April 05, 2019 |
By Mary Shelly | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Resident Mark Dixon speaks to Pittsburgh City Council during a special meeting convened to discuss the region's air quality. (Mary Shelly photo/Point Park News Service)
The number of people dying in Allegheny County from exposure to air pollution is comparable to the numbers of people dying from opioid abuse and addiction, said a Carnegie Mellon University professor who has studied air pollution’s effects.
“There (are) approximately 250 attributable deaths each year in Allegheny County from exposure to fine particulate matter, PM 2.5,” Neil Donahue, CMU professor of chemical engineering, chemistry and engineering and public policy, told Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday.
“If you monetize that, that corresponds to about $2.5 billion a year in environmental damages,” he said. “It’s a calamity of the highest order.
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The special meeting between members of Pittsburgh City Council, representatives of the Allegheny County Health Department and environmental leaders, was prompted by recent issues at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Plant.
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April 04, 2019 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Conflict of Interest Note: The writer has a conflict of interest. He is a U.S. Steel stockholder.
(Photo by Mark Dixon, Blue Lens, LLC, via Flickr. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.)
U.S. Steel has completed repairs to pollution-control equipment at its Clairton Plant ahead of schedule.
But the announcement Thursday by a company spokesperson comes after several days during which federal authorities said air quality measured at the Liberty Borough monitor was the worst in the entire United States.
On Monday, the Allegheny County Health Department issued a new fine of nearly $708,000 against U.S. Steel for what it called "continued emissions problems" at Clairton Plant during the second half of 2018.
The county has now issued fines of more than $2 million against U.S. Steel since June 2018. In February, PennEnvironment and the Clean Air Council notified U.S. Steel that they intend to sue the company in federal court for allegedly violating the Clean Air Act.
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April 03, 2019 |
By Richard Finch Jr. | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
A soft-spoken seventh grader and a respected community leader last week told the McKeesport Area School Board they support the creation of a black student union.
The concept was first discussed in detail at the Feb. 27 board meeting.
During the public comment portion of the board's monthly meeting, Stephanie, a seventh-grade student, told the board that a black student union would help provide kids with skills in dealing with the consequences of their actions.
“You may ask why we want it,” she said. “It's not that we want it, we need it. It teaches kids right from wrong. If you take that away from us, we have nothing.”
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April 03, 2019 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Graduate students from the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University toured the Mon Valley on Saturday as part of a project to study technological challenges to redeveloping the region.
Led by Rick Stafford, distinguished service professor of public policy, the students in the course titled "Societal Consequences of Technological Change" visited sites in Braddock, Duquesne and McKeesport, stopping for lunch at the Tube City Center for Business & Innovation (the former McKeesport Daily News Building).
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April 02, 2019 |
By Richard Finch Jr. | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
The McKeesport Area School Board has lent its support to proposed legislation that would change the way cyber-charter school tuition is collected.
At the board's March 27 meeting, the board approved a resolution in support of state House Bill 526 and state Senate Bill 34. If passed, the bills would require families to pay out-of-pocket tuition for their children to attend a cyber-charter school if a similar program was offered by their home district.
Paying cyber-charter school tuition can cost the McKeesport Area School District “possibly over a million dollars (for) some of the students who are out of the district, in other cyber-charter school systems,” Superintendent Mark Holtzman Jr. said.
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March 21, 2019 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(Tube City Almanac file photo from 2007.)
The owner of a popular pro wrestling federation that's celebrating its 25th anniversary this year is looking to grow in McKeesport.
Pro Wrestling eXpress, or PWX, is planning to move into digital media education and training aspiring wrestlers, said owner and co-founder Jim Miller.
Along with the city, PWX is seeking an Allegheny County Community Infrastructure and Tourism Fund grant to demolish the abandoned St. Stephen's Roman Catholic Church on Beacon Street. PWX has its studio, headquarters and ring in the former Catholic school --- now dubbed "The Battleground" --- adjoining the church.
"It’s been such a blight and I’ve done nothing but chase out squatters and druggies," Miller said.
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March 12, 2019 |
By Richard Finch Jr. | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport Area School Board members will meet with people who have pressed the district to create a Black Student Union.
The decision came after former city councilwoman Fawn Walker-Montgomery and others urged the district during the school board's Feb. 27 meeting to create the group as a safe space for students to talk about racial issues, including a lack of African-American representation on the faculty.
“This is something I feel like I've been advocating for since I was in ninth grade at McKeesport High School,” Walker-Montgomery said, adding that “every time we want something for the black community it has to be a struggle.”
“We don’t want that this time, so that's why we came to you all with this,” she said. “Let's work together.”
School Superintendent Mark P. Holtzman Jr. defended the district's record and asked for examples of how minority students are being mistreated.
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March 07, 2019 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(Almanac photo)
Repairs to McIntosh Drive in McKeesport's Haler Heights neighborhood are expected to begin within 30 days, city officials said.
At Wednesday's meeting, council by 7-0 vote awarded a $316,125 contract to Geobuild LLC of Punxsutawney, Jefferson County, to stablize and rebuild about 122 feet of the street, part of which is down to one lane following a landslide in the 900 block last year.
But residents are worried that other parts of the dead-end street, located just above old Route 48, are also beginning to collapse. On Wednesday, one homeowner criticized city council and Mayor Michael Cherepko, saying they didn't act fast enough.
Harriet Siegmund said the McKeesport post office has temporarily stopped mail delivery to her and her neighbors, and, she said, she was told that city fire trucks can no longer navigate the partially closed street.
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March 06, 2019 |
By Richard Finch Jr. | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport Area School District will partner with the University of Pittsburgh on a research project about how to prevent violence among pre-teens, teens and young adults.
At their Feb. 28 meeting, school directors approved the district's participation in "Expect Respect Middle School: Preventing Severe and Lethal Violence Among Youth with Prior Violence Exposure."
The violence prevention program is part of a study being conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, said Mark Holtzman Jr., district superintendent.
“The university is doing great work in studying violence in Allegheny County, looking at violence as a disease, violence prevention, dating violence and criminal activity,” Holtzman said.
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March 06, 2019 |
By Richard Finch Jr. | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport Area school directors and staff took time during the February school board meeting to remember the late Debra Bertoty.
Bertoty, 46, of White Oak was employed in the district for 23 years as a learning support teacher at George Washington, Cornell and Centennial Elementary Schools and, most recently, at Francis McClure Intermediate School, where she was a life-skills teacher for third, fourth and fifth graders. She died Feb. 16 following a brief illness.
“Students and staff are struggling with the unfortunate and untimely passing of Ms. Bertoty,” said Mark Holtzman Jr., district superintendent. “She was a very important member of the McKeesport school district family.”
In other business, the board accepted a bid of $142,920 from Skyward Inc. for student management software. The package will replace the district's existing GoEdustar and ProSoft record-keeping system.
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