Jack Troy stories, Page 18
Police: Chase spanning New Kensington, Plum and Penn Hills ends in crash, arrest
State narcotics agents are leading an investigation into a man who authorities say led them on a chase Wednesday through New Kensington, Plum and Penn Hills before hitting another vehicle head-on and being caught with nearly $7,000 in cocaine. Matthew Avans McCloud, 34, of New Kensington faces a litany of...
Penn Hills Council relaxes billboard rules
Penn Hills Council passed an ordinance Oct. 21 to loosen billboard rules in industrial districts. The new regulations allow for larger and higher billboards in these areas, while also expressly permitting signs with electronically changing messages. Billboards remain banned in residential, conservation, business and mixed-use districts — an overwhelming majority...
Aldi gives opening date for Allegheny Township store
Aldi will open its store in Allegheny Township on Nov. 7, the ever-expanding supermarket chain has announced, giving shoppers another option in an area thin on grocers. A grand opening ceremony will be held at the store in Hyde Park Plaza before customers are let in at 8:45 a.m. The...
Democrat Bill Petulla, Republican Jeremy Shaffer chase open seat in 28th State House District
Democrat Bill Petulla and Republican Jeremy Shaffer are striking moderate messages in the race to represent Pennsylvania’s 28th State House District, a right-leaning band of mostly affluent suburbs along Allegheny County’s northern border. The district includes West Deer, Marshall, Bradford Woods, Pine Township, Richland and Hampton. Both candidates ran unopposed...
Inflation Explained: Pandemic disruptions work their way out of the car industry
Editor’s note: This is the seventh story in an occasional series on the causes and impact of inflation. Car buyers who haven’t been in the market for a while might be in for some sticker shock. In the past five years, the average price paid for a new vehicle has...
Sand blasting saves historic Tredway Trail landmark from graffiti; charges filed
It wasn’t easy, but Allegheny Township public works crews have managed to remove graffiti sprayed in September on a historic oil distillery along the Tredway Trail. Crews first tried pressure washing with an environmentally safe cleaner. “It didn’t do a thing,” said Roger Schwarz, public works superintendent. “I don’t know...
Tapped from pandemic struggles, Buffalo Township brewpub Cellar Works to close
It’s almost last call at Cellar Works Brewing Co. in Buffalo Township. After more than seven years of business, the craft brewery will close Oct. 26. Members of the Cellar Society, an annual subscription that comes with discounts, presale priority on beer and more, are invited to a final party...
Old William Penn Highway remediation: uncertain, disruptive but at least funded
After plenty of patch jobs and other Band-Aid solutions to a slow motion landslide underneath Old William Penn Highway, Penn Hills officials are reckoning with the fact that a full-blown repair is the only option. “I am a little fearful we might not be far away from having to close,”...
Fractured Allegheny Township supervisors limit their own speech in 2-1 vote
Mike Korns spent about 10 minutes Monday night making his case against a resolution that would limit the ability of citizens and his fellow Allegheny Township supervisors to speak at monthly meetings. “We are supposed to debate and deliberate on these motions,” he said. “We’re actually supposed to try to...
Dominus High School staffs up, plans for remodel of Wilkins office building
Dominus High School, a start-up entrepreneurial academy in Wilkins with ties to the Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship, has made some crucial strides toward a fall 2025 opening. For one, it has its founding principal: M. Louis Robinson III, a self-described “social edupreneur” with about 20 years of experience...
Buffalo Township Sheetz closure imminent ahead of 6-month rebuild
The Sheetz location in Buffalo Township will be torn down and rebuilt much sooner than at least one township official expected. The gas station and convenience store along Route 356 will close Oct. 27, with an anticipated reopening sometime in April, Sheetz confirmed. Workers will be offered other jobs with...
Buffalo Township cutting it close on finalizing covid relief-funded remodel of offices, police station
With the clock ticking to allocate its roughly $1.2 million in covid relief funds, Buffalo Township has taken another step toward remodeling its joint administrative office and police station. Supervisors this month put out a request for proposals and expect bids to come back within 30 days. That leaves the...
