Penn-Trafford Star category
Trafford resident leads charge in replacing steps in Veterans Memorial Park
When Trafford native Donna Morocco walked to elementary school as a child, she always took the small set of stone steps leading up to Edgewood Avenue. Morocco, who grew up on parallel Duquesne Avenue, walked the concrete ramp through Trafford Veterans Memorial Park to get to school each day —...
Citing cultural concerns, Bushy Run to update name of hill during reenactment
Bushy Run Battlefield in Penn Township is using its upcoming reenactment as an opportunity to right a wrong — giving a more culturally appropriate name to a hill on its 218-acre property. The reenactment, slated for Saturday and Sunday, is a staple event in the township. It portrays a 1763...
Penn-Trafford community mourning sudden death of freshman football coach TJ Detruf
The Penn-Trafford community is mourning the sudden death of one of its high school football coaches. TJ Detruf, an assistant freshman football coach at Penn-Trafford for three years, died Saturday at his home in Hempfield, Penn-Trafford head football Coach John Ruane said. He was 41. The cause of death and...
Eastern Pittsburgh suburban real estate transactions for the week of July 27, 2025
ALLEGHENY COUNTY Chalfant Scott Kramer sold property at 328 Highland Ave. to Melissa Gallagher for $32,000. Benjamin Peticca Jr. sold property at 105 West St. to Chelcon LLC for $80,000. Azizeh Haji Djafari sold property at 242-244 West St. to David Jihun Choi and Lina Li for $299,000. Churchill Elizabeth...
‘It was an impossibility’: Penn Township couple completes 500-mile Camino de Santiago pilgrimage
Penn Township couple Cheryl and Larry Sturm don’t consider themselves hikers. That’s an ironic statement for a pair who traversed a 500-mile trail from France to Spain in just 40 days. Cheryl, 70, and Larry, 73, are lifelong Penn Township residents. Larry started Sturm Plumbing along Harrison City’s Route 130...
Eastern Pittsburgh suburban real estate transactions for the week of July 20, 2024
ALLEGHENY COUNTY Chalfant Joseph Williams sold property at 148 North Ave. to Occor Construction LLC for $27,000. Churchill Estate of William Keegan sold property at 36 Garden Terrace to Keyway Homes East 7 LLC for $80,000. Jason Greenwald sold property at 1943 Hampstead Drive to Kyle and Adriana Perdue for...
Bushy Run wins District 31 Legion title over Lower Burrell with big 5th inning
Bushy Run manager Scott Perman kept telling his players that something big was going to happen in the District 31 American Legion championship game on Wednesday. It did in the fifth inning. Bushy Run broke open a scoreless game with eight runs in the fifth inning to propel it to...
Eastern Pittsburgh suburban real estate transactions for the week of July 13, 2025
ALLEGHENY COUNTY Chalfant Edward Derganz sold property at 136 Brighton St. to Tri Cog Land Bank for $16,745. Churchill Estate of Thomas Leddy Jr. sold property at 2007 Beulah Road to Michael Foley for $155,000. Xiuying Jiang sold property at 2504 Churchill Road to Wesley Family Services for $408,000. Edgewood...
Despite changing lineups, Bushy Run American Legion baseball advances to regionals
It has been a different kind of season for the Bushy Run American Legion baseball team. Usually, coach Scott Peyman did not have to worry about whether he would have enough players to play a game. “I am not sure I used the same lineup twice,” Peyman said. “But it...
Penn-Trafford cops ‘best newscast’ honors, again
Penn-Trafford High School’s video production team, PTTV, won “best newscast” at the 2025 Student Production Awards hosted by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Mid-Atlantic Chapter. This is the 6th time in eight years the team has secured this recognition. Students Julianne Fontano, Ella Malloy and Bryn Urban...
Penn-Trafford, Freeport Area students compete in national rodeo
Penn Township rodeo athlete Sophia Bankosh meets with a chiropractor every four to six weeks to prepare for competition in the barrel racing and pole bending events. But the chiropractor is not for Bankosh, a rising junior at Penn-Trafford High School. It’s for her 5-year-old appendix quarter horse, Dusty. Bankosh...
Eastern Pittsburgh suburban real estate transactions for the week of June 29, 2025
ALLEGHENY COUNTY Churchill Estate of Eugene Laface sold property at 261 Churchill Road to Pasadena Partners LLC for $260,000. Johnston Jake LLC sold property at 3755 E. Rural Court to Paige Rocco for $239,000. Joshua Holizna sold property at 2523 Collins Road to Hunter Shreffler and Olivia Bitting for $265,000....
