July 31, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News
Retired North Versailles Twp. police Chief James Matrazzo receives congratulations from Allegheny County Councilwoman Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis (left) and state Rep. Brandon Markosek (right). (T.J. Martin photos for Tube City Almanac)
North Versailles Twp. commissioners welcomed a pair of visitors to their July meeting to present citations to the township’s former police chief who retired recently after nearly three decades of service.
James Matrazzo joined the North Versailles Police Department in 1996 and became the township’s chief of police in 2015.
In honor of that service, Matrazzo was presented with a citation from the state House of Representatives by state Rep. Brandon Markosek (D-25th) and one from Allegheny County presented by Councilwoman Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis (D-District 8).
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July 16, 2024 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News
A North Versailles Twp. man died Sunday evening following a fire at his home on Payne Street.
Mark Gowaty, 68, died at UPMC Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh about six hours after being rescued from the blaze by firefighters, the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office said. Gowaty had suffered burns over most of his body, the medical examiner’s office said.
Crews were dispatched to the home just off Luehm Avenue after 1 p.m. and arrived to find the rear of the home fully engulfed in flame, with smoke coming from other parts of the structure, said fire Chief Vince DiCenzo III of the Fire Department of North Versailles.
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June 24, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News
East Allegheny School Board has adopted a final 2024-25 school year budget which includes the first real estate tax increase in the district in more than a decade.
The increase, however, is slightly smaller than that in the preliminary budget approved last month and unlike that budget, the final budget doesn’t add to the district’s overall budget deficit of more than $5 million.
The final budget has $46.24 million in both revenues and expenditures, according to Director of Fiscal Services Toni Valicenti. The budget was approved 8-0 with board member Macey Kinard absent.
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May 30, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: East McKeesport News, North Versailles Twp. News, Wilmerding News
East Allegheny School District property owners could see their first property tax increase in more than a decade.
The school board has approved a preliminary 2024-25 budget containing a mileage tax increase of just over 1.05 mills. School board members Tisha Thomas and Merle Pusey voted against the preliminary budget and Robert Trout was absent.
The preliminary budget must be voted on at next month’s school board meeting.
Director of Fiscal Services Toni Valicenti said the state dictates a maximum millage increase that every district can impose and the proposed increase in East Allegheny is half of the maximum allowed by the state.
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May 29, 2024 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News, Wilmerding News
Patton Street Bridge (Submitted photo courtesy Allegheny County)
The Allegheny County Department of Public Works will hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. June 6 to discuss the upcoming replacement of the Patton Street Bridge in Wilmerding, a spokesperson said.
The hearing will be held online using the Microsoft Teams video conference app. Registration in advance is required by going to Allegheny County’s website. A link and phone number to attend the meeting will be emailed to those who register.
The Patton Street bridge links the north and south sides of Wilmerding over Turtle Creek and also provides a transportation link between North Versailles Twp. and Monroeville.
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May 22, 2024 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News, North Versailles Twp. News
Motorcycle crashes claimed the lives of two men in separate incidents Sunday in North Versailles Twp.
The first, just after 4 p.m., involved a minivan and a motorcycle on Fifth Avenue just north of the McKeesport city limits. The second happened on Route 30 just five hours later.
Allegheny County police are investigating both cases.
In the first incident, county police said a motorcycle driven by Benjamin Petkovsek, 23, of Monroeville collided with a minivan near the intersection of Fifth and Westinghouse avenues just after 4 p.m. Sunday.
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April 05, 2024 |
By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News
High school teacher Gerald McGrew, from Dravosburg, poses with his student, Nie’Zhay Jefferson, 16 years old, from McKeesport, as he explains the importance of using solar eclipse glasses while looking at the sun. (Vickie Babyak photo for Tube City Almanac)
On Monday, millions of people will observe a historic total solar eclipse as the moon’s shadow sweeps across the United States.
Mon Valley communities will begin to see the moon’s shadow slowly creep across the sun around 2 p.m. Between 3:15 to 3:20 p.m., viewers will see 97 percent “totality” with some darkness in the sky, and at approximately 4:30 p.m., phases of the eclipse will conclude.
Scientists say this year’s eclipse will be different from the 2017 solar eclipse.
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March 17, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: East McKeesport News, North Versailles Twp. News, Wilmerding News
(Source: Pennsylvania Department of Drug & Alcohol Programs)
North Versailles Twp. police and the East Allegheny School Board are warning parents about the dangers children face from vaping.
At this month’s school board meeting, Acting Superintendent Joseph DiLucente told the board that he and Norm Locke, North Versailles assistant police chief, sent letters to parents earlier this month warning of the dangers children face from vaping.
The school district letter, signed by DiLucente, junior high school principal Mark Draskovich and senior high school principal Brian Ferek, notes, “We have noticed an unfortunate upward trend in drug use among our student population and youth in the Mon Valley as a whole.”
“I ask that you address the dangers of drug use, particularly unknown substances in vape devices, with your children. In speaking with Norm Locke, Assistant Chief of NVPD, and reviewing recent confiscations of vaping devices at the high school, this is our chief area of concern,” the letter continues.
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March 17, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: East McKeesport News, North Versailles Twp. News, Wilmerding News
(File photo courtesy Fire Department of North Versailles via Facebook)
While not as much as originally proposed, some volunteer firefighters in the five fire departments serving the communities in the East Allegheny School District will receive a real estate tax credit of up to $300.
The East Allegheny School Board voted 5-1 at their monthly meeting earlier this week to approve the program, with Board President John Savinda opposed, Merle “Bud” Pusey and Shannon Basa-Sabol abstaining and Macey Kinard absent.
The proposal will give an annual $300 real estate tax credit to qualifying homeowners who are volunteer firefighters in the five fire departments — Crestas, the Fire Department of North Versailles, Wilmerding, West Wilmerding and United, which serves East McKeesport and Wall — within the district. The proposal places an annual cap of $7,000 on the program.
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February 28, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News
Three North Versailles Twp. employees participated in the rescue of an elderly woman who fell into Turtle Creek earlier this month and one was on hand at the township commissioners monthly meeting to receive their thanks. Afterwards, he thanked them for allowing him and his colleagues the opportunity to do so.
Merle “Bud” Pusey serves as a Code Enforcement Officer for North Versailles and is also the Assistant Fire Chief of the West Wilmerding Volunteer Fire Department.
On Feb. 15, Pusey said, he was in the code enforcement office in the township municipal building when a call went out shortly after 9 a.m. for first responders to assist a 75-year-old woman who had fallen into Turtle Creek near the 400 block of Airbrake Avenue in Wilmerding while she was taking a walk.
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