Mary Ann Thomas stories, Page 17

After decades of holding the annual Veterans Day parade in Lower Burrell, the local VFW doesn’t understand why they now have to pay $450 in insurance to stage this year’s parade. “For what we have done for this country, the sacrifice and soldiers risking their lives, and now with a...

A social media post about “shooting up” Central High School, not necessarily Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, is no longer a threat to the local all-boys, college prep school, according to Pittsburgh Police on Sunday. Central Catholic officials alerted Pittsburgh Police about the threat Saturday on Snapchat. Detectives with...

A man was shot in the torso in Pittsburgh’s Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood early Sunday. Pittsburgh Police responded to a report of shots fired near the intersection of Lincoln and Lemington avenues just after 2:30 a.m. Police said when they arrived they found a man shot in the torso. He was taken...

Organizers had expected about 500 residents to participate in the inaugural Greg Wells Memorial Fall Festival on Sunday at Freeport Community Park. That estimate turned out to be a bit low, as more than 2,000 people showed up to honor the late Freeport youth baseball and soccer coach. A Harrison...

The 38th annual Dirty Dozen Bicycle Ride was held Saturday, challenging cyclists to take on 13 of the Pittsburgh area’s steepest hills. The route is about 60 miles. Typically, the ride’s duration is five hours because of the stops and easy pace between the hills. The ride requires endurance and...

Giant Eagle will hold in-person hiring events at all of its stores Tuesday to fill more than 1,000 permanent, full-time and part-time jobs in the Pittsburgh area. Although the positions are permanent, a Giant Eagle statement said it needs the workers to help with the stores’ vital role in local...

Not surprisingly, a 6-foot-long inflatable black cat greeted visitors at Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley’s Halloween open house Saturday. But it was a real tabby in a frog costume that stole the show at the pet dress-up contest during the afternoon. While Clover didn’t run the catwalk in front of...

PennDOT has imposed a single-lane restriction on southbound Interstate 79’s Exit 68, at Mount Nebo in Sewickley Heights, that remains in effect until Sunday at 11 a.m. Work crews are working on an emergency pull-off area along the corridor. Future improvements are in the works on I-79 in the Sewickley...

A proposed municipal tax credit, as high as $300, is on hold for firefighters living in Lower Burrell. That’s because city council was not able to complete the details of the package this year, according to Councilman Joe Grillo. Former Mayor Rich Callender said he floated the idea to council...

OK, so there wasn’t fall foliage for the much-anticipated Gateway Clipper leaf-peeping tour on the Allegheny River in Armstrong County earlier this month because of unseasonably warm weather. Then, Lock and Dam No. 6 in Clinton closed unexpectedly for repairs, causing organizers to reroute the trip to launch from Freeport...

Lower Burrell has secured a $130,000 state grant to fix stormwater drainage problems along Craigdell Road in the Kay Street area, with contract bids coming in lower than anticipated. Aging pipes in the Craigdell Road area need to be repaired before they worsen, said Matt Pitsch of Senate Engineering, the...

Local foresters, outdoors enthusiasts, biologists and motorcycle riders all have their favorite places to see the fall panorama of leaves. Mountains, hillsides and river valleys are among the best places to view the fall leaf spectacle not just because of the volume of trees, but the variety. “The diversity of...

There wasn’t much peeping going on for the long-planned and sold-out Gateway Clipper fall leaf-peeping tour last weekend on the Allegheny River in Armstrong County. Although the boat ride was spectacular in its own right, “it was disappointing we could not control Mother Nature,” said Chris Ziegler, president of the...

After Arconic appealed a $653,100 real estate tax levy for property in Upper Burrell last year, the aluminum company and Burrell School District recently settled on a $403,000 tax reduction. Upper Burrell is also part of the settlement, and it will lose close to $39,000 in tax revenue annually. “The...

President Joe Biden is expected to sign legislation unanimously passed by Congress supporting the development of the September 11th National Memorial Trail, a proposed 1,300-mile recreational trail linking the three 9/11 crash sites. The legislation will enable the Department of the Interior to assist in developing the trail route, signage,...

An industrial products salesman who is a firefighter. A corrections officer at a halfway house. A pharmacist in Baltimore. They never met Lower Burrell senior patrolman Derek Kotecki, but he touched their lives unexpectedly with an educational scholarship. Oct. 12 marks the 10th anniversary of when Kotecki, 40, was killed...

For its final food truck rally of the year this Saturday, Lower Burrell Volunteer Fire Company No. 3 is pairing a wide selection of international and American cuisines with a craft show featuring handmade jewelry and other artisan wares. During the fundraising doldrums of the pandemic, the fire company had...

The National Aviary in Pittsburgh said Friday that it is getting closer to capturing Kody, the Steller’s sea eagle that escaped from an outdoor enclosure last week. Kody, short for Kodiak, was spotted Thursday in the North Park area. Aviary staff, including the executive director and animal care experts, camped...

The late Officer Brian Shaw’s No. 2 jersey for Burrell’s soccer team has been retired. Burrell School District officials retired Shaw’s number just before the start of a home game Wednesday between the Buccaneers and Leechburg High School. Shaw, a New Kensington police officer and a 2010 Burrell graduate, was...

Kiski Township police are looking for two Indiana County men who they said stole a Wildcat side-by-side, all-terrain vehicle from a township home. The theft of the lime green Wildcat ATV was reported to police on Sept. 16. Police said they are asking the public for information about the whereabouts...

Students at Burrell’s Huston Middle School have co-authored proposed state legislation that would make recess a protected right for young students like them. What started as a persuasive writing exercise turned into the students crafting the would-be legislation with state Rep. Bob Brooks, R-Murrysville. Brooks is looking for co-sponsors before...

The National Aviary is still looking in the Pittsburgh area for the missing Steller’s sea eagle known as Kodiak and Kody, a huge bird that is noticeably larger than its relative, the bald eagle. The bird escaped from a breach in its outdoor enclosure Saturday morning, said Molly Toth, a...

There was the Roaring Run trail’s Race to the Moon 5K most years in July when Apollo celebrated the first moon landing. But that race was canceled two years in a row because of the pandemic. Now resurrected with a spooky theme is the Howl at the Moon 5K and...

As a line of public officials spoke at the groundbreaking of the new Butler County Community College (BC3) in Ford City on Friday, most of them uttered the same name: Jeff Pyle. Pyle is a former Republican state representative, former Ford City mayor and a former teacher at Ford City...