October 14, 2021 |
By Bonnijean Cooney Adams | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Drum major Josh Wos leads the Tiger Marching Band in fine tuning "SOLARbration!" for its exhibition at the Oct. 16 home show. (Bonnijean Cooney Adams photo for Tube City Almanac)
After months of preparation, McKeesport Band, Orchestra, and Guard Boosters will host the Tournament of Bands Competition home show on Saturday.
It will feature performances by 10 high school bands and and exhibition by the home band of its popular “SOLARbration!” The show starts at 5 p.m. at Weigle-Schaffer Stadium, 1960 Eden Park Blvd.
“This season has been a very memorable one with the return of band competitions and our home show showcasing the music talents of so many young people,” McKeesport Area High School Tiger Marching Band director Drew DeCarlo said.
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October 12, 2021 |
By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Robin Marshall-Kelly points out the overgrowth in the empty lot next to her home on North Grandview Avenue. (Vickie Babyak photo for Tube City Almanac)
For many residents of McKeesport, the battle against blight is one worth fighting, even though the struggle can feel overwhelming at times.
“Help us stay in McKeesport,” said Robin Marshall-Kelly, a North Grandview Avenue homeowner. “I own my home, and with all the abandoned properties, sometimes, I feel like I’m losing.”
Jackie Blake has lived in McKeesport for 27 years and owns her home in Grandview.
“My friends keep asking me when am I going to move, but I have too much invested in my home,” Blake said. “I don’t want to move.”
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October 12, 2021 |
By Sarah Turnbull | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport Mayor Mike Cherepko: “You have to attack this issue from every angle and focus on what will have the greatest impact on the city as a whole.” The blight removal program has received “an overwhelming amount of positive feedback,” he says. (Vickie Babyak photo for Tube City Almanac)
When Mike Cherepko was elected mayor of McKeesport in 2011, he knew he wanted to fulfill his campaign motto “Working Together for a Better McKeesport” specifically by cleaning up blight.
Traditionally defined as the decline of an urban area due to neglect or age, blight is one of the key issues facing the Cherepko administration.
“Blight is any structure that becomes an eyesore, or poses a health or fire risk – like rodents, mold or weeds,” Cherepko said. “It’s my biggest challenge as mayor.”
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October 07, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
State Rep. Austin Davis speaks about the COVID-19 vaccine during a press conference April 8 at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Downtown. (Submitted photo courtesy state Rep. Austin Davis)
The 35th Legislative District has one of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in Pennsylvania, state Rep. Austin Davis said Wednesday.
Davis, who has represented the district since 2018, urged residents who have not yet been vaccinated to get their shots.
“We simply cannot afford to repeat a surge of the virus like last winter and put even more stress on our healthcare providers, businesses, schools and communities, which have already been through so much in the last 18 months,” Davis said.
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October 07, 2021 |
By Siana Emery | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport Area School District and Pennsylvania Coach Lines traded accusations this week in their ongoing dispute over the bus company’s inability to provide enough drivers on certain routes.
Attorneys for both sides were scheduled to present arguments Thursday before Allegheny County Judge Arnold Klein in Pittsburgh.
In a court filing Tuesday, attorneys for Pennsylvania Coach Lines accused the school district of deliberately trying to breach its contract with the bus company.
The district responded Wednesday by again asking Klein to grant its motion for an emergency injunction.
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October 07, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
The head of a McKeesport-based charity that helps homeless men struggling with drug and alcohol addiction told city council on Wednesday his agency is not receiving the local support it needs.
During a public comment period, Keith Giles, founder and chief executive officer of First Step Recovery Homes Inc., said he has asked several times for financial support from city officials and the McKeesport Community Fund — a charitable foundation on which several city officials serve — without a response.
“Please understand that we at First Step have been hanging on by a thread,” Giles said. “We are a viable entity in the city, and want to continue our much-needed service, but financial assistance is much needed.”
But Mayor Michael Cherepko told Giles the city has responded to First Step’s requests. “You just didn’t like what I had to say,” he said.
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October 06, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Conflict of Interest Note: The author of this story has a conflict of interest. See editor’s note at the end of the story.
These buildings, seen from the McKeesport Transportation Center on Lysle Boulevard, will be demolished under a contract awarded Wednesday by McKeesport city council. (Tube City Almanac file photo)
Seven more buildings in the city’s Downtown business district — including the former G.C. Murphy Co. home office and Helmstadter’s Department Store — are one step closer to the wrecking ball.
McKeesport City Council on Wednesday by 6-0 vote awarded a $644,000 contract to Advanced Builders Inc. of Perryopolis, Fayette County, to demolish 513, 515, 519, 521, 523, 527 and 531 Fifth Ave. Councilman Tim Brown was absent.
“We’re excited to get through this,” McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said. “This is a contract for probably two-thirds of the block, across the street from city hall. We wanted to rip down the entire block at once, and we have one individual who’s holding us up.”
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October 06, 2021 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Policing and the community will be the focus of this year’s Crossing Bridges summit at Penn State Greater Allegheny in McKeesport.
The sessions will build off of issues raised in a report delivered by the Community Taskforce for Police Reform, which was convened in 2020 by Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto.
The first session, scheduled for 3 p.m. Oct. 14, will be titled “Examining Police Reform: Conversations about the Pittsburgh Community Taskforce for Police Reform and Its Implications for the Mon Valley.”
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October 05, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Trulieve Cannabis Corp., which acquired McKeesport-based PurePenn in 2020, is purchasing three buildings and approximately 37 acres of property in the city’s industrial park, RIDC announced Tuesday. (Tube City Almanac photo)
A medical-marijuana producer has committed $10.4 million toward expanding its operations in the city’s industrial park, with the possibility of adding 800 jobs.
Trulieve Cannabis Corp., which purchased McKeesport-based PurePenn in 2020, is acquiring approximately 37 acres of property and three buildings, Regional Industrial Development Corp. announced Tuesday.
The purchase includes McKeesport Commons I — the former EchoStar call center — and McKeesport Commons II, a vacant building next door. Trulieve also is acquiring the guard shack located at the Locust Street railroad crossing, RIDC said.
Discussions about selling the two McKeesport Commons buildings have been ongoing “ever since the acquisition of PurePenn by Trulieve,” said Timothy White, senior vice president for development at RIDC. “They’ve obviously had some aggressive expansion plans and they’ve been looking at McKeesport as a place to expand and grow.”
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October 04, 2021 |
By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Tristian Banks and Calise Johnson, two of the YouthCast photographers, stand in front of the mural unveiled on Saturday. (Vickie Babyak photo for Tube City Almanac)
A new mural decorating McKeesport City Hall features the faces of ordinary residents, as captured by youth photographers.
The mural, unveiled at 12 noon Saturday, is a collage of photos captured over the past two years by teen-agers from McKeesport’s YouthCAST program with guidance from Martha Rial, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who oversees Point Park University’s McKeesport Community Newsroom.
YouthCAST members have been talking with residents, giving elderly people roses and learning about photography as they made portraits of McKeesport residents from different backgrounds and of different ages.
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