Westmoreland category, Page 68
Mt. Pleasant drunk driver sentenced to jail term for 2020 crash that injured 2 pedestrians
Vincent Polito’s life was changed forever when he was struck by a drunk driver along the side of a Mt. Pleasant road nearly five years ago. Polito, 23, now requires around-the-clock care as a result physical and cognitive injuries sustained when a vehicle driven by 35-year-old Elizabeth Sirianni hit him...
Westmoreland cultural groups, nonprofits will seek crucial helpers at volunteer fair
It can take as many as 150 volunteers to help run the midsummer Westmoreland County Arts and Heritage Festival, and Executive Director Diane Shrader is looking to sign up some of those unpaid workers at a Friday event in Greensburg. The festival is one of more than two dozen organizations...
Bridge beams to be placed as work progresses on revamp of I-70/Route 51 interchange
Reconfiguration of the Interstate 70 interchange with Route 51 is scheduled to reach a new milestone in the days ahead as work advances on construction of the second of a pair of bridges that will carry Route 51 over the interstate. Dominec Caruso, assistant construction engineer for PennDOT District 12,...
Trooper Iwaniec Race targets drunken driving for 16th year, virtually and in Unity
Organizers of the annual Trooper Kenton Iwaniec Memorial Race at Saint Vincent College hope to raise $100,000 through this year’s April 12 event. That’s enough to purchase 200 breathalyzers — to help law enforcement agencies crack down on those who get behind the wheel while drunk in Pennsylvania. The family...
Westmoreland commissioners quickly fill vacant HR director’s post
Westmoreland County commissioners on Monday named Amanda Bernard as the county’s new director of human resources, starting April 28. It’s a return engagement for Bernard. She served in the position for about two years before she left for another job in 2020 and was replaced by Alexis Bevan, who formally...
FirstEnergy lays off 75 in Pennsylvania; 350 companywide
Electric utility owner FirstEnergy Corp., parent company of Greensburg’s West Penn Power Co., said Monday it has laid off about 75 employees in Pennsylvania. The layoffs are part of a corporate-wide restructuring impacting 350 of its employees. About 75 FirstEnergy workers throughout the state lost their jobs as the company...
Hotel room search leads to $13,000 drug bust in Hempfield
A North Versailles man is awaiting arraignment in connection with a drug bust at a Hempfield hotel, according to the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office. Charges were filed Friday against Brandon Patrick Lewis, 30. County detectives and sheriff’s deputies worked with the Westmoreland County Drug Task Force and agents from...
Solar projects go commercial — growth up, power costs down
A fire hall in downtown Greensburg is going solar this year with rooftop panels to generate electricity, which the city fire chief says will save money on energy costs. “It will be a substantial amount of savings for Hose Company No. 2, and it will generate an excess amount of...
One for the record books? Game commission measures antlers statewideVideo
If a hunter bags just about any big game animal in Pennsylvania, game warden Zach Hay can take its measurements to see if it qualifies for the state’s record book. “I just want to see if this is bigger than the last one I got scored in 2013,” said Dave...
Hempfield plans new museum for volunteer fire stations
Hempfield is planning to establish a committee that will be tasked with the creation of a museum for the township’s volunteer fire stations. Township Supervisor Doug Weimer made the suggestion last week as he and fellow supervisors unanimously approved a declaration of intent with Grapeville for the station to become...
Luxury personal care home set to open in Unity may be most expensive in Westmoreland County
A personal care home opening in Unity may have the most luxurious — and expensive — suites in Westmoreland County. April 1 will mark the debut of The Fountains at Latrobe, after about 10 months of construction and interior preparations. The Fountains’ flat monthly fee for a standard suite begins...
Interest in online learning, cyber charters increase in wake of covid pandemic
As the covid-19 pandemic eased and Canon-McMillan School District reopened its doors in August 2021, elementary student Camille Postlewaite told her parents she did not want to return to in-person classes. “That was what she wanted to do, and we’re not big on, ‘Well, you’re going to do it this...
