City Honors Five for ‘Living the Message’

February 12, 2020 |

By Submitted Report | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

Recipients of “Living the Message” awards pose with state Sen. Jim Brewster during the Feb. 5 McKeesport City Council meeting. From left, Jordon Payne (“Hope”); Brian Dinkfelt (“Respect”); Jamie Brewster-Filotei (co-recipient, “Love”); and, JoAnne Rodgers (“Dignity”). Not pictured: Mindy Sturgess, co-recipient, “Love.” (Nick Zurawsky photo for Tube City Almanac)


Four times per year, McKeesport honors community members who exemplify the words of the “McKeesport Message” of ”Respect, Dignity, Hope and Love.”

“Living the Message” awards are presented by the McKeesport Message Committee, Committee, a subgroup of McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko’s Select Committee on Crime and Violence, which invites the public to nominate community members.

Using 250 words or fewer, describe how the individual of your choice embodies one of the four words.

For more information, contact the mayor’s office at 412-675-5020, ext. 605. Nominations can be mailed to the mayor’s assistant Jennifer Vertullo, 500 Fifth Avenue, McKeesport, PA 15132, or emailed to jen.vertullo@mckeesport-pa.gov. The deadline for the next round of nominations is Feb. 17.

 
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Pioneering School Nurse Stays Active in Community

February 12, 2020 |

By Nick Zurawsky | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

JoAnne Rodgers, longtime school nurse in McKeesport Area School District, receives her “Living the Message” award from McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko. (Tube City Almanac photo)


READ MORE: Profiles of the other honorees for February 2020, Jordon Payne (“Hope”), Brian Dinkfelt (“Respect”), and Jamie Brewster-Filotei and Mindy Sturgess (co-recipients, “Love”)


When JoAnne Rodgers was growing up in McKeesport, her family instilled in her the value of hard work and a college education. But in those days, she said, there were really only two career pathways available to a young Black woman — nursing and teaching.

Inspired by the example of an aunt in Tuskegee, Ala., who worked as a nurse — and was willing to help pay for her education — Rodgers entered nursing school.

In 1971, she became the first Black school nurse hired by the McKeesport Area School District. At 82, she’s still on the job at McKeesport Area High School.

This month at McKeesport City Council, Rodgers was honored with a “Living the Message” award from McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko for upholding the value of “Dignity” by “providing a healing and helping hand to the community.”

 
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Five Communities Share Benefits
Under U.S. Steel, ACHD Settlement

February 11, 2020 |

By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Liberty Borough News, McKeesport and Region News

(Brett Ciccotelli photo via Flickr. Licensed under Creative Commons.)


Five local communities will share benefits from a $3 million trust fund as part of a settlement reached between U.S. Steel and Allegheny County Health Department over alleged pollution violations at Clairton Plant.

The agreement, announced Monday, also commits the company to investing $200 million in upgraded emissions controls, and creates a community advisory panel that will meet quarterly with U.S. Steel to discuss concerns. It does not require U.S. Steel to admit any guilt for recent air-quality problems.

Under the terms of the agreement, U.S. Steel has agreed to create a community benefit trust for Clairton, Glassport, Liberty, Lincoln and Port Vue that will be independently administered by Pittsburgh-based Smithfield Trust Co.

Proceeds from the fund must be spent on “environmental and/or public health” benefits, but are not restricted to air quality related projects.

 
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Cash Named to Basketball Hall of Fame

February 11, 2020 |

By Staff Reports | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News, Sports

During a 2012 event at the McKeesport Palisades, basketball star Swin Cash posed with McKeesport area students who were helped by her charity, Cash for Kids. (Tube City Almanac file photo by John Barna)


McKeesport native and two-time Olympic gold medalist Swin Cash has been named to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

Cash will be inducted June 13 in Knoxville, Tenn., along with her Seattle Sonics teammate Lauren Jackson; players Debbie Brock and Tamika Catchings; Carol Callan, director of the U.S. women’s national team; former NCAA vice president Sue Donohoe; and ESPN vice president Carol Stiff.

In a statement released Monday via Facebook, Cash said she was “humbled and honored” and congratulated the other new hall of famers.

“Thank you to the committee, my family, coaches, teammates, my hometown of McKeesport ... and every single fan that loves our game and supports it!” Cash said. “To all of the young ladies like me that were growing up ... as my mom always told me, ‘don’t quit!’ Do what you love and love what you do young queens!”

 
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Groundhog Band Festival Unites
Musicians from Four Area Schools

February 06, 2020 |

By Bonnijean Cooney Adams | Posted in: Entertainment, McKeesport and Region News

If you go...

   

Groundhog Band Festival

Where: McKeesport Area High School Auditorium, 1960 Eden Park Blvd.

When: 7 p.m. Monday (Feb. 10) Friday (Feb. 7)

Tickets: $2 for adults, $1 for students

UPDATED: Due to inclement weather and a number of school delays, this event has been moved from Friday (Feb. 7) to Monday (Feb. 10).

