Westmoreland category, Page 41

Westmoreland County Republicans Tuesday nominated former acting Register of Wills Katie Pecarchik to serve an abbreviated two-year term to head the office, apparently ending the short tenure of her replacement. Pecarchik, 57, of Hempfield defeated incumbent Jon Wian, who was endorsed by the GOP committee, and Kimberly Horrell, a former...

Former Westmoreland County Deputy Coroner John Ackerman was poised to upset first-term incumbent Coroner Tim Carson in Tuesday’s Republican primary. With 294 of 306 precincts reporting, Ackerman had 53% and a nearly 1,700 vote edge over Carson, who received more than 46%. All results are unofficial until certified by the...

Yelayna Rossi led the balloting for four Greater Latrobe School Board seats, with all of the 20 precincts reporting in Tuesday’s Republican primary. Rossi, who is the daughter of local state Rep. Leslie Rossi and is a 2020 Greater Latrobe graduate, received just over 18% of the votes from among...

A slate of four Norwin School Board candidates promising to end the panel’s political battles was leading in the race to win the nominations of both political parties for four seats on the board, according to the results from Tuesday’s primary. With all 32 Westmoreland County precincts reporting, Rob Bunovich...

New Florence residents voted Tuesday to approve alcohol sales in the borough. According to unofficial results, 64% of residents voted in favor of a referendum to reverse laws from the 1930s that banned beer and liquor sales in the small borough of 640. New Florence council President Jason Beatty, one...

One Republican incumbent and one new candidate were the leaders among five GOP candidates seeking nominations for two seats on Hempfield’s board of supervisors, according to results from Tuesday’s primary. With all precincts reporting, incumbent Doug Weimer, 55, a Norwin teacher seeking his fifth term on the board, led all...

A Bike Safety Rodeo set for May 21 at Oak Hollow Park in North Huntingdon will be rescheduled to May 29 because of rain that is expected to hit the region. From 5 to 7 p.m., volunteers will help children learn essential biking skills on a specially designed course. Participants...

Donna Cline has been voting at Gilpin Township Fire Department polling place at 99 Fire Hall Road for nearly 30 years. “This is the community I live in, and I wanted to make sure that we preserve our community for our next generation,” said Cline, 63, of Gilpin. Fewer than...

A Connellsville man died during a crash on Toll Route 66 in Hempfield last week, according to state police. Steven E. Kooser, 53, was traveling south on the highway at 3:30 p.m. Thursday around mile marker 3.2. The Honda CRV he was driving went off the right shoulder and then...

A Unity home was destroyed early Tuesday by flames, according to Dry Ridge Fire Chief Rich Levay. The blaze was reported around 3:45 a.m. along Route 130. Levay said the occupants were able to get out safely after a smoke detector alerted them to the fire. “When I pulled in,...

The Hempfield Area School Board is proposing a 2025-26 district budget of more than $114.5 million, including a potential 4.35-mill property tax increase. The tentative tax hike would cover about $2.6 million of a roughly $2.8 million budget deficit, with a $172,000 funding gap remaining. Superintendent Mark Holtzman said the...

Westmoreland County Prison inmates have a new way to get home when their incarceration ends. An expanded program operated by Sage’s Army, a private nonprofit focused on drug addiction and recovery, is offering free rides for inmates. Janie Olson, the agency’s director of operations, told members of Westmoreland County’s Prison...

Ten minutes after Kelly Poholsky took a call from her husband as she drove home from work Oct. 7, 2023, she came upon what appeared to be the scene of a bad accident. Only later that night did she learn the covered body that lay on the ground as she...

A 14-karat gold chain reported stolen from a Rostraver home was pawned in Florida weeks later, leading police south in their search for a suspect in the shooting death of a 24-year-old woman, according to court papers. On Monday, they filed homicide charges against that suspect — Dorian C. Jeri-Greene,...

Delmont officials will hold a meeting to give a presentation and take public input on a long-term plan for the Shields Farm property. A borough steering committee has been working with consultants EADS Group on a plan for the 145-acre former farmstead, part of the larger goal of developing a...

Former Greensburg police chief Shawn Denning will begin serving his federal prison sentence in a drug distribution conspiracy case on June 10, according to a notice from the U.S. Marshals Service. Denning, 44, of Delmont, was ordered to report to a satellite camp at the Federal Correctional Institution in Schuylkill...

As the discussion continues over Penn State’s recommendation to shutter seven branch campuses, much of the debate has turned to whether the closures would allow Penn State to continue to fulfill its mission as a land-grant university. But what exactly is a land-grant university? In 1863, Penn State was designated...

Greater Latrobe School Board is proposing a $68.4 million district budget for the coming school year, but administrators have yet to recommend how to close a projected funding gap of close to $680,000. Also to be decided is how to replace more than a dozen retiring teachers. One of those...

Rick and Terri Wagner traveled Sunday from their New Kensington home to Derry Township in search of closure. Their beloved spanador, Bailey, a mix of a cocker spaniel and a Labrador, was one of the thousands of pets authorities say Patrick Vereb mishandled through his cremation business, Eternity Pet Memorial....

Dr. Richard Conn is well-­­versed in the challenges of providing health care in rural areas. The primary care physician has been seeing patients in Connellsville for the past 19 years. “For some (patients), preventive care is foreign to them. There’s a hesitancy to do things,” said Conn, 52, a Fayette...

Long planned revisions of Westmoreland County’s public transportation service are on hold as officials await clarity on funding. Substantial alterations in the county transit authority’s fixed-route bus system were expected to be launched this year, including the start of a pilot project to convert a small portion of the service...

Derry Area High School Principal Kara Gardner will serve as Greensburg Salem’s first assistant superintendent, filling a gap left by the resignation of the district’s human resources director earlier this year. Gardner, 36, of New Alexandria, began her career in education at Homer-Center Elementary in Center Township. She worked as...

Motorists can expect to encounter daytime single-lane restrictions beginning Monday on a section of Interstate 70 in Westmoreland County. The traffic restrictions are scheduled between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily through Wednesday and will affect both eastbound and westbound lanes at various points between Exits 42 (North Belle Vernon)...

Tim Welty bought his daughter Annie Welty her first hat — a sailor style. A former teacher and principal in the Hempfield School District, Welty had wanted his daughter to go into education. But he knew her love was in acting and fine arts, inspired by her mother, Patricia Perrone....

Robert F. Nicely Elementary School in Greensburg has been without working fire alarms for nearly a month after a power surge damaged the system. The issued stemmed from West Penn Power replacing a nearby line on April 18, Greensburg Salem School District Superintendent Kenneth Bissell told TribLive news partner WTAE....