Home Care In Chester, PA

WEST CHESTER, PA — The Super Bowl features some of the greatest athletes on the planet on one of the biggest stages in sports every year. But the game and all its attendant fanfare, the finished product, is merely a very visible and small part of a much larger and more complex machinery.

Two West Chester University grads played very significant, if very different roles as key cogs in Sunday night's event.

Class of 2005 graduate Julie Frymyer served once again as the assistant athletic trainer for the Kansas City Chiefs. This was her fourth Super Bowl as part of the NFL's new dynasty.

As part of her numerous duties, she arrived at the stadium early in the morning with the team's equipment. Then, hours leading up to kickoff on game day are spent working with athletes to keep them on their A game, and responding in real time to any incidents on field. Frymyer was featured by numerous national outlets last year for her quick work in patching Patrick Mahomes' injured ankle.

"My job is to help (players like Mahomes) be ready to go out there able to perform — not only for himself, but for his teammates," Frymyer told People Magazine during a recent interview. "And then to be able to stand up there when (he won) not only the MVP for himself, but the Lombardi for all of the team and all of Kansas City, I really don't know how to put into words how that feels to be able to help somebody do that."

Find out what's happening in West Chesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

But on the field work is only a part of what the Super Bowl is.

Another West Chester alum, Courtland Bragg of the class of 2014, is on the artistic side of things. He directed this year's "I'm going to Disneyland" commercial that aired during the game.

Bragg works with NFL Films on similar content and has won an Emmy Award as a producer and field director. In addition to the Super Bowl commercial, he's the creative force behind a new ESPN "30 for 30" program on NFL legend Reggie White.

His path was not an easy one.

"Nearly 10 years ago, I was a substitute teacher with dreams of being a Film Director. During my lunch breaks I’d apply to hundreds of TV/production jobs only to be denied time and time again," Bragg said. "I was drowning in student loan debt, living paycheck to paycheck, fighting depression and the feeling I’ll never be someone."

Then his breakthrough came, and he joined Frymyer as one of many distinguished Rams leaving their legacy on the biggest stage in sports.

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Chester residents opposed to Philadelphia’s process of sending trash to Chester voiced their concerns at a City Council hearing Wednesday afternoon.

Zulene Mayfield of Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living said the Chester incinerator is burning Philadelphia trash as the area’s cancer rates are rising.

“This is climate destruction and environmental genocide and it must end,” Mayfield said. “Philadelphia must decide if Chester is your neighbor, or your dumping ground.”

Mayfield added Philadelphia shouldn’t send its trash to their suburban neighbors to deal with it.

“Our life expectancy is being reduced by years, members in our community are really suffering and dying. Chester gets the pollution first, but ultimately Philadelphians breathe it also.”

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Kirstie Pecci of the group Just Zero said Philadelphia needs to cut down on the amount of trash hitting the curb.

“The question isn’t what you do with your waste, the question is how you can produce materials that are either not waste because you’ve kept them separate,” she said.

She encouraged the city to implement a “pay as you throw” program, which mandates a specific payment for trash removal. She said that would incentivize residents to create less trash and move people towards more recycling and composting.

Alyssa Wilds of Covanta, the company that runs the Chester waste management plant, said the company believes in sustainability, and they are working to make sure the plant is in compliance with all state and federal regulations to keep the air safe.

Covanta officials added they met with residents and other groups in what was called an intense meeting. The company walked away from the meeting with a list of requests. The top three requests were jobs, support for children’s programming, and help with the city’s blight.

Company officials said they’ve increased the number of Chester residents working for them while also working on other issues as they clean up the plant.

Pennsylvania is one of the largest importers of trash from other states, with more than 40 landfills that take in refuse from other states.

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CHESTER, Pa. (CBS) - A fire at a vacant church in Chester, Delaware County, caused part of the building to collapse. It took firefighters about two hours to get the flames under control at the church of West Third and Parker Streets early Tuesday morning.

Firefighters got the call around 3:45 a.m. that the church was burning. When they arrived, they encountered heavy flames.

The call escalated to a three-alarm fire, which means that not only city firefighters but firefighters from suburban departments also responded. Nearly 100 firefighters responded to the scene.

The fire is out, but there remains an active presence.

Fire officials said one of the biggest problems is that the roof and a front wall collapsed, so it's too dangerous for firefighters to go inside or bring their trucks close.

"The roof collapsed on the church, and again, just because of the state of condition, it was a vacant church," Chester City fire commissioner John-Paul Shirley said. "I'm going to say the roof on the church wasn't in the greatest condition to begin with."

The building used to belong to Saint Mary Church, but officials said it's no longer active and the church itself had been gutted.

Two other challenges fire officials said they're facing are the age of the building and the frigid weather.

