Brian C. Rittmeyer stories, Page 94
Tarentum seeking candidates for vacant 1st Ward council seat
Tarentum will accept applications for a soon-to-be vacant seat on borough council until Jan. 4. Council on Tuesday accepted the resignation of 1st Ward Councilwoman Erika Josefoski. Her resignation is effective Dec. 31. Josefoski, 36, announced her intention to resign earlier this month. She said she did not have enough...
Allegheny Valley Hospital workers see ‘beacon of hope’ as they get 1st doses of covid vaccine
Kristen Miller didn’t think twice about getting the covid vaccine. The intensive care unit registered nurse at Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison on Friday was among the first workers in Allegheny Health Network to get a shot of Pfizer’s vaccine against the virus that has killed more than 300,000 in...
New Kensington police charge man in hotel fight with 3 other men
A New Kensington man was arraigned Wednesday on a felony charge of aggravated assault stemming from a fight in which two men suffered brain bleeds and one had skull fractures. Police charged Kenneth Lorenzo Johnson Jr., 32, on Nov. 17 in connection with the fight that happened June 12 at...
Saint Joseph offering new ‘Spirit’ scholarship to enrolling freshmen
St. Joseph High School in Harrison is offering a new scholarship to help families afford a Catholic education as the school seeks to enroll students for the 2021-22 school year. The St. Joseph Spirit Scholarship is available for next school year’s enrolling freshmen, said Shane Palumbo, director of admissions and...
Allegheny Valley Hospital doctors, nurses expected to get covid vaccine
Physicians and nurses at Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison are expected to be among Allegheny Health Network’s first caregivers to receive covid-19 vaccinations Friday morning, an AHN spokeswoman said. Spokeswoman JoAnne Clobus could not say how many employees of the Harrison hospital would be getting shots Friday. Employees were busy...
New Kensington-Arnold concerned about students not participating in remote classes
New Kensington-Arnold School District administrators and board members are concerned about the number of children who they say have not been participating in school since the district moved all students to remote instruction. The district started the school year with students receiving instruction fully online or fully in person. The...
New Kensington-Arnold hires school boards association to conduct superintendent search
New Kensington-Arnold School District will spend up to $13,000 to find a new superintendent. The school board voted unanimously Tuesday to hire the Pennsylvania School Boards Association to conduct the search. The district will pay the association $5,000, plus up to $8,000 for additional costs. “Our longstanding relationship with school...
Highlands delays release of resignation agreement with employee facing disciplinary charges
Highlands School District is delaying the release of a resignation agreement with an unidentified employee against whom the school board had brought disciplinary charges. The school board voted at its Dec. 7 meeting to approve the agreement with an employee identified only by the number 6093. The agreement was retroactively...
New Kensington’s proposed budget includes no tax increase
New Kensington Council has approved a preliminary budget for next year that includes no increase in property taxes. Council voted 4-1 Monday to approve the first reading of next year’s $8.16 million budget, up from $8.12 million this year. The property tax rate would remain unchanged at 32.03 mills. After...
Freeport business distances itself from similarly named Brentwood eatery flouting covid rules
A Freeport catering business is distancing itself from a similarly named Brentwood restaurant that is flouting the state’s covid safety regulations. On its Facebook page, Cracked Egg Catering Co. said it has no affiliation with the Crack’d Egg, a diner defying state shutdown orders. “Cracked Egg Catering Co. is a...
Harrison woman’s death ruled accident, husband won’t be charged
A 72-year-old Harrison man will not be charged in the death of his wife, who died after he hit her with a vehicle in August, according to Allegheny County Police. Shirley Anne Jump, 65, died after she was hit in the driveway of the couple’s Village Green Road home on...
Lucky breaks help Arnold avoid property tax increase in 2021
Several things breaking in Arnold’s favor are helping the city avoid increasing property taxes next year. Council is scheduled to vote on the city’s $4.4 million 2021 budget during a meeting on Tuesday. The meeting will be held remotely on Zoom, beginning at 7 p.m. As proposed, the city’s property...
