Less than a week after it endorsed Kevin O’Donoghue for supervisor in Concord Township, Save the Valley has retracted that endorsement. According to an email, the retraction stems from a recent mailing by the Concord Township Republican Party, which O’Donoghue chairs.
The mailing “unfortunately succumbs to the worst kind of partisan politics. The mailer contains distortions and misrepresentations, and is a disingenuous effort to address important issues. Accordingly, Save the Valley can no longer recommend that voters in Concord consider O’Donoghue as a credible open-space candidate and a leader for change. We come to this conclusion not with any glee, but instead with profound disappointment.”
Save the Valley takes issue with several statements made in the GOP mailing. It says saying that the township contains 2,000 acres of open space is misleading unless cemeteries, golf courses, and restricted prison grounds are counted in the mix, along with open ground beneath high tension lines.
“To claim these areas as open space and boast about the amount of township resources that are used to maintain them, as O’Donoghue does, disqualifies him as a credible open-space candidate,” the email said.
Save the Valley, known mostly for its opposition to the development of the Woodlawn Trustees property, also said: “The mailer contains an absurd claim that there is a plan to have Concord taxpayers buy Woodlawn’s property in Beaver Valley and raise taxes by 300 percent. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a falsehood manufactured to scare voters.”
(That last comment has been a point of disagreement between the Concord Township Board of Supervisors and Save the Valley for years.)
And, the email said, “The mailer focuses on property taxes, but fails to mention increases in school taxes while O’Donoghue has been supervisor. Higher school taxes are a direct result of overdevelopment in Concord.”
O'Donoghue did not respond to a request for comment.
Save the Valley made its initial endorsements last week. In addition to O’Donoghue, it also endorsed Democrats John Wellington and Dan Foster.
Earlier in the week it endorsed Republican Samantha Reiner and Democrat Alan Horowitz for supervisor in Chadds Ford Township.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
(6 votes, average: 4.83 out of 5)
Loading...
Hey David
I am sure you are right in that many jurisdictions would allow cemeteries, etc.to be technically classified as open space. When a developer submits plans, they often list unbuildable land, right of ways and areas set aside for stormwater management as “open space.” By these definitions, open space is any scrap of isolated land that is not developed. When I think of open space, however, I look at land that is natural and unspoiled by man. That is why Beaver Valley is so important.
Concord Township is purposely conflating the two definitions. Because they voted to destroy Beaver Valley, they are rationalizing it by saying there is plenty of other open space in Concord. We all know the ecological and historical value of the Beaver Valley land. It is part of the reason we all moved this area. To lump it together is wrong. Hiking trails under high voltage lines, next to the new cell tower, is not open space by anyone who truly values the real meaning of open space. If we do so, what we are left with is endless swaths of suburban sprawl. It’s a values proposition. Save the Valley values real open space. Concord does not…and that is the difference. It’s about the issue…not political parties.