Valley News Dispatch category, Page 680

No injuries were reported as a small electrical fire disrupted track practice Wednesday afternoon at Plum High School. Unity firefighters said they were dispatched around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday for a fire in the school’s upper gymnasium. A short burst of flames was seen from one of the ceiling lights. It...

A motorcycle passenger was taken to a hospital Wednesday evening after a crash in Fawn Township, state police said. Dispatchers received a report at 6:20 p.m. of the crash along Route 908 at Lardintown Road. A trooper alleges Frank Novosel, 65, of Tarentum, failed to stop at a stop sign...

An Armstrong County man who had been missing for more than 24 hours was found unharmed Wednesday in the woods a few miles from his home, officials said. Officials confirmed they found Paul Walker sleeping on the ground in the brush shortly before 5 p.m., Trib news partner WPXI-TV reports....

The attorney for a Pittsburgh Mills mall store owner charged with selling counterfeit merchandise has accused a former Frazer police officer of lying in a search warrant that ultimately lead to the criminal proceedings against his client. Attorney Casey White again asked a judge to throw out the charge against...

Firefighters from multiple departments were responding to a barn fire in Washington Township Wednesday afternoon, the Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety reported. Several tankers were dispatched to the fire at 260 Echo Ridge Road. It was reported at 3:40 p.m. Additional details were not immediately available....

A Bell Township man was flown to a local hospital with severe burns suffered in a brush fire outside his home Wednesday afternoon. The brush fire was reported just before 2:40 p.m. in the 300 block of Bell Point Road, according to a Westmoreland County 911 dispatch supervisor. Fire Chief...

Lower Burrell Councilman Joseph Grillo denies claims that he harassed his ex-fiancee. Grillo accused Cecelia Sharrock of making false statements before a Turtle Creek district judge as well as in a private criminal complaint she filed against him on charges of harassment and defiant trespass. “I feel that I will...

The Upper Allegheny Joint Sanitary Authority’s member municipalities have made progress with their state-mandated sewer improvement projects, but officials say there’s still work to be done. The communities received status reports at an authority meeting last week on what still needs to be done to satisfy the state Department of...

The school year just got a little longer for Fox Chapel Area School District students. School board members approved tacking on two days of classes for students in kindergarten through 11th grade. The last day of school will be Tuesday, June 11. Classes were to end on Friday, June 7,...

Traffic along Hite Road in Springdale and Harmar townships will be reduced to a single lane in each direction beginning Monday as crews make preparations for a bridge repair project near ramps to and from Route 28, PennDOT said. The lane restrictions will start at 8 a.m. and continue around...

Freeport officials likely won’t have much sympathy if the contractor on a borough sewer project asks for more time to complete work. That’s because no work has been done on the first phase of the project even though it was supposed to have started in October. “They moved in their...

The heart of a Jefferson Township native who died Saturday in a crash along a Tennessee highway will go to a 10-year-old. Sarah Kasunic, 23, was an organ donor, according to information shared in a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for her funeral. The fundraising effort had taken in almost...

Apollo-Ridge School Board approved a new, four-year contract with paraprofessionals and secretarial support staff that includes annual raises. The new agreement begins July 1 and lasts through June 30, 2023. Raises during the first year of the agreement range from $1.00 per hour to $3.05 per hour, depending on the...

UPDATE: Walker was found unharmed a few miles from his home about 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, 2019, officials said. Police plan to resume their search Wednesday morning for a missing man with dementia in Armstrong County. Paul Walker, 70, was last seen at his farm on Walker Road in...

Cheswick Council will hold a special meeting Wednesday. The meeting will discuss amending the police pension plan and any other business that may come up, according to a legal advertisement. Details of the pension plan amendment were not immediately available Tuesday. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at...

A phone call to the Childline abuse hotline led to sexual assault charges filed against a Vandergrift man, according to police arrest papers. Eric Jermain Emory, 32, of Holland street, is accused of sexually assaulting a Westmoreland County girl starting when she was in kindergarten. He is is charged with...

Cheswick Volunteer Fire Department is exploring whether a potential merger with neighboring departments could save money and improve services. “We don’t want to duplicate the services, duplicate the equipment,” said Nino Pollino, president of the Cheswick department. Cheswick has asked the state Department of Community and Economic Development to study...

A Lower Burrell councilman was found guilty of harassing his ex-fiancee after she said he continued to contact her after she and a police officer told him not to. Cecelia Sharrock testified in a Turtle Creek district court Tuesday that Joseph Grillo even went to the bank where she works...

Four Apollo-Ridge School District teachers have accepted an early-retirement offer the district made in an attempt to cut costs. The school board voted Monday to accept the retirements of technical education teacher Jeffrey Jones, math teacher John M. Simon, learning support teacher Kathleen Pryjmak and physical education teacher Jeremy Smail....

Allegheny Township officials are reminding drivers that a section of Markle Road will close Thursday because of a landslide. The road will be closed between Park Road and Pine Run Road, and remain closed until further notice. Traffic will be detoured. The marked detour uses Markle Road, White Cloud Road...

Audience participation is not only expected as Burrell High School presents “The Mystery of Edward Drood,” it’s required says Burrell musical director Martin Connolly. “The audience gets to vote and decide who the murderer is at the end of the show,” Connolly says. “And then based on that we will...