Patrick Varine stories, Page 175
‘Augmented reality’ artist will be featured speaker at AAUW meeting in Murrysville
Award-winning photographer and “augmented reality” artist Christopher Ruane will be the featured speaker at the Thursday meeting of the Murrysville Area American Association of University Women. “I was messing around with photography ever since I was younger,” Ruane said in a 2014 Tribune-Review interview. “Since I got out of high...
Longtime Jayhawks football announcer loved music, sports, news
Joe Pacelli of Trafford would have been happy enough just sitting in the front row, watching Tony Bennett perform at the Venetian Room, during a trip to San Francisco in the 1980s. But he was ready to fly himself to the moon when he saw Bennett on the street the...
Inclusive theater troupe will hold auditions for upcoming season on March 24
Acting Up, an inclusive theater troupe for people of all ability levels led by Megan Nelson of Export, will hold auditions for its upcoming season on March 24 in Murrysville. Actors in grades 1 through 5 will be asked to introduce themselves, recite a poem or tell a joke and...
Fish fry season begins in earnest
Grab a fork and some cocktail sauce, because fish fry season is under way! From Ash Wednesday through Good Friday, Catholic churches, fire departments and private organizations will be hosting weekly fish fries during Lent. If you’re headed through the Star’s coverage area and need a place to get your...
4th hearing in Murrysville fracking ordinance challenge set for March 14
The fourth hearing in the Murrysville Watch Committee’s substantive validity challenge to the municipal fracking ordinance is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at the municipal building, 4100 Sardis Road. Murrysville council members voted 6-1 in 2017 to approve a fracking ordinance, which they worked on over seven years. Canonsburg drillers...
Latrobe World War II veteran was ‘all about photography’
If Harry Frye wasn’t at a local fire or town council meeting, he was covering high school sports or taking candid photos basically everywhere he went. “It’s all about photography,” said Patrick Frye, 57, of West Chester, about his father. “He always had his camera in his hand and didn’t...
Murrysville council sees final design concepts for ‘destination playground’ at MCP
As soon as the greater Pittsburgh area sees a few days of consistently dry weather, Jim Morrison plans to turn Murrysville’s public works crews loose to begin site work for a “destination playground” at Murrysville Community Park. “We were hoping to have most of the groundwork done by this point,”...
Delmont scout troop’s veteran memorial recognized with statewide award
Rebecca Shissler’s 97-year-old grandfather fought in World War II, and honoring the military is important to her and her family. That’s how a project, whose original goal was simply mapping the grave sites at Eastview Union Cemetery in Delmont, grew to include a veterans’ memorial with a bench, a paver...
‘Rocco’s Warriors’ come together to help family of 2-year-old leukemia patient
Brandon Monteleone of Penn Township had a tough time finding words to describe the outpouring of support his family has received since his 2-year-old son Rocco was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia on Dec. 30. “It’s hard to explain,” Monteleone said. “Just finding out that Rocco had cancer was so...
Export officials hope to begin McKinley Avenue wall repairs by mid-AprilVideo
The prospect of losing federal grant money is the latest reason Export officials hope to quickly fix a retaining wall along the north edge of McKinley Avenue. The main reason is that the wall is visibly failing and is located close to multiple homes as well as the borough building....
UK man plans to top cross-country fundraising run with Guinness World Record attempt
Jamie McDonald is already in the middle of a 5,500-mile fundraising trek across the U.S., but he isn’t planning to stop anytime soon. McDonald, 32, born in Gloucester, England, has the finishing line of his latest solo country-spanning run in his sights, a journey that so far has helped raise...
Amid code crackdown, Export officials remind residents of disposal options
Export residents, as part of their hauling contract with Republic Services, are able to dispose of household hazardous waste, borough officials reminded residents on Tuesday night. “For something like an old television, you call, let them know what you want to put out, and they’ll tell you when to take...
‘Game of Thrones’: Five predictions based on the first Season 8 trailerVideo
Fantasy fans worldwide got goosebumps when checking their phone notifications Tuesday morning. Chances are, there was an alert about the first full trailer for the eighth and final season of “Game of Thrones,” HBO’s massively-popular swords-and-fantasy saga based author George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” novel series....
