In 2022, the Alle-Kiski Valley experienced everything from horrific crimes to tremendous gains in development.
Regional police forces arose, construction projects came to fruition and new businesses opened.
Here are the top local news stories from the past year, as compiled by Tribune-Review staff members.
Many additional important stories did not make the final top 10. Issues were judged based on the number of people affected and their lasting impact on the region.
The cost of everything
Prices were up for almost everything one can buy, from gasoline to eggs, as inflation topped 8% this year, the highest rate in almost a quarter-century. Although the inflation rate was coming down late in the year, consumers’ pocketbooks continued to feel the pinch of higher prices.
The most noticeable was the price at the gas pump. In May, average prices in Pennsylvania set records, with prices around $4.51 per gallon. The average in the Pittsburgh region was $4.38 per gallon — about $2.23 per gallon higher than in 2020.
Food prices were up an average of 11.4% from 2021. Electric rates were up almost 16% from the previous year, and new vehicle prices were up 10% from last year.
The price of food was especially troublesome, with food banks and other charities reporting increased need and forcing more events aimed at getting food to residents.
The death of Azuree Charles
Shock waves rippled through New Kensington and much of the area when the body of 9-year-old Azuree Charles was discovered in a wooded area near his home May 4. His murder sparked fears and mourning as friends and neighbors in the East Ken Manor section of New Kensington held memorials and vigils for the popular young boy.
The shock deepened in September, when both of Azuree’s parents were arrested and charged in connection with his murder.
New Kensington police and Westmoreland County detectives allege that Azuree’s father, Jean Charles, 40, strangled the boy to death and then tried to hide his body. He faces charges including first-degree murder, criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, concealing the death of a child and tampering with evidence.
Authorities allege his mother, Luella Elien, 29, allowed Charles to be around Azuree and their three daughters alone although she knew he was not to have unsupervised contact with his children. They further allege she did not report where Charles was to police when she knew he was wanted on charges of assaulting Azuree in November.
Elien was charged as an accomplice to aggravated assault and with child endangerment and hindering the apprehension or prosecution of another person.
Pittsburgh Brewing opens in East Deer
Pittsburgh Brewing Co. began full-scale production of Iron City Beer in its new, 150,000-square-foot facility in the former PPG glass plant in September. The company began renovations and announced its plans in 2021, then shipped in custom-made brewing equipment and began test runs of the beer earlier this year.
Now, 400 cans of Iron City roll off the automated production line every minute.
But that’s not the end to the company’s plans.
A gift shop opened in November, the only part of the state-of-the-art plant open to the public, although regular tours of the facility are in the works for next year, and the company plans a restaurant and pub that could open as early as 2023.
Further down the road, a marina could crop up on the company’s riverfront property, allowing boaters to stop for food and refreshments.
East Deer officials welcomed the company, putting the formerly shuttered glass plant back on the tax rolls and providing jobs in the township.
Regional police on the rise
In October, the Alle-Kiski Valley’s second regional police force began operations in Freeport and Gilpin. It is the first regional police department in Armstrong County.
It followed the success of the Allegheny Valley Regional Police Department, which opened in 2019 with Cheswick and Springdale Township. East Deer joined its neighbors in the Allegheny Valley Regional Police Department earlier this year.
The Southern Armstrong Regional Police Department recently added Ford City to its ranks.
Officials, who tout cost savings and increased local police coverage for residents, note regional forces appear to be the future of policing, especially in small, financially strapped towns like many that make up the Alle-Kiski Valley.
The combined forces also make local communities less reliant on Pennsylvania State Police to provide police coverage.
Such forces are rare in Southwestern Pennsylvania but have a history of success. The Northern Regional Police Department, covering Pine, Richland, Marshall and Bradford Woods in northern Allegheny County, has been around since 1969. It was the first regional police force in the state.
‘Generational’ change for Rails to Trails
In September, Allegheny County’s redevelopment authority announced it would give more than $21 million to the region’s Rails to Trails groups.
The grants represent once-in-a-lifetime funding for the popular trail network in Southwestern Pennsylvania and will go to complete or connect trails in Allegheny, Westmoreland and Butler counties. More than 100 miles of trails will be connected when projects funded by the grant are complete.
Hikers and bicycle riders will be able to travel to areas as distant as Erie and Washington, D.C., via the network of trails. Historic landmarks, such as the Carrie Blast Furnaces site in Allegheny County will be connected to the trails. Areas of the Alle-Kiski Valley to see new trail sections include the Lower Valley through O’Hara, Harmar and Springdale and sections of Lower Burrell, Freeport and Gilpin.
Freeport, especially, could benefit from the various projects as it will become a trail hub, connected to at least four major trails extending north, south and west of the borough. Local officials tout the projects as a key to bringing in tourists and their money to towns along the trails as users seek food, drink and overnight stays.
The money is the largest single influx of funding that trails in the region have seen. Eighteen projects will be funded and will include at least 40 miles of new trail.
