July 13, 2018 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport City Council this week added another 172 vacant buildings to its demolition list. The houses will be torn down using a mix of local and federal funds. Click the map to explore the locations.
From approximately "coast to coast" --- including both Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Avenue --- 172 additional vacant houses and commercial buildings have been approved for demolition by McKeesport City Council.
At least 50 more are expected to be scheduled for demolition in the next round, McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko promised city council this week. Virtually every neighborhood in the city will be touched this year, he said.
"Nothing's perfect, but overall, I think we did a good job when you talk about preserving the neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city, as well as those on the main thoroughfares," Cherepko said.
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July 12, 2018 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements
Related Story: School taxes increasing for McKeesport Area property owners
School tax bills for McKeesport area residents may be paid at discount until Sept. 14, a spokeswoman said.
Tax bills are being mailed out today for property owners in the McKeesport Area School District, which includes the city, Dravosburg, South Versailles Twp. (Coulter), Versailles and White Oak, said Kristen Davis, spokeswoman.
A 2 percent discount applies to all taxes paid in full by Sept. 14. Anyone who has not received a tax bill or has paid their mortgage off this year should contact their local tax collector, Davis said.
School property taxes are increasing 2.11 mills this year, to 19.48 mills. The increase represents an addition $2.11 in taxes on each $1,000 of value of a property.
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July 12, 2018 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A South Hills man has been charged in connection with the death of a man whose body was found July 8 in North Versailles Twp.
Darrel E. Hardy Jr., 29, was charged Thursday by Allegheny County police with criminal homicide, carrying a firearm without a license and tampering with evidence.
Hardy was already in jail after police accused him of setting a car fire the same day that investigators believe the victim, Zack Moore, 28, was shot.
Through the course of the investigation, county police said, they determined that the vehicle Hardy is accused of burning was the same vehicle in which detectives allege that Hardy shot Moore.
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July 12, 2018 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
The water authority serving McKeesport says it has no record of any complaints about fire hydrants in the Grandview section of the city.
McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko and angry city residents disagree.
And they want the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County to run a new water line to a neighborhood that has been plagued by fires, including a blaze on June 16 that leveled one family's home, heavily damaged a neighbor's home, and caused severe damage to at least four nearby houses.
Residents and city firefighters say lack of sufficient water at nearby hydrants hampered efforts to battle that fire, and other blazes.
"I have not been able to sleep," Norma Kwiecinski, who lives near the site of the June fire, told city council on Tuesday. "I'm really scared in our neighborhood and I want to know what's going to be done about this."
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July 10, 2018 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Conflict-of-Interest Note: The writer of this article has a conflict of interest. See editor's note.
(Photo by Nyttend via Wikimedia Commons)
McKeesport will partner with a Pittsburgh-based preservation society to determine whether the city's landmark Penn-McKee Hotel can be saved and reused for other purposes.
At Wednesday's meeting, council by 7-0 vote approved an agreement with the Young Preservationists Association to conduct an environmental assessment of the long-vacant hotel as well as an architectural and feasibility study.
Matthew Craig, executive director of the YPA, said the study will consider historic reuse of the entire block of Fifth Avenue between Strawberry and Mulberry alleys, which includes a former Moose lodge and several pre-Civil War houses.
YPA intends to work closely with city officials and volunteers throughout the process, Craig told council.
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July 10, 2018 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
The Wilmerding YMCA was expanded in 2006 at a cost of $750,000. The renovations, designed by Penner & Associates architects, added a two-story wellness center and family locker room and reconfigured the existing lobby and administrative area. (Photo copyright Penner & Associates.)
The YMCA in Wilmerding will close Aug. 31, a spokeswoman for the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh has announced.
The closure of the facility on Ice Plant Hill Road is related to the Greater Pittsburgh Y's reorganization in federal bankruptcy court. The bankruptcy proceedings began May 8.
More than 1,100 Y members will be affected, along with six full-time employees and 70 part-time employees.
The Wilmerding Y was the last remaining facility in the Mon-Yough area, absorbing memberships of people who had belonged to the McKeesport YMCA. Closing the facility will save the Greater Pittsburgh Y about $163,000 per year.
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July 09, 2018 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A man who was found dead Sunday morning alongside a highway in the Dixon Hollow area of North Versailles Twp. was likely shot inside a car, police said.
The victim was identified by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office as Zack Moore, 28, no address given. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Allegheny County police Lt. Andrew Schurman said township police and paramedics were dispatched to East Pittsburgh-McKeesport Boulevard just after 5:30 a.m. Sunday after a 9-1-1 caller reported that a man was lying on the road near Dixon Avenue.
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July 09, 2018 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
* Correction appended. Rev. Truss' name was misspelled. We apologize for the error.
Rev. Earlene Coleman of Bethlehem Baptist Church charges up participants prior to a prayer walk Friday in Downtown McKeesport. (Vickie Babyak photo special to Tube City Almanac.)
Participants in a prayer walk through Downtown McKeesport on Friday carried with them a message of hope.
"We will not see our city destroyed," said the Rev. Earlene Coleman, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, before about 80 walkers set off from the McKees Point Marina. "We will not see McKeesport die, but it will live again."
The event was organized by the McKeesport Unit of the NAACP. Brenda Sawyer, unit president, said the walk --- up Fifth Avenue to UPMC McKeesport hospital, then back down Lysle Boulevard to the marina --- was "beautiful."
Participants included members of McKeesport city council and McKeesport Area school board, McKeesport Area School Superintendent Mark Holtzman Jr., state Rep. Austin Davis and state Sen. Jim Brewster.
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July 05, 2018 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements
CORRECTION: This article had Brenda Sawyer's last name wrong. I apologize for the error. -JT
Members of the McKeesport unit of the NAACP will hold a prayer walk through Downtown on Friday evening to highlight the need for peace and an end to violence.
Brenda Sawyer, unit president, said all faiths and races are welcome to participate in the walk, which will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the McKees Point Marina and continue up Fifth Avenue to McKeesport & Versailles Cemetery, then return.
"I'm emphasizing this is a prayer walk and not a protest of any kind," Sawyer said. It's the first prayer walk organized by the McKeesport NAACP in recent memory, she said.
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July 04, 2018 |
By Lynne Glover | Posted in: Crime and Police News, McKeesport and Region News
Engraved on Kimmie Krimm’s marker: “When you look up into the evening sky and see the brightest star shining down on earth, pause for a moment and remember that star’s name is Kimberlie Rose Krimm.” (Lynne Glover photo, special to Tube City Almanac)
Having recently been released from the hospital, Jeanie Krimm said it was simply too much for her to plan a 20-year anniversary remembrance for her daughter, Kimberlie Rose Krimm.
Fourteen-year-old Kimberlie Krimm's body was found 20 years ago this week, on July 6, 1998, on a hillside at McKeesport & Versailles Cemetery by a utility worker.
“People talk about pain,” said Jeanie Krimm, two decades after her daughter’s death. “They don’t know pain until they lose a child. I’ll never be the same. Never.”
Part of the suffering is not really knowing what happened to Kimberlie, and how and why she died. The cause and manner of Kimmie’s death were ruled “undetermined” by the Allegheny County Coroner's Office—and it was never officially declared a homicide.
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