Have you got children or are you fascinated by large machines that make loud noises and do unusual things? If so, then the West Goshen Lions Club has an event for you. It's the first annual Chester County Firefighters' Muster and Challenge, which will take place on Saturday, June 3, 2006 on the West Chester University campus on South Matlack Street just below Rosedale Avenue, West Chester. The "Firefighters' Muster is a modern variant on a practice that developed in the 19th century. The first firefighters' muster was held in Bath, Maine, on July 4, 1849. Five teams competed using hand-operated pumps to see who could shoot a stream of water the farthest. Since then, musters have added new events (and done away with hand-pumps) and developed into complex displays of firefighting equipment and prowess. Vendors will also offer food, drink and displays of fire fighting. Modern and antique fire fighting equipment will also be on hand for public inspection, beginning at 9AM. The competition will last from 10AM to 2PM, and admission and parking are free.
The June 3rd Muster will feature competitions in five events. For the "bucket brigade," teams of five will compete to fill a 55-gallon oil drum the fastest using fire buckets and a water source located 30 feet away. Teams will also compete to see who can put on their protective clothing and breathing apparatus the fastest, who can roll up 100-foot sections of firehouse the fastest while blindfolded, and who can get three firefighters plus their equipment up a 50-foot ladder the quickest. In the final event, teams will assemble hoses, nozzles and related equipment, use the hoses to knock over traffic cones with a water jet, and then disassemble and stow all the equipment again. All of the events will be held in the parking area behind the E.O. Bull Center, south of Rosedale Avenue between High Street and Matlack Street. Each team will pay a $100 registration fee used to cover expenses and to make a donation to the Chester County Heroes Foundation, which benefits the families of emergency personnel killed or injured in the line of duty. The event will be hosted by Good Will Fire Company #2 of West Chester, with sponsorship from West Chester University Public Safety, Good Fellowship Ambulance, Safety-Kleen, Staples of West Goshen and BuzyKidz.com. According to their web site, the West Goshen Lions Club, organizer of the Muster, was founded in February 1972 with 41 charter members. In 2006, it is the largest club in their District which includes both Chester and Berks counties. Much of their volunteer efforts are aimed at assisting the blind and vision-impaired, but they also provide bell ringers for the Salvation Army at Christmas, park cars for the Chester County Hospital Spring Fair, and perform other voluntary work in our community. They meet the first and third Saturday of every month at West Chester Holiday Inn on S. High Street (near the 202/322 bypass on-ramp) at 8AM, and welcome visitors.	Firefighter with full equipment Good Will #2
For more information or to register a team, visit www.firefightersmuster.com.

At this week's meeting of the Southwest Association of Neighbors, participants heard a presentation on the work of Borough Council's Neighborhood Task Force. The group, which was authorized last year to identify and propose solutions for concerns that are negatively affecting the University Area and their neighbors, began meeting last March. Since then, they have met biweekly and generated a prioritized list of issues for the group to study.

The top concerns identified by the group are the number of liquor licenses in the Borough, the effect of large numbers of people leaving drinking establishments in the wee hours of the morning, drunk and disorderly conduct, parking, and the need to educate students on how to be good neighbors when they move off- campus. Other top concerns included traffic, litter, drug dealing, fights and the performance of landlords. In all, the group considered 66 separate items.

In the course of four meetings, the group sorted those items into four major groups, 1) quality of life, 2) landlord & zoning issues, 3) issues related to West Chester University, and 4) communications, and assigned subgroups of its members to study each one. The task force also agreed on boundaries for its study area: from Rosedale Avenue north to Prescott Alley (just north of Gay Street) and from New Street east to Matlack Street.

The subgroups have a month to meet, discuss their topic and decide on how to identify and document how it affects the Borough's neighborhoods. The next meeting of the full task force, which is open to the public, will take place at Borough Hall, Room 240, on Monday, June 5 at 4:30PM.

The members of the task force include representatives of Borough neighborhoods from all parts of town (including the North End), landlords, town center business owners, Borough codes enforcement and the University. The West Chester Apartment Housing Association is Keir Abrahams, candidate for Borough Council in 2003, and business owners are represented by Mike Dempsey, candidate for mayor in 2005. Joe Norley, who also ran for Borough Council in 2003, represents the South Walnut neighborhood group, while Matt Holliday, the WCU student representative, was elected parliamentarian of the University's Student Government Association last month. The group is co-chaired by Borough Council member Carolyn Comitta (Dem, Ward 5) and Lynn Klingensmith, WCU Director of Judicial Affairs.

As of 4:00am on Wednesday, May 17, unofficial voting results from the Chester County and Montgomery County Election Boards show that Democrat Andrew Dinniman defeated Republican Carol Aichele for the 19th Senatorial Seat vacated by the death of Republican Robert Thompson last January. According to the Chester County site, Dinniman received over 56% of the vote to Aichele's 43.5%. The exact figures were:

Candidate	Votes	Percentage
Andrew Dinniman	20,847	56.23
Carol Aichele	16,126	43.50
Write-in	101	.27
Totals	37,074	100.00

The results were closer in the six Montgomery County precincts (five in Upper Providence and one in Trappe Borough) that are included in the 19th Senatorial District. There, Dinniman received 631 votes to Aichele's 607.

