Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 91
Expansion approved for Indian Creek Water Treatment Plant
Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County will spend $18 million to expand its Indian Creek Water Treatment Plant near Connellsville, which supplies water to about half of the agency’s more than 121,000 customers. Authority officials said the construction project, expected to begin this spring, will allow an additional 10 million gallons...
GOP commissioners reject defective mail-in ballots
Westmoreland County’s Republican commissioners on Friday declined to vote on the status of 343 mail-in ballots that were not properly dated and a separate batch of 375 ballots delivered to the courthouse by the Postal Service nine minutes after the 8 p.m. deadline on Election Day. The move came during...
Westmoreland County opens up second round of covid-relief grants
The application period for Westmoreland County small businesses and nonprofit organizations seeking additional grants for reimbursements to cover coronavirus-related expenses opened Friday. Requests will be considered on a first-come, first-serve basis through the end of the year. County commissioners said small businesses will be first in line for grants of...
Virus cases slow at Westmoreland Manor
Coronavirus cases continue to mount at Westmoreland Manor, but the number of new infections has slowed in recent weeks. County officials said Thursday that, over the last two weeks, five residents and four employees have tested positive for the virus at the nursing home in Hempfield. With those most recent...
Virus outbreak slows ballot count in Westmoreland County
A coronavirus outbreak in the Westmoreland County Elections Bureau is slowing the provisional ballot count as officials scrambled Thursday to find additional volunteers to complete the work as the deadline to certify results from the Nov. 3 election nears. Commissioner Doug Chew said six county workers affiliated with the Elections...
Westmoreland County ballot challenges to be heard Friday
Westmoreland commissioners will serve as the county’s elections board Friday to begin adjudication of challenges to mail-in and provisional ballots cast during the Nov. 3 election. Commissioners spent Monday and Tuesday reviewing 816 mail-in ballots that arrived at the courthouse between 8 p.m. on Election Day and 5 p.m. Nov....
Lawsuit alleges sexual assault at Geibel Catholic Junior-Senior High School
The parents of student at Geibel Junior/Senior High School in Connellsville filed a federal lawsuit against the school, two administrators and a former student, alleging repeated incidents of sexual assault and harassment never were properly investigated. According to the six-count lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh,...
Westmoreland courtroom closed due to pandemic case
Westmoreland County Court Administrator Amy DeMatt said a coronavirus outbreak hit the county criminal courts. As a result, cases scheduled Monday before one judge were canceled, though other courtrooms continued to operate as scheduled. Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani and his staff were not at the courthouse on Monday....
Westmoreland debates how to count mail-in ballots that arrived minutes late on Election Day
Westmoreland County election officials said Monday that 375 mail-in ballots delivered to the courthouse nine minutes late on Election Day will not initially be added to the vote totals. County commissioners, acting as the elections board, approved the start of the process to review and count all 816 ballots that...
Interim warden appointed for Westmoreland County Prison
George Lowther knows about every inch of the Westmoreland County Prison, having started at the lockup 28 years ago as a part-time guard and working his way up to the deputy warden position. On Friday, Lowther, 60, of Latrobe, was named interim warden. He will replace Warden John Walton, who...
Westmoreland County elections worker tests positive for coronavirus
A temporary employee working this week in the Westmoreland County Elections Bureau tested positive for coronavirus. Commissioner Doug Chew said county officials were notified Thursday night of the diagnosis and that human resources staff was expected to begin investigatory work to determine if any other elections bureau employees are required...
Westmoreland County counts mail-in ballots
Former Vice President Joe Biden picked up a net gain of 640 votes in Westmoreland County on Friday as a final batch of mail-in ballots were counted and added to the totals from Tuesday’s election. County election officials spent the last two days reviewing as many as 4,000 ballots that...
Westmoreland officials deciding fate of 4K questionable ballots; 3,600 provisional ballots to be counted Friday
Westmoreland County elections officials on Thursday night continued to individually review by hand 4,000 potentially defective mail-in ballots that were set aside earlier this week. Elections Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani said it appears most of those ballots looked at so far have been approved for counting with only a small...
