Ember Duke stories
Upper Burrell residents notified of surveying for fracking lateral lines
Upper Burrell will soon undergo surveying for lateral fracking lines that could connect to natural gas company EQT’s Hermes well pad in neighboring Murrysville. Township residents received letters this week from Wisconsin consulting firm Verdanterra, which will conduct the surveying. “While surveying for well lateral locations, we may require access...
New Kensington event space, library and police fleet slated for upgrades, paid for with casino tax revenue
Three projects in New Kensington receive a total of $186,000 coming from tax revenue collected from Westmoreland’s casino. The grants were part of a countywide grant package of more than $470,000, paid for with tax revenue from Live! Casino. They include Girl Scout Little House renovations, Peoples Library modernizations and...
Faces of the Valley: New Kensington Arnold School District secures new head of safety
William Leek Jr. has always wanted to help people. He pursued that goal on a professional level through a series of public service and safety roles. That included a stint in the Marine Corps Reserves, as a police officer with the Rehoboth Beach Police Department for two years and later...
Lower Burrell to upgrade stormwater system on Rodgers Drive
Lower Burrell will be upgrading its Rodgers Drive stormwater system to address flooding, improve pedestrian safety and better comply with federal water runoff guidelines. The upgrades will include installing 225 feet of stormwater pipe and two new inlets. It also will include 200 feet of cured-in-place-pipe lining — a form...
Mount St. Peter church air quality tests likely won’t halt Holy Week schedule
Mount St. Peter Catholic Church in New Kensington likely will be open for Friday’s fish fry and Holy Week Masses following air quality testing this week. On Monday morning, the New Kensington Catholic Community, comprising Mount St. Peter, St. Mary Czestochowa and St. Joseph churches, announced via Facebook that a...
March Madness ups threat of problem gambling, especially for younger men
March Madness tipped off this week, a collection of 67 single-elimination basketball games that not only will crown a champion in 2½ weeks but also draw billions of dollars in sports bets. Young men are particularly at risk of developing gambling problems, experts say. According to a 2024 survey conducted...
New Kensington-Arnold students gifted supplies at yearly Adopt-A-School program
Sixth grader Landon Fernandez said he might use new school supplies gifted to him to draw, study and help with his homework. Bags of school supplies, including notebooks, colored pencils, glue and more were given to all 600 students at Roy A. Hunt Elementary School in Arnold on Friday. It...
Arnold police to wear body cameras
Arnold Mayor Shannon Santucci said getting body-worn cameras for police officers was one of her top priorities coming into office. Now that the department has them, she hopes they’ll help to protect those officers and the community. “(It will be beneficial) if there are any questions of legal disputes on...
New business workshop coming to Lower Burrell
For potential entrepreneurs looking to get in on Lower Burrell’s business district, an upcoming informational session may be a great first step, said Councilwoman Carley Logan. On April 16 the Lower Burrell New Business Workshop will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Fisher Hall at Burrell Lake Park. Logan, who...
Tarentum Night Market may avoid being canceled
The lights may be back on this summer for the Tarentum Night Market. Late Tuesday, market officials announced on Facebook it would be canceled for the 2026 season. It was later found the market could not afford required liability insurance, and it would not be awarded a permit by Tarentum...
Lower Burrell walking club takes steps to boost community connections
Lower Burrell’s new walking club will foster community connection, nature appreciation and health benefits, according to walking host Lindsay Taylor. In early April, Lower Burrell’s Nature Neighbor Walking Club will hold its first meeting at Burrell Lake Park. An official date will be announced on the Lower Burrell Parks and...
Kotecki Dog Park closed as safety precaution
High winds over the weekend caused a pole at the Kotecki Dog Park in Lower Burrell to lean far enough that officials decided to close the park Monday and Tuesday out of “an abundance of caution.” Mayor Chris Fabry said it doesn’t look like the pole will fall, but the...
New Kensington Restaurant Ramble returns with new options
A night of crab rangoon, pizza, baked goods and various other treats is on the horizon in downtown New Kensington. The city’s fifth annual Restaurant Ramble will return March 28, with three new participating eateries: Ash Taphouse, Begonia Bistro and Lucky Duck Candy Co. For $35 a ticket, participants can...