Driver who died after Lernerville crash identified as Chicora man
The driver injured Sunday in a crash at Lernerville Speedway has died, a family member and the speedway confirmed in social media posts. Both identified him as Shane Nolan of Chicora. “Lernerville Speedway and the Tomson family are deeply saddened by the passing of Shane Nolan, a cherished member of...
Kiski Township man acquitted of sexually assaulting child
Wayne Lawrence Birch Jr., a Kiski Township man accused of sexually assaulting a minor, has been acquitted. A jury rendered the not guilty verdict Oct. 9, ending nearly two years of proceedings for Birch, 55. In December 2022, he was charged with one felony count each of aggravated indecent assault...
Pennsylvania hit hardest by nationwide whooping cough outbreak
A nationwide whooping cough surge has infected nearly 2,200 Pennsylvanians, outpacing every other state and putting local medical experts on high alert. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified more than 16,000 cases of whooping cough this year, more than four times as many as the same...
‘Operation Ghoul Busters’ aims to crack down on Halloween DUI incidents
New Year’s Eve and Thanksgiving historically are known as big drinking holidays, with police stepping up DUI enforcement in an effort to curb drunken driving. PennDOT doesn’t consider Halloween a “holiday season,” so it doesn’t specifically track crashes and DUI incidents as it does for Christmas, the Fourth of July...
Supply issues slow down Freeport’s $18.6M sewage plant, but it still could meet schedule
Work on Freeport’s new $18.6 million sewage treatment facility is going slower than expected, with possible change orders looming. Robert Horvat, the project’s engineer from KLH Engineers, estimated that if “everything goes perfect and we get a little lucky,” the plant will be ready during the third quarter of next...
Gia Visto reopens after Health Department hang-up
Gia Visto, the Italian restaurant in Penn Hills that closed under Allegheny County Health Department orders in August, has reopened after getting a permit and upgrading its kitchen. Owner Jill Varmecky characterized the permit situation as a mix-up. “I’ve always had a pleasant relationship with the Health Department all these...
Feeling marginalized, Freeport mayor to call it quits
Freeport Mayor Zack Gent is planning to step down at the end of the year due to his new, on-the-road job and what he called clashes with council over fiscal responsibility. The five members in attendance at this week’s council meeting barely reacted when Gent informed them of his surprise...
Valley soccer player known for never-quit attitude recovering after on-field collapse
In some ways, Tuesday night was a high-water mark for the Valley High School boys soccer team’s return to WPIAL competition. With only a minute left, a Valley player scored the go-ahead goal against Leechburg and put his team in the driver’s seat for its first victory of a season...
Leechburg Volunteer Fire Company declines to return contested toy drive money to Allegheny Township
The Leechburg Volunteer Fire Company won’t return $10,000 in Christmas toy drive donations once held in an Allegheny Township escrow account. Instead, it will run Toys for Alle-Kiski Kids on its own for the second straight year. A resolution passed by the fire company’s membership Tuesday also calls for a...
UPMC Presbyterian hospital tower project on schedule as $1.5B expansion continues
UPMC’s multibillion-dollar hospital expansion and renovation project appears to be on schedule, with the opening of its centerpiece Presbyterian hospital tower expected in 2027. Work on the $1.5 billion, 17-story tower near the existing Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood began in June 2022. Construction is expected to wrap up...
Charges over Allegheny Township toy drive money dropped, but supervisors remain divided over what happened
Summary charges were dropped against an Allegheny Township supervisor, a former supervisor and the former manager of the township stemming from a $10,000 check they signed last year for a Christmas toy drive. The charges, filed in August against Supervisor Michael Korns, former Supervisor John Rennick Steele and former township...
Inflation explained: Cheaper consumer electronics an outlier among industries
Editor’s note: This is the fifth story in an occasional series on the causes and impact of inflation. It has been a while since televisions were a real money maker, at least for small businesses. Just ask Henry Yasczak, a semi-retired appliance seller and repairman. He still operates Henry’s, formerly...
Penn Hills Passport aims to be 1-stop guide to local events, business and more
Penn Hills Councilman Alan Waldron, with support from the local community development corporation, has taken another crack at building a one-stop app for residents to find news, events and businesses in the community. Dubbed Penn Hills Passport, the free app aggregates information from the web and packages it into various...