Murrysville council will see final design for ‘destination playground’
Murrysville officials will discuss the final design for a “destination playground” at Murrysville Community Park at their meeting Wednesday night. The playground will include traditional features as well as a splash park and a small zip line. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the Murrysville municipal building, 4100 Sardis...
Franklin Regional’s Reljac chosen for women’s leadership award
Mary Catherine Reljac, assistant superintendent at the Franklin Regional School District, is the 2019 Dr. Jean E. Winsand Distinguished Woman in Education Award honoree. The award is presented by the Tri-State Area School Study Council, part of the University of Pittsburgh. Reljac, who has been with the district since 2013,...
Murrysville man joins supercomputing research team at Berkeley lab
So far, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., has been home to 13 Nobel Prizes, and hosted the discovery of 16 elements on the periodic table as well as more than 600 isotopes. Late last year, and two more times in 2019, it will be home — albeit...
Vacant house in Jeannette catches fire for 2nd time in 2 years
A vacant house on South Seventh Street caught fire Friday for the second time in two years. Jeannette Fire Capt. Joe Matijevic is not interested in returning for a third. “I’m hoping we can get it demolished,” Matijevic said Friday night as fire crews cleaned up the scene on the...
Symphony East will welcome Pittsburgh Festival Opera performers in March
Pittsburgh Festival Opera vocalists Adrianna Cleveland, Alicia Jayourba, Abigail Eagleson and Corrie Stallings will perform at the next Symphony East program in Murrysville. The program will be at 1 p.m., March 18 at Redstone Highlands, 4951 Cline Hollow Road in Murrysville. It is open to the public, and no reservations...
1 dead in Derry Twp. crash on Route 217
At least one person has died following a two-car crash Friday that closed a stretch of Route 217 in Derry Township. The crash happened just before 5 p.m. near the intersection of Route 217 and Curnow Road, according to Westmoreland County emergency dispatchers. Route 217 was closed for about four-and-a-half...
Franklin Regional students incorporate drumming, lasers, blacklights into gym classVideo
Franklin Regional Middle School students, through a grant from the FR Panther Foundation, spent part of their Friday drumming to dance music with lasers and blacklights. Health and physical-education teacher Barbara Haybarger said the fitness drumming program helps students with rhythmic movement, building confidence and learning to collaborate with peers....
Franklin Township sanitary authority board moves March meeting
The Franklin Township Municipal Sanitary Authority has shifted its March meeting to an earlier date. The authority board typically meets on the third Thursday of the month. The March meeting will take place on Monday, March 18. At its February meeting, the board approved the sale of 2019 bonds to...
Former West Penn Power manager loved fishing, family
If there was a place Cecil Fitzgerald was truly happy, it was most likely far offshore, aboard a boat with a fishing line in the water. “We really enjoyed boating and fishing,” said Mr. Fitzgerald’s wife of 63 years, Mary Lou Fitzgerald. “That was one of the main things we...
Delmont library will host a comedy tribute to resident Jim Davis
Jim Davis of Delmont knew how to make people laugh, whether it was cracking jokes or walking onstage at the intermission of an Apple Hill Playhouse show wearing a coconut bra and a hula skirt. “He may not have been an actor,” his wife, Charlene, said last fall. “But he...
WTO panel rules China over-subsidized grain production to undercut global pricesVideo
World Trade Organization officials ruled earlier this week that the Chinese government over-subsidized the country’s grain producers, artificially raising Chinese prices for grain and reducing imports. The WTO’s panel report “is a significant victory for U.S. agriculture that will help American farmers compete on a more level playing field,” USDA...
‘Paint with a Purpose’ in Murrysville to provide art scholarships for the developmentally disabled
Gabi Nastuck, director of Miss Gabi’s Art is Good Studio in Latrobe, will mark a year of working with East Suburban Citizen Advocacy in April, and it has been one of the most rewarding years of her artistic career. Nastuck, 40, of Latrobe will host an all-inclusive art class, “Painting...
