Brian C. Rittmeyer stories, Page 100
Highlands mother disturbed over religious content in elementary school lessons
Exposure to covid-19 wasn’t Aasta Deth’s concern for her two young children on the first day of school. Exposure to religion in their public school curriculum was. Deth, who lives in Harrison, said she found religious and faith-based content in both her 5-year-old daughter’s online kindergarten program and 8-year-old son’s...
Police: Brackenridge man said he sold heroin to buy things for 2 young children
A 24-year-old man allegedly told police he was dealing heroin from his Brackenridge home so he could buy things for two children. Police charged Marvin Barclay II with two counts of endangering the welfare of children and drug offenses after officers and agents with the state Attorney General Bureau of...
Tarentum train station restaurant owner isn’t sure 50% capacity is enough to reopen
John Greco isn’t sure he can reopen his Tarentum restaurant even with a return to half capacity later this month. “We can’t make it with 25% or 50%,” said Greco, owner of JG’s Tarentum Station Grille. “In order to make it economically feasible, we need the restrictions to be lifted....
Tarentum planning alternatives to canceled Halloween, Christmas events
Tarentum is planning alternatives for two seasonal events that have been canceled because of the covid-19 pandemic. Tarentum canceled its annual Boo Fest, which would have been held Oct. 17. The borough and Brackenridge also called off their annual joint Christmas parade, which had been scheduled for Nov. 21. The...
Tarentum using covid-19 grant money to pay for system to broadcast borough meetings
While hoping to return to in-person meetings in October, Tarentum will spend nearly $40,000 in grant money on audio and visual equipment that will allow it to continue broadcasting council meetings. Livestreaming council meetings because of the covid-19 pandemic has created a new way for residents to participate in local...
Tarentum Council approves changes in water rates
Most Tarentum residents will be seeing a reduction in their water rates, while other customers, including in East Deer, will be getting an increase. Council voted 6-0 Tuesday, with Erika Josefoki absent, to lower the base rate charged to the bulk of borough residents by $2, or 8%, from $25...
Volunteers needed to help with grounds cleanup at Burtner House in Harrison
The covid-19 pandemic canceled all tours and events at Harrison’s Burtner House this year, but people are being asked to turn out Saturday to help clean up the grounds of the historic property. High winds a couple of months ago blew the cap off a chimney and damaged trees on...
Allegheny Ludlum stainless steel cars sell for $950K at auto auction
A trio of stainless steel cars produced by Ford and Allegheny Ludlum sold at auction for $950,000. Billed as “The Historic Stainless Steel Trifecta” and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the cars were sold Saturday night as a single lot by Worldwide Auctioneers at the 13th annual Auburn Auction. They were offered...
Sheriff’s sale dashes Harrison woman’s plan for bakery, cafe in Natrona
Linda Gromley has operated her home business, “Fifty Shades of Cake,” out of her kitchen in Harrison’s Natrona section for two years, baking everything from pies and cookies to bread and, of course, cakes. She had hoped to grow beyond a home business by putting in a commercial kitchen and...
Twirl Time Studio relocates from Pittsburgh Mills mall to The Clement in TarentumVideo
Moving into the Pittsburgh Mills mall went so well for Marianne Rieg that her dance studio, Twirl Time, grew to fill two storefronts serving 200 kids. Covid-19 changed that. Her studio shut down in March. Although the Frazer mall reopened, its earlier closing time didn’t work for her business, primarily...
New Kensington record store reopening over Labor Day weekend at new location
A New Kensington record store will reopen this weekend in a new location designed with social distancing in mind. AJ Rassau, owner of Preserving Underground with his wife, Sarah, is spreading his store’s grand reopening over the Labor Day weekend to keep the crowd from becoming overwhelming. Preserving Underground is...
Fawn plans to continue hearing for suspended police officer in wake of federal lawsuit filing
Fawn officials announced that a hearing for a suspended township police officer will resume this month. Earlier this week, the officer filed a federal lawsuit against the township, three of its supervisors and the police chief. An attorney representing Officer Keith Lazaron II said he does not agree with the...
