Westmoreland category, Page 541
Westmoreland history tucked away in archives
The oldest documents kept by Westmoreland County show its burgeoning creation as well as its dark history. There are pieces missing from a tattered 1773 document, but the gist of it still gets through — Lt. Gov. Richard Penn appointed Arthur St. Clair recorder of deeds of the county. The...
PennDOT to close 86-mile stretch of Turnpike overnight Saturday
An 86-mile stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike will be closed in both directions late Saturday night into early Sunday morning, because of construction. Between 11 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday, construction crews will be working to remove the Country Ridge Road bridge, which carries traffic over the turnpike in...
Owner of fire-damaged apartment house in Greensburg hopes to rebuild
The owner of a Greensburg rental property damaged by a fire Friday afternoon said he is awaiting an insurance adjuster’s report to determine his next step. Standing outside his three-story house at 34 Grant St. on Saturday, John Toth said that insurance adjuster and a city inspector were at the...
Covid cases spiking rapidly in Pennsylvania and Allegheny, Westmoreland counties
The latest covid-19 spike that health officials have been warning about appears to have arrived in Pennsylvania. On Saturday, the state posted 4,213 new covid cases, the highest single-day tally since Feb. 7 (4,717). Over the past week, the seven-day average of new cases (2,888) has risen more than 16%....
Murrysville officials battle misperceptions about earned-income tax discussion
Murrysville officials are fighting a battle of perception — or in many cases, they say, misperception — regarding consideration of raising their share of the earned-income tax, a 1% levy split between the municipality and the Franklin Regional School District. The first misperception is that the school district and municipality...
Ellen Keefe to retire as head of Westmoreland Cleanways and Recycling
Ellen Keefe is preparing to retire as executive director of Westmoreland Cleanways and Recycling after 23 years of service with the nonprofit. Now that the organization has settled into its new recycling center near Pleasant Unity, in Unity Township, Keefe said, “It’s the right time for me to do it,...
In a battle to preserve history dating to 1770s, Westmoreland County running out of space
From British rule to the coronavirus, Westmoreland County government stores millions of paper records spanning more than two centuries of local history. Rows of boxes stacked to the ceiling hold government and court records dating to the time of King George III. They occupy thousands of square feet of warehouse...
Westmoreland Transit Authority gets free bus in need of a paint job
The Westmoreland Transit Authority got a free bus to add to its fleet — the only question is what kind of paint job it should have. The 30-foot diesel bus originally belonged to the Crawford Area Transportation Authority, where it was going unused. Crawford Area donated the bus to Westmoreland...
Murrysville native recruits fellow MIT students, others to battle social isolation among seniorsVideo
Bhav Jain, 19, of Murrysville knows how he felt during the early stages of covid, forced to return home from his freshman year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to learn from home. But even now, back in Boston to finish up his sophomore year, Jain is still thinking the...
No injuries in Greensburg apartment fire on Grant StreetVideo
Multiple fire departments from central Westmoreland County responded to a fire that damaged four apartments Friday afternoon in Greensburg, according to 911 dispatchers. “We had a lot of damage,” Greensburg Fire Chief Tom Bell said. “The homeowners are both alive and we got two cats out as well.” The call...
12 Westmoreland polling places moving, including longtime one in Wyano home
Editor’s note: This story was amended March 20, 2021 to reflect the correct municipality where the one remaining residential polling place is located. Twelve polling places are being moved to new locations in Westmoreland County for the May primary, including one that has been in a Wyano home since the...
Ruffs Dale bassoonist, 17, earns Friday Evening Music Club’s Gardner Scholarship
Until Walter Vinoski was 11, he couldn’t have told you what a bassoon even was. Now the 17-year-old Yough senior is the Friday Evening Music Club’s 2021 Mildred Gardner Scholarship Competition winner, earning $1,000 through this year’s virtual competition. He is a member of the Westmoreland Youth Symphony Orchestra and...
Westmoreland discount tire recycling event meant to help curb West Nile virus
Westmoreland Cleanways and Recycling is teaming with the Westmoreland Conservation District’s West Nile virus program to offer a discount on tire recycling. The program is meant to help clear away scrap tires before they collect water and become a potential warm-weather breeding ground for mosquitoes that can transmit the virus....
