First up is a public hearing on an application to transfer a liquor license into the Borough. The applicant is Don Moore, proprietor of Rex's on the 300-block of W. Gay Street. Back in January, he applied to transfer a liquor license into the Borough from Mortonville, and place it on W. Market Street in the former Brenda's Vac Shop as part of a plan to open a music and theatrical performance hall. Neighbors raised objections and Council voted to reject the application, using a power granted to local government for the first time in December 2006. Mr. Moore has appealed that decision, which is currently on a waiting list over at the County Court House.

This time, Mr. Moore has taken a different approach. Instead of subjecting his new project to a public hearing, he has plans to transfer his existing license from Rex's to the E. Market Street location, and bring an out-of-town license to W. Gay Street where he will replace Rex's with a restaurant. Since the December 2006 law says nothing about the transfer of a liquor license within the same municipality (i.e. from W. Gay Street to E. Market Street), that means the E. Market Street project will only face the normal requirements for zoning approval. The transfer of the new license to W. Gay Street seems calculated to win the favor of Rex's neighbors, since it will replace a bar that features live music with a restaurant that offers Thai cuisine. That hearing starts at 6:30pm (and if you're feeling ambitious, you can catch at least part of the regular monthly zoning hearings which start at 5:30pm).

On Tuesday night, Council will hold its regular work session at 7pm. The agenda is on the short side, with only 24 items, but at least one of them is likely to attract a crowd -- item #6 on "revised standards and criteria for Height Option conditional use applications including a requirement for Energy Star certification." If Council votes for this, it will result in the Borough solicitor creating an ordinance on which Council will hold another public hearing (most likely in September), so it won't end this Council's epic struggle with height issues. It will, however, move it closer to completion.

Then on Wednesday night, before they start their regular voting session at 7pm, Council plans to handle two special tasks. The first, at 6pm, is a public hearing on the conditional use application by the First National Bank to build a 99-foot tall building in the newly created HO-75/90 height option overlay district -- specifically, on the north side of the first block of E. Market Street between High and Walnut Streets. According to the agenda, this meeting will be merely a formality because the applicant intends to use it to ask for a continuance. (Why? Because once an application is filed, state law provides a sequence of deadlines that must be followed, unless both application and local government agree to extend them.) Then, at 6:30pm, Council intends to interview a candidate for the Historical and Architectural Review Board, which currently has two vacancies following the resignations of Dale Frens and Matthew Roberson.

Finally, at 7pm, the regular Council voting session will get underway. Depending on how the Tuesday night work session goes, this meeting could be as short as a half hour or run on for hours if there is a lot of public comment on something. Once it is over, however, most Borough Council members will want to do as the Romans do, and get out of town for a while (although not before Council President Paul Fitzpatrick and WCJIM host their weekly radio show on Thursday morning).

The course is offered through the Chester County Night School (CCNS), a non-profit organization that links teachers with students of a wide variety of subjects. According to their website, WCJIM's course will cover "more than two centuries of West Chester history, with a focus on people, land use and relationships to major historical episodes such as industrialization, immigration, the Great Depression and the Sixties. " It will meet from 7-9pm on four consecutive Thursdays -- October 11, 18, 26 and November 1 -- and culminate in a walking tour for the class partipcants at a time and date that is mutually convenient.

Both courses, like everything offered by the CCNS, require registration and payment of a nominal fee. The easiest way is to visit their web site or to call them at 610-692-1964.

That's the case at the Chester County Historical Society, which is preparing to host the "Quilt Documentation Project." This is a major effort to study and preserve quilt-making in the County, whose goal is to locate owners of quilts, quilt tops, comforters, and/or quilt squares made by people who were born before 1930. With the owners' permission, the Historical Society will photograph the textiles, assemble information about them into a database, and prepare a major exhibition on Chester County quilts next year.

On the 15th, Society will hold "Quilt Documentation Day," an all-day event to which quilt owners can bring their textiles, meat with experts and view other people's quilts. The event, which will get underway at 8am and last until 4pm, is open to the public for a fee (volunteers and quilt owners will be admitted at no charge).

After that, using a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, scholars and volunteers will get to work to assemble the database, design the 2009 and prepare the publication of a book on Chester County quilts. That means that there will be more news about quilts from the Historical Society during the coming year. In the meantime, more information is available by calling 610-692-4800 extension 257, or visiting www.chestercohistorical.org.

No where are these efforts more intense than in the southeast part of the Borough, where student renters live elbow to elbow with the year-round population in some of the smallest houses and narrowest streets in the Borough. It is in the southeast that efforts to improve relations between the University and Borough succeed or fail, and that's why a number of people are making special efforts there this weekend.

