West Chester mayor doesn’t deserve abuse she’s getting

West Chester Mayor Dianne Herrin takes the responsibility of her office very seriously. Faced with the early closure of of businesses by Governor Wolf, Mayor Herrin followed the lead of caution and safety, declaring a state of emergency in West Chester, having businesses and citizens follow the protocols that have become second nature to anyone who takes the virus seriously: social distance, wear a mask, clean and sanitize regularly.

Our business, Taylor’s Music Store of West Chester, is the largest musical instrument store in the Western Suburbs of Philadelphia. With communication and cooperation from the mayor’s office, we were able to do curbside pickup for sales and rentals, as well as a specially designed drop off day for spring rental band instruments in May and June, when we needed to accept back more than 1,000 instruments. We were able to work out a plan that Mayor Herrin approved during the closure.

After opening again in June, West Chester Borough Council and the Mayor devised a plan to close Gay Street in front of our store to local traffic, to create an open air market designed to help the restaurants, who were suffering most under the Pandemic State Restrictions. Although this plan has been in effect since July, it has not helped our business, but we understand how important it was to help the restaurants, so we have provided live music on the weekends out in the streets, where restaurants are serving many of their dining customers.

COVID- 19 was basically under control up to Labor

Day in West Chester. Unfortunately, when many college age students returned to town, the normal socializing and partying that happens with the 18- 22 year old crowd became a real problem. Young people had large gatherings with little to no social distancing or masks.

As a result, a spike of 225 positive cases happened in September, with 70 percent belonging to the young demographic age group. Mayor Herrin felt the need to act, and declared a State of Emergency based upon private gatherings that were the source of the problem. On Oct. 2, the declaration limited private gatherings to 10 or fewer people, and required mask wearing. Police were asked to patrol areas well known for student parties, and those caught without a mask, or in a party with more than 10 people were subject to potential $ 300 fines.

This crackdown was intended to control the COVID19 spike in West Chester, and did its job, as there was a 50 percent drop in positive cases in the borough from Oct. 2 through Oct. 12, causing Mayor Herrin to amend policy by allowing up to 25 people to gather, so long as they applied with the Mayor’s office for an event.

The problem is that this ‘ State of Emergency’ gathered lots of media attention, spreading word far and wide that West Chester was a COVID- 19 hotbed. As a result, many business owners did suffer a setback in traffic with the negative press. More sinister, the Mayor started receiving nasty messages from pandemic deniers, including even death threats!

Our great political divide has created a toxic environment where some feel entitled to criticize Mayors and Governors, and in the extreme cases, plan to arrest and kidnap them to have them ‘ stand trial’, as was the plan for Gov. Whitmer of Michigan. To be the target of this kind of psychological abuse is totally out of line, unfair and in some cases, criminal.

On top of the abuse she has taken, a forged letter on the letterhead of the Chester County Democrats that was purported to be written by the Mayor was circulated, with many Republican talking points against Mayor Herrin, and Democrats in general… throwing around terms like ‘ socialist’ and ‘ shutting down businesses’ for long periods of time. This letter, like so much in our social media sources these days, was disinformation designed to hurt the Mayor’s campaign as she is running for State Representative.

It is totally unfair to trash our mayor’s reputation because she was doing her best to protect her community. To paint her as an enemy of the businesses is just wrong- especially since she pushed so hard to make the Gay Street Outdoor Mall happen.

She does not deserve this abuse. I know her to be a person of conscience and caring, and striving to do the right thing to help West Chester thrive. There are no perfect solutions to a communities’ balance between safety and openness, but I am glad to have someone like Mayor Dianne Herrin making those tough decisions for West Chester.