North Franklin house explosion leads top stories of 2019
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Paramedics assist an injured person following a house explosion Wednesday afternoon on Park Lane in North Franklin Township.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Little remains where a house once stood off of Park Ave. in North Franklin Township after an explosion leveled the home.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Investigators retrieve a purse from the site of the house explosion July 31, 2019, in North Franklin Township.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Cindy Valent, whose son, Curt, died from Ewing Sarcoma in 2011, was among those who wondered if there is a connection between the number of cancer cases in Washington County and the fracking industry.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Diana Irey Vaughan and Nick Sherman at Bistecca restaurant awaiting election results Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Although there is a seventh courtroom in the basement of the Washington County Courthouse, it lacks the office suite of the others. Judge Tracy McDonald-Kemp didn’t make the Christmas wish on this door, but the sentiment was that of President Judge Katherine B. Emery.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Washington County Clerk of Courts Frank Scandale leaves district court Thursday afternoon.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
A man who only identified himself as Daniel, right, is shown expressing his opinion Saturday at a protest in response to an African-American teen being shot a week ago at a Regal cinema in North Franklin Township.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Returning to Washington County jail, from left, are Matthew Vasquez, Brian A. Keruskin and Paul A. Cochran.
Observer-Reporter
Traci McDonald-Kemp, right, monitors May’s primary election results with her campaign director Kelsey Shannon.
Courtesy of Maple Tree Cancer Alliance
Nicholas P. Cumer
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
The parking garage at California University of Pennsylvania has been closed since concrete fell from a ceiling in 2016. The garage will reopen Monday after repairs were made.
Matthew D. Staniszewski
1. North Franklin house explosion
On July 31, an explosion caused by a gas leak reduced a North Franklin Township home to rubble and injured five people, including three firefighters.
The blast, which was felt throughout the township, city of Washington, and other communities, shattered windows, blew out doors, and caused structural damage to nearby homes.
Firefighters had been called by the homeowner, Deborah Braden, to the home at 100 Park Lane to investigate the smell of gas and a hissing noise.
Firefighters turned off the gas and left the home with Braden when the explosion occurred.
Braden, three firefighters and a neighbor were treated for minor injuries.
Washington County 911 was inundated with calls following the explosion.
Kelly Rosenbaum, who lives on Acheson Street about a half-mile from the explosion, said the blast damaged part of her roof.
“It was flash, bam, boom,” Rosenbaum said. “Pieces of debris were flying everywhere.”
North Franklin Township Fire Chief Dave Bane, who was hospitalized for hearing and vision problems, was still attempting to help the victims when first responders arrived.
Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania took full responsibility for the explosion during a news conference the following day, explaining it was caused while the company performed “routine modernization work.”
- Karen Mansfield
2. Region reacts to potential cluster
Parents and residents in the Canon-McMillan School District called for a deeper investigation of a suspected childhood cancer cluster, and Gov. Tom Wolf approved $3 million in state funding for two studies examining the health impacts of fracking on communities where natural gas drilling operations are established.
Since 2008, there have been six cases of Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare and often deadly form of cancer, in the Canon-Mac School District. Other childhood cancers also have been reported.
But a state Department of Health investigation determined in April there wasn’t a cancer cluster, nor a significant rise in the number of childhood cancers in the school district or the region.
At a meeting held by the Health Department in October, parents, relatives and friends of Washington County youths who had died from or have been diagnosed with Ewing’s, along with concerned residents, voiced dissatisfaction with the results. A state epidemiologist said the study was too small of a sample size to be statistically significant.
Many question whether the cancer cases are connected to the natural gas industry.
Janice Blanock, who lost her 19-year-old son, Luke, to Ewing’s three years after he was diagnosed with the cancer, said at the meeting, “We don’t know what caused our son’s cancer. However, taking into consideration the high number of rare cancers in Washington, Greene, Westmoreland and Fayette counties, it should seem obvious to anyone with an ounce of common sense, sincere heartfelt concerns, and true courage that we need to be looking at environmental issues and triggers.”
