Jack Troy stories, Page 17
Old William Penn Highway remediation: uncertain, disruptive but at least funded
After plenty of patch jobs and other Band-Aid solutions to a slow motion landslide underneath Old William Penn Highway, Penn Hills officials are reckoning with the fact that a full-blown repair is the only option. “I am a little fearful we might not be far away from having to close,”...
Fractured Allegheny Township supervisors limit their own speech in 2-1 vote
Mike Korns spent about 10 minutes Monday night making his case against a resolution that would limit the ability of citizens and his fellow Allegheny Township supervisors to speak at monthly meetings. “We are supposed to debate and deliberate on these motions,” he said. “We’re actually supposed to try to...
Dominus High School staffs up, plans for remodel of Wilkins office building
Dominus High School, a start-up entrepreneurial academy in Wilkins with ties to the Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship, has made some crucial strides toward a fall 2025 opening. For one, it has its founding principal: M. Louis Robinson III, a self-described “social edupreneur” with about 20 years of experience...
Buffalo Township Sheetz closure imminent ahead of 6-month rebuild
The Sheetz location in Buffalo Township will be torn down and rebuilt much sooner than at least one township official expected. The gas station and convenience store along Route 356 will close Oct. 27, with an anticipated reopening sometime in April, Sheetz confirmed. Workers will be offered other jobs with...
Buffalo Township cutting it close on finalizing covid relief-funded remodel of offices, police station
With the clock ticking to allocate its roughly $1.2 million in covid relief funds, Buffalo Township has taken another step toward remodeling its joint administrative office and police station. Supervisors this month put out a request for proposals and expect bids to come back within 30 days. That leaves the...
Driver who died after Lernerville crash identified as Chicora man
The driver injured Sunday in a crash at Lernerville Speedway has died, a family member and the speedway confirmed in social media posts. Both identified him as Shane Nolan of Chicora. “Lernerville Speedway and the Tomson family are deeply saddened by the passing of Shane Nolan, a cherished member of...
Kiski Township man acquitted of sexually assaulting child
Wayne Lawrence Birch Jr., a Kiski Township man accused of sexually assaulting a minor, has been acquitted. A jury rendered the not guilty verdict Oct. 9, ending nearly two years of proceedings for Birch, 55. In December 2022, he was charged with one felony count each of aggravated indecent assault...
Pennsylvania hit hardest by nationwide whooping cough outbreak
A nationwide whooping cough surge has infected nearly 2,200 Pennsylvanians, outpacing every other state and putting local medical experts on high alert. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified more than 16,000 cases of whooping cough this year, more than four times as many as the same...
‘Operation Ghoul Busters’ aims to crack down on Halloween DUI incidents
New Year’s Eve and Thanksgiving historically are known as big drinking holidays, with police stepping up DUI enforcement in an effort to curb drunken driving. PennDOT doesn’t consider Halloween a “holiday season,” so it doesn’t specifically track crashes and DUI incidents as it does for Christmas, the Fourth of July...
Supply issues slow down Freeport’s $18.6M sewage plant, but it still could meet schedule
Work on Freeport’s new $18.6 million sewage treatment facility is going slower than expected, with possible change orders looming. Robert Horvat, the project’s engineer from KLH Engineers, estimated that if “everything goes perfect and we get a little lucky,” the plant will be ready during the third quarter of next...
Gia Visto reopens after Health Department hang-up
Gia Visto, the Italian restaurant in Penn Hills that closed under Allegheny County Health Department orders in August, has reopened after getting a permit and upgrading its kitchen. Owner Jill Varmecky characterized the permit situation as a mix-up. “I’ve always had a pleasant relationship with the Health Department all these...
Feeling marginalized, Freeport mayor to call it quits
Freeport Mayor Zack Gent is planning to step down at the end of the year due to his new, on-the-road job and what he called clashes with council over fiscal responsibility. The five members in attendance at this week’s council meeting barely reacted when Gent informed them of his surprise...