Officials said because this is a church fire, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will be getting involved.

No one was injured.

The cause of the fire is under investigation..

Madeleine Wright

Madeleine Wright is a bilingual general assignment reporter for CBS News Philadelphia. She joined the team in January 2022.

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This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.

From the Poconos to the Jersey Shore to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, what do you want to know about climate change? What would you like us to cover? Get in touch.

The Philadelphia Liquefied Natural Gas Export Task Force faced a torrent of opposition toward siting a facility in Chester, Delaware County, at its third public meeting on Tuesday morning in the city. The group has been holding a series of public meetings to examine the feasibility of an LNG export terminal.

But the bipartisan task force, which along with lawmakers includes representatives from the gas industry, the building trades union, Philadelphia Gas Works, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Department of Community and Economic Development, seemed unprepared to face an audience of residents and environmental activists, who stood behind a unified message.

“This is a community you ought not even try to think of coming in,” said Zulene Mayfield, founder of Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living (CRCQL). “We will not allow this environmental genocide.”

The task force plans to issue a final report along with recommendations to guide the Pennsylvania General Assembly in November and one possible location is Chester.

The growth of LNG export facilities across the United States has drawn criticism from climate activists who say it will boost natural gas production and greenhouse gas emissions. The highly flammable gas is also a safety concern for those who would end up as neighbors to these facilities.

More than 150 people, many from communities along the Delaware River, packed into Widener University’s Lathem Hall to hear testimony from four speakers: Carl Marrara, executive director of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, Neil Chatterjee, former chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Chester City Councilmember Stefan Roots, and Mayfield.

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Marrara presented findings from a study that analyzed the economic impact an LNG export terminal would have on Delaware County, using Dominion Energy’s Cove Point facility in Lusby, Maryland as the model.

“LNG is a fuel source that the world is craving and which has drastically lowered worldwide emissions in the past two decades, as more and more power facilities and manufacturing plants are transitioning from coal and oil to a cleaner, more efficient natural gas,” Marrara said.

While natural gas generates less greenhouse gasses at the power plant level, climate scientists say natural gas use needs to be phased out in order to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels.

Assuming a four-year construction period, Marrara projected the terminal’s construction would “support a total of 28,249 direct, indirect and induced jobs.” He said the ongoing operations of the plant would directly support 514 positions.

In closing, Marrara said Pennsylvania should streamline the permitting process and present a friendlier face to business.

When it was her turn to speak before the task force and the audience, Mayfield proposed a question:

“If this is such an economical plus for communities, why aren’t members, task force legislators fighting tooth and nail to have that economic development in their communities? Why would you deny your communities all of this wealth?”

Mayfield eventually proposed the question again, directly mentioning task force chair State Rep. Martina White (R-Phila.) by name and the political contributions she has received from Steamfitters Local Union 420. “Zulene, I just want to ask you to please do not impugn the motives of the task force members here,” White said.

James Snell, business manager for the union, serves on the task force.

Chester, once a booming industrial and manufacturing hub, is staring down the barrel of municipal bankruptcy. From the huge incinerator to the wastewater treatment plant, the predominantly Black city has been a magnet for polluting industries, making it an environmental justice community.

City residents suffer from poor health outcomes.

“Many were able to build their wealth off of Chester’s economy,” Mayfield said. “Wealth is still being built in Chester. Now only, it is at the price and a cost of our health, our homes being devalued, and our quality of life being diminished.”

Chester Councilmember Stefan Roots, who recently won the Democratic primary for mayor, said public health has already been compromised.

“What we don’t want is to have to breathe a new batch of particulate matter — nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfuric acids, and naturally occurring radioactive materials from the LNG plant, because our residents are sick,” Roots said. “We exceed in every measurable health disparity asthma, birth defects, COPD, infant mortality, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and a shorter life expectancy.”

He said Chester doesn’t have a single primary care doctor left in the city to treat residents.

“We would really love to believe that you are guided by the same moral imperatives that we are and that we share the same sense of responsibility for the health and welfare of the Chester community. But by proposing to locate an LNG export facility in Chester, proves to us that you are not,” Roots said.

In the process of cooling the methane, LNG facilities emit toxic air pollutants formaldehyde and cancer-causing benzene.

In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Delaware County Councilmember Kevin Madden criticized the LNG task force for excluding members of county government.

Madden called it “disappointing” that the group was evaluating a site in Chester.

“Given the history of placing environmentally damaging projects in Chester, [it is] imperative there be full transparency about any proposals and significant public input. There is no suitable and viable site in Chester for an LNG terminal,” he wrote.

A proposal for a massive LNG facility and export terminal in the city of Chester has been quietly shopped around to current and former elected officials across the region — behind closed doors.