From technology to learning loss to mental health, covid’s impact on education still felt today
Wayne Walters can still recall the enormous logistical challenge of handing out thousands of paper packets of classwork to Pittsburgh Public Schools students in 2020. The covid-19 pandemic had taken hold in the region. Schools closed buildings, students were left to learn online, and educators scrambled over how best to...
IUP reaches deal with Torrance hospital for clinical training, addressing crisis in rural health care
Four years from now, there could be a dozen or so students from Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s medical school doing some of their clincal training at Torrance State Hospital near Blairsville. The experiences these IUP students from the proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine would face at the state hospital in...
Norwin Elks host annual Vietnam Veterans Luncheon
Robert and Joseph Tanyer weren’t even legally allowed to drink yet when the two brothers from Jeannette signed up for the Army and shipped out to Vietnam in the late 1960s. “I turned 21 while I was over there,” Joseph Tanyer said. “I didn’t think too much about it. I...
Pike County man to serve up to 23 months in jail for 2020 sexual assault
A Northeastern Pennsylvania man was taken out of a Westmoreland County courtroom in handcuffs Friday after being handed a jail sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage girl five years ago. Judge Christopher Feliciani sentenced David Stone, 62, of Dingmans Ferry in Pike County, to six to 23 months in the...
Hempfield officials make plans to spend $7.5M surplus
Hempfield officials are reallocating $7.5 million in surplus funds after higher than expected revenues in recent years. Township supervisors this week approved a plan to use the money to buy public works equipment, pay off fire trucks and foot the bill for a second road paving project, among other priorities....
Derry’s former Porcelain Park could be revamped as new commercial space
Brian Lawrence can see a light at the end of the tunnel when he looks over the 19 acres of empty land in Derry once known as Porcelain Park. Decades ago, 200 people came there to work for the borough’s main employer, a plant that produced ceramic insulators. If the...
Hempfield Area students hold a 12-hour Mini-THON to aid pediatric cancer patients
Nearly 260 of Hempfield Area School District’s juniors and seniors participated in a 12-hour, no-sitting Mini-THON Friday, a high school version of the popular Penn State THON fundraiser. This is the third year that the local district has held a fundraiser for Four Diamonds, the charity at Penn State Health...
Latrobe man convicted in stepbrother’s drug overdose death gets second chance from court
A prosecutor, a defense attorney and a judge worked together Friday to fashion a sentence that they hope will help a man who has struggled with a drug addiction — which led to the death of his stepbrother — get a second chance. Stephen A. Piper could have been sentenced...
Monessen man receives prison sentence for stabbing attack
A Monessen man was sentenced Friday to state prison for stabbing a man at an apartment complex where they lived in 2023. The victim of the attack declined to testify during the sentencing hearing for Robert W. Varner, 62, but the fact that he didn’t waive a mandatory two- to...
2 men sentenced in robbery of vape cartridges
Two men were sentenced to two years less one day on probation Friday for their roles in what police said was a robbery of $5,000 worth of vape cartridges. James Walter Ryan, 23, of Penn Township, and Kasean Lamar Dillard, 21, of Pittsburgh, both previously pleaded guilty to lesser charges...
Girls flag football: From high schools and colleges to the Olympics
Mackenzie Livingston played basketball in college, but if flag football had been an option, things might have been different. The nonstop action is something that has always drawn her to the game. “You are constantly doing something — pulling flags or going out for routes — it’s always something,” said...
Police suspect deaths of Crabtree couple were murder-suicide
State police believe two deaths stemming from a shooting in Crabtree nearly a year ago were the result of a murder-suicide. In a report issued Thursday, troopers identified Marie Southern, 61, as the victim. She was found wandering on Brown Lane in early April and appeared confused, troopers said. It...
A bird in the hand, and potentially in 22 nest boxes, leads Ligonier teen to Eagle Scout title
Oliver Sparks’ Eagle Scout project is for the birds — literally. The Ligonier Valley High School senior recently attained the top Scouting rank by updating and augmenting boxes that support nesting by various bird species at the Powdermill Nature Reserve’s Avian Research Center in Ligonier Township. “There were bird boxes...