Owner of Leechburg’s Twisted Thistle opening new restaurant at New Kensington ice arenaVideo
A Leechburg restaurant owner is looking to pull off a hat trick in New Kensington. Joe Hesketh, co-owner of Twisted Thistle and Market Street Pizza in Leechburg, is opening a new restaurant, Crossbar Grill, across from the Pittsburgh Ice Arena on Craigdell Road. Crossbar replaces The Breakaway Bar and Grill,...
Tax increase, furloughs, contract on table as New Kensington-Arnold starts budget work
The New Kensington-Arnold School District may have to raise property taxes and furlough employees as it goes into a difficult budget at the same time it negotiates a new contract with its teachers union, the school board’s former president said. The district raised the property tax rate by 3 mills,...
Police have suspects in Arnold teen’s shooting death in Tarentum
Allegheny County Police say they have identified suspects in the November shooting death of an 18-year-old man in Tarentum. Syncere Spruill, of Arnold, was shot shortly before midnight Nov. 22 in the 200 block of Conroy Way. He was pronounced dead at Allegheny Valley Hospital. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner...
Nonprofit looking for New Kensington, Arnold residents who want free internet service
A nonprofit is offering free internet service for New Kensington and Arnold residents, but so far not many are signing up. Meta Mesh Wireless Communities can take about 150 households in its one-year pilot providing free, wireless, high-speed internet service, but so far only 38 in New Kensington and Arnold...
Highlands senior recognized for work on car donated to Army veteran
A Highlands High School student who helped repair a car for a veteran is the second recipient of an award students created to recognize their peers. Ian Norris, 17, a senior from Fawn who attends Forbes Road Career & Technology Center in Monroeville, received the “Student Spotlight” award for December,...
Peoples natural gas customers getting bill credit after utility’s $4.3B acquisition
Most residential customers of Peoples Gas in Pennsylvania saw a discount on their recent bills as a result of the natural gas company being acquired in a $4.3 billion deal earlier this year. Essential Utilities announced in mid-March that it had completed its acquisition of Peoples. That followed the state...
Pandemic prompts closing of Tarentum’s Praha, possibly for good, as other restaurants hang on
Uncertainty brought on by the covid-19 pandemic is prompting owners of the Praha restaurant and bar in Tarentum to close, possibly for good. Unless businesses are shut down sooner, owner Ken Gulick said the Praha will close at the end of business on Dec. 23. He expects the closure to...
Tarentum police say man attacked woman, 2 children after coming home from bar
Tarentum police say a borough man attacked a woman and hit two young boys after coming home from a bar late Monday night. Borough police charged Stacy Andrew Smith, 29, with simple assault, endangering the welfare of children, resisting arrest and harassment. In a criminal complaint against Smith, police say...
Highlands School Board approves resuming winter sports
Highlands School Board reversed course Monday and voted unanimously to immediately resume winter sports. The decision came after a roughly two-hour discussion in which parents and students asked the board to reconsider allowing winter sports — basketball, wrestling and swimming — to take place, and board members debated whether it...
Week-in-review: Snow, Steelers stay undefeated among week’s top headlinesVideo
Snow on Dec. 1 isn’t a strange thing in Pittsburgh, but a Steelers game kicking off on a Wednesday afternoon is. A snowfall that topped meteorologists’ expectations and the Steelers keeping their undefeated season going with a win over the Ravens in a game rescheduled three times were among the...
Tarentum proposes several large projects, no tax increase in 2021 budget
Tarentum has identified nearly $500,000 worth of large projects in its 2021 preliminary budget, but the budget does not include a property tax increase. The proposed $8.8 million spending plan is up by about $468,000, or 5.6%, from the $8.3 million budget for this year. The property tax rate would...
3 hospitalized, 45 displaced after fire at Greene County apartment building
Three people were taken to hospitals and 45 were displaced after a fire early Friday at an apartment building in Greene County. The fire at Parkview Knoll Apartments, off of Ceylon Road in Cumberland Township south of Carmichaels, was reported around 2:30 a.m. It was brought under control around 4...
Authorities vow to continue searching for missing Jefferson Hills teen
Authorities are continuing to search for a missing 15-year-old Jefferson Hills boy, according to the Elizabeth Borough Police Department. Elizabeth Borough police and firefighters, Jefferson Hills police and other assisting police, fire and ambulance agencies “will not stop looking for Jeno Moretti,” Elizabeth Borough police said on their Facebook page...
