Last Tuesday (November 29), members of the West Chester Borough Shade Tree Commission made a presentation at a meeting of Civic Action Southeast (CASE), the neighborhood group for the southeastern part of the Borough, on the benefits of planting trees along the streets and sidewalks of the Borough. It was part of a larger campaign to raise public awareness about the benefits of a comprehensive tree planting and maintenance program.

Last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer "Neighbors" section included an interview with Ryan King, the president of West Chester University's Inter-Fraternity Council. Most of it is devoted to a discussion of a community-cleanup on November 19 that involved "about 120 students" and how it helped give "a little PR boost to the school's fraternity and sorority students, who he feels are getting a bad rap in town."

At one point, the interviewer asked King about his role in the project and he responded:

Here's a question. Mayor Yoder just campaigned for reelection with numerous examples of literature listing his accomplishments. They mentioned Operation Vigilance, the Community Police Partnership, the "Drug and Crime Watch Tip Hotline" and his efforts to promote blood donations. They also include his promise to install security cameras and hire student "ambassadors" to patrol our Borough's streets. But none of them mention year-long talks with King or any other students to devise community service projects like this one. So who devised the clean-up project?

According to the minutes of the October 17, 2005 Town-Gown Council, the IFC representative announced that his organization was "planning a town clean-up in the near future and asks for people to submit a list of streets that need cleaning." But every year, WCU Student Affairs personnel organize an "Adopt-a-Block" program that features cleanups two times each semester by student organizations who accept responsibility for a specific block. In recent years, participation in the program has declined somewhat from seventeen groups in fall 2003 to eleven in the current semester. Participating organizations include fraternities, sororities, service groups like the ABBE and Friar's Societies, plus other student groups like BLOC, CAOS, Circle-K, Criminal Justice Society, EARTH Group, Economics & Finance Society, Habitat for Humanity and the Social Work Honor Society.

Picking up trash is an excellent way for anyone -- student and non-student alike -- to show concern for the neighborhood. There are two caveats, however. First, while individuals deserve credit for organizing and promoting cleanups, the real credit should go to those who get their hands dirty by doing the actual work. That includes people like Dawn L'heureux, a resident who was photographed at work in Everhart Park for the Daily Local News' November 20 article about the cleanup. It also includes the many anonymous strollers who pick up trash as they walk through our town.

Second, when groups seek a "PR boost" for street clean-ups, they need to keep in mind that community relations do not function like a bank account. "Good acts" are desirable, but they do not completely balance out "bad acts," and given the choice between a safe, disturbance-free neighborhood and two cleanups per semester, most residents would chose the former. The Adopt-a-Block program and other efforts by WCU students to give back to the community are welcome and commendable, but they can not replace efforts to curb the abuse of our neighborhoods during the remainder of the semester.

About 150 people attended the Voting Systems Task Force public hearing on Friday, November 18. The Task Force is Chester County's response to the "Help America to Vote Act" (HAVA) of 2002. HAVA was enacted by Congress in response to the "hanging chads" that resulted in Gore V. Bush, and requires new systems to be ready in time for the May 2006 primary. But so far, the Pennsylvania Secretary of State has only certified one type of voting machine -- a computer-based system that leaves no paper trail.

County Commissioner Andrew Dinniman opened the meeting at 7pm by introducing members of the Task Force, which includes representatives of both major parties, the League of Women Voters, the Commissioners and Voter Services. Then members of the audience got to speak for three minutes, in the order they called in during the previous week. Afterwards, everyone else was permitted three minutes to speak until the meeting ended at 9:30.

Three computer professionals testified about the enormous difficulty of creating a secure system, and added that if the current system is not "broke," there is no need to "fix" it. The WCU department chair of Criminal Justice delivered copies of the recent GAO report criticizing the security of computer-based voting systems. Other speakers discussed the problems that result from loss of confidence in voting systems, and called for a "paper trail" to enable vote recounts if necessary. Of the 27 people who spoke before 8pm, at least 25 seemed in agreement to condemn computer-based systems and require a paper copy of each vote.

