Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Screenshot obtained from amesstores.com. Published January 10, 2024 3:19 P.M.

The defunct department store chain Ames may be making a return. Silver Knight Group, Inc, the parent company of Ames Department Stores, Inc, released a statement that “Ames will be reopening their brick & mortar stores starting in June 2026, with 35 planned stores opening from June 2026 to April 2027.” The release was made public on amesstores.com. No further details or locations have been announced. The statement also says “We can’t wait to see you in our stores”. Ames formerly operated stores locally at Northern Lights Shopping Center in Baden and Green Garden Plaza in Aliquippa.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)
(Images courtesy of PennDOT)

Across Pennsylvania, dozens of schools are participating once again in PennDOT’s “Paint The Plow” campaign, which focuses on safe winter driving tips presented in a manner that displays the artistic creativity the students in schools across the commonwealth can show off.

This year, District 11 (Allegheny/Beaver/Lawrence) is asking residents of the Commonwealth to vote on 11 different plows that have been painted based on the theme of “Seat Belts Are Always In Season”. Beaver Falls and Freedom are the two lone representatives of Beaver County in the contest.

Voting is going on now until January 15 on the Paint The Plow webpage. Winners will be announced during Winter Driving Safety Awareness Week between January 21-27, 2024.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)
(Photo provided by Mary Lou Harju)

The United Way of Beaver County announced yesterday on its Facebook page that they will not be taking calls to schedule tax return preparation appointments for 2024. 

United Way director Mary Lou Harju told Beaver County Radio that they are receiving several calls a day regarding this year’s appointments, and that they are trying to raise awareness of the new situation.

They are alerting senior citizens of the county that the only way to schedule a tax return preparation appointment with AARP Volunteers is to call or text the AARP Tax Appointment phone number directly at 724-315-7171. An AARP volunteer will receive the messages from that point.

They are also asking that phone calls and text messages regarding appointments be made after this upcoming Monday, January 15; otherwise the call or text message may not be processed.

Those who take Route 65 northbound to return to Beaver County from the Pittsburgh area may want to give themselves a little bit of extra time throughout the remainder of this week, as PennDOT District 11 has announced lane restrictions in Kilbuck Township and Emsworth Borough.

 

Traffic will be reduced to a single lane in four areas:

 

• Between Camp Horne Road and North Avenue
• At Pennsylvania Avenue
• Between Walliston Avenue and Huntington Avenue
• Between Hazelwood Avenue and Toms Run Road

 

Restrictions will occur from 7 AM to 3 PM from today, January 10, through Friday, January 12.

(Aliquippa, Pa) The Aliquippa School District officially submitted its appeal to the PIAA on Tuesday. The appeal will challenge the ruling of its football team being assigned to Class 5A for the 2024 season.   

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published January 10, 2024 11:46 A.M.

(Hopewell Township, Pa) Two new head coaches were hired by the Hopewell Area School District at Tuesday night’s work session. John Rosa was named varsity football coach at a rate of $9,768 for the season, and Nathan Richter was hired as the head varsity coach for the soccer team at a salary of $5,139.

Consolidation of Hopewell’s elementary schools was discussed, as Dan Engen–owner and architect of Draw Collective–reported that the high school has underutilized space. The school board plans to have another meeting with Mr. Engen on Monday about the long-term goals of the school.     

Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Published January 10, 2024 10:43 A.M.

(Monaca, Pa) An explosion occurred at a house on McClelland Street in Monaca before 8am Wednesday morning. Chief David Piuri of the Monaca Police Department told Beaver County Radio two men were taken to the hospital for burns. The state of the victims is not known at this time, but they were said to have been conscious and alert following the incident.

When crews arrived on scene, a small fire was still burning and firefighters extinguished it. Initially, there were concerns over the amount of ammunition in the home, as one of the men is a licensed arms dealer. One of the men also told Police that they had a water leak overnight and a crew was working to clean it up.

Due to the uncertainty of the cause, the bomb squad was called in. The bomb squad determined that the ammunition most likely did not have anything to do with the blast. The Chief says at this time, evidence indicates that a gas leak was most likely responsible, possibly triggered by the operation of a shop vac.

The State Fire Marshal is investigating the cause of the explosion.

According to the Chief, the area is safe and there is no threat of another explosion.

Monaca Police, Monaca Fire Department, Allegheny County Police Bomb Squad, and Peoples Gas were among those on scene.

Video & Photos from the scene:

 

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Mason Rudolph’s unlikely renaissance will continue into the playoffs.

Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said he is sticking with the former third-string quarterback ahead of a trip to AFC East champion Buffalo (11-6) on Sunday.

Rudolph is 3-0 as a starter since taking over for an ineffective Mitch Trubisky before a game against Cincinnati on Dec. 23. While starter Kenny Pickett has fully recovered from right ankle surgery in early December, Tomlin doesn’t want to chance derailing the rhythm Pittsburgh’s offense has found under Rudolph.

The Steelers (10-7) have averaged 27 points since Rudolph took over, a full 10 points more than they had been averaging during a sometimes rocky season that included a 1-4 stretch from mid-November to mid-December that dropped Pittsburgh out of playoff position. The move to Rudolph — languishing at the bottom of the depth chart for the past two seasons — in search of a “spark” turned into one of the league’s more unlikely success stories.

