Loyer’s Pharmacy closes
York, PA – Katie Rexroth came out from behind the counter at Loyer’s Pharmacy in Red Lion and wrapped her arms around Bernard “Nard” Bacon.
The 82-year-old from Chanceford Township had been a Loyer’s regular for about 60 years and friends with Rexroth’s grandparents. Still, Rexroth’s hug seemed to puzzle him.
“We’re closing today, Nard,” said pharmacist Jim Loyer. Only the top of his head was visible above the high counter where he worked to fill prescriptions. “It’s our last day.”
“You’re kidding,” Bacon said. “That ain’t true, is it? Huh? Oh my.”
After Loyer locked the door Monday night, Bacon and the regulars like him will have to go to nearby Lion Pharmacy to fill prescriptions. Loyer sold Lion his inventory and the arranged for it to fill his customers’ prescriptions.
Loyer is closing because business has become too hectic and too much for him to handle by himself. He blames York County’s aging population. The 58-year-old said wants to spend time with his two grandkids and one on the way.
For the time being, he’ll go to work as a part-time pharmacist at Lion.
After hearing the news, Bacon scratched the gray tufts poking from under his ball cap. He’d been patronizing Loyer’s since the 1930s, when it was known as Strock’s Drug Store. Otto Strock was the first druggist to hang out his shingle at 66 North Main Street in 1911.
Where will Bacon go now to swap stories and sip a complimentary birch beer — his favorite — while waiting at the marble counter of the soda fountain?
Charles Loyer, Jim Loyer’s father, had been a pharmacist in the Philadelphia suburbs when he bought the business from Harry Gruver in 1961. Jim Loyer was 9 at the time.
The drug store had always sold soft drinks and ice cream. Back then, every town in America had at least one drug store with a soda fountain in it, Loyer said. By 1961, the drug store was just beginning to disappear as a local hangout.
“I think it was always procrastinated, and it’s a good thing he did.”
As of Monday, 10 to 20 customers each day were still buying Coca-Cola products. People awaiting prescriptions got a free soda or coffee. Loyer’s also served PennSupreme ice cream and made milkshakes.
Time hasn’t changed much at Loyer’s. The original stained-wooden shelves and apothecary drawers still line the walls beneath ancient signs advertising Rexall Drugs. Jars of penny candy are piled on the counter.
“I have a lot of mixed feelings” about closing, Loyer said.
He’ll miss Beanie Babies and Smurfs — the little trinkets he sold customers that made them laugh. He’ll miss conversations. Customers like Bacon and employees like Kilgore have known him all his life.
“I don’t want to say we’re all one big happy family,” he said, “that’s going a bit far, maybe.”
“Close,” Kilgore said.
Loyer nodded.
THE FOUNTAIN
While Loyer’s Pharmacy has closed, its soda fountain might see some business yet.
The Red Lion Borough Council recently awarded Lion Pharmacy conditional approval to expand, said owner Bethany Miller.
Part of the expansion could include a coffee bar.
“We would love to have it,” she said.
Lynn men indicted on drug, rape charges
SALEM – Two Lynn men were indicted last week by an Essex County Grand Jury on separate cases involving child rape and narcotic crimes.
Jose J. Minaya, 45, of 761 Summer St., is charged with rape of a child with force and three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14.
The allegations arise out of an incident on Nov. 28 when he allegedly raped and sexually assaulted a 9-year-old girl.
Minaya, who works at General Electric, was arrested following a police investigation. Bail of $5,000 was set during his arraignment in Lynn District Court, where he pleaded innocent. If bail is posted, District Court Judge Albert Conlon ordered that Minaya stay away from his accuser, have no contact with her and abide by any restraining order.
A conviction on the rape of a child carries a potential life sentence and indecent assault and battery on a child each carry up to 10 years in state prison.
Sean M. Driscoll, 42, of 76 Verona St., is charged with possession of Hydrocodone with the intent to distribute, subsequent offense, possession with the intent to distribute Hydromorphine with the intent to distribute, subsequent offense, possession with the intent to distribute amphetamine, subsequent offense, possession with the intent to distribute Methylphenidate, subsequent offense, and breaking and entering in the nighttime, larceny in a building, larceny
of property over $250. On Oct. 30 Driscoll is alleged to have
burglarized Connolly’s Pharmacy, located at 44 Bay Road in Hamilton, where he allegedly stole a number of prescription drugs.
Lynn Police arrested Driscoll at a third-floor apartment at South Street Court, where they found him sitting in a recliner surrounded by hundreds of stolen prescription drugs and pill bottles labeled Connolly’s Pharmacy.
Police then searched his red Cadillac and reportedly found two, two-way hand-held walkie talkies and a police scanner.
Indictments are not an indication of guilt, rather it is a legal process that allows a case to be transferred from District Court to Superior
Court, allowing for a more serious penalty.