Westmoreland category, Page 870
Tourism to be focus of new Westmoreland County visitor center on Route 119
Westmoreland County will open a visitor center next month as part of a renewed push to promote tourism. On Thursday, county commissioners are expected to approve an $81,000 contract with the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau to operate the facility in a plaza on Route 119, north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike...
Downed tree closes Route 30 eastbound near Derry
The eastbound lanes of Route 30 were shut down for a couple hours around 10 p.m. Tuesday night after a downed tree landed on the roadway. The eastbound side of the highway is temporarily closed between Route 217 and the causeway over Loyalhanna Creek. Emergency crews also reported downed wires...
Contractor: Water line relocation nearing end on Route 981 in LatrobeVideo
Ligonier Construction crews hope to wrap up water line relocation work on Latrobe’s Lloyd Avenue during the week of Jan. 14, weather permitting. The contractor has been working, on and off, since November — restricting daytime traffic to a single, alternating lane on a section of Lloyd south of Unity...
Rite Aid to close Irwin store in February
Rite Aid will close its pharmacy and store on Main Street in Irwin early next month, a decision made after an evaluation of its business, the Camp Hill-based pharmacy chain said. Rite Aid’s last day of normal operations in Irwin is expected to be Feb. 4, at which time the...
Warhawk fighter plane joins World War II program at Westmoreland air show
A restored Air Force P-40 Warhawk fighter plane will join the high-flying spectacle May 25-26 at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity. The World War II-era aircraft will be featured in the “Tora! Tora! Tora!” program during the 2019 Shop ‘n Save Westmoreland County Airshow. The plane and the program...
Testimony begins in Latrobe murder case
Confronted by a gun-wielding masked man, Daniel McNerny took it upon himself to put a stop to what appeared to be an armed robbery in front of a Latrobe home nearly two years ago, an eyewitness testified Tuesday. McNerny, who had been visiting friends when he was alerted to the...
Murrysville divers recover body from Fayette pond
A Murrysville dive team recovered the body of a Confluence man who was submerged in an icy Henry Clay Township pond Monday near his pickup truck, authorities said. Patrick Keating, 30, was found in the pond along Sickle Ridge Road about 45 feet from where his truck was pulled from...
Ward joins state Senate GOP leadership
State Sen. Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, was named to the GOP Senate leadership Tuesday as the Republican Senate caucus regrouped for 2019. The appointment came a day after Ward, now in her third term, was named chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, announced...
Trib appeals decision to delay release of juror names from Sheriff Held’s public corruption trial
The Tribune-Review on Tuesday filed an appeal of a judge’s order delaying the public release of the names of jurors who served in last month’s public corruption trial of Westmoreland County Sheriff Jonathan Held. Senior Common Pleas Judge Timothy Creany in late December ruled the names will remain private until...
Westmoreland happenings: Jan. 10 and beyond
Church events • Orders are being taken through Monday for soups to be picked up Jan. 19 at St. Paul United Methodist Church, 101 N. Fourth St., Youngwood. Choice of soups: vegetable beef, chicken noodle, and bean with ham. Cost: $5 quart. Orders: 724-837-1647. • Bingo, with early bird, 12:30...
Westmoreland County commissioner Anderson won’t seek re-election
Westmoreland County Commissioner Charles Anderson announced Tuesday he will retire at year’s end and will not run for re-election this year. Anderson, a Hempfield Republican, was first appointed to commissioner in 2008 and served a four-year stint as board chairman until the GOP lost its majority in 2015. “I’ve been...
Man accused of hiding video camera inside women’s room at North Huntingdon plant
A 32-year-old Irwin man was arrested this week for allegedly hiding a motion-activated video camera inside a women’s restroom of the North Huntingdon electrical parts manufacturing plant where he worked. Nicholas R. Traill was arraigned before District Judge Wayne Gongaware on charges of invasion of privacy, burglary, possession of obscene...
Right place, right time: Jeannette first responders save man’s life during training exercise
Don Mahoney was right where he needed to be. The Butler County man’s interest in space made him a perfect fit to offer his time at the Heinz History Center’s Destination Moon exhibit. But little did he know, the 65-year-old man was about to get help from Jeannette EMS and...
