Valley News Dispatch category, Page 675
Double your elk-watching: Murrysville company sets up live webcam in Benezette
The Murrysville man who set up the Pittsburgh eagle webcam now has a live webcam with two cameras in Benezette capturing all of the excitement of the bull elk in rut. Elk in Pennsylvania were wiped out by the late 1870s. But the Pennsylvania Game Commission re-introduced elk from the...
Health department investigates complaints about white dust in Harrison
The Allegheny County Health Department is investigating complaints about a white dust in parts of Harrison. The department has received at least five complaints since the beginning of August, according to Jim Kelly, deputy director of environmental health. Opal Court residents have complained about white dust being found on cars...
Brackenridge tries more ways to go after delinquent taxes, blight
Brackenridge Council has compiled a list of properties to keep track of tax delinquents and deteriorated structures. Council decided in the spring to survey borough and Allegheny County records to catalog properties that are vacant and dilapidated in response to residents’ complaints about blight. The list will serve as a...
Men found dead in Arnold home remembered as good neighborsVideo
Officials on Monday identified two men found dead in an Arnold house on Friday. Michael Joseph Hans, 42, and Paul Anthony Mistrick III, 64, both of Arnold, were found inside Mistrick’s Fifth Avenue residence, officials said. Autopsies were done Saturday. Westmoreland County Deputy Coroner Sean R. Hribel said he could...
Wooden Door Winery offers historic escape in VandergriftVideo
A local couple poured their passion for wine making into a year-round winery. Winemakers Jeff and Krissy Pollick of Allegheny Township opened their first winery, Wooden Door Winery, in 2010. Their most recent location, along Custer Avenue in Vandergrift, goes by the same name and is housed in a restored...
Belvedere Hotel’s remnants set to be demolishedVideo
All it will take is about 45 truckloads to remove what is left of the 115-year-old Belvedere Hotel in Oklahoma Borough. Demolition starts Wednesday and is expected to last until Sept. 30, closing Orr Avenue from Route 66 to Hancock Avenue. The 11,000 motorists who travel Route 66 will not...
Harrison woman’s love for animals leads to longtime stint as shelter volunteer
Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series that features Alle-Kiski Valley residents and the notable things that they do. A lifelong Harrison resident’s passion for pets has led to decades of volunteerism at the preeminent animal shelter in Alle-Kiski Valley. Jeanne Lessig is enjoying her 20th year at...
New Allusion microbrewery to open in Vandergrift early next year
It took years to perfect a much needed new brew for Vandergrift: Allusion Brewing Company has bought a building at 143 Grant Ave. with plans to open a microbrewery and tap room early next year. Allusion closed on the building last week, buying it for about $15,000 from the Vandergrift...
Fall comes early with Summit Hose festival in Tarentum
The first day of autumn isn’t until later in September, but kids are back in school, the Steelers are on the field again, and the days are getting shorter — close enough for Summit Hose to hold its annual Fall Festival in Tarentum. Until last year, the festival was held...
Residents use hands, feet to decorate new sign for Tarentum community garden
From making ears of corn with their hands and pea pods with their thumbs, members of Abundant Joy Fellowship and the Alle-Kiski community came together Sunday to make their mark on the new sign for Tarentum’s Greg Blythe Friendship Garden. The effort was led by Blythe’s niece, Emily Whitco, who...
First Highlands High School class gathering for 50th reunion this month
The first graduating class of Highlands High School has gathered for a reunion every five years. This year marks a milestone, as the members of that charter class from 1969 come together for their 50th reunion. “We have a lot of surprises planned,” said Debbie Cordera, a member of the...
Cats rescued from New Kensington home could be ready for adoption soonVideo
Most of the cats rescued from a New Kensington house last month where their owner died will be ready for adoption in a couple of weeks, a manager at Frankie’s Friends Cat Rescue said. New Kensington police are investigating what happened to the woman found dead Aug. 8 in her...
