Harry Funk stories, Page 7

As the longtime president of Bethel Park Council, Tim Moury has worked on municipal budgets each year going back to the 1990s. His final effort in that regard comes with a tough choice: raising the real estate tax rate by .75 mills and the municipal portion of the tax on...

Under what now is Interstate 79 as it passes through the westernmost part of Bridgeville, a settlement flourished nearly a millennium ago. Historian John Oyler remembers some related local folklore. “Anybody my age who grew up in Bridgeville heard about the Indian mound on Gould City Hill all their lives,”...

Combine one of the holiday season’s biggest stars with a seriously stretched vehicle, and you get to deliver a slew of seasonal cheer. That’s what the organizers had in mind with a load-a-limo event featuring the Grinch, which was held Nov. 25 event in the parking lot of Dr. Cleveland...

During their Thanksgiving vacations, Sara Impellicceiri and members of her family would partake in free holiday dinners. “But I never helped volunteer for one, because I just never had the opportunity,” the Bethel Park High School junior said. “So being able to do this has been a great experience.” She...

Bridgeville’s real estate tax rate is expected to remain the same next year, maintaining a consistent level since 2019. Borough council plans to vote Dec. 11 on adopting the 2024 budget, which calls for a rate of 6.5 mills on buildings and 10 mills on land. The budget for the...

As renovations to Gateway Middle School continue well past the initially estimated completion date, more money is going toward the effort. The school board on Nov. 21 voted to approve $341,793.70 in change orders, representing deviations from the original scope of the project, with the bulk of the added expense...

The motto for the Hampton Band Association’s 12th annual Holiday Extravaganza could be: Bake it ’til you make it. “Our goal to the kids is to have 10,000 cookies,” high school band director Chad Himmler said. “So that’s what we are trying to do.” Besides the main attraction of music,...

Six decades after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a frequent lecturer on the subject agrees with the original official version of what transpired: “Even all these years later, I generally have come out and said, ‘The Warren Commission, I think, got most of it right.’ ” Bethel Park resident...

Deciding not to mess with success, the Hampton Boys Basketball Boosters Club is bringing back what turned out to be a fan favorite. The trick-shooting, slam-dunking showmanship of the Harlem Wizards returns to the township after an initial visit for a 2022 fundraiser. “We didn’t know what to expect the...

Perhaps you’ve marveled at someone taking a piece of paper and folding it to produce the shape of a bird or flower. That general practice served as Madonna Yoder’s introduction to origami. “It started with making my own toys during church services,” the Monroeville resident said. “I would sit there...

Editor’s note: This story will conclude in the December issue of the Signal Item. For fans of fine dining, Wright’s Seafood Inn was something of a paradise. Fans of singer Joni Mitchell will know the rest of the story. Yes, a parking lot now stretches across the spot that the...

Pay a morning visit to a coffee shop and watch the baristas be bombarded by beverage orders That would be right up Kendal Astor’s alley. “I love the stress and the pressure, like when there’s a whole line of things,” the Chartiers Valley High School senior said. “I work really...

Today’s second-grader is tomorrow’s grandparent telling a possibly incredulous child: “I once met a World War II veteran.” Fast-forward, let’s say, half a century, and an 8-year-old may be the one who’s hearing the story. Do the math, and you’re looking at the youngster being born a full 120 years...

The 1980s were a relatively quiet time for the American military, between the end of the Vietnam War and Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. As a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Bethel Park resident Haya Eason — community members may know her as working at the municipal building — once tended to...

A change in careers can be sweet. “I moved here after college to take a full-time job doing tax accounting,” Bethel Park resident Becca Battista said. “And then during the pandemic, I kind of had a change of heart and needed something a little bit more creative, rather than doing...

The sounds emerging from his father’s bedroom prompted young Calvin Stemley to knock on the door one day. How was it, the boy wondered, that Zackery Stemley Jr. could produce dazzling melodies just by using the three buttons on his trumpet? “Instead of him answering the question, he said, ‘Have...

Four-plus centuries of Shakespeare fans can’t be wrong. Count a group of today’s teenagers among them. When Michael Flynn announced the Aquinas Academy of Pittsburgh’s 2023 high school play would be “The Tempest,” his students weren’t exactly thrilled about performing in something so antiquated. “They always want to do a...

From the 19th-century writings of Lewis Carroll to the 20th-century lyrics of Grace Slick, rabbits white and otherwise have come to symbolize departures from the ordinary. Plum resident Bob Freyer continues the tradition with his latest art exhibit. “It’s really just taking me away from all the stress and aggravation...

For most young men, Friday nights often mean heading out for a night on the town instead of staying home to chat with an elderly neighbor. Robert McCormick remembers telling a friend that he was choosing the latter option. “He looked at me like I was dead crazy,” the Bethel...

While many young men tend to view their fathers as heroes, the Rev. Christopher Edmonds had no idea about the degree to which his own dad lived up to the standard. As Hampton Middle School students learned when the Tennessee pastor visited Oct. 23, U.S. Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds...

People with a penchant for penmanship may think that taking a couple of classes will make them calligraphers. “Then once they try it, they realize, wow. This is going to take a bit more work,” Calligraphy Guild Pittsburgh member Debbie Seman said. She is co-chairing the guild’s exhibit in the...

A group of Moss Side Middle School students learned firsthand that Johnny Appleseed may have faced a tough time back in the day. “I was talking with one girl and she told me, ‘I never planted a tree before. It’s more complicated than I thought it would be,’” Lindsay Dill...

Despite an anticipated 2.4% increase in expenditures, Monroeville’s proposed 2024 general fund budget maintains a real estate tax rate of 4 mills. If council adopts the final budget as proposed, the owner of a property valued at $110,600 — the municipal median, according to Allegheny County — will continue to...

Four Bethel Park High School seniors have been recognized for academic excellence by one of the country’s best-known and longest-running scholarship programs. The National Merit Scholarship Corp. has designated Bryce Clancy, Henry Gaston, Lucas Hertzel and Lupe McElvenny as 2024 NMS commended students. Clancy and Gaston have also been named...

Dressed in perhaps the campiest pirate costume imaginable and uttering nonsense like “avast, ye scurvy dogs,” a character called Capt. Calico Drake scowls at a video camera to address his audience. “Welcome once again aboard the Swashbuckler’s Haunt, the most disreputable ship of the Three Rivers and the Seven Seas,”...