West Homestead

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A robber who threatened to use a gun held up the Marriott Courtyard in The Waterfront shopping complex mall early yesterday, police said.

The robber, a black man about 5 feet, 10 inches, entered the front lobby around 6 a.m.

He wore a brown hooded coat, with the hood tied tightly around his face, exposing only his eyes and nose, West Homestead police Chief Christopher Deasy said.

The robber confronted the lone clerk, demanded and took an undisclosed amount of money and fled.

[ Full story available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09003/939339-55.stm ]

Steel Valley school directors got some bad news Monday night when auditors told them the district is not operating with a balanced budget and that a tax increase for next year is a virtual certainty.

Betsy Krisher, a partner with the auditing firm of Maher Duessel, reviewed the firm’s draft audit report for the board’s finance committee and informed the board that it had overspent its general fund budget in 2007-08 by $349,266.

She warned that if a similar scenario exists this year, “you won’t have any fund balance left all.”

To cover the overspending in last year’s budget, the district used money from its fund balance, which now sits at $243,068.

“You have to balance in 2008-2009 or you will be in the red. There is no cushion,” Ms. Krisher told the handful of board members who showed up for the finance committee meeting along with Superintendent William Kinavey and Director of Operational Services Mark Cherpak.

[ Full story available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08339/932497-55.stm ]

By Elizabeth Spiker

I have been telling this story to a few people for years now. I’d like to share it with everyone because, quite simply, it will make you believe in people. We could all use a story like that.

A few years ago, I was teaching English at Steel Valley High School. For those who don’t know, it’s a small school district serving Munhall, Homestead and West Homestead. Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch is one of Steel Valley’s most famous alums. The kids all walk. There are no buses from the school district. The kids are a mixed bag of black, white and Asian and come from varying economic backgrounds. While no one I ever taught came from a “wealthy” family, I did teach many poor students for whom school was often a safe haven from their home lives.

When I would tell people my livelihood, they would often say, “My, I couldn’t ever teach school! Kids today are just awful.” Or, “Surrounded by teenagers all day? No thanks!”

[ Full story available at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08336/931924-294.stm ]

By Mary Ann Thomas
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW

When West Homestead Mayor John Dindak surveys the Waterfront complex, teeming with shops, movie theaters and waterslides, he remembers that this is where he lived, where he worked and where he lost almost everything.

Many of the landmarks of Dindak’s life mirror the town where he has been mayor for 37 years.

As visitors continue to flock to the Waterfront, which sprawls over hundreds of acres in parts of West Homestead, Homestead and Munhall, other intrepid souls are sampling the towns’ ethnic and industrial roots.

The Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center on West Eighth Street in West Homestead and the Carnegie Library Music Hall of Homestead in nearby Munhall have survived amid shuttered mills and lost jobs.

[ Full story available at: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/focus/s_597859.html ]