An architectural firm has been given permission to design and solicit bids for changes to the entrances at all three Northgate School District buildings. The changes have been recommended as a way of making the buildings more secure.

At Monday’s regular school board meeting, the board approved an expenditure of no more than $14,000 to have HHSDR proceed with the design services and contract bidding.

The Northgate School Board approved some changes to the electives that will be offered to seventh and eighth grade students next year.

The following electives will be offered on a full-year basis: chorus, band and orchestra.

Semester-long electives will include family and consumer science, art, industrial arts, computer science, and school news.

The Emsworth Volunteer Fire Company’s new truck has arrived!

Last Friday, Emsworth Fire Chief Jim Kohl, Assistant Fire Chief Mike Adams and President Joe Koehler drove to Meyersdale, PA in Somerset County to pick up the new vehicle. Leaving at 5:30 a.m., they arrived back around 8 p.m.

The Spartan Fire Engine is a pumper that was custom built for Emsworth by manufacturer Four Guys.

Some, but not all, of the paging system updates presented last week to the Northgate School Board were approved at this week’s regular meeting.

The board approved replacement of the high school’s original (1975) base communications system that allows announcements to be made throughout the school. That project, with work done by Horizon Information Services, will cost $17,920.

The system also will be extended to the ground floor, where the administrative offices are storage are located, at a cost of $5,640.

The Northgate School Board will have several options to consider for replacement of the high school communications system, used for announcements, paging and class bells.

The current system was installed in 1975, according to facilities manager Scott Smith, and definitely needs to be replaced.

Bellevue Council inched closer to allowing a new restaurant to obtain a liquor license Tuesday when officials agreed to stop intervening in the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board's application process if the business owners will sign one of two pending agreements.

The third grading period of the 2018-19 school year for Avonworth students is being extended.

At their March 11 meeting, the school board approved changing the end date of the third nine weeks for grades 3-12 from March 18 to March 22, due to the four inclement weather make-up days.

Ohio Township residents surprised by their 2019 property tax bills turned to the township’s supervisors for an explanation when the supervisors met Monday evening.

Although the supervisors had advertised and approved a 2019 budget in December that included a significant property tax increase, the bills recently sent to property owners were the first some knew of the change in millage rate.

Ohio Township’s current $10.8 million budget is based on a millage rate of 3.09, which represents an increase of .8 mills over the 2018 rate of 2.29 mills.

Monday night, the Avonworth School Board approved director of bands Will Guess to create a middle school summer band.

The band will meet for one week in June, from 9 a.m.-noon. The week will culminate with a performance Friday evening of that week. The specific week has yet to be determined.

The cost of the camp is $75 per participant and will be sponsored by the Band Boosters. The fee includes t-shirts, snacks, music and payment for instructors.

Police are looking for information on the whereabouts of a Bellevue man who disappeared on Feb. 1.

Bellevue Police say that Wendell Crawford, 56, called a friend on the North Side to say that he was on his way to her home. Crawford never arrived. After a couple weeks of not hearing from him, Caldwell was reported missing.

Bellevue Police say they have searched a number of areas and called various places Crawford might have gone, but have turned up no leads.

Bellevue Police are warning parents about a new on-line challenge involving teens.

The challenge encourages teens to go missing for a period of 48 hours. The missing teen will receive points for having more on-line activity, including posts about their disappearance.

Bellevue Police say that anyone participating in that type of activity could face criminal charges.

For more information, the following link was posted: https://www.wfsb.com/police-warn-parents-of--hour-challenge-which-encour...

Bellevue Council has a new president, as council reorganized a short time into Tuesday’s regular meeting.

Former president Tom Fodi announced earlier this month that he would step down from the president’s seat due to demands on his attention and time created by family and work.

Fodi took that step at Tuesday’s meeting after presenting a local business owner with a proclamation recognizing 40 years as part of the Bellevue business community.