Wrestlers take down drainage problems at Lower Burrell’s Kotecki Park
Sometimes there are not-so-glamorous aspects of beauty that make ethereal places such as parks special. But mud and drainage issues can dash anyone’s dreams for a public space. Such was the case in planning for a dog park at Kotecki Park in Lower Burrell, where planning and the brawn of...
Man wounded in Brackenridge shooting
A man was shot and wounded in Brackenridge on Saturday afternoon, police said. The shooting was reported at 5:13 p.m. at a home on Third Avenue. A neighbor who lives two houses down and declined to give her name said she heard a gunshot, ran to her door and heard...
Saxonburg arts festival brings out tens of thousands to quaint townVideo
Spotty clouds and a few drops of rain did little to deter the crowds at the Saxonburg Festival of Arts on Saturday. The weekend event, in its 34th year, usually draws between 20,000 and 30,000 people over two days, according to Hannah Shannon, volunteer coordinator. The festival continues Sunday from...
Music of West Deer’s John Vento inspires play
The music inspired the play. Songs written by John Vento, a Penn Hills native who lives in West Deer, for the album “Love. Lust. And Other Wreckage,” became the foundation for a stage production written by Pittsburgh playwright Amy Hartman. Hartman’s previous plays have been nominated for the American Critic’s...
Burrell High graduates rode out Dorian, ‘made the best of it’
An Alle-Kiski Valley family that relocated to the North Carolina coast weathered Hurricane Dorian without much trouble. Erika Fitch said there wasn’t any damage to her parents’ home in Topsail, about 30 miles north of Wilmington. Fitch, from Upper Burrell, and her fiance, Patrick, from Lower Burrell, both 25, moved...
No injuries in Lower Burrell basement fire
Officials said no one was injured in a basement fire that broke out in a Lower Burrell home Friday afternoon. The fire at 155 Craigdell Road was reported around 12:30 p.m. Firefighters rescued two dogs and two exotic birds. Officials said no one was home when smoke filled the residence...
Arnold police find 2 bodies in Fifth Avenue home
Arnold police and Westmoreland County detectives are investigating the discovery Friday afternoon of two bodies inside a home on the city’s Fifth Avenue. The bodies of two men were found inside 1531 Fifth Ave. around 1 p.m., according to officials at the scene. Police did not immediately comment on the...
Hyde Park man sentenced to 8-20 years in sex assault of teenage girl
A Hyde Park man was sentenced Friday to 8 to 20 years in state prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. Larry Lee Redmond, 40, must register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law. Redmond was convicted in June of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault,...
5 things to do in Westmoreland this weekend: Sept. 6-8Video
TGIF! You’ve felt it, too. It’s that slight chill in the morning, the rustle of the leaves … fall is in the air. The nights are cooler, but the days still spectacular. Soak it all in and get out and enjoy this weekend. Rockin` in the park Jocelyn and Chris...
Leechburg Area, teachers have tentative contract agreement
Leechburg Area School District and its teachers union have a new, tentative contract. Both the district and the union still have to formally approve the proposed five-year deal for the district’s 63 teachers, but Superintendent Tiffany Nix said negotiators for both sides OK’d it. If approved, the so-called “early bird”...
Question of turf at Allegheny Valley soccer field draws residents’ ire
Some Allegheny Valley School District residents say the district’s soccer field is in bad shape and should be converted to artificial turf. But they don’t want to do it just so a private soccer club can play there. The comments came during a special school board meeting Thursday afternoon, during...
3 men arrested in $20K drug bust in New Kensington
Three men are behind bars on drug charges after police said they found about $20,000 worth of ecstasy, cocaine and methamphetamine hidden inside a home in the Mt. Vernon section of New Kensington. Andre Butler, 34, and Shawn Taylor, 47, both of Pittsburgh, and Dennis Corbett, 33, of New Kensington,...
Police: DNA evidence helped ID man who tunneled into Leechburg bank
DNA evidence helped police identify a man who they said made off with nearly $1,400 last year after tunneling into a Leechburg bank, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday. Carlin Mitchell Quinn, 27, of West Leechburg, is accused of stealing $1,371 from First Commonwealth Bank at 152 Main St....