Of course, the most important efforts to establish a well- functioning community take place on a one-to-one basis when people interact with their neighbors. That's the kind of effort that gets no recognition, and those who do it have to be motivated by something other than self. But for the members of CASE and the Town Gown Committee who gave up their Saturday on one of the hottest days of the year, a measure of thanks is due. As one person observed, "it's not going to fix all of the problems in this neighborhood, but if it sets a precedent then the effort will be worthwhile."

NOTE: The Town Gown team (including WCJIM) will resume its efforts on Sunday afternoon in the Southeast, when more students are expected to move in.

The book is really well done for several reasons. The most impressive is the reproduction of the color postcards. Color reproduction is expensive and requires several steps, any one of which can ruin the final product, but the results in this book are very close to the look of the original cards. [Disclaimer: WCJIM has photographed some of the original cards for use in his classes at West Chester University.] In addition, the authors have provided information about the prices of the cards shown in the book, which will help current collectors and inform people who are thinking of getting into the hobby. Finally, the introductory section on postcards and their significance includes a list of 39 publishers who produced West Chester cards -- the first time that anyone has examined what was once an important business in the Borough.

The cards are divided into chapters by themes which include architecture, main streets, transportation, banks, hospitals, schools, and so on. There is even a chapter on "Sharples" that includes both views of industrialist Philip M. Sharples' mansion Greystone and examples of his innovative use of color advertising postcards to sell cream separators in the late 19th century. Each chapter features a introduction to the topic, and each card gets a detailed caption.

The book is available at local bookstores for $24.95.

Observation #1: Traffic on S. New Street has dropped off dramatically since the County reopened the 200-block of W. Market Street yesterday, four days ahead of schedule. There is still some unfinished business like landscaping, street lights and other sidewalk furniture, but access for cars and pedestrians has been restored to pre-June conditions. The street is narrower -- only two lanes at New Street plus a third lane that runs from the exit of the parking garage to Darlington Street -- but they appear wider than the old lanes. The Market Street openings to the parking garage are now ... well, open, so the buses should be returning shortly. That means bus passengers like WCJIM will soon have a sheltered space in which to wait for their rides. Also, traffic flow on Darlington Street has been reversed back to its original south-to-north direction, so be prepared if you approach Darlington from W. Gay Street.

Observation #2: Work has begun on the revitalization of High Street between Market Street and Miner Street. Now that Market Street is back to normal, the Borough has launched a new project that threatens the flow of traffic. So far, the street trees have been removed and a backhoe was busy loading dirt into a dump truck near the corner of Miner and High, but otherwise traffic seemed to be normal. This project should prove less disruptive than the Market Street project since all of the work will take place along the sidewalks; i.e. none of it will take place under the street, which will remain open throughout the project. As of yesterday, the biggest problem so far was where to relocate one of the Borough's street planters.

Observation #3: The Neighborhood Task Force, which met at 4:30pm, is in the final stage of preparing a report that includes some interesting recommendations for actions to reduce problems in the university-area neighborhoods. The final draft is due later this month, so WCJIM provide more detail after it becomes available.

Observation #4: The hearing for the University's proposal to construct two residence halls, as part of a three-phase plan to replace seven halls with six new ones, was sparsely attended but long. Most of the attendees were part of the University's "team" -- representatives of the University itself, the West Chester University Foundation which is financing the project, the engineering firm, the architectural firm, a traffic consultant, maybe more -- WCJIM bailed out about 8:45pm during the traffic consultant's presentation. Less than ten residents showed up, and all appeared to be part of the "stop the University parking garage" group. Brian Fanelli of the Daily Local News was there and hopefully 1) stayed until the end, and 2) will write an article on how it came out. [Check out Fanelli's blog.]

This hearing was unusual because it was actually two hearings combined in one. Borough Council members sat in their usual seats to hear the evidence while considering whether to grant approval for a conditional use to build buildings taller than 40 feet in the Institutional District (i.e. the area occupied by the University). Three Zoning Hearing Board members plus their solicitor sat at a table in front of Borough Council to consider a request for a special exception to construct student housing in the District. The hearings were combined because the evidence was the same, and with the presentations still underway after more than two hours, the combination seemed like a good idea to those who were required to be there.

Observation #5: After he left the meeting, WCJIM encountered two of the developers who have projects on the agenda for tonight's public hearing (on the Yearsley demolition and the future of the Mostellor Parking Garage. Both wanted to know what was going on Tuesday night, but seemed preoccupied with what will happen on Wednesday night. WCJIM also noticed one ambulance in action but no police cars, and a light amount of pedestrian street traffic (i.e. maybe 20-30 people per block in the Town Center, less on the edges, 1-2 in the neighborhoods) during the roughly forty-five minutes it took him to walk home.

And although none of this is exactly news, it shows what you can learn by taking a long walk in the Borough.