New Kensington, Arnold water lines getting upgrade
The New Kensington Municipal Water Authority is replacing lead lines in New Ken and Arnold to comply with federal regulations. The project to replace 115 service lines, which started at the beginning of the year, will wrap up in a few weeks, said the authority’s Distribution Superintendent Ed Saliba Jr....
New Kensington man charged in 2023 murder
An inmate at the Westmoreland County jail has been charged in connection to a 2023 murder in New Kensington. Raijon Deqae Wilson, 30, of New Kensington is charged with homicide in the shooting death of Troy Vickers Jr. On Oct. 19, 2023, Vickers was found shot in the head on...
Women entrepreneurs find unity, success in New Kensington
Part of Leah Delaney’s inspiration as a small-business owner is showing her young daughters what feminine success looks like. “I feel that women are so strong in so many ways,” Delaney said. “Tap into that feminine energy and radiate who we are.” Delaney’s studio, AngelWing Yoga and Wellness, opened five...
Arnold, Vandergrift, East Vandergrift to leave Alle-Kiski Intergovernmental Council
Three municipalities are leaving the Alle-Kiski Intergovernmental Council, citing membership costs and internal administrative changes. Arnold Council voted Tuesday to leave, citing lack of recent progress as a deciding factor. Councilman Aaron Moore said the council is well-intentioned, but the only deliverable it has produced was a 2025 blight plan....
Lower Burrell votes to donate land for Stewart Elementary housing project
Lower Burrell didn’t donate the pickleball courts behind city hall to Burrell School District as part of the deal to redevelop the Stewart Elementary School property because the city never really owned the courts. The city mistakenly built them on land owned by the school district. City council this week...
Upper Burrell teen to display Holocaust education project at Tri-City Historical Society
When Burrell High School senior Lily Sassani wanted to bring light to little-known stories about Girl Scouts’ role in society during the Holocaust, she turned to history books. After two years of research, writing and interviews, she shaped her findings into a Holocaust education patch that troops across the world...
Police: New Kensington woman accused of stealing from an elderly man
An arrest warrant has been issued for Tasha Tierra Williams after she was accused of stealing from an elderly New Kensington man she was supposed to be helping. Williams, 44, of New Kensington faces five felony charges, including financial exploitation of an older adult or care-dependent person. Williams met the...
Upper Burrell residents uneasy over coming data center
Upper Burrell residents hadn’t expressed many concerns about an incoming data center — until this week. At Wednesday’s township supervisors meeting, they asked for assurances on health, noise and environmental concerns. The only assurance they got was news the township is writing an ordinance for the project — a process...
Former Valley News Dispatch reporter returns to her roots in new contemporary, romantic fiction
When former Valley News Dispatch reporter and editor Patricia Vido started writing her debut novel “For Love of Billie” 10 years ago, she was sure of one detail: its setting in the Alle-Kiski Valley. “That’s the most important piece of a story,” Vido said. “The Alle-Kiski Valley is where I...
New Kensington’s St. Patty’s Day Pub Crawl returns for 5th run
Downtown New Kensington will be a one-stop shop Saturday for green beer, “leprechaun sangria” and small Irish-inspired plates during the fifth annual St. Patty’s Day Pub Crawl. Participating business owners, who lauded the event’s success, said it’s a great opportunity to expand customers’ dining horizons. Johanna Walters and David Atkinson,...
New Kensington council awards money for block of road repair
The New Kensington City Council voted Monday night to award $33,000 for road paving on Fourth Avenue between Ninth and 10th Street. The council voted to contract Plum Contracting Inc. for the construction. City Engineer Anthony Males said the amount was approximately $500 under what was budgeted. The motion passed...
Martin Elementary celebrates Read Across America with games, visiting students
Kindergarteners at the game station run by Valley High School junior Roman D’Argan rushed to find rhyming words on signs sprawled across the floor Monday at Martin Elementary School. D’Argan remembers looking up to older students when he was in elementary school and hoped to encourage the kids to learn....
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