Joe Napsha stories, Page 82

After several North Huntingdon residents asked the municipality to permit chickens in residential neighborhoods, township officials appeared split over implementing rules that would allow hens to be raised on parcels less than a quarter acre. During an hour-long public hearing Tuesday, about a dozen residents supporting a proposed ordinance to...

Norwin and Franklin Regional high schools are among nine in Pennsylvania to be nationally recognized as a Special Olympics Unified Champion Banner School for their commitment to inclusion in sports, academics, and extracurricular activities. “Receiving this distinction as a Unified Champion School shows that Norwin has made inclusion a priority...

Pennsylvania will start distributing $1,500 in federal unemployment compensation to those without a job since the beginning of August because of the covid-19 pandemic. “Everybody who is currently receiving unemployment (compensation), with very few exceptions, will qualify for that benefit,” state Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak said Tuesday. Unemployed...

Downtown Irwin will be the site of the 13th annual Sing for Their Supper and Craft Show, an annual fundraiser for the Westmoreland County Food Bank, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 12. Those who think they have a great singing voice can entertain by singing along with a...

The state said it will start next week to distribute the $300 weekly checks the Trump administration approved as the replacement for the $600-a-week benefits the jobless received before that funding expired at the end of July. The money from the federal Lost Wages Assistance program will be distributed to...

The debate about keeping chickens in North Huntingdon’s residential areas will continue. Township commissioners scheduled a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Town House, 11279 Center Highway, to hear another round of what has been heated discussion on the subject, including where residents can have chickens and how...

An abandoned mine drainage treatment system meant to remove pollution from a tributary of the Loyalhanna Creek near Rector will be replaced and a highwall at the popular Tour-Ed Mine and Museum in Fawn will be made safer via a state program. “It’s a win-win all around,” said John Wenzel,...

The owner of a popular Somerset County tavern along Route 30 west of Jennerstown was found dead inside the building that was destroyed by fire early Wednesday, state police said. Martin Walat, a co-owner of Walat’s, a bar atop Laurel Hill Summit in Jenners Township, was discovered in the bar...

For some 86,800 unemployed workers in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, the $300 check the Trump administration promised in early August probably won’t be in the mail for another three or four weeks, state officials said. The computer system the state Department of Labor & Industry will use to distribute the...

The first day of class at Norwin Middle School for Avery Waszo was similar to her final day last school year — it was online. “It went well. There was not too much work,” said Avery, a 12-year-old seventh grader from North Huntingdon. Avery was one of 5,300 district students...

North Huntingdon officials this week tabled a review of plans for a new Kenny Ross Mazda dealership, between the Kenny Ross Subaru and the existing Mazda dealership along Route 30. Kenny Ross Automotive Group’s plans for the new building were not ready to be reviewed, Ryan Fonzi, North Huntingdon planning...

The site of the former Penn-Irwin Motel that served motorists looking for a place to stay along Route 30 in North Huntingdon for 73 years could be a place for motorists to buy vehicle parts. Colony Holding Co. LLC of North Huntingdon plans to develop the now-vacant site for an...

Sixteen months after a shake-up in the top leadership at Greensburg-based Excela Health, the health care system has a new chief operating officer. Jeffrey A. Tiesi, a Bethel Park native who was the senior vice president and chief operating officer at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, N.Y., has been...

Pennsylvanians who lost their jobs when covid-19 slammed the economy probably will have to wait weeks before they see a weekly $300 check the Trump administration promised as a replacement for the extra $600 a week they had been receiving until late July, state officials said Monday. The state has...

State and local police responded late Friday night to a report of a gunshot being fired in a residence in Derry Borough. Police had cordoned off an area around the 500 block of West Fourth Avenue around 11:30 p.m. Friday, according to emergency dispatches. Derry police could not be reached...

The state is accepting half a loaf in terms of federal stimulus aid for certain unemployed people because it’s better than getting nothing at all, saying it will apply for the $300 weekly checks that have replaced the $600-a-week benefits that were cut off at the end of July. It...

A motorcyclist was injured late Friday night in a crash along Route 66 near the intersection of Route 356 in Washington Township, the Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety said. Emergency responders set up a landing zone for a medical helicopter shortly after the accident was reported at 11:10 p.m....

Two motorcyclists crashed along Mt. Pleasant Road in South Huntingdon on Friday night, according to a Westmoreland County Public Safety supervisor. Turkeytown firefighters responded the crash, which was reported at about 8:10 p.m. Additional details were not immediately available....

A motorist was trapped in a vehicle that went over a guardrail and overturned off Route 356 in Allegheny Township on Friday night, according to dispatches from Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety. Emergency responders were at the scene around 7:45 p.m. and were cutting brush around the vehicle to...

Despite not receiving state aid for hazard pay for frontline workers, a McCandless-based nonprofit will give its employees at 140 community group homes across the region an extra $3 an hour until late October — an initiative that will cost the company about $2 million. Passavant Memorial Homes Family of...