Collegeville

Sometimes opportunity is three sheets to the wind when she knocks. That's how it was for comic Joe DeRosa, who has his second stand-up special on Comedy Central late Friday night. DeRosa always thought he was headed for a career in music, until he and a buddy were scheduled last on an open-mike night at the New Road Brewhouse in his hometown of Collegeville. "We spent the whole night drinking. We were drunk, and the audience was drunk," he says. "We started improvising all these songs about what [jerks]

Richard Turkington, 63, of Collegeville, a Villanova University law professor for 27 years who was a leading expert on the First Amendment and privacy laws, died of cancer May 20 at home. "He was a pioneer in the area," said John Decker, a professor at DePaul University Law School in Chicago and a friend. "Nobody dealt as deeply or comprehensively with the issue of privacy as he did. " Professor Turkington wrote Teacher's Manual for Privacy and was contributing editor to AIDS, A Medical-Legal Handbook and AIDS, Law and Society.

After Nov. 2, the same Borough Council will carry on with business as usual. Four of the council's seven four-year seats are on the ballot. The four Republican incumbents - Lawrence G. DiPiano, Timothy J. Dwyer, James C. Moyer and Jay Silber - are running without opposition. DiPiano, 50, a technician for Martin Marietta Technicians, said his immediate goal was to purchase street lights for the borough. His long-term goal, he said, was to encourage new Collegeville residents to become involved in local government by asking them to run for the council and join committees.

The name may not be terribly dignified, but Harpoon Louie's has everything going for it - good food, stunning setting, moderate prices and exceptionally friendly service. Indeed, this Collegeville seafood restaurant is a comfortable, romantic place you likely will return to again and again. The 11-year-old restaurant (a companion to the original Harpoon Louie's in Phoenixville) is in a former hotel with a distinctly shore-like nautical setting. Solid wood decking edged with pier pilings and heavy iron chains leads to a massive plank door.

American Home Products Corp. said yesterday that it would buy Aventis Pharmaceuticals' complex near Collegeville and make it the global and research headquarters of its pharmaceutical division, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, now based in St. Davids. Wyeth-Ayerst said it would move to the Collegeville site about 3,500 workers now scattered in nine Radnor-area buildings and one Princeton building. Neither party would divulge the price, but a real estate source familiar with the deal said American Home had agreed to pay $300 million for the 312-acre campus with 1.1 million square feet of office and laboratory space.

St. Eleanor Roman Catholic Church in Collegeville will host a May Friendship Day and celebration beginning at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Sponsored by the Church Women United, this annual event brings together women of all faiths for an afternoon of worship and fellowship. The afternoon opens with a service in the St. Eleanor chapel. After the service, a program titled "A Day to Honor Young Women" will include small group discussions and the handing out of certificates of recognition. The afternoon ends with a reception in Vianney Hall.

Wegmans, the high-end grocery chain that has built five markets in the Philadelphia region in six years, said yesterday that it would hire about 600 workers for a store in Collegeville due to open in October. Hiring for the new 132,000-square-foot store - which will feature what is being billed as the first pub in a Southeastern Pennsylvania supermarket restaurant - will begin this month, with interviews taking place the final week of March, said Blaine Forkell, a 26-year Wegmans veteran who will manage the store.

Taking advantage of vacated drug-research labs and offices about 15 miles away, Dow Chemical Co. will relocate 800 employees in its Spring House campus in Montgomery County to a Pfizer facility in Collegeville. The plans had been rumored for months, and employees will begin moving in January. Dow, based in Midland, Mich., purchased Rohm & Haas in a highly contentious deal in the midst of the financial crisis of 2009. Rohm & Haas' research labs had been based in Spring House since 1963.

Some residents want to see smaller shopping center signs, but some merchants want to see larger ones. So the Borough Council has decided to review a year-old ordinance limiting the size of outdoor signs that shopping center tenants can install. Eileen McAliney, who lives in the Collegeville Crossing development, said at Wednesday's council meeting that she understands that the borough wants businesses, but believes that the council should think about the residents who live near them.

Tyco International Ltd. said yesterday that its ADT security business had agreed to acquire FirstService Security, of Collegeville, for about $187 million. FirstService Security, a division of FirstService Corp., provides integrated security systems for homes and businesses. It has annual revenue of $200 million and employs 2,400 people at 17 offices in the United States and Canada. Out of the total workforce, 150 work in Southeastern Pennsylvania - in offices in Collegeville, Valley Forge and Reading, said Ann Lindstrom, director of corporate communications at ADT Security Services Inc. ADT calls the deal a strategic acquisition, giving ADT Security access to new markets in the banking sector in Canada and in the petrochemicals industry in Canada and the United States, Lindstrom said.

