Valley News Dispatch category, Page 673
Police arrest man who claimed to see cougars in Vandergrift
A man is awaiting a preliminary hearing after he claimed to see two cougars nearby and then jumped over a lawn chair and charged police in Vandergrift. Police are accusing Justin John Crofutt, 37, of Ford City, of aggravated assault on an officer, resisting arrest and being under the influence...
Walnut Street in Springdale closed for emergency repairs
Walnut Street in Springdale is expected to be closed until Tuesday afternoon while crews make emergency repairs to part of the street. A portion of Walnut Street at the intersection with Porter Street was damaged after heavy rains Saturday caused water to get into a seam and lift and crack...
At-home collection of household hazardous waste offered in Tarentum
Tarentum residents are able to have a variety of household hazardous waste collected from their homes. The “At Your Door” collection program is offered as part of the borough’s garbage contract with Waste Management. The service is available year-round. Residents who arrange for a pickup will be sent a collection...
Springdale chief lauds officers for keeping community safe
Springdale police Chief George Polnar credits his officers and teamwork with keeping the borough safe. “We have great officers,” Polnar said in an interview with the Tribune-Review. “Obviously, in any organization, you’re not going to please everybody. But I think, by and large, our officers do a great job. People...
Alle-Kiski Valley volleyball guru struggles to rebuild flood-ravaged courts
It wasn’t just that someone lost a volleyball court in a flood. It was that one of the Alle-Kiski Valley’s winningest girls’ volleyball coaches, Tom Phillips, lost two sand courts complete with night lights in Buffalo Township where several thousand girls have trained and many adults played. After 29 years,...
Tarentum pharmacist follows in his father’s footsteps of helping peopleVideo
Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series that features Alle-Kiski Valley residents and the notable things that they do. Lifelong Tarentum resident Chuck Blackburn, a second-generation pharmacist, grew up with the desire to help people. “I feel like I spent my career responding to needs as they popped...
Andora offers historically modern dining in 2 locationsVideo
Dining at a former stagecoach stop, speakeasy, alleged brothel and hotel? Yes, please. The history’s all there at Andora Restaurant, tucked along a wooded residential section of Dorseyville Road in Indiana Township on the Fox Chapel border. Actually, there are two locations. An Ohio Township site opened 20 years ago....
West Deer welcomes carnival rides to this year’s Community Days
West Deer officials are gearing up for the township’s annual Community Days celebration. The two-day, free event will be held Aug. 2 and 3 at Bairdford Park. It will feature a parade, vendor booths, face painting, balloon animal artist and concessions, among other things. “One of the main reasons we...
Volunteers sought to work at Tarentum community garden
Some helping hands are needed at Tarentum’s community garden. The rain and warm weather has lead organizers to plan a “Garden Party” from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday at Tarentum’s Greg Blythe Friendship Garden. They plan to weed, plant, mulch and pick. “We have been fortunate that folks have...
Teens learn public safety through hands-on training, build ties with policeVideo
Fifteen-year-old Greta Mueller pulled her car over and sat still as two police cars stopped behind her flashing their red and blue emergency lights. “Driver in the vehicle, put your hands up,” a man said over a loudspeaker. Mueller complied. “Throw the keys out the window,” the man continued. Out...
Strap on your head lamp and ‘Race To The Moon’ along Kiski River
Roaring Run Watershed closes at dusk, but not on July 13. On this day, the darkness is when things get going. The seventh annual Roaring Run Race To The Moon 5K Run/Walk begins at 9 p.m. Held along the Kiski River in Apollo, it is a major fundraiser for the...
Rain can’t dampen spirits at New Kensington Fireworks Festival
Erika Plunkett remembers watching fireworks with her mother, Kathie Males, on her grandfather’s house boat. “It was always very near and dear to my mom’s heart,” Plunkett said. For many years, Males brought fireworks to all of New Kensington, until she died in 2014. Now, her daughter has taken over,...
Flooding follows storms, heavy rain in Westmoreland, Allegheny counties
Flooding followed heavy rain across parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties after storms moved through the region Saturday afternoon. The National Weather Service warned of the storm around 4 p.m. It contained heavy rain, frequent lightning and wind gusts up to 60 mph. Rainfall amounts of up to an inch...
