April 03, 2024 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: State & Region
This is a developing story and will be updated as necessary.
Water topped the end of Ninth Avenue near Kane Regional Center on Wednesday afternoon. (Tube City Almanac photo)
Roads remain closed throughout the Mon-Yough area after record rainfalls dropped up to 4 inches of rain on parts of Western Pennsylvania.
The Youghiogheny River is overflowing its banks in Elizabeth Twp. and water was lapping at the edge of the parking lot at McKees Point Marina.
City officials reported that the West Fifth Avenue end of the Mansfield Bridge was closed Wednesday morning due to flooding, while in White Oak, Route 48 was closed between Cool Springs Road and Lincoln Way; and Lincoln Way was closed between Route 48 and Coulterville Road.
White Oak police reported that Lincoln Way had reopened at noon Wednesday, but that part of Route 48 remained closed while crews removed debris from the road.
The stretch of River Road between lower 10th Ward and Port Vue was closed Wednesday afternoon due to flooding and a landslide, the McKeesport Fire Department reported.
The state Department of Transportation reported that Route 837 was closed between the McKeesport-Duquesne Bridge and Dravosburg due to flooding. A section of Route 837 in West Mifflin also was closed, borough police said.
A strong storm system that arrived in California last weekend — causing parts of that state’s fabled Highway 1 to fall down a cliff into the Pacific Ocean — made its way across the United States on Tuesday, triggering blizzards and floods in the western part of the country, tornadoes in Indiana, and heavy thunderstorms in Ohio and West Virginia.
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April 01, 2024 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Crime and Police News, McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko, at right with police Chief Mark Steele, swears in new police officers (from left) Dale McGlaughlin, Seth Taylor and Jodi Leitzell at the March council meeting. (Tube City Almanac photo)
McKeesport police have created a floating school detail that is checking in with each of the city’s public, parochial and private schools on a weekly basis, Chief Mark Steele said recently.
In addition, new officers, new equipment and new tactics are being developed in an effort to improve community relations and bolster public safety, he said.
The two-person school detail is visiting buildings at least three days each week and has the flexibility to go where they can provide the most help, Steele said. “They can go to Twin Rivers, Founders Hall, South Hall, the high school, or Propel or Serra Catholic,” he said. “It’s up to them — whatever they feel is necessary.”
Steele said he met with principals of each of the schools recently to assess their needs and gauge whether they would appreciate an increased police presence. The principals welcomed the idea, he said.
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April 01, 2024 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News, Duquesne News
A Braddock woman faces homicide charges in connection with the death on Saturday night of an East Hills man.
Latiya D. Hicks, 24, is being held in the Allegheny County Jail pending a preliminary hearing April 12 in Pittsburgh Muncipal Court. She is charged with fatally shooting Lamont Nichols, 30, of Pittsburgh inside an apartment on North Second Street in Duquesne.
Allegheny County police said that Hicks was arrested at the scene.
According to an affidavit of probable cause filed in Allegheny County Night Court, when Duquesne police officers asked “where is the shooter?” Hicks identified herself and directed them to her handbag, where a 9-mm handgun was found.
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March 29, 2024 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News, Duquesne News, White Oak News
(Photo via Facebook)
The remains discovered in a wooded area of White Oak earlier this month have been positively identified as those of a Duquesne man who had been missing since May 2023.
The Allegheny County medical examiner’s office said Friday that a body reported to White Oak police on March 16 was that of 72-year-old Nicholas “Butch” Miljus Jr., formerly of West Mifflin. The cause and manner of death have not yet been released.
An Army veteran, Miljus, who was known around the community as “Cookie Man,” was reported missing to Duquesne police by his daughter in September 2023. According to reports, Miljus had been evicted from his residence in May 2023, and police said the last transaction on his bank account had been reported in June.
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March 26, 2024 |
By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: History, McKeesport and Region News
(Tube City Almanac photo illustration)
Since 1987, the United States has celebrated March as “Women’s History Month,” and the Mon-Yough area has plenty of local women who have made their own marks on world history.
Some of them have familiar names to local residents — Helen Richey’s name graces a baseball and softball field at Renziehausen Park. Some of them — like Olympian Swin Cash — are known around the world.
Many are less well-known, though no less important or fondly remembered.
