May 10, 2024 |
By Adam Reinherz | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(Adam Reinherz photo)
The chief executive officer of Take Action Advocacy Group is questioning the legal authority of school police officers on McKeesport Area School District campuses.
During the district’s open agenda meeting Fawn Walker-Montgomery, CEO and co-founder of Take Action, probed the MASD board about what policies determine when students are cited or arrested.
“My organization gets calls all the time in regards to complaints, with people saying that their children have been arrested here and taken to McKeesport police station,” she said during the citizen comment portion of the meeting. “Some of these kids are in fifth grade or younger. Some of them are high school age.”
“First and foremost, their role is to protect our citizens,” replied board member and safe schools committee member Dan Goughnour. “They’re here to protect students. Now do kids get arrested? Absolutely. That happens. People make mistakes. But they are first and foremost here to protect our students.”
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May 10, 2024 |
By Bonnijean Cooney Adams | Posted in: Entertainment
Chelsea Conway as Blanche Cooke, close friend of Elaine Wheeler, interacts with Steven Gallagher as Elaine's husband John Wheeler in McKeesport Little Theater’s “Night Watch.” (Submitted photo by Jennifer Vertullo/McKeesport Little Theater)
If you go...
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“Night Watch”
Where: McKeesport Little Theater, 1614 Coursin St., (412) 673-1100, www.mckeesportlittletheater.com
When: Friday, May 10, Saturday, May 11, Friday, May 17 and Saturday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays May 11 and May 19 at 2 p.m.
Tickets: $15 for adults, $10 for students, available through the MLT website or by calling the theater.
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It’s taken more than four years, but the mystery thriller “Night Watch” returns to the McKeesport Little Theater stage, with most of the original cast and director back together again.
As part of the 2020 season, the production was shut down that March, along with public gatherings of all kinds, because of restrictions to try to stem the spread of Covid.
“Night Watch” opens today (May 10) and continues this weekend and May 17-19.
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May 09, 2024 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: State & Region
Editor’s note: The writer of this story has a conflict of interest. He is a U.S. Steel shareholder.
A local clean-air advocate argued Wednesday there is only one likely source of a rotten-egg smell that has plagued the Mon-Yough area for weeks — and it’s U.S. Steel’s Clairton Plant.
Patrick Campbell, executive director of the Group Against Smog & Pollution, said that a 2023 study by the Allegheny County Health Department concluded that nearly all hydrogen sulfide, or H2S, pollution in the region is the result of operations at Clairton Plant, which makes coke, a blast-furnace fuel, by super-heating coal to remove impurities.
“We know the source of the stench,” he said in a phone interview. “Something is going on at Clairton Coke Works that’s resulting in these emissions.”
Last week, Allegheny County Councilman Bob Macey convened a meeting of 40 first-responders, representatives from corporations, and local, county and state officials to discuss the ongoing odor. The smell — which seems to come and go — has resulted in countless calls to local fire departments by residents concerned that they have a natural gas leak.
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May 07, 2024 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: State & Region
* Editor’s Note — This story was corrected after publication. Paragraphs marked with * have been edited.
Conflict of interest notice: The writer of this story is a U.S. Steel shareholder.
U.S. Steel said its Mon Valley facilities, including Irvin Plant, seen here from Glassport, are operating normally. A “rotten egg” or “natural gas” smell reported by residents from West Homestead to Clairton. (Tube City Almanac photo)
A persistent smell of rotten eggs or natural gas in the Mon-Yough area has not been traced to leaks in any natural gas pipelines and local companies and officials are having a difficult time tracking its source.*
Last week, personnel from local fire departments, utility providers, U.S. Steel and a variety of agencies met to discuss the smell, which has plagued communities from West Homestead to Clairton.
There is no immediate danger to the public, according to an email from Allegheny County Councilman Bob Macey of West Mifflin, who convened the meeting.
“It’s been going on for a few months at least,” said Nick Paradise, a spokesperson for Peoples Gas, the dominant natural gas supplier in the McKeesport region. “It’s not necessarily every day — it ebbs and flows.”
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May 03, 2024 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
An architect’s rendering shows what the 100 block of Fifth Avenue, Downtown, could look like once the former Penn-McKee Hotel is demolished and replaced with a new structure. (Courtesy Stromberg/Garrigan & Associates, Inc.)
Related story: City Foresees Redevelopment of Hotel Site
A community advocate who works with local residents re-entering the workforce cautioned McKeesport city officials not to repeat the mistakes made in Pittsburgh neighborhoods such as East Liberty and Point Breeze.
Keenon Mikell, executive director of First Step Recovery Homes and founder of BuildNBlock Community Advocacy, told council that plans to redevelop the area around the former Penn-McKee Hotel must be careful not to leave current McKeesport residents behind.
“I don’t want to minimize the effort,” Mikell said. “McKeesport needs that boost to the economy ... But what I’m hearing from the presentation petrifies me, because what I’m seeing is what we’ve seen in East Liberty, which is gentrification.”
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May 03, 2024 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: White Oak News
A witness has described the fall from a third-story window that seriously injured two White Oak children.
A crowdfunding effort is now underway to help raise money to pay medical bills for Quinton Stephens, 6, and his sister, Elody, 4.
Andi Cartwright said she was out for a walk on Monday afternoon along Ohio Avenue near the Lincoln School Apartments when she heard what she called a “horrific” thud and looked to see Quinton Stephens on the ground, struggling to stand up.
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May 03, 2024 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Dom Anselmo of KU Resources holds a conceptual drawing of the redeveloped 100 block of Fifth Avenue — showing a new Penn-McKee Hotel — as McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko watches a presentation by Anna Withrow Leisher, an associate project planner from Stromberg/Garrigan & Associates, Inc. (Tube City Almanac photo)
• Related story: Advocate urges city to avoid gentrification
A group of community planners hired by the city have unveiled an ambitious plan to redevelop a block of Fifth Avenue near the McKees Point Marina for entertainment, retail and restaurants in a program designed to create a destination point along the Great Allegheny Passage biking trail.
The proposal, unfortunately, includes demolition of the historic former Penn-McKee Hotel — a decision that McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko called “heartbreaking” but necessary to move the city forward.
“That’s the bad side of it,” Cherepko said. “The good side of it is that we have some very exciting plans that we believe can come to fruition on that site.”
The plans, presented Wednesday night to McKeesport city council and residents, envision redeveloping two Civil War-era houses, a former flower shop and a former Moose lodge that was later used as a Veterans of Foreign Wars post.
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May 01, 2024 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Announcements
(Tube City Almanac photo)
Local officials are praising the speedy installation of a new traffic signal on Richland Avenue in Dravosburg.
The signal, which allows left turns at the intersection of Fifth Street and Richland, near Italian Village Pizza, is one of several improvements made to Dravosburg Hill in the wake of a crash between a car and a school-bus that claimed the life of a Serra Catholic High School student and seriously injured the bus driver and several other passengers.
The light is currently set to blinking red and yellow but will be operating in a few days, said a spokesperson for State Rep. Nick Pisciottano.
The signal was installed by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, which is currently working on an extension of the Mon-Fayette Expressway — Route 43 — that will cross Richland Avenue not far from the intersection.
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