Chester

Shawn Lester wants to be President when he grows up; Latasha Bridgeford and Shannon Harper plan to be doctors. The three seventh graders told their hopes to Lt. Gov. Mark Schweiker yesterday as he toured the Eagles Nest Academy, a church-sponsored private school on the city's West End. Schweiker was in town to make sure that the three youngsters and many others get a chance to realize their dreams. In a speech at Crozer-Keystone's Community Hospital, he inaugurated a Pennsylvania Weed and Seed crime prevention and neighborhood empowerment program in Chester.

Lt. Gov. Mark Singel came to Chester this week to meet with political leaders, community activists and residents in what he said was a chance to bring state government to those whom it was intended to serve. "My presence here is a result of Gov. Casey's insistence that we take Pennsylvania government and bring it to the people," Singel said near the end of a six-hour tour of Chester Tuesday. Singel's tour included stops at the city's high school, the William Penn Homes public housing development, City Hall and the waterfront.

Few cities bear as grim a statistical profile as the city of Chester: unemployment at 30 percent, one in four families below the poverty level, a decrepit housing stock. The federal government calls it one of the most depressed cities in America. Gritty, boarded-up and 55 percent black, Chester might seem to be a natural breeding ground for Democrats, the party of the urban poor since the New Deal. But at the local level, Chester is a GOP stronghold. With a downtown that has dwindled in the last decade from nine square blocks of store frontage to three, Chester is as Republican as Orange County, Calif.

William H. "Doc" Harris II, a Chester funeral director who on some days gave away to the needy more than he made, died yesterday. He was 60 and lived in Chester. Harris had operated his funeral home in Chester since 1953 and was widely known for his generosity and compassion. No one was ever turned away because they couldn't afford a funeral for a family member. When those in need didn't show up on Bill's doorstep, he quietly went out to them with gifts of clothing, fuel oil and food to neighbors living in a town whose economy long ago scraped Depression-era levels.

As Chester recorded its 17th and 18th homicides this week, city leaders struggled to find solutions to the escalating violence. A 15-year-old boy and an 18-year-old woman were fatally shot Sunday night in separate cases. The Delaware County Medical Examiner's Office said yesterday that Jahbar Jerome Washington was shot once in the head inside a house in the 1000 block of Remington Street. According to the autopsy report, the shooting occurred at 8:50 p.m. while he was inside the house, which was not his residence.

The city government has spent less and brought in more than was projected in this year's budget, but the financially distressed city will still finish the year about $300,000 in the red, Finance Director Dominic F. Pileggi told the City Council yesterday. Pileggi, who is also a council member, said that income and expenditure figures for the first 10 months of the year and projections through year's end show that the city government will bring in about $222,000 more than was expected.

Rahlir Jefferson just tilted his back and laughed when someone teased him about his skinny shoulders. Skinny, the Chester 6-5 junior forward said, but strong. With two of Chester's starters strapped to the bench with foul trouble, Jefferson's slender shoulders carried the brunt of the work last night in propelling the Clippers to a hard-fought, 75-64 victory over Pennsbury in the PIAA Class AAAA state semifinals at the Palestra. In a rematch of the District 1 championship, Chester will face Norristown, a 52-33 winner over Moon in the western semifinal, for the state championship at 8 p.m. Saturday at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center.

Her players listened. After losing back-to-back games to Council Rock and Central Bucks East in the PIAA Class AAAA District 1 tournament, Chester girls' basketball coach Adrienne Harper told her players to improve their defense for the state tournament. Defense helped the Clippers (25-4) beat Reading, 56-47, in a first-round state tournament game Friday at Albright College. Chester plays Abington Heights, which beat Conestoga, 66-59, in a second-round game at 6 p.m. tomorrow at Parkland High School.

The Chester-Upland School District has placed the Chester girls' tennis team on probation because only three players, two sophomores and a senior, were on the team. As a result, the Clippers will not participate in any Del- Val matches this year. The school district's decision is just a temporary setback, according to Chester coach Joe Providence. "It's just a small sidetrack or delay," said Providence. "I'm not going to give up. " Providence feels that two steps are necessary for Chester to field a girls' team next year and beyond.

About 1,200 people flocked to St. Michael Catholic Church in Chester yesterday, in celebration of the church's 150th anniversary and concern that it and five others in the city may close. More than 1,000 people crammed an 11 a.m. Mass concelebrated by Archbishop Anthony J. Bevilacqua to hear what could be the last anniversary Mass of the church, the oldest Catholic church in Delaware County. The Mass, in English and Spanish, drew hundreds of parishioners and non-parishioners alike in a show of support for the endangered parish.