Plans for renovating North Huntingdon park ‘n ride lot postponed
The Westmoreland County Transit Authority’s plans to renovate and expand its Park and Ride lot along Route 30 in North Huntingdon have been put on hold until February. Domenic Sacchetti, a transit authority engineer with HDR Inc. of Pittsburgh, was granted his request to postpone his presentation to the North...
Opening statements in Latrobe murder trial to begin Tuesday
Opening statements will begin Tuesday morning in the first-degree murder trial of a Latrobe man police said fired two shots on a city street, killing a friend who attempted to intervene in an armed robbery of a drug dealer. The prosecution contends Zachary McGrath, 23, concealed his identity when he...
Salaries set for North Huntingdon officials
North Huntingdon’s top administrators will receive salary increases ranging from 2 to 7 percent this year. Police Chief Robert Rizzo, who was promoted to the position of chief in September, will receive an annual salary of $121,179 in 2019, an increase from the 2018 pro-rated salary of $118,750. Rizzo was...
Alleged gunman in holdup at East Huntingdon store jailed on $100K bail
State police on Monday arrested a Scottdale man and accused him of being the alleged gunman in the Dec. 22 holdup of the Dollar General store at Crossroads Plaza in East Huntingdon. Clyde C. Mensch, 42, was arraigned on charges of robbery, theft, making terroristic threats, receiving stolen property and...
County judges pick retired teacher to fill vacancy on Norwin School Board
A retired Franklin Regional school teacher is the newest member of the Norwin School Board. Westmoreland County’s nine Common Pleas Court judges Monday selected William Essay, 57, of North Huntingdon, to complete the last year of a term left vacant by the resignation of board member Shawn Petrisko in August....
Cops: Former Greensburg man abandoned infant and toddler in failed escape
A former Greensburg man told city police he “panicked” when pulled over Saturday and ran from a traffic stop, abandoning a two-month-old infant and 18-month-old toddler inside his running car. Patrick D. Davis, 31, of New Alexandria, was arraigned Monday on two counts of child endangerment and single counts of...
Orthodox Christians celebrate ChristmasVideo
Holy Ascension of Our Lord Serbian Orthodox Church, which has stood in Youngwood for more than a century, celebrated Christmas on Monday — as Orthodox Christians who follow the Julian calendar marked Christmas on Jan. 7. There is a 13-day difference between the Julian calendar, which was introduced under the...
Fire crews respond to overturned truck leaking diesel fuel in Sewickley Township
Multiple fire departments were summoned to the scene of a fuel spill Monday on Waltz Mill Road in Sewickley Township. Authorities reported a tri-axle truck loaded with gravel overturned on the 900 block of the roadway and was leaking diesel fuel and motor oil. The accident occurred at 1:27 p.m....
‘No regrets’ for Greensburg police in all-out search for ‘missing’ couple
Despite an around-the-clock push to locate a Greensburg-area couple who appeared to vanish late last week becoming all for naught after police discovered the pair was in South Carolina on a “spontaneous vacation,” city police said they have no regrets in how they handled the situation. “It was the result...
Police: Son fatally beat father over cell phone before setting Hempfield house fireVideo
State police believe Douglas F. Novak beat his elderly father to death over a missing cell phone and then set his house on fire in an attempt to cover his tracks, according to court documents. Authorities on Monday charged Novak, 40, with homicide in connection with the Dec. 20 death...
Faded history buried in Potter’s Field at Westmoreland County Prison
The markers are uneven, jutting from the grass like crooked teeth. Each represents a person, who was once loved, but now is identified only by a letter and number. The identification corresponds with a small handwritten notation in a decades-old book stored in the annals of the Westmoreland Manor. It’s...
Westmoreland County Judge Marsili leaves a long career in law, sort of
Judge Anthony Marsili’s career may have started out with him selling ties and shirts at a now-defunct Greensburg department store. But decades later, it’s a black robe that has defined his life’s work. Marsili, 67, of New Kensington, officially retired Sunday after serving 19 years as a common pleas judge...
