July 21, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Areas of darker colors show a higher number of positive COVID-19 tests over the past 90 days. Over the past three months, McKeesport has had the fifth-highest number of COVID-19 cases in Allegheny County. (Data courtesy Allegheny County Health Department)
As COVID-19 cases begin to rise again in Allegheny County, the health department has warned residents that although we may be done with the pandemic, the pandemic is not done with us.
Seventy new cases of COVID-19 were reported Monday and 55 on Tuesday, said Dr. Debra Bogen, director of the Allegheny County Health Department.
Health department data also indicates that over the past 90 days, McKeesport has had the fifth-highest number of COVID-19 cases in Allegheny County. West Mifflin is No. 7.
“Although these numbers remain significantly lower than during the spring surge, it is a notable increase from the 10 to 15 daily cases in June and early July, and a stark reminder that this virus is not done with us,” Bogen said Wednesday.
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July 21, 2021 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A former city man has been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with suspected drug trafficking.
A spokeswoman for Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman said Brock J. Cochran, 30, is charged with possession with intent to deliver cocaine and the synthetic painkiller fentanyl.
A grand jury returned the indictment this week in connection with an incident that happened June 29, the spokeswoman said.
The law provides for a maximum total sentence of not more than 40 years, a fine not to exceed $5 million or both. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service conducted the investigation leading to the Indictment in this case, Kaufman’s office said.
July 21, 2021 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Announcements
Preliminary test results indicate that drinking water in the city’s Lower 10th Ward is not contaminated with firefighting chemicals, a spokesman said.
However, another round of testing will be necessary before a “do not drink” advisory is lifted, said Matt Junker, spokesman for the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County.
In the meantime, customers are being urged not to use their tap water for anything except flushing toilets — that includes not using the water for showers and bathing.
On Wednesday afternoon, McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko announced that shuttle buses will be available, beginning Thursday morning, to take residents to McKeesport Area High School if they want to use the showers there.
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July 20, 2021 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A Duquesne man is wanted in connection with an assault Tuesday morning in Wilmerding that also caused an “Amber Alert” about a possible child abduction.
Nicholas Lomax, 28, is charged by Allegheny County police with use of an electric device to incapacitate another person, simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct.
Lomax’s 8-month-old daughter was found, unharmed, in Versailles, county police said. She had been reported missing from McKees Rocks and was the subject of a child-abduction alert from Pennsylvania State Police.
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July 19, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Announcements, McKeesport and Region News
City officials said they are pressing the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County to quickly resolve the issues that have kept Lower 10th Ward residents from using their drinking water.
“I have been in constant contact with MAWC since Friday, and I will continue to see this process through,” McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said Monday. “We are doing everything within our power to expedite MAWC’s water-testing process to determine if any contamination took place during the Friday evening fire at McKeesport Auto Body.”
MAWC warned on Saturday morning that chemicals from firefighting foam “may have” entered the drinking water system in the area between the CSX Railroad tracks and the Monongahela River. Some homes on Romine Avenue, Rebecca Street, Arlington Street and West Sixth Avenue also are affected.
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July 19, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Updates:
• Lower 10th Ward residents should continue not to use tap water for anything but flushing toilets
• Drinking water tankers remain in place on Atlantic Avenue, and bottled water is available at the Public Safety Building
• Residents may use the showers at McKeesport Area High School from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Enter at South Hall, near the gymnasium
(Tube City Almanac photo)
Gene Esken Jr. said “it was a very, very helpless feeling” as McKeesport firefighters waited Friday evening for the power company to shut off live wires sparking and hissing on the roof of a 10th Ward auto repair shop.
Esken, a deputy chief of the McKeesport Fire Department, was in charge of the response to what was originally reported to 9-1-1 as a “wires down” call at McKeesport Auto Body on Rebecca Street.
Those wires sparked a multiple-alarm fire that was battled for hours by crews from across Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, including Pittsburgh International Airport.
The effects are still being felt — for the family that owns the destroyed business and hundreds of residents of Lower 10th Ward who may be without drinking water for a week.
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July 18, 2021 |
By Siana Emery | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport Area High School Stadium was a frenzy of activity on Thursday as family, friends and community members came out to celebrate their campers at the closing ceremonies of the Let’s S.H.I.N.E. Discovery Camp, sponsored by the Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation.
The partnership with the Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation allowed for the district to run a full-day summer camp for the first time. The summer camp ran from June 7 to July 15 and was free of cost to McKeesport Area School District students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
The culminating event of the afternoon was the distribution of new backpacks, stocked with fresh school supplies for the upcoming school year, to every camper present, and a special message from Swin Cash, a McKeesport native who is a former WNBA player.
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July 17, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Hoses snaked down Fifth Avenue near the McKees Point Marina on Saturday as crews from Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County flushed water lines on the opposite side of the Youghiogheny River in Lower 10th Ward. (Tube City Almanac photo)
Residents of McKeesport’s Lower 10th Ward should use their tap water for flushing toilets — and nothing else — until further notice.
Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, which provides water to McKeesport, Port Vue, White Oak and part of North Versailles Twp., warned residents that firefighting chemicals used to put out a fire on Rebecca Street on Friday night may have been accidentally sucked into the water supply through a hydrant.
The water should not be used for cooking, brushing teeth, washing dishes, bathing or showering, or even washing clothes, said Matt Junker, authority spokesman.
Efforts to flush the water lines were paused Saturday night while crews replaced an older piece of water line that was restricting water flow, he said.
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July 17, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Announcements
A massive fire on Friday night left behind ruined equipment and cars at a 10th Ward auto repair shop. (Tube City Almanac photo)
From her living room on Rebecca Street in the city’s 10th Ward, Annette Slivka heard the noise and saw the sparks.
Her son, John Slivka III, who lives next door, was getting ready to order dinner when “all of a sudden, there was an explosion.” In the wake of a thunderstorm Friday evening, power lines had fallen onto the roof of McKeesport Auto Body Inc., next to Annette Slivka’s home.
The lines were sparking and snapping, John Slivka III said. Eventually, the building was set ablaze — yet firefighting efforts could not begin until the power was shut off, a process that the Slivkas and other sources said took more than 45 minutes.
The resulting fire sent a pillar of black smoke into the air that could be seen for miles, and was battled for hours by firefighters from throughout Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. A Dravosburg volunteer firefighter was treated for heat-related injuries, said Matt Brown, chief of Allegheny County Emergency Services.
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July 17, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Residents of the city’s lower 10th Ward were told Saturday morning not to use their drinking water while water authority crews work to flush the system.
The mandatory order affects homes and businesses between West Fifth Avenue and the Monongahela River.
Matthew Junker, a spokesman for the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, said McKeesport officials are concerned that firefighting chemicals might have been accidentally sucked into a fire hydrant on Friday night as crews worked to extinguish a massive blaze on Rebecca Street.
Junker said water authority crews began purging the system on Saturday morning as a precaution.
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