Chester County Sheriff Robby Benson’s plans to build a firing range behind Chester State Park were shot down Tuesday night by Chester County zoning officials.

The county’s Zoning Board of Appeals voted to deny Benson’s request to build a shooting range and obstacle course at a 10-acre site on Ashford Road about two miles from the J.A. Cochran Bypass.

Board members didn't give a reason for their decision during the meeting, but several local residents voiced fears about the possibility of stray bullets striking park visitors or neighbors.

Leave Chester's parking policy alone.

That's what 28 of the 36 downtown merchants surveyed this week said about a city ordinance that limits storefront parking along Gadsden, Main and Wylie streets to two hours.

Cars parked longer than that can receive a $20 ticket.

The issue was raised more than a month ago by City Councilman George Caldwell, who said he'd received some complaints about the parking rule.

The ordinance was established in the early 1980s.

I'd like to know what people think about the debate over the Chester County jail.

This place is in terrible shape and has been for awhile.

Understaffed and undersized, the jail also has numerous structural problems, not to mention it lacks a sprinkler system that's required by state Fire Marshal's Office.

Sheriff Robby Benson wants a new jail. County Supervisor Carlisle Roddey wants to fix the one the county has.

Chester County has been busy this week.

Taxes might go up, the jail might finally get fixed and a school resource officer in Great Falls might lose his job — or the Town Council seat he just won.

It's been a long week.

Another story that will appear in the paper later looks at County Councilman Alex Oliphant's plan to dump the county's blighted homes and mill sites into the county's landfill.

Oliphant, who calls himself "the cleanup guy," is pushing this idea that would quickly fill up the landfill and require an expansion.

Another zoning controversy is brewing in Chester County.

This one involves City Councilman Alan Clack and his plans to move his family’s trucking business, D & C Trucking, to a 10-acre site on Great Falls Highway.

The county’s planning commission unanimously shot down a rezoning request for the property in January. But two weeks ago, the Chester County Council overturned that decision, meaning the trucking business could get the rezoning it needs after all.

The race for Chester County sheriff should be an interesting rematch of the 2004 election.

Fort Lawn Police Chief Richard Smith is expected to announce his candidacy for the county’s top law enforcement post within days. Smith challenged incumbent Robby Benson for the seat in 2004.

Former Sheriff John Wayne Holcombe and retired Chester Police Chief Aaron Madden also ran for the post that year.

"Name and Social Security number?" the lady asked as she handed me a sheet of paper and a pen.

"Uh, uh, no," I stammered, an awkward attempt to explain that I was at the Chester Workforce Development Center for a newspaper interview, not because I didn't have a job.

As the woman found the person I was scheduled to talk to, I looked around the room. The faces, the black, the white, the men, the women, even the child on one lady's lap, told me that this is not where people come with the hope of finding a new career. They are here for survival.

This will be Carlisle McCrorey's last Christmas season as Santa Claus.

The jolly Chester man has been riding at the end of Christmas parades for nearly 30 years. He told me this week that he's done after this holiday season.

Carlisle has played Santa in the Richburg and Lowrys parades since they started. He's been in Chester's parade for the last 21 years.

But the events are now too physically demanding, he said. At 86-years-old, he has a point.

You might wonder how he's been holding on this long. But there's something about the McCroreys of Richburg.

Chester city administrator David Mobley resigned today, saying in a letter to the City Council that "economics" have forced him to make the decision to leave the job.

He said that his home in Loris has been for sale for more than a year with no buyers and he has found no suitable housing for rent or for purchase in the city of Chester.

He said his commute to Loris is costing him over $100 a week.

The council voted today to accept his resignation.

Mobley has held the job for nearly a year.

Chester County's tiny town of Fort Lawn finally has a plan to get sewer service.

For months, town leaders have worried about what they would do when Springs Global quit treating their sewage, which they knew was coming even before Springs closed the last of its two manufacturing plants in South Carolina around Labor Day.

Running new lines to Chester's treatment facility would have cost more than $3 million. So last night leaders unanimously supported a plan that would send the town's sewage to Lancaster.