Valley News Dispatch category, Page 554

Sgt. Michael Ropelewski has some good stories about his 42-year tenure with the Harrison Township Police Department. Once, he said, a man approached him while he was having dinner with his son at a local pizza shop. The man thanked Ropelewski for arresting him a few years before. He said...

A Lower Burrell nursing home is being used by its parent company to house and treat covid-19 patients. In a statement issued Sunday, Guardian Elder Care confirmed it is using Belair Healthcare & Rehabilitation on Little Drive as a dedicated covid-19 recovery unit. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health,...

Is your non-profit organization going to have a fundraiser? Send information to The Stroller at least a week in advance to vndnews@tribweb.com or The Stroller, Valley News Dispatch, 210 Wood St., Tarentum PA 15084. Please include a daytime telephone number. Casino Theatre seeking donations The Casino Theater in Vandergrift is...

Allegheny Valley School Board will hold a special meeting Tuesday to discuss the district’s health and safety plan for reopening schools. The meeting is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at Acmetonia Elementary School in Harmar. Residents can attend the meeting in person, listen in on their phone or watch...

Follow @VNDStroller on Twitter for a daily link to The Stroller. Concordia Ministries to hold Kids’ Fishing Day Concordia Lutheran Ministries will host the last of three Kids’ Fishing Days for children 14 and younger from 8 to 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 1 at Saxony...

A firefighter was taken to a hospital for possible heat exhaustion Friday after battling a fire at the Cheswick Generating Station in Springdale. Multiple fire and EMS companies responded to the plant along the 100 block of Porter Street around 5:40 p.m. Springdale fire Chief Kevin Wilhelm said insulation on...

Speed was a probable cause of a fatal crash that killed a 26-year-old Gilpin Township man Tuesday night, police said. Christian Joshua Cuffia died after losing control of his car on Ice Pond Road, near Shearer Road around 7:30 p.m. The car traveled about 80 feet off the road before...

For 19 years, Christa Beck has encouraged local children to move with the music at her Kindermusik program. A pandemic wasn’t going to stop that. Beck described Kindermusik as “interactive music and movement classes that focus on whole-child development using music.” She feels strongly that children need such programs —...

Is your non-profit organization going to have a fundraiser? Send information to The Stroller at least a week in advance to vndnews@tribweb.com or The Stroller, Valley News Dispatch, 210 Wood St., Tarentum PA 15084. Please include a daytime telephone number. Knead Community Café accepting donations Knead Community Café, New Kensington,...

An Arnold man originally accused of raping a woman in 2017 pleaded guilty Thursday to a lesser, misdemeanor offense. Westmoreland County prosecutors dismissed felony charges of rape, sexual assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse as well as misdemeanor counts of indecent assault Anthony Chico, 34, in connection with an alleged...

A New Kensington man who police said drove the vehicle from which convicted cop killer Rahmael Holt ran before fatally shooting a city officer wants police to return $2,500 they seized from him. A Westmoreland County judge on Thursday said he will conduct a hearing to reconsider the request from...

Springdale Township canceled its summer concert series because of the covid-19 pandemic, but officials still wanted to give residents something fun. So why not a free television? The township is getting ready to give away 50-inch televisions to residents on Aug. 3 and Sept. 1. Residents don’t have to enter...

In the summer of 2021, Pittsburgh tech company Astrobotic plans to launch an unmanned lunar landing mission after being awarded a contract by NASA. But before that can happen, someone needs to make sure all of the lander’s systems are functioning correctly and working in concert with one another. That’s...

The lawyer for an Arnold man accused of killing a 16-year-old girl in the city in 2016 said she needs more time to prepare for a hearing to argue for the pretrial release of her client who claims he has been in jail too long. Cashaan Williams, 21, appeared Wednesday...

Is your non-profit organization going to have a fundraiser? Send information to The Stroller at least a week in advance to vndnews@tribweb.com or The Stroller, Valley News Dispatch, 210 Wood St., Tarentum PA 15084. Please include a daytime telephone number. Women’s golf outing scheduled Aug. 11 A women’s golf outing...

On the heels of a unity rally earlier this summer, Lower Valley communities are banding together to stand against racism with a T-shirt fundraiser. Hosted by Aspinwall Neighborhood Watch (ANW) and Fox Chapel Area Residents for Social Justice, the sale of T-shirts and stickers will benefit the fight for equality....

About $12.25 million will be coming to Westmoreland County for wastewater and stormwater projects, the state announced Wednesday. The Western Westmoreland Municipal Authority and the City of Arnold got loans for wastewater projects, while Penn Township received a loan for a stormwater project. The money was part of $66 million...

Vandergrift’s Artfest was supposed to be a healing experience. The theme, “Take Your Broken Heart, Turn it to Art,” was focused on wellness and mental health. “When we chose that theme, we really just had no idea how our lives would be fractured so badly over the last few months,”...

Is your non-profit organization going to have a fundraiser? Send information to The Stroller at least a week in advance to vndnews@tribweb.com or The Stroller, Valley News Dispatch, 210 Wood St., Tarentum PA 15084. Please include a daytime telephone number. Toy collection scheduled for Toys for Tots Lower Valley Ambulance...

A 26-year-old Leechburg man died Tuesday night after crashing the vehicle he was driving into a tree in Gilpin, according to the Armstrong County Coroner’s Office. Christian Joshua Cuffia lost control of his car on Ice Pond Road, near Shearer Road, around 7:20 p.m. The car traveled about 80 feet...

Some things don’t change in a small town, and, apparently, baseball is one of them in Freeport. Players and fans on Tuesday dodged raindrops and assembled at James E. Swartz Sr. Memorial Field for the opening day of the 26th annual Freeport International Baseball Invitational. About 23 scholastic-age teams from...

PennDOT plans to close the Tarentum Bridge for several weekends while preservation work is being done. The work is scheduled to start in the fall, stop for the winter, continue in the spring and be finished next summer, PennDOT spokesman Steve Cowan said Tuesday. About 30,000 vehicles cross the bridge...

Deer Lakes School District will offer in-person instruction as well as fully online classes when students return for the 2020-21 school year on Aug. 26, officials said. “Please know that we continue to plan for adaptation and change, not perfection, because of the constantly changing situations surrounding the spread of...