When emergency hit the area this past weekend, most people were unaware of what was going on. There is a service that you can sign up for, called Swift 911, that notifies you of emergencies. Beaver County Radio News Intern, Christina Sainovich, has details…

 

 

To see the entire interview with Sandie Egley, click the video below to the Facebook live.

Sentencing has been handed down for Donovan McFrazier of Beaver Falls was caught with unspecified amounts of cocaine and over 40 grams of fentanyl July 9th, 2018.

McFrazier was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison on his conviction. According to US Attorney Scott Brady’s office, McFrazier will serve four years on supervised release after he is out of prison.

Pennsylvania’s casinos have lost a bid to shut down online lottery games that they say are too much like casino gambling, just days before the state’s first casinos launch their own online gambling portals. Friday’s decision in Commonwealth Court is a victory for the state lottery, although the casino owners’ 9-month-old lawsuit will continue. Lottery officials say the games are in accordance with the 2017 state law that authorized them, but the casinos argue that some online lottery games violate it because they simulate slot machines and casino-style gambling.

Pennsylvania State Police say they’ve seized eleven-million-dollars’ worth of illegal drugs in the second quarter of 2019. Troopers announced over the weekend that from April 1st to June 30th, 84 pounds of heroin and around 33 pounds of fentanyl were confiscated, which alone has a combined street value of more than three million dollars. More than 500-thousand-dollars’ worth of cocaine was also seized, but marijuana was by far the largest capture, with more than four million in processed pot impounded. Over two-million dollars in narcotic pills were also confiscated by troopers over that time period.

A woman is facing charges in two states today –  after Rochester police say she stole an officer’s police cruiser. Police arrested Monica Christian this past weekend on a warrant from Texas when she climbed into the front seat of the cruiser and drove off. Christian ditched the car after a short drive, but was caught in a foot chase after police got tips from witnesses.

Police are calling the deaths in Neshannock Township Thursday a murder-suicide. A mother and daughter were found dead after a house fire on Old Plank Road Thursday morning. The victims are 48-year-old Melanie Keller and 12-year-old Jazmyn Keller. Police Chief John Rand said both victims died of a single gunshot wound to the head before the fire. He said the mother shot herself. The home was a total loss.

Koppel officials were informed this week that Penn DOT plans to close the Koppel Bridge for 72 days beginning August 13th and is planned to reopen on October 24th.

The project began in 2017, with crews having built a new bridge to connect Koppel and North Sewickley Township on Route 351 over the Beaver River.

Crews will do some demolition to the current bridge as well as constructing a retaining wall and roadway grading, drainage, paving, guide rails, and line painting – as well as some planting and seeding work during the project.

The $31.5 million project involves replacing the 102-year-old bridge with a new structure directly downstream. The existing bridge has been subject to flooding for several years.

Residents in a five-mile radius of Rochester were advised to stay indoors for more than eight hours Friday night and again Saturday morning after a chemical fire at a former industrial site along the Ohio River. The initial call was received just after 9pm Friday that the former Beaver Alkali Products property on New York Ave was on fire and emitting yellow smoke.

Rochester Fire Chief Michael Mamone III said six dumpsters adjacent to the site, which is part of a project overseen by the state Department of Environmental Protection, could cause additional chemical releases if the chlorine tablets inside spontaneously combust again.

The first advisory was lifted just before 5 a.m. Saturday but was reissued mid-morning. The second advisory was lifted at noon.

Mamone added – if residents sense a strong smell of chlorine, they should stay indoors and close their windows.

WEATHER FORECAST FOR MONDAY, JULY15TH, 2019

TODAY –
SUNNY – HIGH 88

TONIGHT-
PARTLY CLOUDY – LOW 68

TOMORROW –
SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS IN THE MORNING, THEN MAINLY CLOUDY IN THE AFTERNOON – HIGH AROUND 85