Rudolph has thrown for 719 yards and three touchdowns without an interception while leading the Steelers to wins over the Bengals, Seattle and Baltimore as Pittsburgh slipped past several teams to reach the playoffs for the 11th time in Tomlin’s 17-year tenure.

“We’re simply staying with the hot hand and not disrupting the apple cart,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “We’ve been in some tough circumstances. He’s delivered, we’ve delivered.”

Rudolph has had a quarterback rating of 112 or higher since becoming the starter and expertly navigated the elements during a driving rain in Baltimore last Saturday, completing 90 percent (18 of 20) of his passes and hitting Diontae Johnson for a go-ahead 71-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

“He’s making good decisions,” Tomlin said. “He’s working hard from a preparation standpoint and that preparedness is showing. There’s a cumulative body of work to speak to. Mason’s been here a long time and I think that’s a component of it as well.”

Rudolph, drafted by the Steelers in 2018, is on a one-year deal. It’s too soon to tell what this rise over the past month means for his career going forward and Tomlin cautioned against reading too much into the fact that he remains, at least on paper, third on the depth chart behind Pickett and Trubisky.

“We’re going about our business cultivating a plan to win this week,” Tomlin said. “We care less about division of labor in terms of pieces of paper and depth charts and so forth.”

While Rudolph is in, star outside linebacker T.J. Watt is out. The NFL sack leader injured his left knee in the second half against the Ravens. Rookie Nick Herbig and veteran Markus Golden will fill in for Watt as the Steelers try to win a postseason game for the first time since beating Kansas City in the divisional round of the 2016 playoffs.

“You’ve got a few lines in the water when you’re trying to replace a guy like TJ,” Tomlin said.

Pittsburgh has struggled over the years during the rare times Watt, in the mix to win his second AP Defensive Player of the Year award, has been out of the lineup. The Steelers went 1-6 last season when Watt went on injured reserve with a pectoral injury then responded with a 7-2 finish.

Herbig has shown flashes during his first season, including getting a key strip-sack against the Seahawks that allowed Pittsburgh to pull away late. Golden has four sacks this season while playing a limited number of snaps.

“It is going to be a committee approach,” Tomlin said. “Even in doing so, we better strengthen our output in other areas because TJ is one of a kind.”

Pittsburgh is optimistic Pro Bowl safety Minkah Fitzpatrick will be able to return after missing three games with a knee injury. Fitzpatrick is likely to be limited in practice early in the week, but indicated he expects to be ready to go. The Steelers will also have Damontae Kazee available at safety after he served a three-game suspension for a series of illegal hits.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

Gas prices continue to drop due to low demand across Western Pennsylvania. According to AAA East Central’s latest report, the average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline is down to $3.39. That average is down from last week’s average of $3.41 by two cents, and down a full 35 cents from the average of $3.74 one year ago.

Beaver County goes from $3.46/gallon to $3.44/gallon, which is a two-cent drop. Butler stands pat at $3.43/gallon, while the Pittsburgh region drops three cents to also be at $3.43.

The national average is currently at $3.07 according to AAA East Central, 32 cents below the regional average.

This week’s average prices: Western Pennsylvania Average                          $3.386
Average price during the week of January 2, 2024                                           $3.414
Average price during the week of January 9, 2023                                           $3.743

The average price of unleaded self-serve gasoline in various areas:      

$3.189      Altoona
$3.448      Beaver
$3.614      Bradford
$3.228      Brookville
$3.426      Butler
$3.362      Clarion
$3.232      DuBois
$3.280      Erie
$3.459      Greensburg
$3.456      Indiana
$3.431      Jeannette
$3.654      Kittanning
$3.449      Latrobe
$3.286      Meadville
$3.424      Mercer
$3.073      New Castle
$3.448      New Kensington
$3.388      Oil City
$3.432      Pittsburgh
$3.222      Sharon
$3.413      Uniontown
$3.599      Warren
$3.367      Washington

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A crippling fuel leak forced a U.S. company on Tuesday to give up on landing a spacecraft on the moon.

Astrobotic Technology’s lander began losing fuel soon after Monday’s launch. The spacecraft also encountered problems keeping its solar panel pointed towards the sun and generating solar power.

“Given the propellant leak, there is, unfortunately, no chance of a soft landing on the moon,” Astrobotic said in a statement.

Astrobotic had been targeting a lunar landing on Feb. 23, following a roundabout, fuel-efficient flight to the moon. It could have been the first U.S. moon landing in more than 50 years, and the first by a private company. A second lander from a Houston company is due to launch next month.

Only four countries have pulled off a successful moon landing.

The company said the new goal was to keep the lander operating as long as possible in space, in order to learn as much as possible for its next mission a year or so from now. Flight controllers managed to keep the spacecraft pointed toward the sun and its battery fully charged, with another 40 hours of operations anticipated.

The Pittsburgh-based company did not elaborate on why the Peregrine lander’s propellant system failed just hours into the flight.

NASA paid Astrobotic $108 million to fly its experiments to the moon on this mission, part of the agency’s commercial lunar program.