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Story by Beaver County Radio Staff
(Potter Twp., Beaver County, Pa.) Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC, a subsidiary of Shell plc, announced Tuesday morning that it has commenced operations of the  Shell Polymers Cracker Plant in Potter Twp. .

The facility is the first major polyethylene manufacturing complex in the Northeastern United States and has a designed output of 1.6 million tons annually.

“Building this world-class facility is a fantastic achievement and one the team can be proud of; it’s a showcase of Shell’s project delivery expertise,” said Huibert Vigeveno, Shell Downstream Director. “With great market access, innovative offers and connected infrastructure, Shell Polymers Monaca is well positioned and ready to serve customers with high-quality, competitive products.”

Strategically located within a 700-mile radius of 70 percent of the U.S. polyethylene market, the Potter Twp. facility  sits on 384 acres adjacent to the Ohio River in Beaver County. The facility has contracted most of its natural gas feedstock at Final Investment Decision from the nearby Utica and Marcellus basins. The advantages of proximity are not limited to production; SPM also offers customers shorter supply chains, which translates to increased flexibility and access to polyethylene pellets that can be used in a wide variety of products such as common household goods, consumer and food packaging, as well as industrial and utility products.

The start-up of Shell Polymers Monaca represents an important step in growing Shell’s chemicals business as part of its Powering Progress strategy. The company is increasingly participating in value chains closer to end-use customers and using advantaged feedstocks to deliver more high value products while reducing exposure to commodity chemicals over time.

“I’m proud that in delivering this facility we’ve had a strong and innovative safety focus; invested in the community through employment and education; and helped repair and improve the local environment by remediating a brownfield site. These commitments are core to Shell’s Powering Progress strategy today and will remain so in the years to come,” said Vigeveno.

 

 

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

The New Brighton School Board met for its first–and only–meeting of November 2022, thus making it a regular voting meeting instead of the usual planning meeting that preludes the voting meeting that would take place two weeks later.

In this meeting, the board unanimously accepted the resignation of Travis Whalen from the School Board. School board President John Ludwig thanked Mr. Whalen for his time and service to the board, and Whalen responded in kind. “To everybody here, thanks for being such great colleagues. We have great leadership here, and great board members,” Whalen said. “I’m not going very far, I’m literally right there.” Whalen joked that he is relocating to the “wrong side” of Wises Grove Road; his resignation takes effect on December 6, 2022.

The board also unanimously approved the building of a new playground by Snider Recreation at a cost not to exceed $70,000. “This will replace what I call the ‘original’ playground, the main playground that’s closest to the building,” stated Superintendent Dr. Joseph Guarino, saying that it will not replace the newer playground donated by HeadStart that is located outside the high school gymnasium.

“The original playground has far exceeded its life expectancy,” he added, “and it’s starting to need serious repairs, which obviously is not worth it for playground equipment.” Guarino said that the funding for the playground comes from surplus money held back from as far back as the 2018-19 school year, and that the timeline for construction relies heavily on the supply chain.

Also approved by the school board were the implementation of Act 57 of 2022 Property Tax Penalty Waiver Provisions, as well as a 10-year agreement to renew the lease between the New Brighton School District and New Brighton Youth Baseball. There will be no additional meetings by the School Board for November; their next meeting will be their Reorganization meeting on December 5.

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PITTSBURGH (AP) — Authorities say a man was shot and killed during an exchange of gunfire with police in a Pittsburgh suburb over the weekend. Allegheny County police say officers in Forest Hills were dispatched shortly before 10:30 a.m. Sunday to investigate a report of a man yelling at people and lifting his shirt to display a firearm. Officers say they found the man and tried to talk to him but he fired at them and they returned fire, hitting him multiple times. He was pronounced dead at a hospital; his name wasn’t immediately released. Conty police say they were asked by local police to investigate.

Pittsburgh Police gather outside the Destiny of Faith Church in Pittsburgh, Friday Oct. 28, 2022, where a shooting while a funeral was being held, left several people wounded. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
PITTSBURGH (AP) — An independent review panel has opened an investigation into the lack of a police presence despite a request for it at a Pittsburgh funeral where a shooting left six people injured last month. Two shooters opened fire outside the Destiny of Faith Church on Oct. 28 during a funeral for a man slain two weeks earlier. Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the Citizens Police Review Board, said officers should have been there because police knew about intergroup tensions that could pose a risk. She asked whether supervision, communication or insubordination problems were to blame for that and similar incidents and said that’s why the review board opened its inquiry.

A Kennywood Park security guard stands at the main entrance to the amusement park in West Mifflin, Pa., early Sunday, Sept 25, 2022. Pennsylvania police and first responders have descended on the amusement park southeast of Pittsburgh following reports of shots fired inside the attraction, which was kicking off a Halloween-themed festival. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. (AP) — A judge has dismissed all charges against a teenager wounded in a shooting at a western Pennsylvania amusement park that also sent another teen and an adult to the hospital. An Allegheny County district court judge dismissed aggravated assault, reckless endangering and firearms charges against the 15-year-old defendant in the Sept. 24 gunfire at Kennywood Park on the opening night of the park’s Phantom Fall Fest. Defense attorney Kenneth Haber called the case presented by prosecutors “smoke and mirrors.” A 39-year-old man and a 15-year-old were taken to hospitals with leg wounds and the youth eventually arrested had a graze wound.

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Story by Beaver County Radio Staff
(Beaver County, Pa.) Pa State Police in Beaver are reporting that they received a report last Tuesday November 8, 2022 at 7:30 PM from 32-year-old Sharon Graves of East Palestine, Ohio that she was involved in a hit and run accident on I-376 between the Monaca and Center Exits.
Graves was driving a 2017 Subaru eastbound when she says that a newer Jeep Grand Cherokee side swiped her vehicle and continued driving at a high rate of speed towards Pittsburgh. The Jeep was described as having dark tint and was a dark grey or blue color. Troopers say the vehicle should have damage to the driver side near the front wheel or bumper. The vehicle is believed to have a Pennsylvania license plate.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Pa State Police in Bever at 724-773-7400

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This undated selfie provided by her family shows Leslie Gingrich, who died in a motorcycle crash on Route 895 near Auburn, Pa, in Schuylkill County, on June 4, 2022. Pennsylvania’s transportation agency dug a ditch and didn’t tell anyone, and it cost a motorcyclist her life, the victim’s family says in a new civil lawsuit. Gingrich, a mother of three who was training to get her commercial driver’s license, was riding her Harley to class along a narrow, twisty state highway when she hit a ditch that had been left by a PennDOT crew weeks earlier. She had no warning and no chance to avoid it, her family says. (Leslie Gingrich via AP)

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Press
The family of a woman who died in a motorcycle crash is suing the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, saying the agency’s negligence caused the fatal wreck. Leslie Gingrich was riding her Harley in Schuylkill County on June 4 when she hit a ditch spanning both lanes of a narrow, twisty road. A wrongful death lawsuit says PennDOT created the hazardous condition while working on the road, then failed to place signage warning approaching motorists of the danger. The woman’s family says residents complained to PennDOT but their complaints about the road were ignored. The family is seeking unspecified money damages.

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Story by Beaver County Radio Staff
(North Sewickley Twp., Pa.)  All lanes of the Pennsylvania Turnpike westbound were blocked Friday morning due to multiple crashes between Beaver Valley and Cranberry exits. In all there were three crashes involving ten vehicles on the stretch of roadway.
The Accidents occurred around 10 AM and eleven people were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries according to authorities.
There is no word on what caused the accidents and the scenes were cleared and all lanes were reopened by 2:30 p.m. Friday afternoon.