Sometimes opportunity is three sheets to the wind when she knocks. That's how it was for comic Joe DeRosa, who has his second stand-up special on Comedy Central late Friday night. DeRosa always thought he was headed for a career in music, until he and a buddy were scheduled last on an open-mike night at the New Road Brewhouse in his hometown of Collegeville. "We spent the whole night drinking. We were drunk, and the audience was drunk," he says. "We started improvising all these songs about what [jerks]

A teenager says his parents treated him badly, hassling him about little things until they finally kicked him out of the house, forcing him to sleep in a culvert. His parents describe a willful young man who ignored house rules, disrespected teachers and others, and chose to leave. It's a scenario that plays out in communities across the United States. In this instance, the troubles between a Collegeville couple - Jackie and Steve Salotti - and their son became an international incident when Russia framed it as an example of Americans mistreating adoptive Russian children.

In the Region Frontier to suspend flights   Frontier Airlines will suspend flights from the Trenton/Mercer Airport in Ewing, N.J., from Sept. 9 through Nov. 7 because of a scheduled runway project. Airport officials say the project involves safety upgrades required by the Federal Aviation Administration . Frontier, which began scheduled service at the Trenton airport in January, called the suspension temporary and thanked county officials for moving the work to the "lowest demand period of the year.

The Penn women's gymnastics team defeated Ursinus, 189.425-185.375, in Collegeville on Sunday for its third dual meet victory of the season. The Bears' Kristina Steffenhagen (Boyertown) finished fifth in the vault. Teammate Allison Patton (Moorestown) was seventh.   Baseball Gettysburg 4, St. Mary's (Md.) - Junior Nate Simon (Abington Friends) doubled in the go-ahead run and Drew Felsenthal induced a bases-loaded, game-ending 6-4-3 double play as the Bullets defeated the host Seahawks in their season opener.

We're still clearing out the sour-cherry Valentine's hearts so we can restock the candy dish with Irish potatoes for St. Patrick's Day. Over at Max Brenner cafe and candy store (1500 Walnut St., 215-344-8150, maxbrenner.com ), though, they're clearly thinking spring in a new line of flower-powered tins filled with Brenner faves. Try the Spring Praline Box, 18 sweets for $23.90. Or go crazy with the $89 Large Premium Collection Box, wich has everything from caramelized pistachios rolled in hazelnut cream and cocoa powder to the aptly named Addiction, milk chocolate cubes filled with hazelnut cream and caramelized pecan bits.

A Collegeville man who authorities said was convicted eight years ago of causing a death in Alabama when he was behind the wheel has been charged in an accident that killed a 16-year-old Pottsgrove High School student last month. Robert Norman Sitler Jr., 43, and his girlfriend, Denise Dinnocenti, 42, also of Collegeville, were charged in the death of Timothy Paciello Jr. The Lower Pottsgrove Police Department and the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office announced Monday that Sitler was driving the vehicle that hit Paciello as the high school junior crossed High Street at Sunnyside Avenue on the night of Nov. 12. Sitler, who had told police he had been a passenger, faces charges of homicide by vehicle, insurance fraud, unsworn falsification to authorities, false reports, corruption of minors, conspiracy, reckless driving, speeding, and other counts.

Superior Group Inc., of West Conshohocken, sold two companies, Superior Tube Co. Inc. in Collegeville and Fine Tubes Ltd. in England, to the Watermill Group, a private investment company in Lexington, Mass., the buyer said. The price was not disclosed. The manufacturers' products are used in the energy, aerospace, and medical device industries. Fine Tubes employs around 380 people, according to its website. Watermill did not immediately respond to a request for more details on the Collegeville operation.

Taking advantage of vacated drug-research labs and offices about 15 miles away, Dow Chemical Co. will relocate 800 employees in its Spring House campus in Montgomery County to a Pfizer facility in Collegeville. The plans had been rumored for months, and employees will begin moving in January. Dow, based in Midland, Mich., purchased Rohm & Haas in a highly contentious deal in the midst of the financial crisis of 2009. Rohm & Haas' research labs had been based in Spring House since 1963.

"What a dump!" If Bette Davis' perpetually parodied line from Beyond the Forest (1949) describes any room in your house, you know you have a problem. With clutter, of course. No matter how much storage a house has, the supply of stuff always seems to exceed demand by at least two bays of a one-car garage. We buy new without tossing old. When we do try to cull, we often find that no one wants the old stuff, except, perhaps, for the scavengers who troll the streets the night before trash collection to cart off perceived treasures.

Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, reported Tuesday that its profit fell 50 percent in the last quarter of 2011, partly because of declining revenue from the cholesterol drug Lipitor. The company's situation for all of last year - nearly flat revenue, a declining workforce, but a 21 percent profit increase - points to the tumultuous changes in the industry, globally and locally. One of the "key takeaways" in the slide presentation that Pfizer promoted to Wall Street analysts was that the company "achieved total cost reduction targets associated with the Wyeth acquisition one year ahead of schedule.