ECONOMY — Work to replace the deck on a bridgeon Big Sewickley Creek Road in Economy will begin Monday, said PennDOT.

The bridge is between Hoenig Road and Overlook Lane. Beginning at 7 a.m. Monday, traffic on the bridge will be reduced to a single lane alternating use through mid-November.

Traffic on Route 18 in Frankfort Springs and Hanover Township will be reduced to a single lane alternating use today, PennDOT said.

The restrictions will begin at 10 a.m. and continue around the clock through late August for approximately 250 feet between Anderson Hozak Road and Platt Road. Crews will be reconstructing a slope embankment.

Traffic on Route 60 in Potter and Center townships will be reduced to a single lane Tuesday and Wednesday between the Monaca-Shippingport and Center interchanges, PennDOT said.

The single left-lane closures will occur both days from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Crews will be removing and replacing an overhead sign structure.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Friends, relatives and co-workers are paying their respects at a suburban Pittsburgh funeral home to two of the women slain at a health club this week.
Loved ones gathered Friday afternoon at the William Slater funeral home in Scott Township for 49-year-old Betsy Gannon, of Pittsburgh.
A viewing is being held across the hall for 46-year-old Heidi Overmier, of Carnegie, who worked at the Kennywood amusement park.
Funerals are scheduled for both women Saturday at separate churches.
A viewing for the third victim, 37-year-old Jody Billingsley, of Mount Lebanon, will be held Sunday.
Forty-eight-year-old George Sodini opened fire on an aerobics class this week, then killed himself. Police say he didn’t know the victims.

The New Sewickley Township recreation board is hosting a movie night tonight at Green Valley Park in the township. The movie, “Bedtime Stories” will begin at dusk. Free drinks and popcorn will be provided.

READING, Pa. (AP) - The regional department store chain Boscov’s is getting a loan of more than $43 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The 20-year loan to the Reading-based chain was announced Thursday by U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Bob Casey. The retailer is also getting $200 million in bank financing and personal equity contributions of over $60 million by the Boscov family.
The chain went bankrupt last year and was rescued from liquidation when relatives of the store’s founder bought it.
Boscov’s has 39 department stores, mostly in Pennsylvania, including the store at the Beaver Valley Mall in Center Township. It also has stores in New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Delaware.

PennDOT will launch at $2.8 million project Thursday to improve Route 18 in the boroughs of Big Beaver, Homewood and Koppel and the city of Beaver Falls, weather permitting.

PennDOT said work will begin at 7 a.m. and traffic will be reduced to a single lane in both directions around the clock through mid-November. The left lanes will be closed.

AMBRIDGE - Old Economy Village gets the Rick Sebak treatment Aug. 20, when WQED-TV’s documentary maker debuts his newest show, “Right Beside the River.”Airing at 8 p.m. on Pittsburgh’s public broadcasting station, “Right Beside the River” is a travelogue of colorful and historic places along the region’s waterways.

Sebak visits Old Economy in Ambridge, which interprets the history of the Harmony Society, a successful 19th-century religious commune.

While in Ambridge, Sebak and his camera crew also visit a factory beside the Ohio River, where in the early 1940s, U.S. Steel’s American Bridge division built LSTs, the biggest ships ever made in the Pittsburgh area.

“Right Beside the River” also visits the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale, Fiddle’s Confectionary in Brownsville, the company town of Vandergrift, an American Indian burial mound in Moundsville, W.Va., and the official Marx Toy Museum, also in West Virginia’s panhandle.

Sebak previously toured the region’s rivers in his first WQED documentary, 1988’s “The Mon, The Al and the O.” He has become one of WQED’s most recognizable personalities, and a big money-maker, with documentaries like “Things That Aren’t There Anymore,” “The Strip Show,” “North Side Story,” “Something About Oakland” and “A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway.”

AMBRIDGE — A $2.1 million project to rehabilitate a bridge that carries Route 65 over French Point Creek in Ambridge will begin Friday, PennDOT said.

Lane closures and other restrictions will occur daily as needed between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Amber Brkich Marianois a mommy. The 30-year-oldBrighton Township native and her hubby, fellow reality-show star Rob Mariano, welcomed into the world Lucia Rose Mariano.

Lucia was born July 4 at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Fla. Her middle name is a tribute to her paternal great-grandmother, who died on the same day.

Lucia “is a great eater and sleeps a lot, however she tends to be a bit of a night owl like her daddy at times,” Rob, 33, said in an exclusive interview with People magazine, which broke the story Sunday. “Both mom and baby are healthy and doing great. We are over the moon with happiness at her arrival.”

The Marinos have lived in Pensacola since together winning $1.25 million on CBS’s “Survivor: All-Stars” in May 2004. Mariano, aka “Boston Rob,” proposed to Brkich on that show’s season finale.

The couple’s Caribbean wedding in April 2005 was turned into a made-for-TV special, and they later appeared on CBS’s “The Amazing Race,” finishing a close second. They also had their own show on the fledgling FoxReality network, focusing on Rob’s quest to become a professional poker player.