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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 • Volume 41 – No. 30 ©2021, THE JOURNAL-HERALD. All Rights Reserved
CONTINUING: THE WHITE HAVEN JOURNAL ESTABLISHED 1879–142nd YEAR, NO. 13
SINGLE COPY– 75¢ (USPS 277440)
CONTINUING: THE WEATHERLY HERALD ESTABLISHED 1880–141st YEAR, NO. 39
Weatherly Area Pharmacy closes, Business sold to CVS by Seth Isenberg
WH Post Office bids farewell to Brenda Kline photo and story by Ruth Isenberg After more than 30 years behind the counter at the White Haven Post Office, Brenda Kline is retiring. She will be missed by her customers, and she will miss them. Kline, who lives in Mountain Top, has worked in the White Haven office her entire career. She started as a parttime clerk on December 29,
1990. She became full-time when Rich Dotter retired in 2000, and while she filled in at other locations, and served in other jobs including officer in charge, for most of that time the front counter in White Haven is where you found her. There have been many changes over those years, she said. Automation has altered ways of doing things. Volumes See BRENDA KLINE, page 6
After 37 years, the Weatherly area is again without a pharmacy. Last Wednesday, February 17, was the last day of operation for Weatherly Area Community Pharmacy (WACP). The store and pharmacy on Carbon Street are now closed. Prescriptions records for WACP customers are now at the CVS on East Locust Street in Nesquehoning. Free prescription delivery can be arranged. WACP owner and pharmacist Ed Melber is retiring. He wraps up a nearly 40-year career as a pharmacist, the last
ten and a half years of that in Weatherly. In the mid-1970s, Lamont’s Pharmacy on Carbon Street closed its doors after nearly 34 years of operation. Lamont’s was the successor to Pascarella’s Pharmacy, which operated for nearly six years. After Lamont’s, there was no pharmacy in Weatherly for ten years. During that time, a group of local business people and civic groups came together to recruit a pharmacist to open a store in the borough. In 1984, the group had identified Frank Sefchick, who was then working for the Rea & Derrick chain, as a possible entrepreneur. At first, he was
FOOTPRINTS AND TIRE MARKS were the only signs of activity at the Weatherly Area Community Pharmacy on Thursday, after the independent facility closed its doors. JH: Ruth Isenberg
not convinced an independent pharmacy in Weatherly would support his family. It took some convincing, including direct involvement by local leader Foster Gerhard, in order to put the reopening of a pharmacy in Weatherly into motion. Sefchick opened his pharmacy doors in 1984, and struggled through the early years. “Little by little,” Sefchick said, the business grew. When Sefchick retired in 2010 after 27 years, Melber purchased the business. After a few years, Melber moved the pharmacy into the historic Erdman Dairy building, which he bought. Melber shared that it was a struggle for him as well. With changing reimbursements and the rise of mail-order, his business margins were thin. As retirement became an attractive option, he sought buyers to operate the store in Weatherly from a variety of prospects. According to Melber, “many, many efforts to keep the pharmacy in town did not materialize for our small store.”
See WACP, page 6