Mary Ann Thomas stories, Page 22

Comcast announced it is offering its fastest high-speed internet service to 21 additional communities in Armstrong County. Comcast is among a handful of internet providers serving Armstrong County, including Salsgiver Inc. and Windstream Communications. The high-speed service, known as gigabit service, now will be available to residential and business customers...

Gov. Tom Wolf recently highlighted important road projects in the region, including four bridge replacements with new culverts for $5.4 million in Apollo and Kiski Township. These projects will replace four structurally deficient bridges, said Tina Gibbs, a spokeswoman for PennDOT District 10, which covers Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana, and...

Kiski Township supervisors recently agreed to add one full-time officer to the police department, which has one full-time officer and a handful of part-timers. “We’re losing part-time offers who are finding full-time jobs elsewhere,” Supervisor Chuck Rodnicki said. “We pay our part-timers well, but if they get a full-time offer,...

The Pennsylvania Game Commission trapped and treated a black bear plagued with the contagious skin disease mange in Bethel Township this week. Mange is transmitted by parasitic mites. The centuries-old disease causes hair loss and sometimes emaciation and death, according to Penn State’s College of Agricultural Studies. However, most bears’...

Job openings across the Alle-Kiski Valley are on the rise, data show. PA CareerLink Alle-Kiski reported a four-week rolling average of more than 250 job openings in the region this month, up from 225 a month ago. When last month’s number was reported, officials said it was the highest number...

More than 30 RV campers have been parked at Apollo’s former Babcock & Wilcox nuclear fuel site since early May, prompting some environmental activists to question whether that violates land-use restrictions on the site. “People fought for a long time, including my mother, to keep radioactive contaminated areas away from...

A car bypassed the barricade Saturday on the Tarentum Bridge’s closed westbound lanes, crashed into construction equipment, then caught on fire. No one was injured, said Brad James, deputy fire chief for Eureka Fire-Rescue-EMS. The fire company received the call about 10:20 p.m. Saturday. The wayward car drove almost two-thirds...

A two-vehicle crash Sunday on West Carson and Corliss streets in Pittsburgh sent seven people to a local hospital, according to Pittsburgh police. One of the passengers, a child, was in critical condition en route to the hospital, police said. The wreck was reported just before 1:30 p.m., police said....

Pittsburgh police are investigating the fall of a five-year-old boy Sunday from the second-floor building in the 1400 block of Jancey Street in Morningside. The child fell just before 3 p.m. and was transported to a local hospital. Police said he is in stable condition with a probable broken leg....

Boaters found a man’s body floating in the Allegheny River near the 40th Street Bridge Sunday just after 1 p.m., according to City of Pittsburgh police. The city’s river rescue team and police were on scene to recover the body, according to an Allegheny County emergency official. The city’s major...

Hampton police located a missing woman who was found safe in Ohio just before 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Merilyn Penn, 82, who is in the early stages of dementia, was last seen driving a dark blue 2009 Dodge Caravan on Main Street in Butler city at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, police...

The Officer Brian Shaw Memorial Scholarship was awarded to a new cadet who graduated from the Allegheny County Police Academy 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 years...

A bevy of Burrell High School honor students devoted some serious public service time during their last week of school sprucing up Veterans Park next to City Hall. Almost 60 students from Burrell’s National Honor Society cleaned litter and debris in the park, swept the tennis courts, the pavilion and...

The late Joseph “Bud” Myers, known for his volunteer work in Lower Burrell, was beloved for shepherding the first farmers market in the city 10 years ago. The city will honor Myers posthumously, presenting a key to the city to his wife, Carol Myers, during the opening of the farmers...

The Burrell School Board unanimously approved its final budget of $32.7 million for 2021-22 on Tuesday, which includes a tax increase of 3.5%. For a home assessed at $22,900, the district’s average home tax assessment, the homeowner would pay an additional $80 in real estate tax for next school year,...

The Burrell School Board voted this week to add an anatomy and physiology course to prepare students for various medical fields. Bryan Mike, a Burrell High School science teacher and head of the science department, spoke before the school board last week to present his ideas on the new course....

Lower Burrell police and residents reported seeing a black bear at several locations over the past several days. Police said the bear was seen in the Braeburn Heights and Spooky Hollow areas. Residents reported spotting the bear in the last several days along Garvers Ferry, White Cloud and Wildlife Lodge...

The Burrell School District’s Academic Approach team is making plans for virtual instruction for next school year. The district is planning to offer five days of virtual instruction and five days of face-to-face instruction, Superintendent Shannon Wagner told the school board earlier this week. Each student will have have access...

Apollo-Ridge High School held its graduation ceremony on Friday, June 11. Here is the Apollo-Ridge High School Class of 2021: Alivia Renee Acevedo, Delaney J. Ashbaugh, Gavin Patrick Barrick, Adeline Marie-Lynn Baustert, Morgan Nicole Baynar, Mira Grace Bernat, Halyn Michelle Biddle, Anthony Paul Blackgrove, Alexis Marie Blake, Emily Grace Bonelli,...

Upper Burrell is trying to find money to fix seven landslides on Lower Drennan Road that are estimated to cost more than $400,000. The township just applied for a $317,000 grant from the federal government via Sen. Bob Casey’s office. The township would need to kick in a $93,000 match,...

Burrell School District Interact Club students donated $300 worth of board games and books for residents of the Belair Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center. Students delivered 10 board games and other games including Yahtzee, Scrabble, Monopoly, chess and checkers; a card shuffler and puzzles galore. Burrell’s Interact Club students are dedicated...