May 22, 2024 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements
(Source: Allegheny County Health Department)
The Allegheny County Health Department is requesting public comment on its 2025 Air Monitoring Network Plan, an annual report that provides a detailed description of how and where air pollution is monitored in Allegheny County.
Comments will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. on June 14. Comments may be submitted via e-mail to david.good@alleghenycounty.us.
The 2025 Air Monitoring Network Plan is a document required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It provides the specific location of each monitoring station, siting criteria, monitoring methods and objectives, frequency of sampling, pollutants measured at each station and aerial photographs showing their physical location.
The 2025 Air Monitoring Annual Network Plan was posted onto the ACHD Air Quality website on May 16. All correspondence must include first and last name and a complete mailing address. It can be downloaded as a PDF.
General information on the ACHD Air Quality Program’s public comment periods can be found online.
May 22, 2024 |
By Danielle M. Smith - Public News Service | Posted in: State & Region
(Source: Keystone Research Center)
Although polls show that Pennsylvanians are concerned about the economy, research indicates that the unemployment rate statewide is at a record-low number, and better even than the rate nationally.
In April, the state’s jobless rate stayed at 3.4 percent, an all-time low in Pennsylvania, better than the national rate of 3.9 percent.
Maisum Murtaza, research associate at the Keystone Research Center, said the positive trend has been ongoing for months, with the rate hovering between 3.2 and 3.4 percent over the past year.
He saod the job market is recovering from the COVID pandemic and workers are starting to gain a bit more power in the labor market.
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May 22, 2024 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News, North Versailles Twp. News
Motorcycle crashes claimed the lives of two men in separate incidents Sunday in North Versailles Twp.
The first, just after 4 p.m., involved a minivan and a motorcycle on Fifth Avenue just north of the McKeesport city limits. The second happened on Route 30 just five hours later.
Allegheny County police are investigating both cases.
In the first incident, county police said a motorcycle driven by Benjamin Petkovsek, 23, of Monroeville collided with a minivan near the intersection of Fifth and Westinghouse avenues just after 4 p.m. Sunday.
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May 17, 2024 |
By Adam Reinherz | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(Adam Reinherz photo)
In a move that officials said is designed to cut down on distractions and improve student safety, McKeesport Area School District is restricting student access to cell phones.
This week the school board approved purchase of approximately 2,200 Yondr pouches at a cost of $60,100. The pouches will be distributed to students at Founders’ Hall Middle School and McKeesport Area High School.
Popular in districts nationwide, the small neoprene sacks ensure students cannot employ various smart devices during the school day.
“These are going to be purchased by us. They are provided to each student. The students will be responsible for them on a daily basis. They stay on their person. It is strictly the students’ responsibility,” school board member Matthew Keller said.
Each student will be asked to put cell phones, smart watches, ear buds and similar devices into a personal Yondr patch when they enter school. The pouch then is magnetically sealed. Keller said the student can take the pouch with them during the day, but can only re-open it with an electronic unlocking device.
The goal is to “reduce distractions — any bullying or anything — during the school day,” he said.
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May 10, 2024 |
By Adam Reinherz | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(Adam Reinherz photo)
The chief executive officer of Take Action Advocacy Group is questioning the legal authority of school police officers on McKeesport Area School District campuses.
During the district’s open agenda meeting Fawn Walker-Montgomery, CEO and co-founder of Take Action, probed the MASD board about what policies determine when students are cited or arrested.
“My organization gets calls all the time in regards to complaints, with people saying that their children have been arrested here and taken to McKeesport police station,” she said during the citizen comment portion of the meeting. “Some of these kids are in fifth grade or younger. Some of them are high school age.”
“First and foremost, their role is to protect our citizens,” replied board member and safe schools committee member Dan Goughnour. “They’re here to protect students. Now do kids get arrested? Absolutely. That happens. People make mistakes. But they are first and foremost here to protect our students.”
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May 10, 2024 |
By Bonnijean Cooney Adams | Posted in: Entertainment
Chelsea Conway as Blanche Cooke, close friend of Elaine Wheeler, interacts with Steven Gallagher as Elaine's husband John Wheeler in McKeesport Little Theater’s “Night Watch.” (Submitted photo by Jennifer Vertullo/McKeesport Little Theater)
If you go...
