Laurels & lances: Rodeo, resignation and graduation

Laurel: To a wild ride. Westmoreland Mall might not seem like the Wild West, but you wouldn’t have known it over the weekend.

The Pro Bulls & Barrels Rodeo and Concert — coordinated by Live! Casino — took place in a makeshift arena in an empty parking lot at the mall. It was two days of barrel racing and bull riding and other fun that doesn’t occur regularly in the area. There were 40 bulls on hand and 30 horses.

A rodeo is not always a safe activity, especially when it comes to bulls that have no interest in being ridden. Two men were injured in different interactions with the animals. One was flown by medical helicopter to a trauma center.

However, the event was well organized and smoothly run and drew thousands of people to a patch of asphalt that is usually empty. That sounds like a good trial run for other entertainment events staged by the casino, something general manager Sean Sullivan is considering.

“We’re going to sit down and challenge ourselves to continue to provide fantastic, unique entertainment for the region, for Westmoreland County,” he said.

Lance: To short staff. Police departments are having a rough go when it comes to keeping their numbers up and vacancies down.

New Kensington Police Department is experiencing that with a combination of resignations and retirement. Detective Sgt. Dino DiGiacobbe is retiring after 20 years. As he leaves, so do two patrol officers, Jose Pantoja and Christian Leonarski.

It’s an ongoing problem that many departments across the state and the country are facing. The problem is complicated by the fact that police officer isn’t a job just anyone can fill, making them trickier to replace than a retail clerk or food service worker. The city is planning to replace the departing men, but it could take up to six months to make it happen.

Laurel: To making it through. This is a season of graduation, but one recent ceremony wasn’t about leaving high school or college. It was about finishing a program at the Westmoreland County Courthouse.

Lindsie Spillar, 26, of Greensburg and Laura Dick, 49, formerly of North Huntingdon, became the most recent graduates of the county’s drug court program. They completed a two-year process and are moving on to lives very different from the ones that first brought them to the courthouse.

This was the 13th such graduation since the program was instituted in 2015, and it is something that works to make a difference instead of just fill a jail cell or levy a fine.

“This is the only thing that changed my life,” Dick said.