Ex-Greensburg attorney disbarred by Pennsylvania Supreme Court
A Greensburg attorney who admitted in 2019 to stealing nearly $50,000 from a fraternal organization has been disbarred by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The state’s highest court this week issued a two-sentence order barring Donald Blake Moreman, 60, who lives in Bullskin, Fayette County, from practicing law in the state....
Covid cases jump in Allegheny, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania
More covid cases were reported Friday in Allegheny County than at any point in the past 10 days, according to the most recent health department data. An additional 346 cases were announced Friday, bumping the county’s seven-day average up to 262. That’s the highest level for that metric since March...
2 people escape Southwest Greensburg house fire
Two Southwest Greensburg residents escaped injury early Friday after a smoke detector alerted them to a fire in a bedroom and they fled their house, according to firefighters. Multiple area departments responded to the fire on the 400 block of Oakland Avenue at 3:35 a.m., according to Southwest Greensburg fire...
Stage Right’s operetta a safe pandemic haven for veteran Greensburg actor
The cast of Stage Right’s “The Pirates of Penzance” includes an actor who has traded the bright lights of the big city — at least temporarily — for the safety of his home town. “I came back to Greensburg last March to do a show at Stage Right that, obviously,...
Petition to rename Route 981 after late state Rep. Mike Reese gains traction
An online petition to rename a state highway after the late state Rep. Mike Reese has rocketed towards it goal of 2,500 signatures in short order. Mt. Pleasant resident Nick Molitor created the petition on Change.org, where more than 2,200 people have already shown their support. He never met Reese,...
Voice of Westmoreland demands better covid vaccine plan in countyVideo
Members of the Voice of Westmoreland delivered a petition to county commissioners Thursday demanding a coronavirus vaccine registry and distribution sites in rural areas and for minority communities, among other concerns. The 375 signatures had been gathered since Saturday, said Bob Mason, a Trafford resident and member of the grassroots...
Female jogger in Murrysville claims man solicited her twice for sex
A Murrysville man was charged by police with stalking this week after a female jogger reported he twice approached her in recent months and solicited her for sex. Mark A. Loesch, 49, was charged via mailed summons with two counts each of stalking and criminal attempt to solicit prostitution by...
Westmoreland commissioners select in-state company to handle mail-in ballots
Westmoreland County commissioners on Thursday selected a Blair County company to handle printing and sending its mail-in ballots for the spring primary. Elections director JoAnn Sebastiani said she checked with officials in six regional counties that used NPC, Inc. during the general election and got a good response about the...
5,000 covid-19 vaccine appointments to open at 2 pharmacies in Penn Township and Indiana Co.
More than 5,000 appointments for the covid-19 vaccine will be available next week through two area Mainline Pharmacy Group locations. Bushy Run Pharmacy, in Penn Township, and Blairsville Pharmacy, in Indiana County, have appointments available for those who qualify in phase 1A of the state’s vaccination plan. This phase includes...
Last call: Hempfield’s Luxor fire department to permanently close this weekend
The Luxor Volunteer Fire Department station in Hempfield will close this weekend as officials merge with nearby Bovard Fire Department. Hempfield Fire Chief Tony Kovacic confirmed during Wednesday’s supervisors meeting that the station “will stop responding” to calls starting Saturday. Those calls will be covered by the Bovard and Hannastown...
Boosters donation funds new Norwin baseball scoreboard
Two years in the making, Norwin is getting a new scoreboard for its high school baseball field. Like so many things over the past 12 months, plans to install a new scoreboard at the high school field were postponed because of covid, said Ronald Awenowicz, president of the Norwin Baseball...
Cold snap kills several hundred fish in Unity’s Saint Vincent Lake, state says
Several hundred gizzard shad fish were found dead in Saint Vincent Lake this week, officials with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission confirmed. An officer from the Southwest Regional Law Enforcement office was notified Monday of the fish kill, according to Mike Parker, spokesman for the commission. Parker said the...
