January 15, 2021 |
By Siana Emery | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Diane Pazuchanics shows off a recent gift sent by a former student. (Submitted photo via Facebook)
Long-time McKeesport Area art teacher and mentor Diane Pazuchanics is seeing the inspiration she fostered in others being returned to her. Through “The Angel Project,” a network of students, colleagues, friends and even strangers, are using art to show their gratitude toward her.
Pazuchanics, known as Mrs. Paz to her students, has taught at McKeesport Area High School for 27 years as an art teacher, providing students with creative inspiration. Due to a weakened immune system and other health complications, Mrs. Paz has been on sick leave this school year.
Danielle Pazuchanics, her daughter, recently posted a video to Facebook in which her mother shared a wish for a “final lesson plan”: to compile a book of watercolor paintings. Paz also created a Facebook group, The Angel Project, for colleagues to share well wishes.
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January 13, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Condemned signs have been removed from the Executive Building, Downtown, whose new owner, Jonathan Stark, has four potential tenants ready for the first floor. (Tube City Almanac photo)
Although the “Condemned” notices were recently removed from the doors of the Executive Building on Fifth Avenue, don’t expect to see a movie at the Quad Cinemas in the basement any time soon.
The seats and projection equipment are long gone, but the four auditoriums are still there, and they’re still plagued by the same problem that forced the theaters to close in 1980 — they’re prone to flooding.
“They’re more than 20 feet below street level,” said Jonathan Stark, who purchased the building in April 2020.
While the old theater spaces are likely to stay vacant, four tenants have signed letters of intent for the storefronts along Fifth Avenue, Stark said.
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January 13, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
The Downtown park-and-ride lot will be closed through the end of the year while Port Authority of Allegheny County makes improvements to the facility. (Tube City Almanac photo)
The McKeesport Transportation Center will close Saturday for the remainder of the year as Allegheny County’s transit agency begins the second phase of improvements to the facility.
A spokesperson for Port Authority of Allegheny County said the work will include four new bus shelters with benches, 19 additional parking spaces, two bus ticket vending machines and improved access for bicycle riders who want to use the Great Allegheny Passage trail.
In addition, a restroom building will be constructed for bus drivers and the sewerage system at the site will be improved to accommodate more rainwater runoff through use of an underground retention tank.
The cost of the improvements is $3.4 million.
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January 12, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Politics & Elections
Linda Brewster and her husband, state Sen. Jim Brewster, at his 2017 swearing-in at the Pennsylvania State Capitol. Brewster is scheduled to take the oath Wednesday morning after a federal judge dismissed a challenge filed by his opponent, Nicole Ziccarelli of Lower Burrell. (Courtesy office of state Sen. Jim Brewster)
State Sen. Jim Brewster will be sworn in for his third full term representing the 45th District on Wednesday morning at 11 a.m.
The decision by Pennsylvania Republicans to seat Brewster came Tuesday afternoon, after a federal judge in Pittsburgh dismissed a lawsuit filed by Brewster’s opponent that challenged the results of the Nov. 3 election.
Allegheny County Judge David Spurgeon of White Oak is scheduled to administer the oath to Brewster, Democrat from McKeesport.
“I just feel so relieved, for my family, my friends, my staff and for all of the people in the 45th District, no matter who they voted for,” Brewster said Tuesday night, as he worked through some 300 messages from well-wishers congratulating him on his victory, as well as from news reporters from around the United States asking for comment.
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January 11, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Corry Sanders speaks to members of the McKeesport Tigers men’s varsity basketball team. The longtime barbershop owner now works for the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office and for Pittsburgh’s Center for Victims. (Mike Manko photo, special to Tube City Almanac)
Corry Sanders went to the McKeesport Senior High School gymnasium last week with a simple message for the men’s varsity basketball team.
“Mistakes are very, very costly nowadays,” Sanders told about 20 members of the squad on Thursday night. “You might not be blessed with an opportunity to choose again.
“This is not a ‘Call of Duty’ game on Xbox, where you get a reset button,” he said.
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January 11, 2021 |
By Jason A. Mignanelli | Posted in: Duquesne News
(Editor’s Note: This is the first of two planned articles. The second will explore community reaction to the project.)
An architect’s rendering shows what In City Farms’ Duquesne facility will look like. Construction is expected to begin soon. (Submitted image courtesy In City Farms)
Minnesota entrepreneur and businessman Glenn Ford is looking not only at creating jobs in Duquesne but also addressing the problem of food insecurity.
“Community engagement is much more than a marketing pitch for us,” said Ford, chief executive officer of In City Farms, which has recently purchased 25 acres of land at RIDC’s City Center of Duquesne, the industrial park where U.S. Steel’s Duquesne Plant operated until 1984.
“Our facility is being built literally a block away from where nearly 1,500 people waited in line at the local food bank during COVID,” Ford said in a recent interview with Tube City Almanac. “We want to be a part of fixing this food shortage.”
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January 11, 2021 |
By Nick Zurawsky | Posted in: Duquesne News
Duquesne City Council has approved a budget for 2021 that includes a boost in spending of about $73,000.
Increased expenditures will be paid for by a combination of a wage tax increase, a property tax increase, and improved water bill collections, city officials said.
Last year was to have been the first year since 1991 that Duquesne was not included under the state’s Act 47, the Financially Distressed Municipalities Act, where the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development assists municipalities that are experiencing severe financial difficulties to ensure residents’ health, safety and welfare.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the city’s participation in the program has been extended.
“We are anticipating that we should be out of Act 47 real soon,” Mayor Nickole Nesby said.
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January 06, 2021 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
A former McKeesport city councilwoman is encouraging supporters to call officials and voice their displeasure after Wednesday’s council meeting was closed to the public.
In a video posted to Facebook Live, Fawn Walker-Montgomery, co-founder of Take Action Mon Valley and a candidate for state representative in 2018, said Wednesday night she planned to file a complaint against the city for allegedly violating the state’s Open Meetings Law, commonly called the “Sunshine Act.”
“There are so many violations that are happening here right now,” Walker-Montgomery said.
McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said the decision to close the meeting was made due to the sharply increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the region.
“This is only going to happen for a couple of months,” he said. “We’re hoping no more than two or three meetings before we’re in the clear.”
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January 06, 2021 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News, North Versailles Twp. News, White Oak News
A strong odor reported by residents of McKeesport, North Versailles Twp. and White Oak on Tuesday night was not a natural gas leak, a spokesman said.
Allegheny County emergency personnel said firefighters were dispatched to several locations along Route 48 just after 7 p.m. after 9-1-1 callers said they smelled natural gas.
But Barry Kukovich, spokesman for Peoples Gas, said there were no gas leaks or any service problems reported in Route 48 corridor on Tuesday night.
Natural gas is odorless, and the “gas smell” actually comes from a chemical called methyl mercaptan, which is designed to help customers detect a leak.
Kukovich said that it’s possible that a truck carrying mercaptan, or a similar chemical, passed through the area on Tuesday night, but the smell was not related to Peoples Gas.
January 05, 2021 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Commentary-Editorial
Tuesday’s decision by the Republican majority in the Pennsylvania State Senate not to seat state Sen. Jim Brewster of McKeesport has made national and international headlines, with even a cartoonist from Nairobi, Kenya, weighing in.
Here’s what some media outlets are saying:
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