ODDS & ENDS - 7/28/2007

After nearly two months of tweaking by Motorola and contractor Metro Communications, the WCPD radio system is expected to return to operating in digital mode as early as Monday, according to WCPD Chief Dispatcher William Mann. The digital system had been in full-time digital mode since early December after nearly three months of daytime testing before several issues popped up with the system. Now that those problems have been fixed (we hope), WCPD will be able to once again make the most out of its investment in upgrading the radio system...

Earlier this month, I posted some rumors and rumblings regarding the restaurant/bar scene in West Chester. Now, Brian Fanelli posted on his Uptown Ramblings blog that Rex's, the venerable punk rock bar at Gay and Wayne Streets in the West End is planning to call it quits after years of hosting original music. Rex's owner, Donnie Moore, had come before Borough Council in January seeking to obtain a new liquor license for a proposed theatre/music venue on the 100 block of East Market Street. The proposal to bring in a new license for this venue was rejected by Borough Council and the matter is now pending in the Civil Division of the Court of Common Pleas; it is tentatively scheduled to be heard some time next year.

Now there's talk that Rex's will be replaced with a Thai restaurant and that another liquor license transfer hearing is scheduled in front of Council within the next month or two. From what I had heard, the owners of Kooma, the sushi house at Gay & Darlington Streets are considering bringing in the new license, though it's not immediately known why there's a need to bring in a new license when there's at least one or two inactive liquor licenses available in the borough at this time.

Should make for some more interesting meetings if everything plays out in the way it was described, but of course everything is subject to change...

ASSAULT AT BOROUGH PARKING DECK

Shortly after 02:00 this morning, WCPD units responded to a report of an assault on the 4th floor of the Mosteller Parking Garage at Chestnut and Walnut streets. Not too long after the report came in, two subjects who were reportedly involved in the assault were spotted walking westbound on Prescott Alley towards High Street. After a brief foot pursuit, the two subjects were arrested. Further investigation determined that only one of the two detained were actually involved in the assault; the second subject was also transported to the station on Public Drunkeness charges. Anyone care to guess where these two were drinking all night (maybe, say, the Walnut or Market Street corridors)?

The incident certainly should re-raise the issue of surveillance cameras inside the borough owned parking structures - both the Mosteller Garage and the Bicentennial Garage on South High Street lack video surveillance equipment; the garages owned by the borough and used by West Chester University have such equipment. Borough Council recently raised the issue at a Parking Committee meeting a few months ago. The director of Parking Services downplayed the idea, essentially saying that there wasn't enough major criminal activity occuring at Mosteller and Bicentennial to warrant such equipment. If enough people are made aware of what happened this morning, then perhaps that might change some minds...

It capped off a pretty violent night in the borough, where the Chester County Hospital ER called WCPD twice in the past 12 hours to report that two patients had arrived at the ER requesting to file assault complaints. And to think we're just a little more than 24 hours away from the Super Sunday street festival - one of at least three days this summer and fall which could be mistaken for drunk festivals. Here's hoping this isn't a sign of things to come...