The first public hearing of the state LNG task force drew criticism and scrutiny for blocking community input.

State Rep. Joe Hohenstein (D-Phila.), a member of the task force who represents Philadelphia’s River Wards, said this will likely be the last public hearing.

“Being honest about the fact that this wasn’t simply Philadelphia proper, but actually the entire southeast region that was being examined for this and also making sure that the task force itself had greater and more equal representation would have gone a long way to making the full process more clear,” Hohenstein told WHYY News.

He said the task force should have been charged with evaluating all forms of energy for the future of Pennsylvania, especially renewable sources.

“We need to recognize that for our energy future, the way forward is not with fossil fuels. And I will recognize that natural gas is cleaner burning than other fossil fuels — but it’s still a fossil fuel. It still puts out too much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere to be used as a long-term solution,” he said.

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Rep. White the task force has abided by all rules pertaining to public access and that members have been transparent about the work they are doing.

“Obviously, when you’re faced with a community that has been impoverished for a very long period of time and as we’ve heard today, disadvantage when it comes to other projects in the past, it’s very upsetting to hear those remarks, but important so that we can pursue the work that we have, which is to ensure that the task force continues its work and finds out the information that we need in order to make this Commonwealth a better place to live and work,” White said.

Chatterjee, a former FERC commissioner, told the task force that the process of evaluating applications for LNG facilities is long and rigorous.

“Overall counting pre-filing, the FERC review process takes three years or more and costs tens of millions of dollars. It is not inexpensive and it is not without its rigor. Even after the first process is completed, there can be court challenges,” Chatterjee said.

Chatterjee currently serves on the advisory board of Penn America Energy — which is behind a proposal to bring the LNG export terminal to Chester.

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Michael Doweary, state-appointed receiver for the city of Chester, is in search of a magic number.

As Doweary navigates the city of Chester through bankruptcy, his office is developing the “baseline expenditure” amount necessary for the city to provide an adequate level of vital services to residents.

“There’s a structural deficit of $15 million a year — operating expenses exceeding operating revenues — just on baseline projections over the next five years,” Doweary said during Tuesday’s Municipal Financial Recovery Advisory Committee Meetings (MFRAC).

Doweary’s Chief of Staff Vijay Kapoor said arriving at a dollar figure requires a comprehensive analysis of several major expenditure areas including services that city employees provide, services that third parties provide to the city, and capital expenditures, such as road repairs.

If there aren’t any unanticipated delays, the receiver’s office intends to come up with the magic number by mid-fall of 2023.

Chapter 9 bankruptcies have three phases: eligibility determination, mediation, and the plan adjustment. Chester is currently in mediation, but some city officials are challenging the city’s bankruptcy eligibility.

While the receiver’s office wades through litigation stemming from the bankruptcy filing, Kapoor said Doweary is defining what success is for the city. The definition is actually linked to determining the cash flow needed to run the city in a sustainable way.

Kapoor said the office is “defining success as ensuring that Chester can financially and operationally provide an adequate level of vital and necessary services on an ongoing basis in a manner that is in the best interests of its residents.”

That would mean going beyond merely balancing the budget, he said.

“It’s going to require additional personnel, increased compensation to recruit and retain certain employees and investment in city infrastructure, all of which has been really hurt over the last 25 years,” Kapoor said.

Kapoor reiterated the receiver is not dragging his feet on the process. The city faces a very real “fiscal cliff” in 2025 once American Rescue Plan Act revenue dries up.

Officials say it’s not enough to see the city succeed for one year, success must be sustained — which is why Doweary’s office is crunching the numbers.

Shortly before the MFRAC meeting, residents and environmentalists presented a united front at the Philadelphia Liquefied Natural Gas Export Task Force’s public meeting at Widener University.

Residents raised concerns that their community was once again staring down the barrel of another polluting industry, looking to call the waterfront home in exchange for the promise of jobs and undefined “growth.”

Kapoor didn’t mention LNG by name, but in detailing the history of how one of the nation’s largest incinerators found a home in Chester, he said the city cannot just blindly accept any new revenue, especially if it negatively impacts public health. Chester currently receives $5 million a year from the Covanta incinerator in the form of host fees.

“The receiver does not think that dependence on revenues from industries with negative impacts on resident health is in the best interest of city residents,” Kapoor said. “And seeks to make a good faith effort to develop a plan of adjustment that does not require financial dependence on those [industries].”

Kapoor also said that this shift cannot happen immediately.

Doweary closed the meeting by highlighting the opportunity for Chester to change the course of history, a history marred by environmental impacts and physical hazards “while wrestling with the possibility of yet another questionable facility being built within city limits that is constructed for the greater good, but at the expense of locals.”