Valley News Dispatch category, Page 681

Apollo-Ridge School Board approved a new, four-year contract with paraprofessionals and secretarial support staff that includes annual raises. The new agreement begins July 1 and lasts through June 30, 2023. Raises during the first year of the agreement range from $1.00 per hour to $3.05 per hour, depending on the...

UPDATE: Walker was found unharmed a few miles from his home about 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, 2019, officials said. Police plan to resume their search Wednesday morning for a missing man with dementia in Armstrong County. Paul Walker, 70, was last seen at his farm on Walker Road in...

Cheswick Council will hold a special meeting Wednesday. The meeting will discuss amending the police pension plan and any other business that may come up, according to a legal advertisement. Details of the pension plan amendment were not immediately available Tuesday. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at...

A phone call to the Childline abuse hotline led to sexual assault charges filed against a Vandergrift man, according to police arrest papers. Eric Jermain Emory, 32, of Holland street, is accused of sexually assaulting a Westmoreland County girl starting when she was in kindergarten. He is is charged with...

Cheswick Volunteer Fire Department is exploring whether a potential merger with neighboring departments could save money and improve services. “We don’t want to duplicate the services, duplicate the equipment,” said Nino Pollino, president of the Cheswick department. Cheswick has asked the state Department of Community and Economic Development to study...

A Lower Burrell councilman was found guilty of harassing his ex-fiancee after she said he continued to contact her after she and a police officer told him not to. Cecelia Sharrock testified in a Turtle Creek district court Tuesday that Joseph Grillo even went to the bank where she works...

Four Apollo-Ridge School District teachers have accepted an early-retirement offer the district made in an attempt to cut costs. The school board voted Monday to accept the retirements of technical education teacher Jeffrey Jones, math teacher John M. Simon, learning support teacher Kathleen Pryjmak and physical education teacher Jeremy Smail....

Allegheny Township officials are reminding drivers that a section of Markle Road will close Thursday because of a landslide. The road will be closed between Park Road and Pine Run Road, and remain closed until further notice. Traffic will be detoured. The marked detour uses Markle Road, White Cloud Road...

Audience participation is not only expected as Burrell High School presents “The Mystery of Edward Drood,” it’s required says Burrell musical director Martin Connolly. “The audience gets to vote and decide who the murderer is at the end of the show,” Connolly says. “And then based on that we will...

An Arnold man is accused of snatching an 89-year-old woman’s purse Monday morning moments after she cashed a $300 check at a Harmar bank. The suspect, Brandon Lee Crowe, 37, was arrested later in the day with the help of surveillance photos and information from witnesses, according to police. Harmar...

Freeport police say they used surveillance camera video to find a man accused of pointing a loaded pistol at two women and threatening to shoot them. The women said they saw a man, later identified by police as Michael Anthony Rivera, stumbling along a sidewalk on Fourth Street at Market...

A resident of the Springdale Manor high-rise fell asleep while smoking and caused a small fire in his apartment Monday morning, officials said. “Fortunately, the smoke detector woke him up and he dumped water on the fire in the carpet,” said Allegheny County Housing Authority police Sgt. Ed Mogus. Had...

A Vandergrift woman accused of killing her cousin will have her trial delayed at least four months. Ashley Croft, 35, is awaiting trial in connection with the Oct. 18 shooting death of John Edward Smail of Greensburg. Croft is charged with first-degree murder. She is being held in jail without...

The driver of a car that went off New Kensington’s Constitution Boulevard onto railroad tracks at least 15 feet below managed to get himself out of the overturned car safely after the wreck, according to police. New Kensington police Chief Bob Deringer said the driver, Ricky Burkett of Arnold, will...

An Arnold man told police he struck another man’s truck with a weighted golf club this month because the other man cut him off in traffic and slammed on his brakes in front of him, according to a criminal complaint. Theodore Clayton Volkar, 47, admitted that he got out of...

A West Deer man told authorities he ran from a two-vehicle crash in which he and three others were injured Sunday because he was wanted on a warrant, according to police. Now Travis Trenton Brewer, 30, faces nearly two dozen additional charges. Police suspect Brewer was high on heroin when...

The Western Reserve Insulator Club will showcase antique telegraph and electrical insulators at its 19th annual show April 6 in West Leechburg. The free public show will take place at the West Leechburg Fire Hall. The club will have a table of freebies to entice the public. “If you want...

Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series that features Alle-Kiski Valley people and the notable things they do. Melanie Bollinger has trained basketball and track and field champions for two decades. The Buffalo Township resident, along with her husband, Bo, and friend, Mary Smider, operate a Special Olympics...

Four people were injured Sunday after a two-car crash and short foot chase in East Deer. Officials said it appeared a man driving a red pickup truck crossed the center line in the 500 block of Freeport Road and crashed into a silver SUV just before 3 p.m. He then...

Five streets in Harmar will be paved as part of the township’s road program this summer. Supervisors awarded the contract to Youngblood Paving at a cost of $94,345. Pine Alley, Orr Avenue, Wenzel Drive, as well as the cul-de-sacs of the Shadow Ridge and Forest Highlands housing plans are included...