Coffee empire coming to West Chester

Starbucks is coming to West Chester University's library and the downtown, at the National Penn Bank building, at the bustling corner of North High and West Gay Streets.


According to a company spokesman, the chain is supposed to open its WCU location by the spring semester and its downtown location in the beginning of 2008.

If I actually drank coffee, I may be a little more excited about this, but I do think the company has good pastries.

Two WCASD students to tickle the ivories at Carnegie Hall this weekend

Two students of the West Chester Area School District are headed to Carnegie Hall this weekend to join some of the nation's best young pianists.

The students-Penn Wood Elementary School fifth grader Rayleen Hu and Fugett Middle School eighth grader Stephanie Ou-earned the honor by by receiving gold and silver medals in the Young Artist Division of the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati. Typically, the winners of the competition are invited to play in a concert at Carnegie Hall.

Kudos and good luck to those students when they perform Saturday.

One less obstacle to the McCool condo project?

The old John Deere building on East Market Street, where McCool Properties hopes to build a 75-foot condo project, has been condemned. In a letter to the developer, Mike Perrone, director of building, housing and codes enforcement, said the building is "severely deteriorated and in imminent danger of collapse."

He condemned the building on Friday, after an engineer hired by the developer found several problems with the building.

The question is where does this leave the condo project? Borough Council, as part of approving the conditional use application, said the company had to try to preserve the facade and side walls of the building. But now that condition seems like a mute point.

a little bit of protest today in West Chester

The steps at the Chester County Courthouse were a little busier today than usual. About 20 activists marched and joined other protestors around the country to raise awareness about the "Jena 6."

The issue started due to racially charged incidents at Jena High School, in Louisiana, last September. White students placed three nooses in what was known as “the white tree,” after a black student tried to sit under it.
Not long after the nooses appeared in the tree, authorities said a white student was badly beaten by six black students. The black students were originally charged with attempted murder and expelled from the school.
The state’s District Attorney, Reed Walters, denied Wednesday that racism was involved. He said the students that hung the nooses were not charged because he could find no state law under which they could be charged.
But in the beating case, he said four of the defendants were of adult age under state law, and the only juvenile charged in the case, Mychal bell, had a prior criminal record.
The charges of attempted murder were then scaled back to offenses such as aggravated battery and conspiracy.

For the protestors baring signs that read "Equality" and "Support the Jena 6," the case represents a throw back to racism in the south and shows this country still has a long way to go until race is no longer an issue.

election season

As I said in an earlier blog post, I'm the reporter who is covering the Chester County county commissioners race, and from what I gathered, there is a real momentum gathering on both sides.

This November, voters will be choosing candidates to fill the three open seats on the board. Running on the Republican side is incumbent Carol Aichele and Terence Farrell, who currently serves as the county's recorder of deeds. On the Democratic side is Kathi Cozzone, a corporate business manager for Rodale Inc., and Bill Scott, a former West Chester Borough Council member.

Republicans are hoping to maintain the majority on the board, which they have long held, while Democrats are hopeful that for the first time in quite a while, they have a chance of winning two out of the three commissioner seats.

The election will be held on Nov. 6. While the commissoners campaign seems to be the most contested race, voters will also select candidates to fill other county offices and elect local municipal officials for borough councils and boards of supervisors, as well as school board members.

Now that the YMCA is leaving town...

How bad do people in the borough want a recreation center, since the YMCA on East Chestnut Street is leaving? That's what borough officials may soon find out.

This Tuesday, during a combined work and voting session, Borough Council is going to consider selecting a firm, Kimmel Bogrette Architecture, to complete a feasibility study for a recreation center. If council approves this idea, the firm will conduct surveys and gather information to determine if residents want a borough-owned rec center and if they are willing to pay for it through their taxes. What has been discussed at the committee level and what may come up Tuesday night is how to pay for the study. Overall, it would cost the borough about $57,700 to allow Kimmel to complete both phases of a study. The first phase would cost about $17, 900.

The council meeting is at 7 p.m. at Borough Hall.

Looking for something to do this weekend?

Some people, including myself, tend to stay away from the Chester County Restaurant Festival because it seems to grow every year and is crowded. But this year, the festival is being rejuvenated and will include a lot of new features.

The borough's Parks and Recreation Department is teaming up with the folks at WC Dish, a local foodie website, to host the WC Dish Choice Awards. Restaurants will be submitting food for the categories of best appetizer, dessert and entree. The festival's attendees will be given a voice and allowed to chose the best dishes by text messaging, visting http://www.wcdish.com/, or stopping by the WC Dish booth on the corner of Gay and High Streets.

The awards aren't the only new feature of the festival, however. Doc Magrogan's Oyster House will be selecting restaurants to participate in the Restaurant Olympics, which will include potato peeling, oyster shucking and bottle opening.