While the cause of Ewing’s sarcoma has not previously been tied to environmental factors, one of the new studies aims to investigate the relationship between childhood cancers and proximity to fracking.
The other study will look to replicate previous findings on the link between asthma and other medical conditions in Southwestern Pennsylvania, where more than 3,500 wells have been drilled since 2008.
- Karen Mansfield
3. Washington and Greene turn red
Except for a four-year period beginning in 1996, the Washington County board of commissioners has been dominated by Democrats since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal era launched in the 1930s in the wake of the Great Depression.
That is set to change Jan. 6 when incumbent Diana Irey Vaughan, top vote-getter in the race, and newcomer Nick Sherman begin their terms as the Republican majority. Democrat Larry Maggi slipped into second place in the balloting, and his running mate Harlan Shober finished out of the running.
Statistics from Washington County show that more Democrats turned out Nov. 5 than Republicans, and more Democrats cast absentee ballots than GOP members, both of which point to Democrats shunning party allegiance and voting for Republicans, who swept row office races, ousting two Democratic incumbents and capturing two open seats.
Washington County Republican Party spokesman David Ball discounted a theory that the impeachment hearings targeting President Donald Trump, who hugely won Washington and Greene counties in 2016, galvanized his supporters.
Republican commission candidates Betsy Rohanna McClure and Mike Belding also prevailed in Greene County, running under the slogan, “Not Red, Not Blue, Greene.” Democrat David Coder was voted out Nov. 5, and he’s exiting with Republican Archie Trader, who lost in the May primary. Also prevailing in Greene County was Republican District Attorney-elect Dave Russo, who benefited from Democratic division over Jessica L. Phillips and Patrick Fitch. Incumbent Democratic District Attorney Marjorie Fox chose not to seek another term.
- Barbara S. Miller
4. Clerk of Courts Scandale charged
Local political pundits will long be debating the effect an investigation into $96,000 missing from the Clerk of Courts office, announced in July, had on Washington County’s 2019 election.
County controller Michael Namie informed the commissioners of the results of his audit in mid-July, and the commissioners turned the matter over to state police. Former Washington Mayor Brenda Davis, now a Republican, trounced Democrat Scandale in Nov. 5 balloting, and there was a “gentleman’s arrest” two weeks later when Scandale presented himself for arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty.
Remaining free on bond, Scandale faces a preliminary hearing in early January. Deputy Attorney General Evan Lowry will be prosecuting the case, and Scandale’s attorney, Michael DeRiso, has promised a vigorous defense.
- Barbara S. Miller
5. Shooting at movie theater in N. Franklin The shooting of a black teenager at Regal Cinemas in North Franklin Township led to protests and criticisms of how local officials handled the case.
State police ultimately filed charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, terroristic threats, recklessly endangering another person, disorderly conduct and harassment against Christopher Allan Williams, 54, of Waynesburg, in the March 24 incident.
In the time between the shooting and police filing charges on May 2, local activists organized protests at the theater and in front of the Washington County Courthouse. The protesters questioned why Williams, an SCI-Greene corrections officer who is white, had not been arrested, and said he would have been treated more harshly if the races were reversed.
At Williams’ preliminary hearing June 27, witnesses testified that toward the end of a screening of the film “Us,” Williams told a group of black teenagers to “shut up,” and got out of his seat to confront them. A witness said Williams threw a punch and the teenagers retaliated, with Williams eventually falling to the ground. Williams followed the teens to the hallway near the exit of the theater and allegedly pulled a semi-automatic pistol from his pocket. After a struggle with a 17-year-old male, the gun went off, and the teenager had been shot in the lower right leg.
Williams claimed he was defending himself and believed the teens were waiting for him at the door. His case will continue, with a trial likely to occur in 2020.
- Jon Andreassi
6. Assault by Pagans draws a dozen arrestsA dozen people were arrested this year in connection with a near-fatal beating of a former member of the Pagan Motorcycle Club in the Charleroi Slovak Club.
The April 18 beating of Troy Harris of Fallowfield Township was carried out by seven members of the motorcycle gang under orders from the club’s national sergeant of arms.