Former McKeesport Area Band Director George Lepsch returns as guest conductor when the Groundhog Band Festival continues a tradition now involving four area high school symphonic bands.

On Monday (Feb. 10), musicians from host McKeesport Area will be joined by participants from Serra Catholic, Clairton, and West Mifflin Area following a practice that culminates in a 7 p.m. concert in the high school auditorium.

McKeesport Area Band Director Drew DeCarlo said his predecessor Karen Cole started the festival eight years ago as an opportunity for neighboring band members to join forces performing a variety of pieces and to expand their experience meeting other high school musicians.

 
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Model RR Club Marks 70th With Free Public Event

January 30, 2020 |

By Chris Baumann | Posted in: Announcements, McKeesport and Region News

(Submitted photo courtesy McKeesport Model Railroad Club)

If you go...

   

70th Anniversary Open House

Where: McKeesport Model Railroad Club, 2209 Walnut St.

When: 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday

Tickets: Free

More information: 412-673-1100 or http://www.mckeesportmodelrr.com/

The McKeesport Model Railroad Club will celebrate its 70th anniversary with a free public open house from 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday at its headquarters, 2209 Walnut St.

The event will include the presentation of a commemorative plaque from the office of state Sen. Jim Brewster.

“I’m still learning a lot of the history myself,” said George Sharp Jr., club president for the last two years. The original founders “were basically a group of (World War II) veterans with a common interest” in model railroading.

According to the club’s website, the club started with “a small local newspaper ad in December 1949 [that] called for interested persons to meet ... to discuss the formation of a local model railroad club.”

 
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Speaker: MLK’s Legacy Includes Fighting
for Social, Economic Justice

January 25, 2020 |

By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

Jeff Ballou, Penn State alumnus and news editor at Al Jazeera’s English language channel, speaks to Jacqueline Edmondson, chancellor of the Greater Allegheny campus, following a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech on Monday. (Tube City Almanac photo)


A speaker at Penn State Greater Allegheny on Martin Luther King Jr. Day challenged students — and the university itself — to take a bigger stand against economic inequality, including the rising cost of a college education.

Jeff Ballou, former president of the National Press Club, a Penn State graduate and a Pittsburgh native, said Monday that modern audiences make a mistake when they “freeze” Martin Luther King Jr. at a single moment in time — his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington in 1963.

“You think everyone celebrates Dr. King,” said Ballou, a former student at the McKeesport campus. “Well, not in 1967.”

 
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Penn State Students Give Up Day Off to Perform Service

January 21, 2020 |

By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

Penn State students from five Pittsburgh-area campuses, including Greater Allegheny in McKeesport, volunteered at six Mon-Yough area charitable organizations on Martin Luther King Day, including Auberle. (Vickie Babyak photo, special to Tube City Almanac)


In 1965, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told students at Oberlin College, “The time is always right to do what is right.”

When Penn State Greater Allegheny Campus reached out to the Pauline Auberle Home in McKeesport a couple of weeks ago, to find out of students could work on a service project during Martin Luther King Day 2020, the time was right, said Kayla McGrath, volunteer coordinator at Auberle.

“Penn State and Auberle have worked together before but this is the first time we’ve done this type of activity,” McGrath said. “The university was looking for organizations to plan volunteer service on a larger scale inspired by Martin Luther King Day and asked if we’d like to host volunteers.”

 
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One Displaced in Evans Ave. House Fire

January 15, 2020 |

By Staff Reports | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

The cause of this fire Tuesday afternoon in the 1800 block of Evans Avenue remains under investigation, a fire official said. (Photo courtesy McKeesport Fire Department)


One man was displaced when fire damaged his Evans Avenue home on Tuesday afternoon.

McKeesport fire Chief Jeff Tomovcsik said crews were dispatched at 12:09 p.m. after callers reported smoke and flames coming from the rear of a single-story house at the corner of Evans Avenue and Grant Street.

When police and firefighters arrived, they found the back porch of the house fully engulfed in fire, he said.

A second alarm was sounded and additional fire crews from Allegheny County Airport, Glassport, Liberty Borough, Vigilant Hose (Port Vue) and White Oak No. 1 responded to the scene, Tomovcsik said.

 
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U.S. Steel Promises to Work With
County on Inversion Study, Response

January 14, 2020 |

By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

EDITED to remove typo.

U.S. Steel’s Clairton Plant. (Photo by Mark Dixon/Blue Lens, licensed under Creative Commons)


U.S. Steel has promised to help Allegheny County Health Department develop a plan to predict when weather conditions will make air pollution worse, and respond more quickly.

The health department’s proposal was announced in the wake of a so-called “temperature inversion” that left the Mon Valley and much of Allegheny County covered in smog during the Christmas holidays.

“We know from research that inversions are expected to get worse with climate change,” said Ronald Sugar, interim director of the health department. “We’re seeing that first-hand here.”

A local environmental group welcomed U.S. Steel’s participation, but questioned why the corporation didn’t take voluntary steps to reduce its own output during the inversion Dec. 21 to 26, when pollution was thick in the air.

 
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