Church closures, parish consolidation
Final Masses were celebrated at five area historic churches in the Guardian Angels parish, a collection of seven churches formed through past consolidations in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Declining membership and donations forced the diocese’s hand after months of deliberation. The move was announced in the summer, and final Masses were held in September. Closed were St. Ladislaus and Our Lady of Perpetual Help, both in Harrison; Holy Martyrs in Tarentum; Holy Family in Creighton; and St. Alphonsus in Springdale.
The congregations were consolidated into Most Blessed Sacrament in Harrison and Our Lady of Victory in Springdale Township.
Also closed were 17 ancillary buildings.
Parishioners were upset but understood the move. In 2019, parish savings were more than half a million dollars. By this year, increasing costs and dwindling contributions had that figure down to $75,000. Without the changes, bankruptcy was a genuine risk.
At least one church, the 118-year-old St. Ladislaus in Harrison, petitioned to be declared a “shrine.” The move would keep the church building open for prayers, but no Masses would be held there.
Route 356 construction
Weaving its way through much of the Kiski Valley and into Butler County, Route 356 is one of the most important traffic corridors in the region. The highway through Allegheny Township closed in portions in April, the start of eight months of construction.
Work included realigning the highway to remove steep hills that, for as long as anyone can remember, were complained about as safety hazards and reconstruction of the roadway and its support base.
The work wrapped up in November, allowing motorists to again use their most important north-south corridor.
But the respite will be short lived. This summer, PennDOT plans to begin more work on Route 356, this time the replacement of a bridge and conversion of an intersection into a roundabout.
The work, at the highway’s intersection with La Belle View Road in Allegheny Township, is expected to last through the fall of 2024. About 11,000 vehicles per day use that section of the road, according to PennDOT.
Teens charged in New Kensington ambush murder
When 39-year-old Jason Raiford was gunned down in a New Kensington apartment building parking lot in July, people were shocked to learn police believed his murder was a planned ambush, and seven people — four of them teenagers — were accused of the killing.
Investigators say Raiford was shot 11 times, and the person accused of firing the fatal shots, Amir Kennedy of New Kensington, was just 15 at the time of the shooting.
Also charged in the killing are Da’Montae Marquis Brooks, 16, of New Kensington; Avian Molter, 15, of Uniontown; Braedon Dickinson, 14, of Herminie; Jonathan E. Felder, 18, of Arnold; Elijah R. Gary, 18, of New Kensington; and Raquan Carpenter, 19, of Pittsburgh.
All are charged as adults. They face homicide charges and are being held without bond pending trials next year.
Prosecutors said the group ambushed Raiford on July 3 at the Royal Court Apartments as part of a dispute over drugs and money.
All of the juveniles have petitioned to have their cases transferred to juvenile court, with hearings on the matter expected early next year.
If convicted as adults, all face life sentences. If tried as juveniles, a conviction would mean they would be released from prison after they turn 21.
Kiski Township cops quit
In a first for the Alle-Kiski Valley, most of a township’s police department quit, claiming they were being harassed.
Four of Kiski Township’s six officers, including the then-officer-in-charge and the police secretary, walked away from their jobs in July, saying they had suffered years of intimidation and harassment by the elected township supervisors.
Although emergency calls, for a time, were directed to state police, Kiski’s department continued to operate with one remaining officer and a new chief hired by supervisors.
Residents of the mostly rural township expressed shock at the news, lamenting the loss of 24-hour police coverage and reliance on state police, who often have longer response times because of the distance troopers have to travel to respond to calls.
The township moved quickly, however, to reconstitute the department and, by mid-September, had the department back up to full strength under new Chief Lee Bartolicius.
The matter is far from over, however, as former Officer in Charge Sgt. Thomas Dessell sued the township, accusing township supervisors of threats and intimidation over what he believes were illegal and corrupt acts. He also accused the supervisors of violating the state whistleblower law by retaliating against him after he complained about the actions of supervisors.
The township and supervisors deny all of the allegations in Dessell’s lawsuit.
Dessell also faces a lawsuit filed by a township resident who claims Dessell used unreasonable force during a search of the resident’s house. So far, township officials have said they will not provide legal aid to Dessell despite the fact that he was working for the township at the time of the alleged incident.
Say goodbye to coal power
The Cheswick Generating Station, actually in Springdale, shut down April 1. It was the last coal-fired power generation station in Allegheny County.
Commissioned in 1970, it produced 565 megawatts of electricity.
Former owner GenOn Holdings announced in 2021 that the plant would close permanently. At the time, the company blamed the closure on “unfavorable economic conditions, higher costs, including those associated with environmental compliance, an inability to compete with other generation types and evolving market rules that promote subsidized sources.”
Fifty jobs were lost as a result of the closure.
The plant’s new owner, Charah Solutions, based in Louisville, Ky., purchased the plant in December 2021. The firm specializes in remediation of coal-fired power stations.
In January, Charah announced plans to demolish the plant and the potential use of the 56-acre property for renewable energy and battery storage options.
The agreement includes the purchase of surrounding GenOn properties: the Lefever Ash Landfill, located 3 miles northwest of the power plant, and the Monarch Wastewater Treatment Facility, located on 7 acres in Springdale and Springdale Township.
West Penn Power said the closure of the plant will not affect the company’s power supply.
