May 09, 2018 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: White Oak News
Officials at the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County are working on a solution to sewer backups that have repeatedly flooded the basements of several White Oak homeowners.
John Palyo, borough manager, said the problem in the area of Vermont and Ohio avenues is particularly acute during wet weather and following heavy rainstorms.
White Oak sold its sewer lines to the Westmoreland authority --- which also provides water to McKeesport, Port Vue, White Oak and several neighboring Allegheny County communities --- several years ago, Palyo said.
And although Pennsylvania American Water Co. now owns the McKeesport sewage treatment plant, Gary Lobaugh, a spokesman for the water company, said it only treats White Oak's wastewater --- it doesn't maintain the underground lines in the borough.
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May 09, 2018 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Announcements, White Oak News
Due to an editing error, a story published May 1 about a White Oak borough council meeting was incorrect.
Although White Oak's wastewater is treated by Pennsylvania-American Water Co. at the McKeesport treatment plant, the sewer lines themselves are owned and maintained by the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, and have been for several years, according to borough manager John Palyo and Gary Lobaugh, spokesman for the water company.
The mistake was made in editing and was not the fault of the writer. I apologize for the error.
-- Jason Togyer, editor and executive director
Tube City Almanac corrects all known errors of fact, promptly. If you think a news article is factually incorrect and needs to be corrected, please email tubecitytiger@gmail.com or call (412) 614-9659.
May 08, 2018 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Announcements
(Photo courtesy Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank)
Retired postal worker Chuck Jarrell will be up before 6 a.m. this Saturday, buying dozens of donuts for his former colleagues at the McKeesport post office.
"I like to get them all sugared-up before they go out," he says, joking.
Saturday is a special day for the men and women of the McKeesport post office --- and post offices around the country --- as the National Association of Letter Carriers will be running its 26th annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive.
Since 1993, the food drive organized by the postal workers' union has collected 1.6 billion --- that's 1,600,000,000 --- pounds of food for the needy and hungry.
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May 08, 2018 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Announcements
Author and motivational speaker Jon Leonetti will lead a three-day "mission" at Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church in June.
Leonetti, a Catholic radio talk-show host based in Des Moines, Iowa, will be the featured attraction at the "Surge of the Heart" Parish Mission at 7 p.m. June 4, 5 and 6.
The event is free and open to the public. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. each night.
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May 08, 2018 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements
The Mon Yough Chorale, a community chorus based in the McKeesport and White Oak area, has scheduled several upcoming concerts, including a Memorial Day-themed celebration in Monongahela.
At 6 p.m. May 30, the chorale will perform in a Memorial Day-themed event at the Aquatorium in Monongahela, Washington County, at a ceremony to honor fallen troops.
Immediately following the ceremony, the Mon Yough Chorale will entertain at a reception at Monongahela Valley Hospital, Carroll Twp.
A spokeswoman said the chorale's big spring concert is scheduled for 3 p.m. June 3 at Sampson's Mills Presbyterian Church, 1665 Lincoln Way, White Oak.
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May 05, 2018 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements
There were more than 750 people in the Class of 1968 from McKeesport Senior High School, but planners of an upcoming reunion still need contact information for more than 200 of them.
That's according to Nancy Paradise, one of the organizers of the upcoming 50th class reunion, to be held Aug. 24 and 25.
The reunion will include a dinner on Aug. 24 at the Antonelli Event Center in Irwin, and a picnic at Lake Emilie in Renziehausen Park on Aug. 25.
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May 04, 2018 |
By Cami DiBattista | Posted in: Duquesne News
Ted Dintersmith greets students at Duquesne Elementary School on Wednesday. (Photo special to Tube City Almanac)
Duquesne Elementary School students enjoyed demonstrating some features of one of their school’s "makerspaces" to a special guest on Wednesday.
Ted Dintersmith, a former venture capitalist turned philanthropist and public education advocate, is on a 50-state tour to promote his documentary film, "Most Likely to Succeed," based on the best-selling book about education which he co-authored.
Dintersmith, whose newest book is called "What Schools Could Be," was in Pittsburgh this week to deliver a lecture at the O'Reilly Theater, Downtown.
When Dintersmith visited Duquesne Elementary, students demonstrated how to use virtual reality displays.
“We’re using virtual reality to visit the Holocaust museum,” said fourth-grader Lyniah McFadden.
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May 03, 2018 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: History
This week in 2008, from our files:
McKeesport Mayor Jim Brewster declared his intention to "fire Blue Cross-Blue Shield" as the city's health insurance carrier. The pledge came after Highmark, the Pittsburgh region's Blue Cross licensee and its dominant health care provider, raised the rate on one city plan by $620,000 --- nearly 84 percent.
Brewster scheduled a meeting with another health insurance carrier, saying: "We'll give them a little taste of McKeesport competitiveness."
The new executive director of McKeesport's YMCA said that "failure is not an option," but admitted the 120-year-old institution was struggling with an aging building, a declining number of members and serious debts. The McKeesport Y was considering a merger with the larger YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh and the possibility of selling its building on Sinclair Street.
The American Lung Association named Pittsburgh the "sootiest city" in the United States, surpassing Southern California. The dubious distinction was mainly due to high levels of particulates in the air near U.S. Steel's Clairton Works. The facility produces coke, a fuel created by superheating coal in ovens.
An Almanac editorial noted that many chemicals and medicines are made from the byproducts of coke, and that the Mon Valley needs "the high-paying, blue-collar jobs that Clairton Works and coal-mining provide, (but) we also need clean air."
May 03, 2018 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport is on track to demolish 300 vacant houses in 2018 in "every ward of the city," Mayor Michael Cherepko said Wednesday.
The effort, part of the mayor's previously announced "McKeesport Rising" initiative, is aimed at stablizing neighborhoods and transforming the entrances to the city.
Council by 6-0 vote awarded a $711,500 contract to Jadell Minniefield Construction Services, Inc., a demolition contractor based in Pittsburgh's Hazelwood neighborhood, to tear down 97 vacant houses.
The city will be holding condemnation and demolition proceedings on another 200 houses in the coming months, Cherepko said, and hopes to award another bid in July.
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May 03, 2018 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
A much-needed reconstruction of Bowman Avenue in the city's Highland Grove neighborhood is expected to begin in a few weeks.
At Wednesday's meeting, McKeesport City Council by 6-0 vote awarded a $181,260 contract to Morgan Excavating of Belle Vernon to dig out the existing bricks, install a new roadbase, and resurface the road from the North Versailles Twp. line to near Cliff Street. Councilman Jim Barry Jr. was absent.
The repairs will require a complete shutdown of the road to through traffic, said Steve Kondrosky, city public works director, and a detour will be posted.
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