Westmoreland category, Page 282

Eastbound traffic on the Pennsylvania Turnpike was detoured between New Stanton and Breezewood on Wednesday evening after a tractor-trailer spilled scrap metal on the toll road, according to state police. Police said the rig’s trailer broke in half at about 5:45 p.m., spilling thousands of pounds of scrap metal in...

Walkers, joggers and bicyclists in Greensburg should have an easier time getting to the Five Star Trail after improvements are added next year at several points along the recreational path. The city is partnering with PennDOT on a project that will establish a new trailhead at George Street, which parallels...

The gym floor at Jeannette Junior-Senior High School was damaged after flooding on Christmas but Superintendent Matt Jones said it hasn’t affected basketball games and physical education classes. A frozen water line and broken sprinkler sent water onto the floor during the holiday deep freeze. City firefighters alerted district maintenance...

Members of the Westmoreland County Drug Task Force seized more than $349,000 during 2022, making 200 arrests and getting about 15 pounds of drugs off the streets. The task force is composed of state and local authorities, including agents from the Attorney General’s Office, county detectives and officers from 40...

The cost to renovate Hempfield Area High School has surged thanks to inflation and increased square footage plans, district officials said this week. The project, which was initially pegged at $97 million to $110 million, now has a $128 million price tag — an increase of about 16% to 32%....

A regional failure of the power grid, widespread transportation disruptions and spotty communications. Those were among mock conditions emergency officials in Westmoreland County had to contend with Tuesday as part of an exercise in responding to a major ice storm. About 30 public safety staffers and other stakeholders gathered at...

A woman was flown by medical helicopter following a crash early Wednesday morning in Washington Township, according to emergency officials. First responders were called to the intersection of Route 380 and Greensburg Road (Route 366) around 1 a.m. for a report of a car that had rolled over and struck...

A Westmoreland County judge ruled this week that charges against a Mt. Pleasant man accused of assaulting two police officers can proceed to trial. Evidence presented during a preliminary hearing supports allegations that Joe Paul Biller, 37, attacked and threatened officers as they came to his home to arrest him...

Amtrak’s upgraded passenger trains, expected to be put into service later this decade, will have a West­more­land County connection. Roechling Industrial Mt. Pleasant, a machine plastics company that has operated in the county since 1981, has been tapped to produce interior ceilings, door motor cases and other projects for the...

The owner of a popular North Huntingdon banquet hall has expanded his business by buying a closed Irwin banquet facility in bankruptcy court and plans to renovate it in hopes of reopening it in April or May. Harry Stratigos, owner of Stratigos Banquet Centre on Colonial Manor Road, acquired Banquets...

Natural lighting and artificial patients are among the features that have students and faculty excited about the new Life Sciences Building at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. Members of the Pitt-Greensburg community got their first glimpse inside the latest addition to the Hempfield campus during an open house Monday...

A New Alexandria man who claimed he was a victim of excessive force during an incident last year with Jeannette police was ordered Monday to serve one year on probation. David Vucish, 50, was charged with resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, disorderly conduct and other offenses in connection with an...

Top administrators with Westmoreland County’s Park Police will begin working longer days this year. The county’s salary board Monday approved extensions of the work day by an additional 30 minutes this year and another half-hour in 2024 for Park Police Chief Henry Fontana, the department’s two captains, one lieutenant and...

A worker at the Rustic Ridge mine in Donegal was injured late Monday when his arm became trapped in a mining machine, according to emergency officials. Emergency crews were called to the mine on County Line Road shortly after 9 p.m. for a report that a 22-year-old worker’s arm was...

State police are seeking help from the public to identify a man who apparently had a sweet tooth when he stole $4,400 worth of merchandise from the Lowe’s store in Unity. Troopers said the man stole miscellaneous candies along with 18 Mastercard prepaid cards, a DeWalt battery charger and a...

For some residents of Penn Township, the new year might bring changes to their local voting ward, polling place and township commissioner. Township officials approved an updated ward map, adjusting boundaries of the municipality’s five wards to correspond with data from the 2020 U.S. Census. The map goes to county...

Export Historical Society officials are hoping to work with the borough, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation and the Society for Mining and Metallurgy Exploration to create a historical area at one of the few bituminous coal mine sites able to be safely viewed by...

Parkway West Career & Technology Center Executive Director Darby Copeland was frank about educators’ ability to keep their students on the cutting edge of technology. “Like all schools, none of us has a big bucket of money laying around,” Copeland said. That made it all the more important for Copeland...

It’s widely accepted in the literary world that writer F. Scott Fitzgerald stole ideas and actual words from his wife, Zelda — including lines that went into his widely acclaimed novel, “The Great Gatsby.” Two Westmoreland County theater veterans have imagined Zelda Fitzgerald’s role in the creation of the novel...

Greensburg Salem School Board will decide Wednesday whether to place an upper limit on any potential real estate tax increase it may consider to help balance the 2023-24 district budget. The district is required by state law to abide by a cap on any tax hike unless it drafts and...

The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg plans to unveil its new Life Sciences Building this week, as the spring semester gets underway at the campus in Hempfield. An open house for the campus community Monday will be followed Thursday by a 4 p.m. public dedication ceremony and walk-through of the two-story...

Two motorists were injured in a two-vehicle crash Sunday afternoon on Route 22 in Derry Township. A man and woman were taken by ambulance to an area hospital after their vehicle overturned in the wreck, according to Bradenville Fire Chief Mark Piantine. The woman was trapped and had to be...

Ligonier Valley police are searching for a motorist who is a suspect in an attempted kidnapping Sunday morning in Ligonier Township. According to police, the male driver attempted to abduct a female jogger at gunpoint shortly before 10 a.m. on Route 381 in Rector. The suspect ordered the jogger to...

With his tattered clothing, long fingernails and bewildered look, Rip Van Winkle awakes from his 20-year slumber in an imaginative painting that hangs at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg. For children who might not know the tale, it can be entertaining to let them interpret the artwork,...