacy building to Tarentum church
Cathy Blythe was driving past the shuttered Rite Aid on Corbet Street in Tarentum when, she says, God spoke to her. He told her to call the real estate agent selling the building. Blythe took over as pastor of Abundant Joy Fellowship in Tarentum after her husband, Greg Blythe, died...
The Stroller, Nov. 25, 2019: Events in the Alle-Kiski Valley
Stuff the Cruiser event set in Saxonburg Saxonburg Police Department will host a Stuff the Cruiser event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at South Butler County Library, 240 W. Main St., and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Saxonburg Coffee and Tea, 211 W. Main St., in...
Eccentric millionaire’s O’Hara mansion leaves lasting legacy as Bayernhof Music MuseumVideo
This isn’t your typical mansion-turned-museum. On high ground overlooking Sharpsburg and the Allegheny River in O’Hara sits the Bayernhof Music Museum, the former 19,000-square-foot residence of Pittsburgh millionaire Charles Boyd Brown III, known simply as “Chuck” to his friends. Often referred to as one of the area’s best-kept secrets, the...
Last call for electronic, hazardous household waste disposal in Cheswick
Cheswick residents can dispose of their electronic and hazardous household waste in the final of four special collections this year on Dec. 6. Residents have until 5 p.m. Monday to schedule a pickup by calling Vogel Disposal Service at 724-625-1511. Household items being collected include latex paint, automotive products, garden...