Here in the Borough of West Chester, the results were more lop-sided. In the seven precincts for which figures were available, Dinniman received over 73% of the vote to Aichele's 26% (1,216 to 429, plus two write-in votes). Here are the details:

For several years, Borough residents have wondered if the Wyeth-Ayerst factory on E. Nields Street would reopen, and if not, then what will take its place. This week, one of those questions was answered when demolition got underway at the site.

Built from 1950 to 1952, the Wyeth plant was once the world's largest producer of penicillin, using a process developed by West Chester scientists G. Raymond Rettew and Charles Heathcote to produce penicillin in commercial quantities. Penicillin was widely considered to be the first "miracle drug" because it attacked infectious bacteria without harming humans. Alexander Fleming of Scotland first recognized its potential in 1928 and in 1938, two Oxford University scientists identified penicillin as the primary agent.

Until World War II, penicillin could only be produced using time-consuming, labor-intensive laboratory methods. During the war, a small West Chester firm whose main business was producing spawn and developing new products for the local mushroom industry. The company's chemist, G. Raymond Rettew, developed a process to synthesize penicillin continuously, enabling the production of large quantities, and the firm also figured out how to dry and package penicillin so that it could be shipped far away and stored until needed. The initial work was performed in a laboratory on E. Rosedale Avenue (where West Chester Commons apartments are now located) and they began production in a manufacturing plant at the corner of N. Walnut and E. Chestnut Streets. The new drug was credited with saving thousands of lives during World War II, and the company eventually became known products like Anacin, Advil, Robitussin and Chapstick (all manufactured elsewhere).

Near the end of the war, the company was purchased American Home Products, owner of a pharmaceutical firm founded by John Wyeth and his brother in 1860. At the end of 1950, the "Wyeth division" began to construct the first part of a manufacturing complex in West Chester's southeast quadrant that eventually covered about 30 acres located between Adams, Nields and Bolmar Streets. Further expansion in the mid-1960s led to the closure of Elmer Street and the rerouting of S. Adams Street to its present configuration.

Until the late 1970s, Wyeth was one of the largest employers in the Borough, employing over 1,100 people at one point. It was also one of the largest polluters, resulting in several lawsuits involving both the Borough and the State of Pennsylvania until the company signed an agreement to help finance the Goose Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in 1984.

The beginning of the end came in 2000 when parent company Wyeth-Ayerst purchased the 312-acre campus of Rhone-Poulenc-Rorer (another pharmaceutical and chemical company) near Collegeville for its new corporate headquarters. That led to layoffs for nearly 300 people employed. By 2003 only 200 employees were left to manufacture penicillin at the plant.

In 2004, the Borough became involved in efforts to find a new use for the property. Representatives of Borough Council and the Chamber of Commerce approached Wyeth with proposals that included building a convention center and hotel, a "naugarium" (swimming center), a new site for the YMCA. By September, Wyeth announced its plan to close the plant in December, eliminating the last 213 positions in the Borough. Last year, a skeleton crew remained to supervise the remove of equipment and other salvageable items, and this spring the building was finally closed.

The second question -- what will become of the property -- remains unanswered. At present, there are no proposals before either Borough Council or the Borough Planning Commission for the property. There is, however, concern about the impact of Wyeth's closing, since one part of the 1984 wastewater agreement included an annual payment by the company to the Borough. In 2004, Wyeth paid about $600,000 to cover just under half of the cost of operating the Goose Creek plant, but subsequently filed suit to escape the payments since its discharge had declined from 700,000 to less than 100,000 gallons per day. As a byproduct, the Goose Creek plant (capacity 1.6 million gallons a day) has plenty of surplus capacity and the Borough is pursuing agreements to replace the lost Wyeth revenue by processing sewage for neighboring townships. Meanwhile, Borough Council voted last November to join a lawsuit brought by the West Chester Area School District to challenge the reassessment of the Wyeth property's tax burden.

While the rest of the region celebrated Memorial Day with parades and speeches, the weekend in West Chester was deceptively quiet. Deceptively, because behind the scenes people were making preparations for a sequence of events that keep everyone busy throughout this coming weekend.

Despite rhetoric to the contrary, not every visitor comes to West Chester to cause trouble in the streets late at night. Instead, a large number of people come to enjoy dinner, shopping and local festivals like yesterday's "Super Sunday." By coincidence, this past weekend also brought an unusual number of people who satisfied their historical curiosity by taking a walking tour of part of the Borough.

On Thursday night, more than a hundred and fifty people came for the tour of the East End sponsored by the County Department of Recreation. Ten guides plus two presenters showed them the neighborhood that includes the Borough's remaining active rail line, nearly a half dozen historic churches, the Melton Center and the hotel where Frederick Douglass stayed when he came to West Chester to speak. Visitors were also treated to speeches by Commissioner Carol Aichele and Senator-elect Andrew Dinniman, music from the Lukens Steel Band, a display of artwork by members of the Porter family and refreshments served by the East End Neighborhood Association.