News briefs: Staying safe in high heat, traffic safety on Hazelwood Ave., discounted PRT fares | The Homepage

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LIHEAP free AC installation or repair can help keep kids safe from high heat

Infants, toddlers and children may experience more severe heat-related illnesses than adults. Kids or adults with heat stress may get headaches or muscle cramps, or feel nauseated or tired. Source: ClimateCentral.org

By Juliet Martinez, managing editor

During June’s brutal heat wave, families without air conditioning may have coped by going to the pool, library or mall. It is hard to be at home when home is dangerously hot.

Extreme heat is dangerous for everyone; in fact, it is the deadliest weather-related hazard in this country. But high temperatures pose particular hazards for infants and children.

Babies and toddlers sweat less and take longer to adjust to hot weather, according to ClimateCentral.org, an independent and policy-neutral science nonprofit that reports on climate change. Kids who are busy playing may not even realize they are overheated or dehydrated.

Heat stroke is the most severe kind of heat injury. It is a life-threatening medical emergency. The symptoms of heat stroke are a high fever without sweat, feeling disoriented, flushed skin, nausea and vomiting, rapid breathing, headache and a racing heart.

To keep up with the ever-hotter summer that climate change is causing, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, is stepping in. Normally associated with heating, the program is now helping Pennsylvanians cool their homes as well.

If you received some form of LIHEAP assistance this past November through April, you can get a free air conditioner, get your air conditioner repaired, or get other kinds of help cooling off your home.

To learn more, have your LIHEAP or weatherization assistance letter and call Action Housing at 412-281-2102.

A newly installed speed hump on Hazelwood Avenue near Monongahela Avenue. Photo by Cassandra Harris

Long-awaited speed humps installed on Hazelwood Avenue

By Cassandra Harris, staff writer

After years of Hazelwood residents requesting traffic calming, the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure installed speed humps on Hazelwood Avenue from Wednesday June 5 until June 7. One pair is between Greenfield Avenue and Bigelow Street. The other is between Gladstone Street and Second Avenue.

Data collected in 2022 showed that 96% of vehicles traveling on Hazelwood Avenue exceed the speed limit of 25 mph.

“When projects like this take place in our neighborhoods. I see progress towards achieving zero traffic deaths in our community,” said Mayor Ed Gainey in a June 4 press release.

The Engage PGH page for traffic safety interventions on Greenfield Avenue says the planned speed tables or humps will be installed later this summer. No date is provided.

Cassandra Harris is Point Park University student and Pittsburgh Media Partnership summer intern at The Homepage.

Screengrab from discountedfares.alleghenycounty.us/

County launches Allegheny Go discounted PRT fares for SNAP users

By Juliet Martinez, managing editor

Allegheny County residents who receive food assistance, often known as SNAP, can now ride public transit in for half price. The program called Allegheny Go launched on June 3.

Eligible residents must have received SNAP benefits for at least three months and be between the ages of 12 and 64. To access discounted fares, riders must use a smartphone to download Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s Ready2Ride app. Then they must apply at discountedfares.alleghenycounty.us/. Once their application is processed, the half-price option will appear on the app so they can buy rides.

Anyone without a bank account can apply at a PRT service center at Giant Eagle or Goodwill. They can also add cash to their account at PRT vending machines.