Civil War book wins Gettysburg roundtable award for Penn Township author
Penn Township author Ron Kirkwood spent 17 days in 2022 at the National Archives in Washington, DC, scouring hundreds of pension files for the stories of Civil War soldiers and their families. Kirkwood, 70, a Michigan native, worked more than four decades as a newspaper and magazine editor — for...
Recovery from flood damage still a work in progress in Murrysville area 2 weeks after storms
Tim Wagner Sr. of Murrysville is disassembling a treadmill in his house to see if he can get it working again. The exercise equipment is in his basement, which was flooded after an early June storm parked itself over his neighborhood along Hills Church Road. In the immediate aftermath of...
State environmental board maintains permit renewals for 2 Penn Township gas wells
Gillian Graber has been hoping to avoid this moment for more than a decade. A second state department recently approved permit renewals for two proposed Marcellus shale gas wells to be located less than a half-mile from her Trafford home. The state Environmental Hearing Board ruled this month against nonprofit...
Attorney weighs self-defense vs. accident in Penn Twp. shooting trial
The attorney for a woman accused of shooting her then-boyfriend in 2022 in Penn Township said Thursday he has not decided whether he will argue in her trial next month that the shotgun accidentally discharged or that his client acted in self-defense. Attorney Brian Aston told Westmoreland County Judge Scott...
Trib HSSN softball player of the week for June 16, 2025
Trib HSSN softball player of the week – Kylie Anthony School – Penn-Trafford Class – Senior Position – Shortstop #Earned – While Anthony went hitless in the PIAA Class 5A championship game, she was rock solid on defense in helping Penn-Trafford win a second PIAA championship in the last six...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Seton Hill pitcher headed to West Virginia
Rising redshirt senior Ian Korn, who had an exceptional season for Seton Hill, is transferring to West Virginia for a season of Division I baseball. Korn, the NCBWA Division II National Pitcher of the Year, went 11-2 with a 1.81 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 84 innings this year. Opponents...
Eastern Pittsburgh suburban real estate transactions for the week of June 15, 2025
ALLEGHENY COUNTY Churchill Joshua Holizna sold property at 2523 Collins Road to Hunter Shreffler and Olivia Bitting for $265,000. Thomas Antonacci sold property at 2513 Creekedge Drive to April Simpson for $242,500. Ashleigh Renee Bartges sold property at 1507 Williamsburg Place to Diana Payne for $199,900. Jan Swensen sold property...
Penn-Trafford makes lasting memories with state title win
UNIVERSITY PARK — Giuliana Youngo might have played her last softball game Friday night. The Penn-Trafford senior right fielder, though, probably will be back at Penn State’s Beard Field, the site of the Warriors’ 2-0 win over Greencastle-Antrim in the PIAA Class 5A championship. She has enrolled at Penn State....
Penn-Trafford blanks Greencastle-Antrim to claim 2nd PIAA softball championship
UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn-Trafford has won two PIAA softball championships without ever winning a WPIAL title, and that is just fine with coach Denny Little. “Sometimes you have to eat your dessert first,” Little said Friday night after the Warriors captured their second state title in six years with a...
Penn-Trafford area: Puppet show, food trucks, art shows
Penn Area Library plans puppet show Penn Area Library in Penn Township will host a puppet show for children, performed by the Children’s Institute, from 1 to 2 p.m. June 16. Titled “Kids on the Block,” the puppet show teaches children about conditions such as cerebral palsy, blindness and deafness....
Penn-Trafford approves 3-mill tax hike, dips into savings to cover remaining deficit
Penn-Trafford tax bills will raise $84 annually on average following the school board’s decision Monday to implement a 3-mill tax hike. The board approved a $70 million budget with about $69.9 million in revenue Monday night. District tax rates will be 93.75 mills for Westmoreland County residents and 14.39 mills...
Penn-Trafford earns trip to Penn State with win over West Allegheny
Penn-Trafford softball coach Denny Little was under the weather Sunday night and was not sure he would be able to make his team’s PIAA Class 5A semifinal against West Allegheny on Monday. The perfect prescription was an all-around solid effort by the Warriors that left the Indians feeling ill. Penn-Trafford...
Woman in stable condition after crashing vehicle off Penn Township road
A woman who crashed her vehicle over a hillside along Paintertown Road in Penn Township Monday morning is in stable condition, according to Ed Grant, Penn Township Ambulance operations director. The vehicle went over a steep embankment, rear end first, shortly after 10:45 a.m., traveling about 30 feet down from...
