Mary Ann Thomas stories, Page 8

If you’re lucky — and patient — you might be able to score some gasoline at almost half-price tomorrow in Lower Burrell. The BP gas station at Leechburg and Wildlife Lodge roads is partnering with a nonprofit to offer gasoline for $2.38 a gallon on Wednesday for about two hours...

As part of a comprehensive plan for Lower Burrell’s parks, the city is asking residents to take an online survey on what facilities and activities they want to see in the city’s five parks. City parks include Braeview Fireman’s Park, Burrell Lake Park, Kotecki Memorial Park, Kinloch Fireman’s Park and...

The Burrell School Board is proposing a $34.7 million budget with a 2.9% real estate tax increase for the 2022-23 school year. The owner of a home with an average assessed value of $22,900 will see a tax increase of $68; under the Homestead Act exclusion, the same owner would...

An Allegheny County Police Academy cadet from Green Tree was awarded the Officer Brian Shaw Memorial Scholarship on Friday. Shaw, of Lower Burrell, was a New Kensington police officer who was shot and killed after a traffic stop and foot chase in 2017. He was 25. Nicholas Rajakovich, 26, won...

The Harmar bald eagles, now in their ninth year of breeding on the same hillside above Route 28, raised a family of two eaglets that took to the skies this week. “The first flight of one of the juveniles on Wednesday was smooth but when it came to land, she...

For its 33rd season, Freeport Theatre’s summer festival revives its most popular production on the region’s most famous pioneer woman, “Massy Harbison,” in August. Other theater productions this summer are John Patrick’s “The Curious Savage” in July and Lisa Camerlo’s one-woman show “Deliriously Daffy” in September. The theater is owned...

The Pittsburgh Hays juvenile bald eagles were sharing the skies with a young red-tailed hawk as they took their first flights recently. “They just sort of sized one another up,” said photographer Dan Dasynich of Lincoln Place. Over the weekend, about a dozen photographers positioned themselves on the Three Rivers...

That reliable Frenchman who patrons have watched behind the counter for 30 years creating his sweet desserts and lovingly layering sheets of buttery dough for croissants is selling Jean-Marc Chatellier’s French Bakery in Millvale. And not to just anyone. “There are people who have wanted to buy the business to...

The Kinloch fire department’s annual Fireman’s Carnival kicked off Monday and will run through Saturday in the Burrell Plaza parking lot. The carnival is open from 6 to 10 p.m, and includes about a dozen amusement rides. Ride-all-night wrist bands can be purchased for $20. The festival also features a...

Apollo-Ridge School Board recently passed a preliminary budget for next school year proposing a 2.37% increase in real estate taxes for the median district home in Armstrong and Indiana counties. Although millage increases in each county are different, the percentage increase of what residents would pay in school taxes is...

Growing up around Seattle, Ainsley Seago said she never saw a firefly until she visited Hershey as a teenager. These days, she watches in amusement as her 10-year-old son, Maxwell, enjoys catching lightning bugs and releasing them. “How can you not catch them?” asked Seago, associate curator of invertebrate zoology...

Authorities are investigating the death of Samantha Delariva, 28, of Allegheny Township, who died last year from head injuries suffered as an infant. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office reported Wednesday — about six months after her death — that the cause of Delariva’s death was abusive head trauma and...

CareerLink Alle-Kiski in New Kensington will hold a job fair open to all residents on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Westmoreland County Community College. The job market still favors job seekers in many sectors, where openings outpace the number of workers. Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was down...

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in 2018. Pennsylvania’s official state flower, the mountain laurel is in full bloom throughout the Pittsburgh region. Although most people are familiar with the laurel’s relatives — rhododendron and azaleas — the official state flower is plentiful but in select environments, mostly rocky,...

Lower Burrell police want the public to stop by the station to meet the officers and discuss any issues they may have from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday. After a two-year hiatus during the covid-19 pandemic, the third yearly meet-and-greet with city police is back. The event also fills the...

Area students are part of a record-breaking, boat design challenge with more than 10,000 students from 134 schools across the state presented by Remake Learning Days Across America, a national nonprofit that started in Pittsburgh. Boatbuilding makes for an appropriate STEAM design challenge because the effort involves many areas of...

After serving the borough as a councilman and mayor collectively for 38 years, Freeport Mayor James Swartz Jr. resigned over the weekend because of recent disagreements over borough operations. The mayor has been in the news recently for questioning a proposed police department merger with Gilpin, as well as police...

Cybersecurity insurance costs are growing for local governments as incidents of cyberattacks continue to surge across the country. The costs for communities to protect themselves from such attacks have tripled in the past year, according to a municipal insurance expert. “The costs of cyber insurance have gone wild in the...

The Freeport-based internet company, Salsgiver Inc., is giving community service a new meaning with its decision to rehab the former Freeport Foods at 309 Fifth St. to establish a brewery and restaurant. Salsgiver recently opened Essential Fermentation Restaurant and Brewery, serving up special craft beer and traditional and non-traditional entrees...

Upper Burrell is getting closer to fixing two of the seven landslides affecting Lower Drennen Road. The township was approved for a federal grant of more than $180,000 through U.S. Sen. Bob Casey’s office. But the award doesn’t mean work will start right away. The township, according to supervisors Chairman...

Youngsters of the formerly endangered peregrine falcon are popping up at usual places like the Tarentum Bridge and an unexpected location — the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works. The peregrine falcon was removed from Pennsylvania’s endangered and threatened species list last year. In the 1970s, exposure to pesticides, especially DDT,...

Although the Allegheny River was closed initially to all boat traffic from the train derailment site in Harmar to Pittsburgh on Thursday, the U.S Coast Guard has significantly shortened the safety zone and will let all boats pass through that river section if they contact the agency. A Norfolk Southern...

Burrell senior Dylan Selinger and her independent study project have greened up the Burrell High School campus. Selinger, 18, of Lower Burrell has been busy this school year with an independent internship in sustainability and organic agriculture. Her efforts have yielded tangible results, including landing a $1,000 PPG grant for...

Sue Gregory’s favorite photo of her spunky grandmother, Laura Such of Lower Burrell, shows her riveting at Alcoa in New Kensington during World War II just like Rosie the Riveter. Such worked at Alcoa riveting canisters for military supplies like many women who stepped up during World War II to...

Kiski Township is demanding that Rosebud Mining fix a road slide on Hilty Road. But the mining company first wants the township to release it from future responsibility to fix the road. Rosebud has used Hilty and other township roads for truck traffic to access its coal mining operations at...