So, if you usually stay home during the festival to avoid the crowds, this may be a good year to stop by, since there will be a lot of new interactive events. The festival starts at noon on Sunday and runs until 5:30 p.m.

Joe Pitts visit borough officials

This morning, Republican U.S. Congressman Joe Pitts visited borough officials at Borough Hall. It was interesting to sit through, as Borough Manager Ernie McNeely, Police Chief Scott Bohn and Mayor Dick Yoder raised concerns about dealing with the growth of the borough and the drain on police services. Pitts said his office would be willing to help with obtaining grants, but said there isn't a lot of money in the federal budget for some of the relief borough officials are seeking.

There was also a lot of discussion regarding how national terrorism and funding policies influence local municipalities. Bohn and McNeely raised concerns about all of the federal money going to Homeland Security and other anti-terrorism measures, which they acknowledged is important, but the lack of funding going to municipalities to help them fight local crime and maintain infrastructures and services.

Pitts was also asked about the war in Iraq. Councilman Stephen Bond sat in on the session and asked if the war is going to wind down soon, since it absorbs so much of the federal budget. Pitts said it is likely 40,000 troops will be withdrawn by next summer, as U.S. Commanding General David Petraeus recently recommended while appearing before Congress, but it is not likely all troops will be withdrawn anytime soon or funding will be cut off.

Borough Council's committee meetings were relatively quiet last night. However, an interesting, long-standing issue did pop up. Councilwoman Holly Brown said that she would like council to consider creating a committee to study the parking situation downtown and the attitude of parking enforcement officers. She said a lot of people complain to her when she's working at Kaly, a women's clothing store she owns on West Gay Street, about getting tickets and the parking enforcement officers.

There was also a resident, Bill Mason, who works for WCOJ downtown, that complained about the situation and suggested that something needs to be done.

It's not likely council's going to take up this matter next week during its work session, though. Brown said she wants to discuss the issue at the committee level for one more month, then bring it before the full body.

Today, YMCA 0officials braced the humidity and uncomfortable temperatures to have a ground-breaking ceremony at the site that will host the new YMCA facility, on the corner of Paoli Pike and Airport Road, in East Goshen.

According to Y officials that spoke at the event, the facility should open next September, and the project will cost about $20 million.

There was also some discussion about how hard it was to make the decision to close the downtown West Chester Y on East Chestnut Street and move to the 15 acres of land in East Goshen. Officials acknowledged that there is sentimantality attatched to the borough facility and there have been concerns that certain people will have no way to use the new facility. Lee Bunting, executive director of the West Chester Area YMCA, told me before the opening remarks there are plans to run a bus from the borough to the new location, to ensure West Chester residents can come to the new building.

movie nights coming to West Chester

A lot of residents in the borough talk about how they want a movie theater in West Chester. There have been some discussions about having a theater at the Wyeth property, but that is not certain yet.

Pretty soon, though, residents will have the chance to see some movies in the downtown. The West Chester International Film Festival is going to screen movies the second Wednesday of every month, starting this month, until Februrary 2008. The films will be those that appeared in the film festival, and the screenings will be held at the Chester County Historical Society.

Tickets will be $5, and the first show will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 12.

hotels, condos and the like

Last night Borough Council conducted two hearings dealing with major development projects in West Chester.
The plan for condominiums on the 100 block of East Market Street took a new turn, after Borough Council voted 6-to-0 to approve a demolition permit and conditional use application, but said the developer, McCool Properties, must preserve at least 10 feet of the side walls and facades of the old State Farm building and the eastern portion of the John Deere building, unless substantial evidence is presented during the land development application process that the buildings can't be preserved.

This vote came after council heard a lot of comments from residents, including members of the borough's Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB), about the significance of those buildings and preserving buildings in the borough that are considered to still contribute to the historic district.


Council also made a decision regarding having a hotel downtown. The borough was considering allowing a developer, Teres Holdings, to construct a 75-foot hotel on the Mosteller Garage property, on East Chestnut Street. But last night, council decided to only move forward with tearing down the garage and replacing it with a new parking facility, not a hotel.

A hotel can still come to the downtown, however. Zukin Realty Inc. wants to construct a hotel and condomenium project, but would only need the Rite Aid property and Spence Cafe on Gay Street to do so.

WCU dorm project moving forward

Last night, Borough Council voted 6-to-0 to approve a conditional use application for the first phase of a dorm project at West Chester University. The two new dorms, if the other development applications are approved by the borough, will be built on North Campus, one near the Hollinger Field area and the other on an adjacent basketball court.

Though the project calls for most of WCU's current dorms to be torn down, officials that testified on behalf of the project said none of the dorms will be torn down during the first phase.

West Market Street Reopened Today

I'm sure a lot of people will be happy to know that the block of West Market Street near the new Chester County Justice Center is now open. The bulk of the streetscape portion of the project concluded on time.