May 29, 2024 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News, Wilmerding News
Patton Street Bridge (Submitted photo courtesy Allegheny County)
The Allegheny County Department of Public Works will hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. June 6 to discuss the upcoming replacement of the Patton Street Bridge in Wilmerding, a spokesperson said.
The hearing will be held online using the Microsoft Teams video conference app. Registration in advance is required by going to Allegheny County’s website. A link and phone number to attend the meeting will be emailed to those who register.
The Patton Street bridge links the north and south sides of Wilmerding over Turtle Creek and also provides a transportation link between North Versailles Twp. and Monroeville.
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May 22, 2024 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News, North Versailles Twp. News
Motorcycle crashes claimed the lives of two men in separate incidents Sunday in North Versailles Twp.
The first, just after 4 p.m., involved a minivan and a motorcycle on Fifth Avenue just north of the McKeesport city limits. The second happened on Route 30 just five hours later.
Allegheny County police are investigating both cases.
In the first incident, county police said a motorcycle driven by Benjamin Petkovsek, 23, of Monroeville collided with a minivan near the intersection of Fifth and Westinghouse avenues just after 4 p.m. Sunday.
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April 05, 2024 |
By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News
High school teacher Gerald McGrew, from Dravosburg, poses with his student, Nie’Zhay Jefferson, 16 years old, from McKeesport, as he explains the importance of using solar eclipse glasses while looking at the sun. (Vickie Babyak photo for Tube City Almanac)
On Monday, millions of people will observe a historic total solar eclipse as the moon’s shadow sweeps across the United States.
Mon Valley communities will begin to see the moon’s shadow slowly creep across the sun around 2 p.m. Between 3:15 to 3:20 p.m., viewers will see 97 percent “totality” with some darkness in the sky, and at approximately 4:30 p.m., phases of the eclipse will conclude.
Scientists say this year’s eclipse will be different from the 2017 solar eclipse.
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March 17, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: East McKeesport News, North Versailles Twp. News, Wilmerding News
(Source: Pennsylvania Department of Drug & Alcohol Programs)
North Versailles Twp. police and the East Allegheny School Board are warning parents about the dangers children face from vaping.
At this month’s school board meeting, Acting Superintendent Joseph DiLucente told the board that he and Norm Locke, North Versailles assistant police chief, sent letters to parents earlier this month warning of the dangers children face from vaping.
The school district letter, signed by DiLucente, junior high school principal Mark Draskovich and senior high school principal Brian Ferek, notes, “We have noticed an unfortunate upward trend in drug use among our student population and youth in the Mon Valley as a whole.”
“I ask that you address the dangers of drug use, particularly unknown substances in vape devices, with your children. In speaking with Norm Locke, Assistant Chief of NVPD, and reviewing recent confiscations of vaping devices at the high school, this is our chief area of concern,” the letter continues.
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March 17, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: East McKeesport News, North Versailles Twp. News, Wilmerding News
(File photo courtesy Fire Department of North Versailles via Facebook)
While not as much as originally proposed, some volunteer firefighters in the five fire departments serving the communities in the East Allegheny School District will receive a real estate tax credit of up to $300.
The East Allegheny School Board voted 5-1 at their monthly meeting earlier this week to approve the program, with Board President John Savinda opposed, Merle “Bud” Pusey and Shannon Basa-Sabol abstaining and Macey Kinard absent.
The proposal will give an annual $300 real estate tax credit to qualifying homeowners who are volunteer firefighters in the five fire departments — Crestas, the Fire Department of North Versailles, Wilmerding, West Wilmerding and United, which serves East McKeesport and Wall — within the district. The proposal places an annual cap of $7,000 on the program.
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February 28, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News
Three North Versailles Twp. employees participated in the rescue of an elderly woman who fell into Turtle Creek earlier this month and one was on hand at the township commissioners monthly meeting to receive their thanks. Afterwards, he thanked them for allowing him and his colleagues the opportunity to do so.
Merle “Bud” Pusey serves as a Code Enforcement Officer for North Versailles and is also the Assistant Fire Chief of the West Wilmerding Volunteer Fire Department.
On Feb. 15, Pusey said, he was in the code enforcement office in the township municipal building when a call went out shortly after 9 a.m. for first responders to assist a 75-year-old woman who had fallen into Turtle Creek near the 400 block of Airbrake Avenue in Wilmerding while she was taking a walk.
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February 15, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News
(File photo by NZDave via Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic)
Volunteer fire department members who are homeowners in the East Allegheny School District will have to wait a while longer to find out how much, if anything, they’ll receive as a tax break from the district to thank them for their service.
Last month, the school board voted 6-1 to give volunteer firefighters in the district who meet certain criteria an annual property tax break of up to $3,000.
The proposal was designed to help fire departments within the district — Crestas, Fire Department of North Versailles, Wilmerding, West Wilmerding and United, which serves East McKeesport and Wall — retain their members and attract new ones.
Only School Board President John Savinda voted against the measure, saying, “we are $5 million in the hole.” After the meeting, Savinda said his vote was not against the firefighters, but due to his concern about the cost of the proposal.
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January 23, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News
East Allegheny School Board is considering a measure to give a $3,000 annual property tax break to qualifying members of volunteer fire departments.
The measure, proposed by School Director Merle Pusey, is designed to help encourage residents of the district to join their local fire departments, which have struggled for years with declining numbers of volunteers.
At last week’s school board meeting, there was a standing room only crowd, and most of the members of the audience were there to see if the measure would pass.
The school district is served by five volunteer fire departments — Crestas, Fire Department of North Versailles, West Wilmerding, Wilmerding and United, which serves East McKeesport and Wall.
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December 28, 2023 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News
North Versailles Twp. property owners will see no real estate tax increase under the 2024 budget passed unanimously this month by the township commissioners.
The budget has revenues and expenditures of $8.14 million, a slight increase from the 2023 budget of $8.02 million.
Also passed unanimously was a 3 percent pay increase for the township manager, finance manager, code enforcement officer and two parks and recreation department employees.
T.J. Martin is a freelance writer from Trafford whose work has also appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Irwin Standard Observer.
December 08, 2023 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News
East Allegheny High School cheerleaders and members of the school’s athletic teams participated in the Raising Cane’s grand opening event. The chain made a $1,500 donation to the school district during Tuesday’s grand opening. (T.J. Martin photo for Tube City Almanac)
Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers opened its doors in North Versailles Twp. on Tuesday with a crowd that included more than a dozen cheerleaders from the local school district to which the restaurant chain gave a gift of $1,500.
Area leader Justin Pesicek said the donation earmarked for the school’s athletic department was in keeping with the restaurant chain’s philosophy of giving back and community involvement.
Dave Loya, athletic director of East Allegheny School District, said the district brought a total of 22 people to participate in the grand opening event, including the cheerleaders, some senior-class athletes and the school’s Wildcat-costumed mascot.
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