Westmoreland category, Page 196

(Editor’s note: To mark Westmoreland County’s 250th birthday this year, we’ve come up with a list of 250 things — 10 things in 25 communities — that we consider to be important to the makeup of our area. This series will appear each week through December. If you have a...

Operation Santa Claus is back for its 40th year — with the goal of feeding 2,500 families in eight counties. The campaign is an annual cooperative effort by Trib Total Media, Shop ’n Save and the Salvation Army to provide holiday dinners to local families. This year, the campaign had...

Westmoreland County has the money and low-income homeowners lined up for a house repair program. But officials can’t find anyone to do the work. “We’ve put out 400 emails and sent out 325 direct mailings and have gotten zero response,” said Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Brian Lawrence of the county’s...

State police are reviewing why a domestic violence allegation against a state trooper based in Greensburg initially resulted in a summary harassment charge. The harassment citation was not the charge recommended by the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office based on its review of the case which was investigated by state...

Hempfield Area School Board members are expected to vote Wednesday to name a temporary superintendent for the district. An agenda posted Tuesday for a special board meeting on Wednesday indicated the board may name the district’s current assistant superintendent for elementary education, Kimberlie Rieffannacht, to the position. Bob Reger, the...

A revised suicide watch policy is in place at the Westmoreland County Prison, a move officials said will offer better oversight of inmates suspected to be in danger of self-harm. The change adopted by the prison board Monday was based on recommendations from the jail’s medical provider. They asked that...

Leaders say morale has improved at the Westmoreland County Prison in Hempfield in the weeks since Warden Bryan Kline resigned, and the county hasn’t set a timetable to find a permanent replacement. The jail’s deputy warden for security, Steve Pelesky, is the interim warden. “He’s done a good job in...

Ten candidates — five each on the Republican and Democratic ballots — have formed competing factions in the race for five seats on the Norwin School Board. The board has been divided into two factions for 22 months and voters likely will determine Nov. 7 which slate of candidates will...

An attack by Martian invaders, dramatized for anxious listeners 85 years ago, will be staged beginning Tuesday as part of a Halloween double bill of science fiction radio plays at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. The Pitt-Greensburg Theatre Company will perform Orson Welles’ “The War of the Worlds” and...

Eat’n Park officials would like to make Murrysville their next location to receive an update, which will include a pick-up window for takeout orders. “This isn’t an ‘order-at’ location,” said Jesse Stock, Eat’n Park’s design and construction director. “You order ahead online or by phone and just pick it up....

Go Laurel Highlands is offering a “Bonfires, Barrels & Brews” event for the first time this fall — featuring a fire, food and craft beverages. Part of the Laurel Highlands Pour Tour, the event will be held rain or shine from noon until 5 p.m. on Nov. 5 at Yinzer...

Westmoreland County’s board of commissioners already has seen change. It came in August when Democrat Ted Kopas was appointed to the board to replace Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher, who resigned to take a job as a worker’s compensation judge. Kopas joined first-term Republicans Sean Kertes and Doug Chew as the...

When Lori Jakiela saw a scanned image of the cancer growing in her breast, it looked like tiny grains of white rice. “They were lining up in a particular way that made the doctor very concerned,” she said. That was four years ago. But, the rice association stuck in her...

It was moving day Sunday for the Norvelt Volunteer Fire Department, which transferred its firetrucks and equipment across Mt. Pleasant Road to the firefighters’ new $1 million home with room enough for all of its vehicles. “We outgrew (the old fire hall),” said Norvelt fire Chief Matt Zelenak at the...

Toe bones, moss and quill of porcupine — it sounds like the ingredients in a witch’s cauldron. That means spooky season is the perfect time of year for Britney Jones to present a workshop featuring some of the items from her shop, Mz. Jones’ Curio, in Greensburg. The Bovard resident...

This year’s Art Gala hosted by the Greater Latrobe School District Art Conservation Trust will honor the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Ligonier Township. The annual event supports the trust’s work to oversee and care for Greater Latrobe’s art collections, which were generated by two teachers: James Beatty and...

Greensburg Salem will tap pandemic recovery funding to restore and expand air conditioning at three of its schools, at a cost of close to $1.7 million. District officials are also considering other capital improvements that could be made with about $2 million in remaining money from the Elementary and Secondary...

Bill Choby knew he wanted to be a dentist since he was 16 years old. But that would not be the only field to capture his attention. Choby, owner of Center for Dental Implants in Greensburg, is an avid historian on the side, boasting a book and an accompanying podcast....

Joy Clontz always had a box of eyeglasses in her home during her childhood. Her father was a member of the St. Marys’ Lions Club in Elk County for 60 years. She remembers helping him with various Lions events, including Recycle for Sight — a program in which Lions members...

Fourteen-year-old Amelia Raible of North Huntingdon was competing against other young gymnasts in her skill level Saturday at the Greensburg YMCA gymnastics invitational. Raible, a ninth grader at Norwin High School, is part of the 24-member Greensburg YMCA’s Aerials. They are among about 160 gymnasts from eight YMCA teams competing...

Two men in a Latrobe house were treated for smoke inhalation early Saturday morning at Independence Latrobe Hospital as a result of a fire that damaged the residence, Latrobe’s fire chief said. The men, whose identities were not immediately available, suffered from smoke inhalation from the fire, Fire Chief John...

A Derry Township man was killed in a motorcycle crash early Saturday morning, along Route 217 in Derry Township, the Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office said. The victim, James A. Trice III, 35, died as a result of injuries he suffered in the accident at 1:10 a.m. while traveling on Ligonier...

The candidates for Westmoreland County commissioner have spent about one-eighth of what was paid out during the months leading up to Election Day four years ago, according to campaign finance reports filed this week. Financial reports of Republican incumbents Sean Kertes and Doug Chew and Democrats Ted Kopas and Lisa...

About two weeks before war broke out between Hamas-led Palestine and Israel, Katie Zuzik was on a trip to Israel with a group from the Diocese of Greensburg. “To be able to have seen the Holy Land for myself and to walk the path and to see it for myself,...

Three incumbents and three newcomers are vying for five seats on the Greensburg Salem School Board in the Nov. 7 general election. Those seeking to join the board are Justin Aion, Kacey Byrne-Houser and Tyler Courtney. Incumbents on the ballot are: Brian Conway, who is seeking a second term; Robin...