Pittsburgh and surrounding neighborhoods continue to be desirable locations to shoot films of all genres and budgets.
The region “has a little bit of everything,” said film producer and writer Mark Cantu. “You can be in a very urban environment one minute and then drive 20 minutes away and be in a very rural farming community.”
Cantu recently completed his upcoming horror-comedy, “Wolf Hollow,” filmed in and around McKeesport and North Versailles Twp.
The movie, which will premiere April 1 at Dormont’s Hollywood Theater, follows a group of filmmakers as they journey to the fictional location of “Wolf Hollow,” searching for an area to shoot a new film only to discover that they are surrounded by a family of werewolves and must fight for their survival.
East Allegheny School Board has approved the public sale and auction of the former Green Valley School, located at 3290 Crestview Drive in North Versailles Twp.
Built in 1951, Green Valley School formerly educated kindergarteners through third graders. When the school closed in 2016, those students were combined with those at Logan Middle School, making Logan a K-6 facility.
The sale was authorized by 9-0 vote at this month’s meeting.
The district is asking for a minimum bid of $499,900 for the school and the successful bidder must get final approval from the board on the intended use of the building.
East Allegheny School Board will add its voices to those of other school districts asking the Pennsylvania General Assembly to reform its charter-school funding formula.
The school board by 9-0 vote this week approved a resolution to be sent to the state legislature. School directors said they regard as unfair the method used to calculate how much districts must pay for charter school tuition.
At a committee meeting earlier this month, school directors said the current formulas require school districts to send more money to charter schools than they need to operate their programs, significantly burdening each district’s resources and taxpayers.
Residents of Kline Avenue in West Wilmerding are asking the North Versailles Twp. commissioners to consider closing a park there following recent gunfire.
At this month’s meeting, neighbors presented the commissioners with a petition signed by 50 homeowners asking the township to convert West Wilmerding Park from basketball courts into something for families with children.
Thursday’s meeting was held one night after shots were reportedly fired during an altercation near the park. No injuries were reported, but residents said they are concerned that neighbors will get caught in the crossfire if violence continues at the park.
East Allegheny School District could benefit if state lawmakers are forced to revise the way Pennsylvania funds public education.
At this month’s school board meeting, Superintendent Alan Johnson said East Allegheny is in the top 2 percent of districts that are most impacted by funding disparities.
The Pennsylvania Fair Funding Formula, which became law in 2016, is designed to distribute state education funding so that all students receive a high-quality education without discriminating against smaller, poorer districts, Johnson said.
A company that promises to help school districts control costs by reducing the amount of energy they consume made its pitch this week to the East Allegheny School Board.
At this month’s committee meeting, representatives of American Building Maintenance said engineering upgrades and other improvements could stretch the school district's budget further.
ABM said that an engineering walkthrough of East Allegheny High School and Logan Elementary School saw aging equipment that the school district could upgrade or replace to provide energy savings that will, in turn, offset the costs of upgrades, replacements and repairs.
For example, their recommendations included connecting time controls to exhaust fans in the school buildings and lighting, especially for lighting in the stadium.
No dangerous levels of mold or other contaminants were detected after a water-line broke at East Allegheny Junior-Senior High School, the district’s superintendent told the school board this month.
Sub-zero temperatures over the winter break caused a pipe to break on the second floor, causing significant damage to the second-floor science wing.
School Superintendent Alan Johnson said that after consulting with the district’s environmental and disaster recovery experts, there were no reports of dangerous mold levels or other contaminants.
Environmental specialists were required to conduct additional testing for other toxins for another week, he said, before students could resume in-person classes.
The Westmoreland Heritage Trail connects Saltsburg to Trafford, via Monroeville. A proposal is underway to connect the trail to the Great Allegheny Passage via North Versailles Twp. and Turtle Creek. (Daveynin photo via Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)
Changes coming to the regional trail network could make it easier than ever for Mon-Yough area bicyclists to reach destinations in Monroeville and Westmoreland County.
Currently in the works are plans to extend the current Pittsburgh-to-Maryland trail — the Great Allegheny Passage, or GAP trail — deeper into local communities. One such plan — the Turtle Creek Connector project — would extend the Westmoreland Heritage Trail through Turtle Creek and North Versailles Twp. to meet the GAP, which serves McKeesport, Duquesne and Homestead.
Once a bustling network of railways akin to the region’s industrial history, these converted trails have seen new life in the past few decades and continue to develop with innovative community visions.
Freezing temperatures and high winds over the Christmas weekend caused a water pipe in a sink on the second floor of East Allegheny High School to rupture and cause flooding, the district announced.
According to a letter written and posted on the school district’s website by the Superintendent of Schools, Alan Johnson, the water damage was quite significant, and affected the second-floor science wing and the rooms below on the first floor and basement levels.
As a result of continued cleanup and testing to ensure the building is safe, seventh through 12th graders attending the junior-senior high school will learn remotely this week through Jan. 6.
Logan Elementary students will resume classes in person as usual.
