Patrick Varine stories, Page 152

Delmont officials are paving the way to pay nearly $300,000 for the borough’s 2019 road program. This summer’s program will include paving work on West Pittsburgh Street, Stotler Drive and Cupp Way. Work on Stotler will also include some stormwater drainage work beneath the street. The vast majority of the...

Fire departments across Pennsylvania are having difficulty recruiting new members, and chiefs have made no secret of their desire to bring new, younger members aboard. Cory Milkovich of Butler knows all too well the crucial role a well-staffed fire department plays in a community: local firefighters battled a fire last...

Pennsylvania residents who rely on Social Security as a main source of income in retirement may do well to find a home in Westmoreland County, according to a recent study. New York financial technology company SmartAsset released a study of Pennsylvania counties where retirees’ Social Security income would go furthest....

***WARNING: SPOILERS FOR “GAMES OF THRONES,” BOTH THE BOOKS AND THE SHOW*** So, as it turns out, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss didn’t murder your grandmother, even if that’s how a lot of longtime fans felt following the eighth and final season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” In considering a...

Route 28 in Pittsburgh reopened early Thursday morning after it was closed due to flooding, according to Allegheny County 911. Most of Western Pennsylvania remains under a flash flood watch until 11 p.m. Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. Much of Beaver County is under a flood warning. Showers...

Marc Hoffman of Greensburg wanted travel and see the world, so he joined the Navy. These days, he helps patrol a 124-million-square-mile area stretching from the International Date Line to the India/Pakistan border, and from the Kuril Islands near Japan and Russia all the way to the Antarctic in the...

Members of the Delmont Visionary Committee would like to bring the Westmoreland Heritage Trail as close to the heart of the borough as possible. Whether that is the trail, itself, or a spur that connects to Delmont’s downtown area, was the subject of a project that saw committee members working...

Clancey the camel doesn’t come cheap. “It’s about $1,000 per night for the camel and the donkeys,” said Denni Grassel, a member of the group that took over the former Christmas in Salem Crossroads Pilgrimage and is seeking sponsorships to help fund the annual holiday event. Rechristened the Delmont Pilgrimage...

When Colten Oakes, a member of Franklin Regional Senior High School’s broadcasting and video production class, got his camera out at the traveling Vietnam War memorial in Murrysville Community Park, he couldn’t help thinking of his grandfather, whose dog tags were hanging around Oakes’s neck. “We were there to do...

A raft of Franklin Regional school board candidates opposed to the Sloan elementary campus project will appear on the Republican side of the ballot in November, and two incumbents will not have a chance at re-election in the fall. “The No. 1 thing I heard from people in this community...

With 100% of the relevant precincts reporting, primary results in the Star’s coverage area are as follows as of 10 p.m.: DELMONT COUNCIL Dennis Urban (R, 48%) and Becky Matesevac (R, 43%), 79 total write-in votes (45 Democrat, 34 Republican). Write-in votes are a factor in this race because there...

Certified herbalist Lindsey Praksti will lead a walk on Thursday along the Westmoreland Heritage Trail in Delmont. Walking in the woods was what first got Praksti, who received her certification from the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine in North Carolina, interested in finding new uses for the plants she...

Murrysville Medic One officials will host an open house next month at their new garage off Sardis Road. “We want to invite the public in to see all the stuff that we’ve got and how the building looks,” said Medic One spokesman Matt Stromberg. Wet winter weather slowed construction on...

Babe Ruth. Honus Wagner. Thomas Edison? When it comes to collectible trading cards, inventors are not usually the first thing that comes to mind. But Rory Cooper, director of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL) at the University of Pittsburgh, was recognized Saturday by the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of American...

Ariel Rockman, 18, of Murrysville thinks people should place more value on the arts and humanities. It led her to pen her first play, “The Intervention,” staged in late April as part of the Shady Side Academy Senior School’s Original Works Theatre Festival. The play tells the story of Harry,...

Anthony Beckley, vice president and general manager for Murrysville manufacturing company Dormont, was used to occasionally taking a work day and doing volunteer work with his employees. “I’d done a lot of it in my previous jobs at GE and Abbott Laboratories,” Beckley said. A little more than a year...

***WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD THROUGH THE SERIES FINALE OF ‘GAME OF THRONES’*** ***SERIOUSLY, LIKE THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH*** ***TO THE VERY END*** In the end, it was all about the Starks. This series began and ended with the members of House Stark. Sure, the prologue introduced the Night’s Watch and what...

A public hearing on a proposed Titan well pad off Bollinger Road in Murrysville is scheduled for June 19. Murrysville council will host the 7 p.m. hearing on the unconventional gas well in council chambers at the municipal building, 4100 Sardis Road. The Titan pad, proposed by Canonsburg driller Huntley...

Tom Seefeld started a Community Response Team when he was police chief in New Kensington 20 years ago, with the goal of having some officers specially trained for high-risk events such as active shooters or barricaded gunmen and serving drug warrants. Now chief in Murrysville, Seefeld is about to be...

White Valley AMVETS will host Memorial Day activities, including an honor roll and rifle salute, throughout the Star’s coverage for the 73rd consecutive year. Their schedule will be: • 8 a.m. at the Export American Legion on Kennedy Avenue • 8:30 a.m. at Murrysville Cemetery • 9:15 a.m. at Hills...

***WARNING: SPOILERS THROUGH SEASON 8, EPISODE 5 OF ‘GAME OF THRONES’*** Nearly a half-million petitioners at Change.org are ready to mount a dragon and burn the final season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” to the ground, very similar to what Daenerys Targaryen just did in the most recent episode, “The...