Women’s History Month — which is now celebrated around the world — has its origins as “International Women’s Day,” celebrated on March 8. The day was created in 1910 to highlight the struggle for equal rights for women, including the right to vote.
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March 26, 2024 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Announcements
(Tube City Almanac file photo)
State and city officials are cheering the announcement Tuesday that $1.8 million in economic development funding has been allocated toward the replacement of the Versailles Avenue Bridge.
The two-lane span, which crosses Ravine Street, has been closed to all traffic since February 2022, when an inspection found that the bridge had become unsafe.
In a joint announcement, state Sen. Jim Brewster and state Rep. Matt Gergely said that a state multimodal transportation grant has been awarded to the city for a new bridge.
The grant was approved Tuesday during a meeting in Harrisburg of the Commonwealth Financing Authority, an independent agency of Pennsylvania’s Department of Community & Economic Development, the legislators said.
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March 22, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: East McKeesport News
East McKeesport Borough will be able to add a fourth vehicle to its police department after initially believing that an accident earlier this year would leave it stuck with only three.
One of the borough’s 2017 Ford Explorers was traveling to an accident scene with its lights and siren activated when it was broadsided. There were no injuries but the vehicle was totaled.
In February, Council President John Ekiert said due to the age of the vehicle, the insurance payment wouldn’t be enough to purchase a new police vehicle and the borough didn’t have the money in its budget for one.
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March 22, 2024 |
By Adam Reinherz | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(File photo, “School Supplies,” by Nick Amoscato, via Flickr. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)
McKeesport Area School District is responding to a teacher shortage by investing in its staff.
School board members have approved an agreement with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit to participate in the BridgeUP program. Designed in partnership with Point Park University and BloomBoard, the two-year program enables education professionals who currently hold associate’s degrees to earn a bachelor’s degree in special education.
“We have to think outside of the box of ways to recruit and retain teachers,” Superintendent Tia Wanzo said. Participating in BridgeUP will cost the district $16,500 for each person who completes the program.
Across the commonwealth, districts are facing increased teacher shortages. According to Penn State University’s Center for Evaluation & Policy Analysis, during 2022-23, 7.7 percent of teachers — or 9,587 — left their positions across the state.
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March 21, 2024 |
By Adam Reinherz | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport Area School District Choir Director Beth Eger leads student vocalists in a performance before the school board. The group performed songs from the high school’s upcoming production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” (Photos by Adam Reinherz for Tube City Almanac)
McKeesport Area School Board has approved a transfer of $2 million from the district’s fund balance to a capital reserve account.
The decision follows an independent audit report presented one week earlier indicating the district had nearly $9.5 million in unassigned funds. A fund balance, in accounting terms, is a surplus of revenue over expenses.
Board member Dave Seropian called the unassigned fund balance a “favorable number.”
Transferring $2 million from the pool to capital reserves will enable the district to address multiple projects, including repairs to parking lots and roadways at the high school, sound and lighting at the high school auditorium, and stadium lighting, he said.
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March 21, 2024 |
By Tom Leturgey | Posted in: Duquesne News
Shoppers explore the Giant Eagle Mobile Market during its first visit to Duquesne on Sunday. The market will return every Sunday afternoon for 90 minutes, bringing fresh and packaged foods. (Tom Leturgey photo for Tube City Almanac)
Grocery shopping in Duquesne has gotted a little more convenient. Giant Eagle’s Mobile Market made its first stop in the city on Sunday.
On a sunny, 47-degree afternoon, the Mobile Market swung into the Duquesne Plaza Shopping Center just off Route 837. Giant Eagle’s Gwen Johnson and driver Ryan Mancini jumped out of the truck that pulled the trailer, pulled out retractable ramps at designated “Entrance” and “Exit” points and within minutes were ready for residents who stopped in for essentials.
The mobile market is scheduled to return every Sunday afternoon for 90 minutes.
Johnson, who runs the day-to-day operations for the Mobile Market, had just wrapped up its Sunday stop in Rankin Borough. The grocery store on wheels now has 11 stops on its weekly schedule, including outside of the Glen Hazel High Rise and Second Avenue in Hazelwood. Some spots, like Rankin, have about twenty shoppers a week, while others welcome 60 or more.
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