3 hurt in 3-vehicle Allegheny Township crash
One person was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital and two others also were hurt in a three-vehicle crash Saturday in Allegheny Township. The crash happened around 10:45 a.m. at the intersection of routes 56 and 356. According to township police Sgt. Dan Uncapher, Daniel Hoffman, 50, of Vandergrift was taken...
4-vehicle wreck in Allegheny Township sends 5 to hospitalsVideo
Five people were rushed to hospitals after police said an SUV driver drove through a red light on Route 56 at Hyde Park Road in Allegheny Township about noon Friday. Township police said John Burkett, 68, of Indiana Hill Road in the township was driving alone on Route 56 toward...
Citizens group puts New Kensington’s Memorial Park on the mapVideo
It’s easier to find New Kensington’s Memorial Park now that a citizens group had a modern sign installed at the entrance. Officials from the New Ken/Arnold Social in the Park Committee, a volunteer group that unofficially adopted Memorial Park and Roosevelt Park in Arnold, said some Memorial Park users felt...
Single-lane closure planned for Route 28 southbound
Weather permitting, PennDOT crews will conduct survey work requiring a single-lane closure on Route 28 southbound Monday and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. between the Highland Park Bridge and Millvale, exit 3. The survey is for a future paving project, according to Steve Cowan, PennDOT spokesman. The survey...
Arnold-born William T. Eckersley’s WWII diary found; N.Y. man searching for kin
The day-to-day life of a World War II naval electrician from the Alle-Kiski Valley is documented in a diary a New York man found in a bookstore four years ago. The diary was kept by William T. Eckersley, who was born Oct. 19, 1927, in Arnold. Eckersley also lived in...
Robbery with fake guns at Vandergrift park results in 2 arrests
Two people are facing charges in connection with the robbery of a girl in Vandergrift’s Kennedy Park on Tuesday. Police say Tavon Rasheed Williams, 20, who was staying at a Linden Avenue residence in the borough, and a 17-year-old accomplice approached the victim in the park along Jackson Avenue about...
Highlands seeks new bids for clock tower restoration
Highlands School District is again seeking bids to restore the clock tower at the district’s elementary school in Tarentum. The school board rejected the two bids the district received in May for the masonry restoration at Highlands Elementary School, and approved re-bidding the project. A third bid had been rejected...
Buffalo Township woman hopes to break barriers in push to be Miss America
Tiffany Seitz was sure she’d never win Miss Pennsylvania. After all, the cards appeared to be stacked against her. She found out she’d be competing just six weeks before the competition when another contestant was forced to drop out because of a conflict with school. Having placed first runner-up in...
Vandergrift children’s garden much more than just digging in the dirt
Addison Uskuraitis, 11, is painstakingly pulling weeds around a raised bed filled with dinosaur kale. When asked if she would enjoy eating the kale, even served with bacon, she recoiled and responded with a hearty “No!” It’s the tomatoes growing in another part of the bed of this Vandergrift community...
50 years of neighborhood memories at Leechburg block partyVideo
Carol Meyer was a young mother 50 years ago. She’s a grandmother today. A constant over the last half-century — for her, her family and her Leechburg neighbors — has been the annual Fourth of July block party her family and four other families started in 1969. It’s been held...
Lower Burrell administrator named head of statewide municipal group
Lower Burrell City Administrator Amy Rockwell is the new president of the Association for Pennsylvania Municipal Management (APMM), a state-wide organization of professional managers for local and county governments. Rockwell, a city resident, will serve a three-year term. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for her and the City of Lower Burrell,”...
Gilpin couple find their guard donkey to be ‘a pet with a job’Video
Christina Myers of Gilpin received an unorthodox gift in 2017: a donkey. “I woke up on Mother’s Day and my husband Travis said, “Let’s get a donkey.” “I don’t have kids, but I’m mom to a donkey named Jack.” Jack, a 3-year-old gelded standard donkey, was specifically bought by the...