Joyce holds big lead for second term in Congress
U.S. Rep. John Joyce, R-Blair County, appears poised to win a second term in office. On Wednesday afternoon, Joyce held a commanding lead over Democrat Todd Rowley of Donegal Township in Westmoreland County. According to unofficial results with more than 92% of state precincts reporting, Joyce received nearly 78% of...
Westmoreland vote count continues, showing Trump with expected big lead
President Trump is on his way to another big victory in Westmoreland County. According to unofficial results, with more than 77% of the vote counted, Trump continued to hold a commanding lead over former Vice President Joe Biden among county voters. With all 307 precincts reporting votes cast in-person on...
Davanzo defeats Prah in rematch for 58th District state House seat
Republican incumbent state Rep. Eric Davanzo has defeated Democrat Robert Prah Jr. in the race for a full two-year term representing the 58th state House District in central and southern Westmoreland County, according to unofficial results from Westmoreland County. With all votes counted, Davanzo received slightly more than 63 percent...
Reschenthaler maintains commanding lead to retain seat in 14th Congressional District
Republican incumbent Rep. Guy Reschenthaler of Peters defeated Democratic challenger Bill Marx in his bid to hold on for a second term representing the newly formed 14th Congressional District, which includes a large portion of western Westmoreland County, along with portions of Greene, Washington and Fayette. Though some mail-in ballots...
Covid-infected family votes at Westmoreland County Courthouse under special protocols
Westmoreland County elections officials took special precautions Tuesday as a family infected with the coronavirus appeared at the courthouse to cast ballots in the 2020 election. Two parents and their adult son called ahead to make arrangements to vote, said Commissioner Doug Chew. “I was the designated covid commissioner and...
Westmoreland County precincts busy, few problems reported
Voters who arrived at some Westmoreland County precincts Tuesday morning to surrender their mail-in ballots and instead vote in person were erroneously required to cast provisional ballots, according to county officials. County commissioners, during an update Tuesday afternoon, said some local judges of elections struggled with interpretations of Pennsylvania’s new...
Safety measures in place at Westmoreland polls
Voters who head out to the polls to cast in-person ballots will be safe, officials said Monday. All 307 voting precincts will be open Tuesday and safety measures were installed as the number of coronavirus cases continues to mount in Pennsylvania and Westmoreland County. Polls will be open from 7...
Covid infection doesn’t halt Westmoreland County’s Election Day preparations
Westmoreland County’s Elections Bureau office remained opened Monday after officials determined there was no widespread exposure to the coronavirus a day after an employee tested positive. That diagnosis was just another obstacle ahead of Tuesday’s election as officials continue to work through challenges related to mail-in ballots and the pandemic...
When will election results be known for Westmoreland, Allegheny, Pennsylvania?
Gov. Tom Wolf recalled that when he won office in 2014 and reelection four years later, media reports unofficially declared him the victor within minutes after polls closed at 8 p.m. “Ain’t happening this time,” Wolf said, acknowledging that Pennsylvania’s vote count is expected to take not minutes or hours...
Westmoreland County elections office extends hours, will remain open this weekend
With more than 22,000 mail-in ballots outstanding, Westmoreland County will keep its elections bureau office open until 8 p.m. each day through Nov. 3. The extended hours will start Fridayand continue through Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, including Saturday and Sunday. “Our concern is making sure every person who needs...
Penn Hills man pleads guilty to selling drugs that killed Lower Burrell man
A Penn Hills man will serve up to nine years in prison for selling fentanyl-laced heroin to a Lower Burrell man who died of an overdose in 2018. Christopher Krishawn Napper, 26, pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony count of drug delivery resulting in death and another drug offense in...
Excela projects funded with $115M in bonds issued by Westmoreland County authority
Westmoreland County commissioners this week approved issuing up to $115 million in revenue bonds to be used by Excela Health to pay for capital improvement projects and to expand its service into new markets. Acting as the Westmoreland Industrial Development Authority, the commissioners unanimously signed off on the tax-exempt bonds,...