Harrison commissioners approve agreement for Springhill Road path
The Harrison commissioners were given a round of applause by a handful of residents Wednesday after unanimously approving a maintenance agreement with Allegheny County for a shared pedestrian and bicycle path along Springhill Road. The $1.3 million path is now expected to be built next year, said Jason Molinero, deputy...
New Kensington’s Pioneer Apartments taking applications for residents, opening Oct. 1Video
Pioneer Apartments in New Kensington remains an unfinished construction project at this point, but people are expected to begin calling it home within a month. Wesley Family Services plans to open Pioneer Apartments on Oct. 1 and is now accepting applications for potential residents, said Stephen Christian-Michaels, chief executive officer...
Suspended Fawn police officer files federal lawsuit alleging violation of rights
A suspended Fawn police officer alleges in a federal lawsuit that three township supervisors and the police chief conspired to deprive him of his rights after he would not cite a supervisor’s neighbor for an outdoor fire earlier this year. Keith F. Lazaron II, 35, of Allegheny Township filed the...
Harrison shared-use path on Springhill Road in jeopardy if township rejects maintenance pact, county says
A $1.3 million pedestrian and bicycle path on Springhill Road in Harrison may not be built if township officials don’t make good on a three-year-old commitment to maintain it by Thursday. Harrison Commissioners have scheduled a special meeting for 3 p.m. Wednesday to consider the maintenance agreement with Allegheny County....
Police: 19-year-old arrested with stolen gun after Arnold officers hear shots fired
Arnold police said they found a 19-year-old man carrying a stolen handgun after officers investigated shots they heard fired in the city Sunday night. Demontre J. Chambers allegedly matched the description of a man Arnold police saw running from the area of the shooting. A New Kensington officer arrested Chambers...
New Kensington-Arnold approves security upgrades, delays softball field, air conditioning work
Security systems at two New Kensington-Arnold schools will be upgraded, but renovations to a softball field and replacement of an air-conditioning unit will have to wait. The school board approved paying 2 Krew Security & Surveillance $106,000 for security upgrades at Martin and H.D. Berkey elementary schools. What the upgrades...
New Kensington-Arnold hires wife of acting superintendent as teacher
The same day Jon Banko was named acting superintendent of New Kensington-Arnold School District, his wife was hired as an elementary teacher in the district. Banko conceded the hiring of his wife, Nicole Banko, could appear inappropriate to some. But he said he was not involved in her interview nor...
$900K car wash proposed for Tarentum Bridge Road in New Kensington
A car wash has been proposed to replace a building housing a pizza shop and cellphone store on Tarentum Bridge Road in New Kensington. For that to happen, the proposed project will need a variance from the city’s zoning, which does not allow a car wash at that location, said...
New Kensington to award contract for demolition of former bar, hotel buildings
A woman living across from a rundown New Kensington building that was once a bar is happy it will soon be gone, while a business owner whose garage is across from an empty former hotel in the city wonders how it got so bad that tearing it down is all...
Tarentum woman, 19, becoming 3rd owner of Merle Norman Cosmetics studioVideo
Mary Lee Naccarato first learned of Olivia Grace Fertig from a newspaper story. She was so impressed by the young woman that Naccarato offered her a job at her New Kensington Merle Norman Cosmetics studio. Just over a year later, Naccarato, 73, of Washington Township is retiring, and Fertig, 19,...
More than a dozen shots fired in Arnold shooting, man hit in foot
A man was shot in the foot Thursday afternoon in Arnold in a shooting in which more than a dozen rounds were fired. The shooting was reported to 911 at 1:10 p.m., a Westmoreland County dispatcher said. Shell casings were found in the 1500 block of Kenneth Avenue, just on...
Police: Speed a factor in fatal Route 28 crash in Harrison
A Harrison man was speeding on Route 28 before a crash that claimed his life Tuesday, according to state police. Charles A. Crowe Jr., 48, of Harrison, died at the scene of the one-vehicle crash shortly after 7:30 p.m. near Exit 15 in Harrison. Police said Crowe had been traveling...
Police suspect medical issue behind fatal Harmar crash at Route 28 exit
A medical condition is suspected in a crash that killed one man and seriously injured another in Harmar on Tuesday night, according to township police. Robert Burkardt, 68, of Penn Hills was the driver in the crash on Route 910 at the southbound Route 28 exit that was reported to...
