Valley News Dispatch category, Page 706
Distinguished Service Cross recipient Stevon Booker ’embodied Army values’Video
Army Staff Sgt. Stevon Booker didn’t have to climb out of his tank on April 5, 2003, but his unit was under heavy fire near Baghdad and he refused to hunker down. Booker, then a 34-year-old commander of the M1A1 tank, climbed up to fire a .50-caliber machine gun mounted...
Vandergrift council candidates to hold meet-and-greet
Three Vandergrift council candidates will hold meet-and-greet at 6:30 p.m., March 15, at the Center on Franklin Avenue, 262 Franklin Avenue. Three council seats are up for election this year. They are four-year terms currently held by Kathy Chvala, Vernon E. Sciullo and James Rametta, according to the Westmoreland County...
Crime trends presentation to highlight Vandergrift Community Watch meeting
A presentation at the new Center on Franklin Avenue will highlight the Vandergrift Community Watch meeting at 7 p.m., Thursday, in the borough building. The meeting will include a presentation on crime trends by Vandergrift Police Officer Joseph Gray. The meeting is a time for the community to air any...
Freeport Borough to fill council vacancy
Freeport Borough’s vacancy board will meet Mondayto replace a council member who has resigned. Melanie Zembrzuski resigned at the start of February, borough clerk Carol Crytzer said Monday. Zembrzuski had been the chairwoman of the public safety committee and a member of the personnel and parks and recreation committees. She...
Tarentum’s community garden renamed to honor the Rev. Greg Blythe
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...
Police: Vandergrift man robs, beats up man for $600, iPhone
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...
Natrona resident Bill Godfrey creates art, community
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...
The Academy Chamber Ensemble to perform at Central Presbyterian Church
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...
O’Hara’s Brownshill Road to close on Wednesday, Thursday
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...
Tarentum to mark unstable, vacant buildings with a red X
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...
Lower Burrell man offering to sell a custom-built tiny houseVideo
If you give him a call, Gary Ross will show you around a house he’s selling. It won’t take long. Ross, 67, of Lower Burrell is selling his custom-built tiny house on wheels. The new home has 224 square feet of interior space. It’s built on a B-V trailer and...
Antonio Brown T-shirts go for $1 at Pittsburgh Mills Walmart
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...
New Brighton CPA will do Tarentum Borough audits
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...
Study shows Penn State New Kensington contributes about $28.7 million to A-K Valley’s economy
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 homeowners will soon pay about 20 percent more in sewage fees
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...
Western Pennsylvania police departments, part-time officers stretched thinVideo
Nick Bartoszewicz routinely finds himself working around the clock as a part-time police officer. Last Wednesday, Bartoszewicz, 26, started an eight-hour shift with the West Deer Police Department at 8 a.m. After going home for dinner and a few hours of sleep, he was back on the clock by 11...
Police seeking information in death of Manor Township woman
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 preparing to repair damaged memorial, but wants insurance info first
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...
4 Leechburg area churches held crafts, vendors festival for cancer research
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...
Vandergrift awards contract for more than $180,000 to repave borough streets
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...
$330K Penn State New Ken grant will train Alle-Kiski Valley teachers tech skills
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...
Great American Cleanup event planned in West Leechburg
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...
PennDOT: Route 28 lane restrictions from East Deer through Harrison to resume Monday
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 former solicitor questions city’s savings with new firm
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...
Highland Hose fish fry kicks off Lent
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....