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“Night Watch”
Where: McKeesport Little Theater, 1614 Coursin St., (412) 673-1100, www.mckeesportlittletheater.com
When: Friday, May 10, Saturday, May 11, Friday, May 17 and Saturday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays May 11 and May 19 at 2 p.m.
Tickets: $15 for adults, $10 for students, available through the MLT website or by calling the theater.
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It’s taken more than four years, but the mystery thriller “Night Watch” returns to the McKeesport Little Theater stage, with most of the original cast and director back together again.
As part of the 2020 season, the production was shut down that March, along with public gatherings of all kinds, because of restrictions to try to stem the spread of Covid.
“Night Watch” opens today (May 10) and continues this weekend and May 17-19.
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May 09, 2024 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: State & Region
Editor’s note: The writer of this story has a conflict of interest. He is a U.S. Steel shareholder.
A local clean-air advocate argued Wednesday there is only one likely source of a rotten-egg smell that has plagued the Mon-Yough area for weeks — and it’s U.S. Steel’s Clairton Plant.
Patrick Campbell, executive director of the Group Against Smog & Pollution, said that a 2023 study by the Allegheny County Health Department concluded that nearly all hydrogen sulfide, or H2S, pollution in the region is the result of operations at Clairton Plant, which makes coke, a blast-furnace fuel, by super-heating coal to remove impurities.
“We know the source of the stench,” he said in a phone interview. “Something is going on at Clairton Coke Works that’s resulting in these emissions.”
Last week, Allegheny County Councilman Bob Macey convened a meeting of 40 first-responders, representatives from corporations, and local, county and state officials to discuss the ongoing odor. The smell — which seems to come and go — has resulted in countless calls to local fire departments by residents concerned that they have a natural gas leak.
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May 07, 2024 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: State & Region
* Editor’s Note — This story was corrected after publication. Paragraphs marked with * have been edited.
Conflict of interest notice: The writer of this story is a U.S. Steel shareholder.
U.S. Steel said its Mon Valley facilities, including Irvin Plant, seen here from Glassport, are operating normally. A “rotten egg” or “natural gas” smell reported by residents from West Homestead to Clairton. (Tube City Almanac photo)
A persistent smell of rotten eggs or natural gas in the Mon-Yough area has not been traced to leaks in any natural gas pipelines and local companies and officials are having a difficult time tracking its source.*
Last week, personnel from local fire departments, utility providers, U.S. Steel and a variety of agencies met to discuss the smell, which has plagued communities from West Homestead to Clairton.
There is no immediate danger to the public, according to an email from Allegheny County Councilman Bob Macey of West Mifflin, who convened the meeting.
“It’s been going on for a few months at least,” said Nick Paradise, a spokesperson for Peoples Gas, the dominant natural gas supplier in the McKeesport region. “It’s not necessarily every day — it ebbs and flows.”
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May 03, 2024 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
An architect’s rendering shows what the 100 block of Fifth Avenue, Downtown, could look like once the former Penn-McKee Hotel is demolished and replaced with a new structure. (Courtesy Stromberg/Garrigan & Associates, Inc.)
Related story: City Foresees Redevelopment of Hotel Site
A community advocate who works with local residents re-entering the workforce cautioned McKeesport city officials not to repeat the mistakes made in Pittsburgh neighborhoods such as East Liberty and Point Breeze.
Keenon Mikell, executive director of First Step Recovery Homes and founder of BuildNBlock Community Advocacy, told council that plans to redevelop the area around the former Penn-McKee Hotel must be careful not to leave current McKeesport residents behind.
“I don’t want to minimize the effort,” Mikell said. “McKeesport needs that boost to the economy ... But what I’m hearing from the presentation petrifies me, because what I’m seeing is what we’ve seen in East Liberty, which is gentrification.”
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May 03, 2024 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: White Oak News
A witness has described the fall from a third-story window that seriously injured two White Oak children.
A crowdfunding effort is now underway to help raise money to pay medical bills for Quinton Stephens, 6, and his sister, Elody, 4.
Andi Cartwright said she was out for a walk on Monday afternoon along Ohio Avenue near the Lincoln School Apartments when she heard what she called a “horrific” thud and looked to see Quinton Stephens on the ground, struggling to stand up.
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