Condemned signs have been removed from the Executive Building, Downtown, whose new owner, Jonathan Stark, has four potential tenants ready for the first floor. (Tube City Almanac photo)
Although the “Condemned” notices were recently removed from the doors of the Executive Building on Fifth Avenue, don’t expect to see a movie at the Quad Cinemas in the basement any time soon.
The seats and projection equipment are long gone, but the four auditoriums are still there, and they’re still plagued by the same problem that forced the theaters to close in 1980 — they’re prone to flooding.
“They’re more than 20 feet below street level,” said Jonathan Stark, who purchased the building in April 2020.
While the old theater spaces are likely to stay vacant, four tenants have signed letters of intent for the storefronts along Fifth Avenue, Stark said.
The Downtown park-and-ride lot will be closed through the end of the year while Port Authority of Allegheny County makes improvements to the facility. (Tube City Almanac photo)
The McKeesport Transportation Center will close Saturday for the remainder of the year as Allegheny County’s transit agency begins the second phase of improvements to the facility.
A spokesperson for Port Authority of Allegheny County said the work will include four new bus shelters with benches, 19 additional parking spaces, two bus ticket vending machines and improved access for bicycle riders who want to use the Great Allegheny Passage trail.
In addition, a restroom building will be constructed for bus drivers and the sewerage system at the site will be improved to accommodate more rainwater runoff through use of an underground retention tank.
Corry Sanders speaks to members of the McKeesport Tigers men’s varsity basketball team. The longtime barbershop owner now works for the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office and for Pittsburgh’s Center for Victims. (Mike Manko photo, special to Tube City Almanac)
Corry Sanders went to the McKeesport Senior High School gymnasium last week with a simple message for the men’s varsity basketball team.
“Mistakes are very, very costly nowadays,” Sanders told about 20 members of the squad on Thursday night. “You might not be blessed with an opportunity to choose again.
“This is not a ‘Call of Duty’ game on Xbox, where you get a reset button,” he said.
A former McKeesport city councilwoman is encouraging supporters to call officials and voice their displeasure after Wednesday’s council meeting was closed to the public.
In a video posted to Facebook Live, Fawn Walker-Montgomery, co-founder of Take Action Mon Valley and a candidate for state representative in 2018, said Wednesday night she planned to file a complaint against the city for allegedly violating the state’s Open Meetings Law, commonly called the “Sunshine Act.”
“There are so many violations that are happening here right now,” Walker-Montgomery said.
McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said the decision to close the meeting was made due to the sharply increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the region.
“This is only going to happen for a couple of months,” he said. “We’re hoping no more than two or three meetings before we’re in the clear.”
A strong odor reported by residents of McKeesport, North Versailles Twp. and White Oak on Tuesday night was not a natural gas leak, a spokesman said.
Allegheny County emergency personnel said firefighters were dispatched to several locations along Route 48 just after 7 p.m. after 9-1-1 callers said they smelled natural gas.
But Barry Kukovich, spokesman for Peoples Gas, said there were no gas leaks or any service problems reported in Route 48 corridor on Tuesday night.
Natural gas is odorless, and the “gas smell” actually comes from a chemical called methyl mercaptan, which is designed to help customers detect a leak.
Kukovich said that it’s possible that a truck carrying mercaptan, or a similar chemical, passed through the area on Tuesday night, but the smell was not related to Peoples Gas.
Something was missing from the Christmas season this year.
McKeesport’s “Tree Man,” Don Spang, passed away July 30 at UPMC McKeesport Hospital. Spang was the owner and operator of Spang’s Landscaping and Tree Farms for more than 54 years.
For more than a half-century, beginning each November, Spang could be found along Hartman Street in the city, helping local residents pick out the perfect Christmas tree.
Writer Emily Pidgeon talked to Spang last Christmas. Our deepest sympathies to his family and many, many friends.
Herb Spang and an employee prepare to bale a customer’s tree at the family’s lot on Hartman Street in McKeesport. The Spangs have been selling Christmas trees at the location for nearly 60 years. (Emily Pidgeon photo special to Tube City Almanac)
(Originally published Dec. 20, 2019)
Selling Christmas trees during the holidays may seem like a fun and easy way to make a buck, but after talking to some local tree lot owners, you may think differently.
“We have to fight snakes, spiders, the sun, the weather — everything, you know,” said Don Spang, 88, of White Oak, owner of Spang’s Trees on Hartman Street in McKeesport.
Spang and his brother Herb, 79, along with other family members and employees, are celebrating 59 years of selling Christmas trees in the very same location.
Spang said he’s sold as many as 5,000 trees in one season. These days, the lot sells closer to 500 trees.
Correction: This story was corrected after publication. See editor’s note.
As students gear up for winter break, some McKeesport Area parents are left wondering in what form school will resume in January.
While cases of COVID-19 continue to be confirmed in students and faculty across the district, in-person classes are expected to resume on Jan. 4.
All classes are virtual this week.
As of Dec. 22, McKeesport Area School District has had 77 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among students and faculty since the school year began on Sept. 2. Most of those cases have been reported since November.
A Canadian company that specializes in medical marijuana has completed its acquisition of McKeesport-based PurePenn.
Trulieve Cannabis Corp., which has its U.S. offices in Quincy, Fla., near Tallahassese, also recently acquired the parent company of Solevo Wellness, a medical marijuana dispensary.
PurePenn began operations in late 2017 in the Industrial Center of McKeesport, the RIDC-operated industrial park on part of the former U.S. Steel National Plant property.
The company, which grows cannabis plants and extracts chemicals from them for medicinal purposes, is currently completing construction of a 90,000-square-foot production facility expected to begin operations in early 2021.
Western Pennsylvania communities are facing many of the same challenges today as they did decades ago — and if leaders don’t focus on the root causes of those problems, the challenges will persist for generations into the future.
That was the message of speakers participating in a forum Thursday organized by Penn State Greater Allegheny.
“We tend to place the blame on the people, instead of on the problem, or the institutions or policies that created those policies,” said Dannai Wilson, program manager of maternal and child health with the Allegheny County Health Department. “It’s not a people’s issue. It’s a systemic issue.”
Wilson was one of four participants in the forum that discussed the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of racial inequities for women of color as part of the McKeesport campus’s annual “Crossing Bridges Summit.”
McKeesport officials have posted a video of this year’s Festival of Trees in Renziehausen Park and now are encouraging residents to submit photos of their own holiday trees to be part of a virtual festival.
A slimmed-down Festival of Trees—the 35th annual event—concluded on Monday evening at Jacob Woll Pavilion. Past events have included 75 to 90 hand-decorated Christmas trees representing various Mon Valley groups, churches and organizations.
This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event had only about 40 trees, and many of the usual amenities—including refreshments and hay rides through the park—were canceled.