In a surprise 4-3 vote, Borough Council voted to send the "Fair Rental Ordinance" back to committee for further discussion. The ordinance is intended to provide a mechanism for Borough officials to suspend or terminate the rental permit of a property owner who repeatedly violates property maintenance codes and/or whose tenants receive too many convictions for crimes that include noise, alcohol and other violations.

The vote came at the end of a three-hour public hearing on Wednesday night (November 16) which featured a full court press from the landlord group that has filed five lawsuits against the borough in the past four years. Members of the group offered the same arguments that they used to oppose the Student Home Ordinance of 2001 -- they have no responsibility for their tenants' actions, the program would cost too much, and it would be unenforceable. Their lawyer hinted of the possibility of more lawsuits if the ordinance passed.

The swing vote was provided by Steve Bond (Rep, ward 2), a member of the committee that originally proposed the ordinance. Throughout the public hearings held this summer, Bond was a strong advocate for the ordinance, and as recently as October 21, the Daily Local News quoted Bond as saying "It will empower residents to have some recourse on what goes on in their neighborhoods. We need to have the courage to get a handle on this because the growing is not going to stop."

William Scott (Dem, Ward 1), Barbara McIlvaine Smith (Dem, ward 5) and Paul Fitzpatrick (Dem, ward 6) all voted for the ordinance, while Andrew McIntyre (Dem, ward 3), Susan Bayne (Dem, ward 4) and Maria Chesterton (Dem, ward 7) voted against it along with Bond. The vote sends the ordinance back to Council's Public Safety committee for further consideration.

At its November 14 meeting, by a 4-0 vote with one abstention, the West Chester Borough Zoning Hearing Board rejected an application for a special exception by a WCU sophomore who wanted to create a new "student home" -- i.e. a student rental property -- at 706 S. Wayne Street. The owner bought the house last March, received a "cease-and-desist" order from the Borough in May, and testified that she wanted another WCU student to live with her and help her with expenses, including her mortgage. The hearing was attended by a number of homeowners and landlords, and Borough Council sent its solicitor to oppose the application.

The Board also voted 5-0 to allow Habitat for Humanity to display an advertising sign on property they plan to purchase from the Davis Oil Company for ten years. This fulfills a condition of the agreement of sale which will enable Habitat to build new homes on S. Bolmar, Poplar and S. Worthington Streets opposite the Davis gas station on E. Barnard St.

Finally, the Board voted 5-0 to allow a builder to keep a driveway at 713 S. Wayne Street which was too close to the side yard boundary of a narrow lot.

Thursday November 17 will mark the 100th anniversary of the creation of West Chester's Everhart Park. Long used as an informal picnic grove by Borough residents, the ten acre tract was one of the last undeveloped parcels from the Wollerton farm purchased by William S. Everhart in 1829. After Everhart's last direct heir died in September 1904, his nephew Isaiah Everhart of Scranton offered to donate the land to the Borough.

At a special meeting held on November 17, 1905, Borough Council president Fred Heed accepted the gift and proclaimed "The donor of this generous gift will ever be honored and revered by the citizens of our Borough, and to him are the residents of West Chester duly thankful." Subsequently, Borough Council paid to have the park cleared and facilities installed, and with the help of citizen volunteer groups like the Friends of Everhart Park, converted it into the beautiful place that it is today.

As of 10:00 PM on Wednesday November 9, the unofficial returns from West Chester's eight voting precincts show that all four Democratic candidates for Borough Council won their races in November 2005, as did every Democratic candidate for judge of election and inspector of election.

On the other hand, Democratic challenger Jim Jones was defeated by incumbent Republican Dick Yoder in the Borough mayoral race. Out of a total of 2,290 votes cast, Yoder received 1,175 (52%), Jones received 1060 (47%), write-in candidates received 23 (1%) and 32 people cast no vote for mayor.

Elsewhere in the state, Democrats swept all of the races in Norristown and State College, and won mayoral positions in Erie, Allentown and Pittsburgh. In New Jersey, Democrats won the governor position and made major gains across the state. They also won the governor position in Virginia. Meanwhile in California, voters rejected everyone of the ballot initiatives offered by Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.