June 14, 2020 |
By Nick Zurawsky | Posted in: Duquesne News
The Boys & Girls Club of Duquesne-West Mifflin will move from its current location on North Third Street to a larger location in the Duquesne Education Center.
The move is part of a new partnership between the Boys & Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania and the Duquesne City School District, officials said.
Lisa Abel-Palmieri, chief executive officer of BGCWPA, said the location change was scheduled to happen at the end of 2020, but due to budget concerns and lack of visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the shift has been moved up six months.
The new facility and partnership will expand the scope of BGCWPA services, with twice as many students being able to take part, she said.
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June 14, 2020 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(Richard Finch Jr. photo for Tube City Almanac)
More than 300 people marched peacefully through Downtown streets on Friday afternoon to call attention to the plight of a trans woman found dead on Sinclair Street in May.
Friends and family of Aaliyah Johnson, 32, want Allegheny County police to do a more thorough investigation of her death on May 26.
On Thursday, the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office ruled Johnson’s death a suicide, but one of the organizers of the march, Terrance McGeorge, told Tube City Almanac that one of Johnson’s former lovers had threatened to murder her.
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June 11, 2020 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Editor’s Note: This is a developing story and will be updated if necessary.
* Correction, 8 p.m. June 11, 2020
A woman who died in a fall from Midtown Towers was in fear for her life before the incident, a childhood friend said Thursday.
Terrance McGeorge said Aaliyah Johnson, who was transgender, was threatened with murder by a man with whom she had been linked, and who was angry and embarrassed because other people might find out.*
McGeorge, who is one of the leaders of a group called Project Matters, is helping to organize a march that is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Friday at the Jerome Avenue Bridge, proceed past the Public Safety Building on Lysle Boulevard, and end near Johnson’s apartment.
The march is intended to be peaceful, he said. Attendees are being asked to wear blue — Johnson’s favorite color — and to carry a candle. Participants should park in the lot near the McKees Point Marina, he said.
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June 11, 2020 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Announcements, McKeesport and Region News
Clarification: An organizer of the event says the vigil and march will start at the Jerome Avenue Bridge, Downtown, not the 15th Avenue Bridge as was originally reported, and will end near the victim’s apartment on Sinclair Street. The march will not proceed to O’Neil Boulevard. Updated June 11, 2 p.m.
Friends and family of a woman who died May 26 in a fall from a Downtown apartment building plan to march on Friday to call attention to the circumstances surrounding her death.
Organizers claim that Allegheny County police have not adequately investigated the death of Aaliyah Denise Johnson, 32, who was pronounced dead after her body was found on a sidewalk in the 500 block of Sinclair Street.
County police told Tube City Almanac that Johnson is believed to have fallen or jumped from her ninth-floor window at Midtown Towers and that surveillance cameras showed that no one entered or left her apartment before or after the incident.
But Johnson, who was an MC at local events and clubs, and also worked as a hairstylist and makeup artist, had a large social media following. Her friends said she was targeted for harassment and abuse because she was Black and transgender.
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June 11, 2020 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport city council has approved the demolition of a former Hungarian church just off Evans Avenue.
At the June 3 meeting, council awarded a $77,900 contract to demolish the former St. Stephen’s Roman Catholic Church on Beacon Street to Lutterman Excavating of Greensburg. Lutterman was the lowest responsible bidder, city officials said.
Built in 1900 and 1901 to serve the city’s Hungarian Catholic population, St. Stephen’s closed in 2002 following the death of its longtime pastor, the Rev. Stephen Kato, who had first come to the parish in 1962.
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June 10, 2020 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
• Arrest records published here were provided by the McKeesport Police Department.
• Not all arrest records are published.
• An arrest does not mean the person identified has been convicted of a crime.
• All people arrested are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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June 10, 2020 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport officials are envisioning a day when the regional hiking and biking trail network could be connected to Renziehausen Park, Grandview and other city neighborhoods.
By 6-0 vote, council this month approved an application to the Active Allegheny grant program for $81,000 for a project called “Pedestrian Access to McKeesport’s Trail Systems.”
Administered by the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County, the Active Allegheny program provides financial assistance to municipalities to develop bicycle and pedestrian connections from neighborhoods to local destinations, and increase opportunities for residents to get exercise.
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June 06, 2020 |
By Richard Finch Jr. | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Rohaan Wasim, this year’s valedictorian, poses with some of the accolades he’s been given by his classmates. (Richard Finch Jr. photo for Tube City Almanac)
Hamida Wasim says she raised her three sons to be “obedient, hard-working, sensible and focused.”
“I like my boys to be well educated and do well in their lives,” she says. “They know what they want in life and how to get it.”
It must be working. All three sons have succeeded academically at McKeesport Area High School. In 2018, her son Zohais was named salutatorian and son Ashar graduated with honors.
This year, her youngest son, Rohaan Wasim, was named valedictorian for the class of 2020. He plans to attend the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Computing & Information Sciences in the fall.
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June 05, 2020 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Jill Lape takes the oath of office Wednesday night from Magisterial District Judge Eugene Riazzi. (Tube City Almanac photo)
A McKeesport Area School District teacher has been appointed to fill a vacant seat on city council formerly held by her late sister.
At Wednesday’s council meeting, Jill Lape was nominated by Councilman Keith Soles and approved by a 5-0 vote of council to complete the term of her sister, Councilwoman Jamie Brewster-Filotei, who died May 12 after battling cancer for nearly three years.
Brewster-Filotei was elected in November 2017 to a four-year term that ends Jan. 1, 2022.
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June 05, 2020 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements
(Submitted photo via Facebook)
With Allegheny County moving from the “yellow” phase of COVID-19 restrictions to the “green” phase, McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center has announced plans to reopen to the public.
The geneaology center and history museum, located in Renziehausen Park, has been closed since March.
A spokesperson said the center is planning to reopen to visitors at 10 a.m. June 11 with modifications.
Visitors will be asked to wear masks at all time and to practice social distancing and the schoolhouse will temporarily be closed to the public.
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