Mary Ann Thomas stories, Page 9

The Memorial Day parade in Lower Burrell keeps getting longer and bigger as the organizers, American Legion Post 868, tap the community for participants. The American Legion will hold the parade on Memorial Day, Monday, along Leechburg Road from 11 a.m. to noon. The road will be closed from Bethel...

After taking a two-year break during the covid-19 pandemic, Freeport will present its annual veterans memorial service at 10 a.m. Monday at the veterans monument in Freeport’s Riverside Park. A longtime tradition, Freeport’s Memorial Day observation will not include a parade this year, Freeport Mayor James Swartz, Jr. said. Since...

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission has allotted up to $3.5 million for Armstrong Trails and Armstrong County to buy the Kiski Junction rail line corridor for a recreational trail. Announced earlier this month, the funds are covered by SPC’s Transportation Improvement Program, which includes money from SPC and PennDOT, said Shannon...

Motorists traveling Route 28 can expect yet another traffic hurdle — single-lane restrictions on the highway at the Harmar on- and off-ramps for two months, around-the-clock, starting Wednesday, May 25. The new long-term, single-lane restrictions at Harmar Exit 10 are necessary for shoulder and lane widening and reconstruction, according to...

Five of the Alle-Kiski Valley’s high schools ranked in the top 25% of the best high schools in the state, according to a recent U.S. News & World Report, and three are ranked in the bottom quarter. Freeport Area High School ranked among the Valley’s highest in the state at...

Kody, the wayward Steller’s Sea Eagle who escaped from the National Aviary last year, is back in his newly renovated home at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh. On Friday, the aviary unveiled Kody’s new home as well as a renovated space for the aviary’s two bald eagles, Flinn and Independence....

Organizers for the Joseph “Bud” Myers Lower Burrell Farmers Market are doubling the number of vendors this year and planning special events at the weekly market held Saturdays. Lower Burrell’s farmers market opens for the season Saturday, May 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Popcorn and cotton candy machines...

Sandwiched between the road paving report and a Memorial Day parade update, Nikki Watson took out her cellphone to record Lower Burrell Mayor John Andrejcik reading a proclamation for Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) Week during a recent council meeting. Also known as brittle bone disease, OI is a rare gene mutation...

A physical education teacher is raising $5,000 to buy bikes and helmets for a proposed bicycling class for kindergarten and first grade students at South Buffalo Elementary School in the Freeport Area School District. The money will pay for a fleet of 24 Strider balance bikes, helmets, pedal conversion kits,...

Heavy rains last weekend triggered a large landslide covering a 40-foot section of the Butler-Freeport Community Trail near the border of Buffalo and South Buffalo townships. The slide occurred about a mile from the trail’s Laneville entrance. The 21-mile recreational trail stretches from Freeport to Butler. “It’s a very big...

The buyer of the former JCPenney building in Lower Burrell plans to bring some jobs with them after they renovate and settle in to the site, which has sat empty for 17 years. Earlier this week, Schaedler Yesco, an electrical distribution and supply company in O’Hara’s RIDC Park, announced it...

It won’t be pool season soon enough. Crawford Pool in Shaler’s Kiwanis park will open on Memorial Day weekend on May 28, closely followed by Etna’s pool on June 4. Shaler’s pool will start the season unofficially on May 14 with its “Polar Plunge” to anyone who wanted to swim...

The eyesore of Lower Burrell, the old J.C. Penney building in the Burrell Plaza along Leechburg Road, has a new owner after sitting vacant for more than 17 years. Schaedler Yesco, an electrical distribution and supply company in O’Hara’s RIDC Park, plans to renovate the nearly 185,000-square-foot building and open...

PennDOT has awarded the Butler-Freeport Community Trail a $750,000 grant to reinforce sections of the trail that have cracked in Buffalo Township. The 21-mile recreational trail stretches from Freeport to Butler. “I am happy and elated to receive the grant,” said Chris Ziegler, president of the Butler-Freeport Community Trail council....

A Burrell geography teacher is one of a dozen finalists for the 2023 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. The Pennsylvania Department of Education this week announced the names of 12 educators, which included Ashlee Peters-Roberts, a teacher in Burrell’s Huston Middle School. The state’s Teacher of the Year program recognizes...

Pittsburgh area employers are clamoring to get in front of job seekers because they continue to have trouble filling open jobs. Demand from employers is so great, CareerLink Alle-Kiski in New Kensington had to add a second job fair to its schedule because it couldn’t fit all of the companies...

Most of us need to declutter at one point or another, and an expert will show the way during “The Organizing Myth!” at 6:30 p.m. May 17, sponsored by Hampton Community Library. The presentation is free and will be held in Activity Room 2 of the Hampton Community Center, 3101...

A National Aviary researcher was wading in the waters of hardwood bottomlands in Louisiana. Then, whoosh: A large black bird with bright distinctive white markings — which he believed to be the ivory-billed woodpecker — flushed from a snag. Steven Latta watched the Holy Grail of birds for six to...

Lower Burrell Volunteer Fire Department No. 1 Kinloch is on its fourth Harley- Davidson motorcycle raffle in less than two years. Tickets went on sale this week for the public to win a black 2022 Harley-Davidson FLTRX Road Glide Standard. Kinloch caps sales at 1,000 tickets and sells them for $37...

You know it’s spring when the Burrellton Garden Club prepares for its annual flower sale to benefit city gardens. A budding tradition for at least five years, the plant sale includes perennials from the private collections of garden club members and locally grown annuals acclimated to the Alle-Kiski Valley’s weather....

Lower Burrell’s longtime zoning and ordinance officer, Michael Nedley, has a plaque by his desk that reads “Love Thy Neighbor.” It’s a gift from his secretary, who knows what he’s had to deal with over the years. After more than 32 years of listening to neighbor-on-neighbor complaints about high grass...

Lower Burrell and the Burrell School District recently approved a five-year contract for a city police officer to serve as an onsite school resource officer in the district. There are no changes to the overall framework of the new contract compared to the previous three-year contract, said Lower Burrell Councilman...

The good news: Help is on the way with providing a sufficient number of lifeguards for Hampton Community Pool. But first, some help from Mother Nature is needed. “If this weather continues, we’re going to have trouble opening,” municipal manager Chris Lochner said about work that needs to be completed...

Avian flu cases in wild birds, including eagles and ducks, are growing in Pennsylvania. The first detection at a poultry farm, where birds are especially vulnerable to the flu, was flagged April 16 in Lancaster. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced more detections in three commercial flocks, also in...