Valley soccer player known for never-quit attitude recovering after on-field collapse
In some ways, Tuesday night was a high-water mark for the Valley High School boys soccer team’s return to WPIAL competition. With only a minute left, a Valley player scored the go-ahead goal against Leechburg and put his team in the driver’s seat for its first victory of a season...
Leechburg Volunteer Fire Company declines to return contested toy drive money to Allegheny Township
The Leechburg Volunteer Fire Company won’t return $10,000 in Christmas toy drive donations once held in an Allegheny Township escrow account. Instead, it will run Toys for Alle-Kiski Kids on its own for the second straight year. A resolution passed by the fire company’s membership Tuesday also calls for a...
UPMC Presbyterian hospital tower project on schedule as $1.5B expansion continues
UPMC’s multibillion-dollar hospital expansion and renovation project appears to be on schedule, with the opening of its centerpiece Presbyterian hospital tower expected in 2027. Work on the $1.5 billion, 17-story tower near the existing Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood began in June 2022. Construction is expected to wrap up...
Charges over Allegheny Township toy drive money dropped, but supervisors remain divided over what happened
Summary charges were dropped against an Allegheny Township supervisor, a former supervisor and the former manager of the township stemming from a $10,000 check they signed last year for a Christmas toy drive. The charges, filed in August against Supervisor Michael Korns, former Supervisor John Rennick Steele and former township...
Inflation explained: Cheaper consumer electronics an outlier among industries
Editor’s note: This is the fifth story in an occasional series on the causes and impact of inflation. It has been a while since televisions were a real money maker, at least for small businesses. Just ask Henry Yasczak, a semi-retired appliance seller and repairman. He still operates Henry’s, formerly...
Penn Hills Passport aims to be 1-stop guide to local events, business and more
Penn Hills Councilman Alan Waldron, with support from the local community development corporation, has taken another crack at building a one-stop app for residents to find news, events and businesses in the community. Dubbed Penn Hills Passport, the free app aggregates information from the web and packages it into various...
Annual powwow in Indiana Township sparks cultural exchange
It took Miguel Sague Jr. and Silantoi Nkoyo only a few minutes of chatting in a mucky field at a powwow Sunday afternoon to start trading gifts. Sague, a retired art teacher and member of the United Confederation of Taino People, offered a print of one of his drawings. In...
JD Vance initially turned away from Primanti Bros. in North Versailles
Sen. JD Vance, the Republican pick for vice president, may have missed out on a Pittsburgh staple Saturday after he was initially turned away from the Primanti Bros. in North Versailles, but it seems there’s no hard feelings. Photos and videos posted to social media, including by a reporter from...
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance speaks at Christian, revival-style event in Monroeville
Bookended in the schedule by pastors, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance played the hits at a tightly regulated town hall Saturday afternoon in Monroeville, addressing inflation, the opioid epidemic and what he called socialism in public schools. Hundreds of rally goers, some clad in gear with variations of the...
Trump visit, interactions, security put Kittanning market in limelight
For about a week, Ryan Sprankle knew someone with former President Donald Trump’s campaign would be stopping by his supermarket in Kittanning — a state or local surrogate, he figured. Details were sparse after an initial text from a member of the local Republican committee. Trump staffers called Sprankle on...
Alcohol permit costs overshadow canned cocktail bonanza for small businesses
With two containers of sushi tucked under her arm, Mia DiCristofaro turned a corner at the Giant Eagle in Irwin and, to her surprise, found her favorite canned mixed drink on the shelf: vodka and cranberry juice. That meant the Madison resident could save herself a trip to the state...
Morning Roundup: 2 vehicles hit Beechview building; zoo regains ‘gold standard’ certification
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Friday, Sept. 20: Crash causes chain reaction in Beechview Two vehicles hit a building in Pittsburgh’s Beechview neighborhood Thursday evening. University of Pittsburgh men’s basketball great Carl Krauser had finished a training session with a client and was on...
1 man dead after shooting at Ellwood City business
A man is dead and a suspect in custody after a shooting Thursday night in Ellwood City. The incident took place at Ellwood City Forge, though Timothy Woods, 31, who lives in the borough, was arrested on Belton Road in North Sewickley, according to police. He’s facing a homicide charge...
