Valley News Dispatch category, Page 685

Talk about your homework. Burrell High School students took home a robotic arm, a 3D printer and a heavy assignment from a visit to a Harrison circuit board producer. Tuesday’s visit to EPD Electronics by 14 Burrell students wasn’t your typical field trip and, according to school administrators and students,...

Highlands School District officials say “disturbing” Facebook posts were the impetus for the district to rescind its contract with a school security firm. Days after the board approved a contract with Olympia Security Group in mid-February, “various people in the community” alerted substitute Superintendent Monique Mawhinney and other officials to...

Allegheny Township is set to begin the next leg of the Wynn and Clara Tredway Trail. Supervisors awarded a $249,000 contract to A. Folino Construction of Oakmont to build the 1.5-mile extension from underneath the Freeport Bridge toward the junction of the Kiski and Allegheny rivers. Work is expected to...

A section of Hulton Road on the border of Penn Hills and Plum is scheduled to be closed from Wednesday to Friday. Beginning early Wednesday, Hulton Road will close to all traffic between Michael Drive and Iowa Street so crews can locate underground utility lines in advance of a project...

Three Vandergrift council candidates will hold meet-and-greet at 6:30 p.m., March 15, at the Center on Franklin Avenue, 262 Franklin Avenue. Three council seats are up for election this year. They are four-year terms currently held by Kathy Chvala, Vernon E. Sciullo and James Rametta, according to the Westmoreland County...

A presentation at the new Center on Franklin Avenue will highlight the Vandergrift Community Watch meeting at 7 p.m., Thursday, in the borough building. The meeting will include a presentation on crime trends by Vandergrift Police Officer Joseph Gray. The meeting is a time for the community to air any...

Freeport Borough’s vacancy board will meet Mondayto replace a council member who has resigned. Melanie Zembrzuski resigned at the start of February, borough clerk Carol Crytzer said Monday. Zembrzuski had been the chairwoman of the public safety committee and a member of the personnel and parks and recreation committees. She...

Tarentum’s community garden has been renamed to honor a late pastor who helped create it five years ago. Formerly called Tarentum Friendship Garden, it has been renamed as Tarentum’s Greg Blythe Friendship Garden. Blythe, former pastor of Abundant Joy Fellowship, was one of the founders of the garden along First...

A Vandergrift man is accused of taking $600 and an iPhone from another man he allegedly beat up and threatened with a handgun early Saturday. Police said Javon Michael Thom Lambert, 19, then ran from officers who went to his house to arrest him later Saturday. He remained in the...

Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series that features Alle-Kiski Valley people and the notable things that they do. A sunny day is best to visit artist Bill Godfrey, as the golden rays pour into his studio to illuminate the lavender and canary walls, and a palette of...

A church is the perfect setting for this performance. Central Presbyterian Church in Tarentum presents its third concert for this season — “A Bassoon Runs Through It.” It’s set for 4 p.m. March 17 with the Academy Chamber Ensemble. The event will feature the music of Mozart, Beethoven and the...

Part of Brownshill Road in O’Hara will be closed Wednesday and Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., township engineer Chuck Steinert said. Brownshill Road will be closed between Dorseyville Road and Saxonburg Boulevard. The 2-day closure will allow installation of about 50-feet of sewer line, Steinert said. It’s part...

X marks the rot. Tarentum Council recently adopted a program to mark about a dozen unstable, vacant buildings in the borough with a red X to warn emergency personnel who might respond to a fire or other incident at the properties that they are structurally dangerous. “This isn’t the same...

Call it a coincidence or fate, but Walmart at the Pittsburgh Mills shopping complex has put what’s left of their Antonio Brown T-shirts in the clearance bin. The women’s T-shirts are going for just $1, but it seems that may still be too much for shoppers. A few passing by...

Tarentum Borough’s new auditor submitted a bid that is well below one filed by the long-time auditor and another CPA, officials say. Borough Manager Michael Nestico said Mark C. Turnley CPA’s bid was $10,500 to perform all of the the borough’s audits. That was more than $9,000 less than the...

In terms of dollars and cents, Penn State New Kensington contributed $28.7 million to the Pennsylvania economy and supported just under 400 jobs during the 2017 fiscal year, according to a study. But those numbers don’t begin to reflect the campus’ role in the Alle-Kiski Valley, according to Chancellor Kevin...

Lower Burrell is raising its sewer rates by 21 percent. The new rates will be reflected in customers’ quarterly bills, which will arrive in the next few weeks, according to city officials. The average customer currently pays $81.81 per quarter. The same customer will now pay $98.71 per quarter. That’s...

State police are seeking information about the death of a 40-year-old Manor Township woman. Alyssa Rene Claypool was found dead in her home early Saturday afternoon. Upon arrival, police found several used and unused stamp bags. Toxicology tests and an autopsy are scheduled to be conducted Sunday. Anyone with information...

Brackenridge is getting prepared to restore the vandalized memorial monument at its community park. First, however, council wants to see how much of the damage is covered by the borough’s insurance carrier. The veterans memorial was damaged by vandals with silver spray paint in mid-February. For now, a group of...

An inaugural crafts and vendors festival held Saturday, March 9 in a Leechburg church is good clean fun with a serious purpose. All money raised at the festival, held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., will be donated to the Apollo Relay for Life anti-cancer program. Four Lutheran churches put...

A state grant will pay for repaving a number of Vandergrift streets this year. Vandergrift Council recently awarded a paving contract to A. Liberoni Inc. of Plum. Their price is a little more than $180,000. It was the lowest of nine bids received. According to the contract, 10 streets will...

A $328,000 state grant to a Penn State New Kensington collaborative with 14 Alle-Kiski Valley school districts will pay for teacher education and learning modules for students to take on computer coding and other technologies. The grant is part of $30 million awarded by Gov. Tom Wolf’s PAsmart, which is...