May 13, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Janet and Barry Wagner of White Oak examine the monument to the McKeesport 23 following Saturday’s rededication ceremony on the lawn of McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center. Wagner’s first husband, U.S. Army Capt. Terry Martell, is one of the local soldiers killed in action in Vietnam whose name appears on the tablet. (Tube City Almanac photo)
U.S. Army Pfc. Denny Pliska was engaged to be married to his girlfriend just a few days before he was deployed to Vietnam. He was saving his combat pay to buy a Corvette when he got back to McKeesport.
Pliska didn’t make it home. He was killed in action only six days after fellow Army Pfc. Mike Nemchick — who, like Pliska, was an alumnus of McKeesport Vocational High School — also became a casualty of the Vietnam War.
Nemchick, said Joe Hoffman, former White Oak police chief, had planned to go to college on the GI Bill when he returned to McKeesport. He wanted to become a physical education teacher, Hoffman said, and work with Sam LaRosa at the McKeesport Boys Club. Nemchick, who was killed by a sniper on Feb. 22, 1966, never got the chance.
Those were just two of the stories of the McKeesport 23 — former city residents who were killed in the Vietnam War between 1965 and 1971 — that Hoffman shared on Saturday during a ceremony rededicating a monument in their memory.
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May 11, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport will look to add more police officers to fill vacancies, and the city’s mayor said the candidates that have applied so far seem “excited, energetic and eager to learn.”
The additions — plus three full-time officers welcomed last month — will help boost a department that is still healing from a shooting on Feb. 6 that claimed the life of police Officer Sean Sluganski and wounded Officer Chuck Thomas Jr.
A city man faces homicide charges in connection with that incident.
At this month’s city council meeting, Mayor Michael Cherepko said McKeesport police have done “an incredible job” since coming back to work after Sluganski’s death. County and state police and other agencies patrolled in McKeesport following the incident.
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May 11, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Parts of nine McKeesport streets will be resurfaced under a contract awarded this month by city council, with more to come as weather and personnel permit, officials said.
City council awarded a $629,647 contract to El Grande Industries of Donora, Washington County, for paving along Cornell, Coursin, Forest, Reed, Porter, Soles and Steele streets and Evans and North Grandview avenues.
El Grande was the lowest of three bidders, city officials said.
McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said public works crews also will pave several streets using city equipment, but employ outside contractors such as El Grande to mill — or remove — the old paving. He praised Steve Kondrosky, city public-works director, for work done last year.
“Steve and the guys did an incredible job last year, so the bar is set pretty high,” Cherepko said. “The amount of roads we did in-house is amazing.”
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May 08, 2023 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Trillium Flow Technologies, formerly Ralph A. Hiller Co., is moving into the former roll shop at RIDC’s Industrial Center of McKeesport. The move will more than double the company’s current space. The company supplies valves, pumps and other equipment for a variety of industrial uses. (Submitted photo courtesy RIDC)
A tenant at McKeesport’s industrial park has signed a five-year lease that will more than double the amount of space it currently occupies.
The non-profit Regional Industrial Development Corp., which operates the RIDC Industrial Center of McKeesport on the former U.S. Steel National Plant property, said that Trillium Flow Technologies has signed an agreement to use more than 27,000 square feet in the former Roll Shop at 1000 Industry Drive.
A spokeswoman said Trillium will be moving from its current 12,500 square foot space at 241 Center St. in the same park.
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May 04, 2023 |
By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Students are hard at work organizing and sorting clothes for The McKeesport Agape Center on Prescott Street in White Oak. (Submitted photo courtesy Rachelle Cilli)
Life Skills students from McKeesport Area School District students have been learning to be the best they can be by volunteering and gaining valuable job skills every Tuesday afternoon at the McKeesport Agape Center in White Oak.
MASD special education teacher, Rachelle Cilli, instructs the Community Based Experiences class. She takes students into the community to learn about job skills that will help them after they graduate high school and become employed.
Cilli said her class began volunteering at Agape in September 2022. “The class has worked at different places throughout the community but this was our first year at Agape. I didn’t realize the variety of experience the students would gain here,” she said.
Life Skills classes are a program for students who have learning challenges and need additional support to learn tasks that enable them to live with a degree of independence. Additional instruction is provided with academics, personal wellness, home economics, communications and social skills, and job skills.
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May 01, 2023 |
By Adam Reinherz | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
A budget presentation by McKeesport Area School District business manager Scott Domowicz added heft to an already weighty meeting last week.
Domowicz said next year’s total proposed budget is for $86 million with an approximate fund balance of $10.6 million. The 2022-23 budget approved by the board was approximately $79.8 million.
“We’ve added to our general fund balance, however, we have to be responsible with the spending,” School Board President Latoya Wright said.
Despite the fund balance, increased costs stand to hamper the district, Domowicz explained. “Contractual labor agreements and additional staffing represents an increase in payroll expenses of 8 percent,” he said.
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May 01, 2023 |
By Adam Reinherz | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
A discussion of possible institutional bias dominated April’s meeting of the McKeesport Area School Board.
The wide-ranging conversation was triggered by a social media post, and subsequent comments, that alleged an unidentified student received preferential treatment.
“Everyone needs to be consistent,” School Board President Latoya Wright said.
The district’s policy manual authorizes the board to establish “fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory rules and regulations” regarding student conduct, and delegates the superintendent to ensure policies are followed. In the event of an infraction, students “shall have a right to notice,” and suspensions and expulsions shall be carried out according to board policy.
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April 26, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Rev. Dr. Moni McIntyre embraces McKeesport police Officer Charles Thomas on Tuesday at the city’s Public Safety Building. (Special to Tube City Almanac)
A Downtown church on Tuesday presented a city police officer who is recovering from wounds sustained during a shooting with more than $300 in gift cards in honor of his service.
The gift to McKeesport police Officer Charles Thomas Jr. was the idea of Jo Pratt of White Oak, a parishioner at St. Stephen Episcopal Church, Walnut Street, and was quickly adopted by other members of the congregation, who contributed to the collection.
“We felt it was really, really necessary, because our church is in the community, and we realize the risk our police officers take with their lives, and that the compensation they receive does not in any way compare,” Pratt said. “We wanted (Thomas) to get a night out and to let all of our police know that we care, and that they are in our constant thoughts and prayers.”
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April 19, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Denise Sharbaugh spent the weekend looking for a new home for her 88-year-old father. She’s not sure how well he will adapt to the change.
Chuck Sharbaugh, who has lived at Senior Care Plaza on Lysle Boulevard for several years, is one of the residents who will be displaced when the personal care home closes May 1. A spokesman for the state Department of Human Services said the facility is voluntarily surrendering its license to operate.
A commercial kitchen on the site will continue to operate, employees have told Tube City Almanac, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Everything’s been running smoothly, my dad has been well taken care of,” Sharbaugh of White Oak said. “It’s really clean, and I like it. I’m really taken aback.”
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April 18, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(Tube City Almanac photo)
The last unused building in McKeesport’s industrial park is getting a new owner.
McKeesport City Council has approved a request from W&E Investments LLC to use the former McKeesport Connecting Railroad roundhouse for temporary storage of oil and lubricants used by U.S. Steel plants in the area.
The roundhouse, built in 1906, was used by the railroad for repair of locomotives and other equipment until 1987.
W&E Investments is a project of Cliff Wise, chair of River Materials Inc., which operates a barge and railcar loading facility under the McKeesport-Duquesne Bridge.
“It is literally the only building not bought or occupied at this point” in the industrial park, McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko says. “We’re going to allow (Wise) to use it for storage for now” while additional plans are developed.
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