It will cost Avalon more than $10,000 to find out what can be done to stop a landslide along North Birming-ham Avenue.

Borough manager Harry Dilmore said that the ground is continuing to move in the area of the slide that occurred last month.

The borough will hire a geotechnical engineer at a cost of $10,293, about $4,000 of which will pay for core borings.

Northgate teachers will not see an increase in their paychecks until next spring, having accepted a six-month pay freeze as part of a new four-year contract with the district.

Also being frozen by the new agreement is the schedule of salary “steps” that govern what teachers will be paid. Although teachers will receive various pay increases while moving up the 17-step schedule, the freeze means that a teacher hired in 2010 and one hired in 2014 will have the same starting salary, according to Northgate School Board member Gary Paladin.

Ben Avon accepted a bid from Pampena Landscaping & Construction last month for the Rostraver wall reconstruction and storm drainage system replacement project. Borough engineer Ed McGee said work should begin in August and it should be a short project.

He added that some of the stones from the wall seem to be in good shape, and the borough may try to salvage them for future use.

Council plans to send a letter to residents giving them more details about the project.

Ben Avon Council accepted a bid for the Rostraver wall reconstruction and storm drainage system replacement project at Tuesday's meeting.

Engineer Ed McGee said the borough sought bids either to replace the stone wall in kind, which he preferred, or for a concrete substitute. He had estimated the cost to be between $60,000 and $70,000.

Although nowhere near as big as the landslide that ended hopes of a Super WalMart in Kilbuck Township a few years ago, the crumbling hillside along Route 65 in the same vicinity has once again closed the highway to traffic.

Relatively minor levels of rocks and mud came onto the northbound lanes in Glenfield on Wednesday, about a quarter mile north of the I-79 interchange. PennDOT officials closed all four lanes of traffic to clear the area and assess the danger, but southbound lanes were reopened to traffic later that day.

ALCOSAN is in the process of holding community meetings to update residents on the development of its Wet Weather Control Plan, and proposed solutions to sewer overflows.

A quick trip to the store became more of a ride than expected by a young Ben Avon man, whose vehicle flipped over after hitting the hillside along Perrysville Avenue in Ben Avon, near the entrance to Avon Park. Driver Mark Keyser told police that he lost control in the heavy rain gushing down the street Saturday afternoon. Pictured here, a relatively uninjured Keyser, who managed to get himself out of the car, jumps back in to obtain some belongings. Also pictured are Ohio Township Police Officer Joel Donovic and NorthWest EMS personnel.

Photo by Connie Rankin for The Citizen

By LOIS THOMSON

Renovation of a set of row houses on Park Avenue continues to be a thorn in Ben Avon's side. A couple of residents at Tuesday's council meeting expressed their concern and displeasure over the fact that the area has been torn up for a long period of time, but that little actual work has been done.

Victoria Haynes said her main concern is safety.

"I see children playing on the streets and torn up sidewalks and no precautions are taken. I don't know what council can do, but I think the site should be contained and closed."

The North Boroughs found that the biggest problem with back-to-back blizzards isn't the storms themselves, but the nearly two feet of snow they leave behind.

Which is not to say that last weekend's record-setting blizzard and the mid-week frosting on the snow cake didn't present their own challenges.

Two Ben Avon natives who have spent years helping orphans in Haiti aren’t about to let a little thing like a massive earthquake get in their way.

Jamie (30) and Ali (21) McMutrie have been living in Haiti, with Jamie spending about half the year there, caring for the children who come to live at Brebis de Saint-Michel de L’Attalaye, or BRESMA, orphanage in Port-au-Prince.

The orphanage is sponsored by the Answered Prayers organization in Washington State.

In addition to providing for children in one of the world’s most impoverished countries, BRESMA also arranges for adoptions.

Wednesday night's high winds kept local police and firefighters busy answering reports of downed trees and power lines.

Among the incidents reported were a tree across power lines on Roosevelt Road at the Kilbuck/Ohio Township border; live wires down on Nicholson Road in Ohio Township, South Birmingham Avenue in Avalon and Ohio River Boulevard in Ben Avon, and a tree down across Route 65 near the ballfield in Emsworth.

Bellevue Police were called when the aluminum siding began blowing off the building at 664 Lincoln Ave.

The annual North Boroughs Independence Day fireworks celebration will have to be delayed this year due to severe damage to Avalon’s park caused by recent rains.

This year’s event was planned for Friday, July 3, at Avalon’s park on New Brighton Road. Last week’s heavy rains, however, caused flooding from the creek that borders the ballfields. A retaining wall and fence were undermined almost the entire length of the fields, and the fields themselves were covered with flood waters, mud and debris.