Latest news with #Millvale
CBS News
4 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
Popular Millvale bar up for sale after serving the community for decades
The owners of a popular Millvale bar and restaurant are putting the business up for sale. For more than 90 years, Grant Bar and Lounge has been serving food, drinks, and good times in the heart of Millvale. Now with the owners looking to sell, customers hope whoever buys it keeps the tradition alive. "So sad about that. I think this is a traditional old school restaurant with great pies and great service," Elise D'Haene of Point Breeze said. Many customers learned on Thursday that the community staple is up for sale. It includes the restaurant and the upper floors of the building as well. "The food is really, really good and reasonable," Lois Callwood of Morningside said. For many, they've been coming to the place for years. "I couldn't tell you. It's been a long time," Callwood said. The real estate agent working with the owners says he once worked there in his younger days, adding that the owners are getting older and want to retire. He said everything in the building is part of the deal. The hope is that the next owner keeps the history and establishment going. "Down to earth. Real people," D'Haene said about the place's atmosphere. Right now, the restaurant and bar is still up and running.
CBS News
25-07-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Millvale business shares warning after being target of electric bill scam
A Millvale business has a warning for others after it was the target of an electricity scam. It was the middle of the Wednesday rush at Compass Point Coffee in Millvale when owner Eric Hodos said he got a call from someone claiming to be from Duquesne Light. "At that moment, I was like, oh, we have to solve this because they come and turn our power off, we're going to lose revenue for the next couple of days," said Hodos. Hodos said the person on the phone told him he owed nearly $2,000 and crews were coming to shut off service unless the remaining balance was paid immediately. He then called his business partner. "I said, look, we're on it. She is calling the billing department right now. He says here's the number, have her call this number. So, she called that number, and they answered with Duquesne Light." But something still didn't seem right. She checked the electric bill and told Hodos they were even; no money was owed. He called the number back and asked to speak to a manager. That is when the scheme was uncovered. "He said I'll transfer you to my manager, and when it went there, it was some random, it was like you've reached John," Hodos said. KDKA called both numbers. The one for billing was disconnected, and the other went to a Phoenix-based bus company. Hodos said he's heard of another Millave business experiencing the same thing. "We want to make sure people don't fall prey to this," he said. "It sounded very legitimate. It sounded very real. They [prey] on your fears, and they want you to react." Duquesne Light encourages people to always check their bill first and call it directly. The company said that before the power is shut off, multiple notices are sent.
CBS News
04-07-2025
- Automotive
- CBS News
Work set to begin on Route 28 ramp to Route 8 next week
Starting Monday, the ramp from southbound Route 28 to northbound Route 8 will be a no-go zone. "I do hair in the neighborhood, and so many of my clients bike through that intersection to get on the trail or the 40th Street Bridge," Haley Ostendorf, a resident and business owner in this community, said. "It's really messy, I'm glad they're closing it." Reconstruction work on the ramp in Shaler Township and Sharpsburg borough will close to traffic around the clock until July 31. Ostendorf feels this is needed: "I hope it's better for Millvale and everyone that's trying to get on the trail." The work that will be done to improve the area includes, barrier to separate travel lanes, pavement restoration, sign and signal upgrades, also ADA curb ramp updates. Ostendorf says she understands that it may impact her client's getting to their appointments, but she says it's for the greater good, "As long as it's safe for everyone." Posted Detour
Associated Press
05-06-2025
- Science
- Associated Press
What it takes to clean industrial soot and grime from a Pittsburgh church's murals
MILLVALE, Pa. (AP) — How do you conserve 80-year-old murals that have accumulated decades' worth of soot, salt and other deterioration? Slowly and carefully, using everything from scientific analysis to seaweed extract to everyday tools — like cosmetic sponges and shish kebab sticks. That was the approach taken by a conservation team as they labored on a section of murals at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church near Pittsburgh. The walls and ceiling of the church are covered with an acclaimed set of murals painted by the late Croatian American artist Maxo Vanka in 1937 and 1941. They mix religious imagery with dramatic depictions of war, immigrant life, industrial hardship and moral contrasts — justice and injustice, greed and generosity. The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka has been working for the past 15 years to conserve the paintings, one section at a time. Over the past three years, a crew of 16 has worked intensively on the upper church. From January through May, that work focused on the upper-right walls and ceiling — including an Old Testament panorama featuring Moses and portraits of St. Matthew and St. Mark. The workers cleaned off grime, extracted corrosive salts, carefully reattached peeling paint and delicately added pigments where they had been lost. 'I found art conservation to be a good mix between art appreciation and science,' said Naomi Ruiz, a wall paintings conservator overseeing this year's work. The project began in January, when workers installed a 32-foot-high (9.8-meter-high) scaffold to provide close-up access to the murals. Cleaning off decades of pollution In the initial days, the conservation team brushed and vacuumed off surface dirt and soot. Then they used wet cosmetic sponges and thin cotton swabs to clean surfaces and grooves. Much of the grime, they surmise, resulted from day-to-day atmospheric pollution, ranging from Pittsburgh's once thriving steel mills to nearby highway traffic. The challenges are greater on one side of the church, which is damaged from exposure to more sunlight, which means more fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity. Workers used fine tools to reach inside smaller indentations. Before long, they'd gone through thousands of soot-covered sponges. Soon, the workers began to see the images becoming clearer, with gray sections returned to the original white painted by Vanka. 'It's really fascinating, especially to see from below, a lot of these details that were lost coming back, and seeing what his initial vision was,' conservation technician Christina Cichra said. Chemistry, color and cleaning Workers also cleaned the aluminum leaf that forms backgrounds, as in the arch-shaped one behind St. Mark and St. Matthew. They used a solution with neutral pH — neither alkaline nor acidic, both of which would damage the material. Parts of the aluminum leaf have deteriorated entirely. The team's original idea was to replace those sections with new leaf, but it was too shiny and didn't match. After some experimentation, they decided on a mixture of watercolor and other materials. 'This was able to give us the right amount of sheen and tone to blend in with the original aluminum leafing,' Ruiz said. To remedy paint loss, the crew used pastels and watercolors to fill in certain areas, while retaining Vanka's original brushstrokes. The team took a conservative approach, filling in only where necessary and using materials that can easily be removed, in case they or later conservators decide a different approach is needed. A primary goal is to reveal as much as possible of the original art. Salts, poultices and seaweed A major challenge is posed by sulfate salts, which occur naturally but can be especially prevalent where there is more air pollution, Ruiz said. The salts react with moisture in the walls and cause deterioration. The crew attached poultices — bandage-like containers of fine cellulose fibers — to affected spots. One type of chemical compound in the poultice leeches out the salts, a process repeated several times. Still more poultices were applied, this time with a different compound that strengthens the plaster. In some areas, paint had curled, flaked or cracked. Workers gently reattached it with funori, an adhesive derived from a seaweed, and use a tacking iron to help secure the paint. The preservation society, meanwhile, has worked with the parish on improvements such as roof repairs and a new climate control system to help prevent future damage from the elements. It's conservation, not restoration Ruiz prefers not to use the word 'restoration' for the project, although some of the work technically fits that category. She said 'conservation' is a more comprehensive term, which includes everything from documentation to preventive care while making Vanka's original work as visible as possible. 'We want to really reveal what he did,' Ruiz said. 'That's what's most important to us.' ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
