September 13, 2018 |
By Cami DiBattista | Posted in: Duquesne News
(Students at Duquesne Elementary School learn how to use a MakerBot 3D printer. Duquesne City School District photo via Facebook)
Duquesne City School District students were excited to learn about some new programs and opportunities awaiting them when they began school this year.
A new coding program called Codes and Bots --- complete with a new lab space for elementary students to utilize --- an addition to the curriculum for the 2018-2019 school year.
Dubbed the CAB Lab, the area has been stocked with virtual reality googles, 3-D printers, iMacs, LEGO racers, light tables and other new equipment. Additionally, iPads were distributed to all students for use during school hours.
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September 12, 2018 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements
(Allegheny County photo)
The seventh-annual "Joan Burns Fun Walk 4 Kane" will be held this Saturday to raise money for activities for residents of Allegheny County's four Kane skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers.
Registration begins at 8 a.m. at Kane McKeesport, 100 Ninth Ave. at Water Street, and the walk begins at 9:30 a.m. A picnic on the Kane lawn will follow. The first 100 people to register will receive a T-shirt.
The registration fee is $20, but will be waved for anyone who turns in donations and pledges of $50 or more, a spokesperson said.
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September 12, 2018 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements
(Submitted photo courtesy Pittsburgh Yoga Therapy)
Free yoga classes for women will be provided on Thursday afternoons at a Downtown church, beginning this week, and child care will be available.
"Empower" is a 10-week yoga and wellness program being taught by Ali Popivchak (above), founder of Pittsburgh Yoga Therapy. Classes are being held from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. in the social hall of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, corner Walnut Street and Eighth Avenue, next to the McKeesport post office.
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September 12, 2018 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements
LifeSpan, a Homestead-based agency that serves seniors throughout the Mon Valley and South Hills, will hold a "Cashtoberfest" fundraiser Oct. 19 at Salvatore's in Baldwin.
The event begins at 5 p.m. and will include music, dancing, a dinner buffet, raffles, prize baskets, and a cash drawing every 15 minutes between 7 and 10 p.m. The 10 p.m. drawing will be valued at $2,000, a spokeswoman said, and ticket holders need not be present to win.
Attendees must be 21 or older and no outside alcohol may be brought into the facility, located at 5001 Curry Road. A cash bar will be available and dinner is included in the ticket price.
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September 10, 2018 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(This story will be updated throughout the day.)
Roads throughout the Mon-Yough area are closed due to floods and landslides after more than six inches of rain fell on the region from Saturday through Monday morning.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald on Monday afternoon declared a county-wide disaster emergency as a result of the three-day-long deluge, caused by remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon.
The declaration was issued on a recommendation from Allegheny County Emergency Services and enables county agencies to temporarily suspend bidding and contract requirements in order to contract with vendors for supplies and services.
“While flood warnings have expired, and rain showers are leaving the area, our department will begin its assessment of damages, and will do everything it can to assist in any recovery,” Fitzgerald said.
Five municipalities have reportedly issued their own emergency declarations, including Elizabeth Twp., where residents are being urged to evacuate from Blythedale, Smithdale, and parts of Industry and Buena Vista. Displaced residents are being encouraged to seek shelted at the community center, 429 Duncan Station Road.
Another emergency shelter has been opened at the Collinsburg Volunteer Fire Company, 514 Hickory Drive, near West Newton, according to a spokesman for the American Red Cross.
In Westmoreland County, the Sutersville Volunteer Fire Dept. was encouraging residents to evacauate and seek higher ground immediately. The fire department posted photos on its Facebook page showing that the Youghiogheny River had risen more than a foot in an hour, and was flooding the borough.
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Yough at Sutersville was at 25.5 feet Monday morning --- more than five feet above flood stage. At 1 p.m. Monday, the fire department reported, water was covering First Avenue in the borough.
The National Weather Service in Moon Twp. said Monday afternoon that Monday's crest at Sutersville would be the highest at that location since 1996 and the sixth-highest in recorded history.
