Valley News Dispatch category, Page 686

Tarentum’s community garden has been renamed to honor a late pastor who helped create it five years ago. Formerly called Tarentum Friendship Garden, it has been renamed as Tarentum’s Greg Blythe Friendship Garden. Blythe, former pastor of Abundant Joy Fellowship, was one of the founders of the garden along First...

A Vandergrift man is accused of taking $600 and an iPhone from another man he allegedly beat up and threatened with a handgun early Saturday. Police said Javon Michael Thom Lambert, 19, then ran from officers who went to his house to arrest him later Saturday. He remained in the...

Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series that features Alle-Kiski Valley people and the notable things that they do. A sunny day is best to visit artist Bill Godfrey, as the golden rays pour into his studio to illuminate the lavender and canary walls, and a palette of...

A church is the perfect setting for this performance. Central Presbyterian Church in Tarentum presents its third concert for this season — “A Bassoon Runs Through It.” It’s set for 4 p.m. March 17 with the Academy Chamber Ensemble. The event will feature the music of Mozart, Beethoven and the...

Part of Brownshill Road in O’Hara will be closed Wednesday and Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., township engineer Chuck Steinert said. Brownshill Road will be closed between Dorseyville Road and Saxonburg Boulevard. The 2-day closure will allow installation of about 50-feet of sewer line, Steinert said. It’s part...

X marks the rot. Tarentum Council recently adopted a program to mark about a dozen unstable, vacant buildings in the borough with a red X to warn emergency personnel who might respond to a fire or other incident at the properties that they are structurally dangerous. “This isn’t the same...

Call it a coincidence or fate, but Walmart at the Pittsburgh Mills shopping complex has put what’s left of their Antonio Brown T-shirts in the clearance bin. The women’s T-shirts are going for just $1, but it seems that may still be too much for shoppers. A few passing by...

Tarentum Borough’s new auditor submitted a bid that is well below one filed by the long-time auditor and another CPA, officials say. Borough Manager Michael Nestico said Mark C. Turnley CPA’s bid was $10,500 to perform all of the the borough’s audits. That was more than $9,000 less than the...

In terms of dollars and cents, Penn State New Kensington contributed $28.7 million to the Pennsylvania economy and supported just under 400 jobs during the 2017 fiscal year, according to a study. But those numbers don’t begin to reflect the campus’ role in the Alle-Kiski Valley, according to Chancellor Kevin...

Lower Burrell is raising its sewer rates by 21 percent. The new rates will be reflected in customers’ quarterly bills, which will arrive in the next few weeks, according to city officials. The average customer currently pays $81.81 per quarter. The same customer will now pay $98.71 per quarter. That’s...

State police are seeking information about the death of a 40-year-old Manor Township woman. Alyssa Rene Claypool was found dead in her home early Saturday afternoon. Upon arrival, police found several used and unused stamp bags. Toxicology tests and an autopsy are scheduled to be conducted Sunday. Anyone with information...

Brackenridge is getting prepared to restore the vandalized memorial monument at its community park. First, however, council wants to see how much of the damage is covered by the borough’s insurance carrier. The veterans memorial was damaged by vandals with silver spray paint in mid-February. For now, a group of...

An inaugural crafts and vendors festival held Saturday, March 9 in a Leechburg church is good clean fun with a serious purpose. All money raised at the festival, held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., will be donated to the Apollo Relay for Life anti-cancer program. Four Lutheran churches put...

A state grant will pay for repaving a number of Vandergrift streets this year. Vandergrift Council recently awarded a paving contract to A. Liberoni Inc. of Plum. Their price is a little more than $180,000. It was the lowest of nine bids received. According to the contract, 10 streets will...

A $328,000 state grant to a Penn State New Kensington collaborative with 14 Alle-Kiski Valley school districts will pay for teacher education and learning modules for students to take on computer coding and other technologies. The grant is part of $30 million awarded by Gov. Tom Wolf’s PAsmart, which is...

The Kiski Watershed Association will participate in the Great American Cleanup with a cleanup event at the West Leechburg Wildflower Preserve from 9 a.m. to noon March 23. Volunteers are needed and should wear boots, gloves and clothes that can get dirty. Registration is not necessary. The Keep America Beautiful/Great...

Separate projects along Route 28 will restrict traffic for several months in most of the stretch from Harrison to around the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer. The larger of the two projects is the completion of a $34 million project started last year. That work covers a seven-mile stretch of...

Lower Burrell’s new solicitor appears to be charging about half as much as the city’s former solicitor, but the former solicitor questions whether the city will wind up paying half as much. City council voted this month to part ways with its longtime solicitor, Stephen Yakopec Jr. It then hired...

The Highland Hose Volunteer Fire Company kicked off the 2019 fish fry season on Ash Wednesday. Like many volunteer fire departments, churches and service organizations, Highland Hose serves fried fish throughout the Lenten season as a way of raising funds as well as bringing the community together....

A Harrison man was arrested this week after police say he assaulted another man because he was singing Christmas songs in the car. According to court documents, Clayton Lucas, 25, of Eisenhower Drive told police he began to choke a man who was driving the car because the driver was...

Lawyers for John Kunco, the former Harrison man who served nearly three decades behind bars for the rape of a New Kensington woman, wants a judge to dismiss the case. In court motions filed Thursday, lawyers contend missing evidence and the loss of testimony through the deaths of the alleged...

Kiski Township police are investigating two fraudulent withdrawal attempts from North Apollo Borough’s bank account in February. According to borough council, someone tried to withdraw $4,200 from the borough’s Apollo Trust Bank account on Feb. 12 and another $5,000 on Feb. 26. An unauthorized person tried to convey the money...

A Deer Lakes School District principal is being recognized for her efforts to make sure students are eating a healthy breakfast every day. Jennifer Cavalancia, principal at Curtisville Primary Center, was named as a 2019 Pennsylvania School Breakfast Hero, sponsored by the No Kid Hungry campaign. Cavalancia said in a...