About 50 people came to the Vanport Volunteer Fire Department hall Tuesday evening to listen to representatives from the state Department of Environmental Protection talk about the agency’s response to elevated levels of a chemical being found near Vanport’s water supply.

That chemical, an industrial solvent called trichloroethylene or TCE, was first found in 1988 in test wells about 1,500 feet from Vanport’s drinking supply. The incident prompted a boil water advisory that lasted more than 20 months, and routine testing in the area has been in place since.

Mike Keeliher said there is a hospital, an elementary school and two senior citizen centers in Brighton that rely on clean drinking water from Vanport’s system.

“This isn’t just a Vanport issue,” he said.

A lifelong Beaver County resident, Dupree works for McKesson Pharmacy and Automation Services. He's been a committee member for about seven years and previously was president of the county's young Democrat group.

"I think the party needed a reformation," Dupree said Wednesday. "It needed to get back to its identity of being the workingman's party and not just a party that cared about social issues. Obviously, I care about social issues, but that's not our sole focus."

He said he hopes to reinvigorate the party with an infusion of young members, he said.

There are 52 vacant committee seats in the county, and he'd like to see those filled with younger members who can then tap into the experience of the party's older hands, he said.

"I see us working together to build a better Democratic Party," Dupree said.