The Monongahela River at Braddock was near flood stage Monday afternoon and was expected to crest at least 18 inches above flood stage at 8 p.m., the Army Corps reported. In Wilmerding, Turtle Creek --- which drains into the Monongahela --- had risen from 5 feet Saturday afternoon to near 14 feet by Monday afternoon.
A landslide closed Route 837 in Whitaker Borough from 10 a.m. to about 4 p.m. Monday. Motorists exiting the Rankin Bridge were being forced to turn right toward Homestead, and through traffic was being diverted via Whitaker Way and Mifflin Street.
Route 837 also was closed in West Mifflin between the Valley Hotel and Anthony Crane, due to flooding.
Allegheny County emergency management said that Lincoln Way was closed in White Oak between McClintock Road and Rankin Road, while Route 48 was closed between Cool Springs Road and Marshall Drive, due to flooding. Both roads re-opened Monday afternoon just after 3 p.m., White Oak police reported.
A county spokeswoman said that White Oak Mayor Ina Jean Marton has issued a disaster declaration to allow for emergency work to be done to sewers after sewage began backing up into basements of many homes.
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September 08, 2018 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements, North Versailles Twp. News
Work begins this week on reparing, paving and rehabiltating Greensburg Pike between West Wilmerding and Turtle Creek, a county spokesperson said.
The work will require the temporary closure of the northbound side of Greensburg Pike from Central Avenue (just below Rossi's Pop-Up Market) to the Greensburg Pike bridge.
The posted detour for traffic heading from North Versailles Twp. into Turtle Creek takes motorists over Warren Avenue, Route 30, Linden Avenue, Beech Avenue, Braddock Avenue and Penn Avenue Extension.
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September 07, 2018 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Crime and Police News, McKeesport and Region News
State officials have awarded almost $150,000 to McKeesport police and partner agencies to create a program designed to reduce gun violence in the city.
The grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency was announced Friday by state Sen. Jim Brewster and state Rep. Austin Davis, both of McKeesport.
It will fund a new McKeesport Gun Violence Reduction Program designed by the office of Mayor Mike Cherepko, city police Chief Bryan Washowich, and other local and county leaders, including volunteers and churches.
The program will be modeled after successful strategies used in other cities to get illegal guns off the streets, a spokeswoman for the mayor's office said, and will work with young people in an effort to convince them not to resort to violence in the first place.
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September 06, 2018 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(Click the map to explore it in detail.)
Nine additional vacant houses were added to McKeesport's demolition list on Wednesday as city council awarded a contract to demolish those properties, as well as 85 previously targeted.
By 6-0 vote, the $679,000 contract for Phase III of McKeesport's 2018 city-wide demolition project was awarded to Jadell Minniefield Construction Services of Pittsburgh's Hazelwood neighborhood. Councilwoman Lu Ethel Nesbit was absent.
Minniefield in July was awarded a contract to demolish 92 vacant structures. Mayor Michael Cherepko said Minniefield was the lowest responsible bidder on Phase III, and had done excellent work so far.
"He's doing a wonderful job, and I'm glad he bid on our contract," Cherepko said.
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September 05, 2018 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements
(Photo courtesy Mon Yough Area Chamber of Commerce)
The eighth-annual "Tour de Mon" bike ride will be held Sept. 15 on the Great Allegheny Passage biking-hiking trail between Elizabeth Twp. and Hazelwood.
The event -- billed as a "family fun ride" --- is sponsored by the Mon Yough Area Chamber of Commerce and presented by Levin Furniture, with support from the Steel Valley Trail Council and the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area.
Maury Burgwin, executive director of the chamber, said the bike ride begins and ends at the historic Pump House located at the Waterfront in Munhall.
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September 05, 2018 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements
(Photo courtesy Penn State Greater Allegheny)
The McKeesport unit of the NAACP will hold its 58th annual Human Rights Dinner on Sept. 15 at the Palisades, 100 Fifth Ave., Downtown, a spokeswoman said.
The keynote speaker will be Anthony Mitchell Sr. (above), an associate teaching professor at Penn State Greater Allegheny Campus.
A graduate of Geneva College, Penn State and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a doctorate in education, Mitchell is the co-founder of the university's African American Male Mentoring Program.
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