Harris spent weeks in hospitals and was left with cognitive problems.
Many of those arrested have pleaded guilty to avoid being tried for attempted homicide, including national leader Michael Thomas “Montana” Barringer of Morris Township, Washington County.
While prosecutors have not revealed a motive for the beating, Harris had recently left the Pagans to join the rival gang known as Sutars Soldiers.
The case also snared retired state police Sgt. James “Bear” Baranowski of Fayette County, who was awaiting trial in Washington County Court of Common Pleas on charges he offered Harris and his wife hush money in exchange for them not pursuing criminal charges in the case.
- Scott Beveridge
7. McDonald-Kemp sworn in on bench
History will be repeating itself when Traci McDonald-Kemp, 48, will be taking yet another oath as the first black woman elected to the Washington County Court of Common Pleas on Friday.
After winning both major-party nominations in the May primary, Gov. Tom Wolf asked and won a stamp of approval from the state Senate to confirm her to fill a vacant seventh seat on the bench created by the state Legislature two years ago.
McDonald-Kemp ran unopposed Nov. 5, winning a full, 10-year term. She is also the first black woman to be elected to countywide office in Washington County.
- Barbara S. Miller
8. East Washington man killed in shooting An East Washington man known for his kindness and facing a bright future was among nine people killed in August in a mass shooting outside a bar and restaurant in Dayton, Ohio.
Nicholas P. Cumer, 25, was killed shortly after 1 a.m. Aug. 4 while hanging out with new friends at Ned Peppers Bar in the city’s historic Oregon District.
Cumer was fulfilling an internship related to his studies in the cancer care graduate program at St. Francis University in Loretto.
His classmates at Washington High School later held a vigil in his honor.
- Scott Beveridge
9. O-R wins legal battle with Cal U.
California University of Pennsylvania spent most of 2019 losing repeated attempts to avoid turning over donation records to an Observer-Reporter staff writer.
In early December – after a failed bid for the state Supreme Court to hear its appeal – the state-owned university declared that a search of records belonging to the Foundation for California University of Pennsylvania, a fundraising nonprofit for the school, couldn’t produce the materials that reporter Gideon Bradshaw had requested.
On Dec. 17, Colin Fitch, attorney for the O-R, filed a petition in Commonwealth Court that asks that Cal U. be required to pay the nearly $8,300 that the newspaper spent on 16 months of litigation that had led up to that point, plus $1,500 in statutory damages.
The state Right To Know Law allows courts to order government agencies proven to have acted in bad faith in their handling of records requests to pay legal bills and sanctions to the party that asked for them. This newspaper alleges that Cal U. did just that during the 16 months of litigation that preceded the university’s claim that the records in question didn’t exist.
In August 2018, Bradshaw asked for records of possible donations from Manheim Corp. to the university-affiliated nonprofit. Weeks earlier, the school had filed a lawsuit against Manheim, which was the contractor for the $10.5 million Vulcan Garage, which opened on the campus in 2010. A partial collapse occurred on the students’ move-in day in 2016. No one was injured, but the garage has been unused ever since.
Cal U. appealed to Commonwealth Court – which issued a precedent-setting ruling that makes corporate donations, unlike gifts from individual donors, a matter of public record in Pennsylvania – following a decision by the Office of Open Records in favor of the newspaper. Cal U. was prepared to keep pleading its case when the state Supreme Court refused to hear it.
– Gideon Bradshaw
10. City councilman arrested for 4th DUI
Washington City Councilman Matthew Staniszewski was arrested Aug. 26 on a fourth driving under the influence of alcohol charge since 2004, after city police found him unconscious behind the wheel blocking traffic on East Wheeling Street just after 1 p.m.
Staniszewski participated in an inpatient treatment program before returning to council meetings in November, as he has two years left in his term.
He had been hired Aug. 15 as Kennedy Township’s manager, but when the township’s supervisors learned of his arrest, they rescinded his employment Sept. 12.
Staniszewski posted a $25,000 bond at a Nov. 23 hearing and his case later was held for county court.
- Katie Anderson