August 27, 2009 - ChaddsFordLive.com

Appeals court reverses ruling against Fenton

A state appeals court overturned a lower court decision and continues
to allow Pennsbury Township Supervisor Wendell Fenton to take part in
discussions and votes regarding Pennsbury Village.

The ruling, in an opinion by Senior Judge Jim Flaherty, overturned
a decision by Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Gavin in a Writ of Prohibition
filed by Pennsbury Village Associates, the project developer.

Under state law, Gavin’s decision had no impact and was set
aside as soon as the township appealed, Fenton said.

Fenton called the decision “a victory for the democratic
process. Supervisors are free to express themselves and vote how they believe.”

Part of Gavin’s ruling was based on Fenton’s 2005 campaign
for supervisor when he declared his opposition to the village project.

“His campaign rhetoric accurately predicted how he
would conduct himself as a supervisor vis-à-vis (the Pennsbury Village)
proposal,” Gavin wrote in his decision last year.

This, Gavin said, made Fenton ineligible to continue in an
impartial manner.

Judge Flaherty, in his 17-page opinion issued Aug. 20, said
such was not the case.

“A
board member is not precluded from voting on a matter solely because a board
member expressed an opinion on a matter either in the official or unofficial
status,” Flaherty wrote.

Flaherty
also said PVA by-passed the voting proceedings by filing suit to “prohibit
Fenton not only from voting, but also from expressing his opinion in Board
proceedings involving PVA.”

The judge noted, too, that Fenton had spoken in opposition
to the plan during board discussions on the development’s sewer plans, but
recused himself from voting.

Former township solicitor Larry Wood said in November that
Gavin’s decision was appealed because it was the first time a supervisor was
disqualified before any vote was ever taken and that the decision was too broad
because it disqualified Fenton from taking part in discussions.

Fenton said the PVA action was also premature since there
had been no decision that was adverse to PVA.

The full decision may be found at www.aopc.org/OpPosting/Cwealth/out/2221CD08_8-20-09.pdf.

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.

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Battlefield park reopens after weeklong hiatus

Local News

Brandywine Battlefield Park
reopened for business Aug. 25 following a weeklong closure after the
Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission pulled the plug on the Chadds
Ford-based facility.

Volunteers from the
Brandywine Battlefield Associates will man the park under a temporary agreement
with PHMC. Linda Kaat, associates’ president, said the temporary agreement
could last for up to six months, but end sooner once Chadds Ford Township and
other entities sign agreements to keep the park afloat.

“It’s a joint venture with
Senator Pileggi, Chadds Ford Township, PHMC and the Brandywine Battlefield Park
Associates. It’s sort of open ended to be determined. When we get all our ducks
in a row, we’ll work on the full time permanent agreement.”

Kaat sees a mixed blessing
in the temporary agreement.

“For a friends’ group, the
volunteers, this is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Kaat said. “It’s a big
responsibility to carry on a site this important with volunteers and without a
steady stream of income that we know of.”

PHMC
pulled out of the park operation for budgetary reasons with the thought that
Chadds Ford and the associates would operate the facility. But, it has cost
roughly $350,000 per year to run the park. Neither the township nor the
associates alone have that kind of money.

Township Supervisors’
Chairman George Thorpe, a past president of the associates, has been talking
with other townships and counties to raise enough money to keep the park going.

He received a commitment
from Delaware County for $55,000 and is looking for a matching figure from
Chester County. Concord Township has agreed to donate $5,000, Chadds Ford will
do the same and Thorpe has been talking with other townships and municipalities
to contribute. He said he also wants PHMC to provide about $100,000 in a
combination of cash and services.

Kaat says she, too, is
looking for “donors and sponsors who believe in Brandywine’s history.”

During the park’s weeklong
hiatus, some PHMC employees inventoried the gift shop and museum and removed
some of the items. There are fewer items of merchandise in the shop, but most
people would not recognize the difference. What is noticeable
is the decreased number of artifacts on display in the museum area.

Kaat said all the artifacts
were itemized. “In doing so, they removed many things from the exhibits that we
expect will be returned once they’re properly described and catalogued.”

Most of what’s missing, she
said, are small arms and other assorted weaponry. That absence will be
reflected in the visitors’ admission price. Admission fees had been $6 per person,
but Kaat said she expects that to be dropped to about $2.50 until the artifacts
are returned and the collection is back intact.

She is not certain when the
cataloging will be complete.

About Rich Schwartzman

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Lindner is interim replacement for Wandersee

Local News

The
Unionville-Chadds Ford School District Board voted 5-3 Wednesday night to
appoint Chadds Ford Township resident Gregg Lindner as an interim replacement
for Ed Wandersee. Lindner will
serve through the end of this year, but will run in a November election for the
remaining two years of Wandersee’s term.

Lindner’s
opponent in November will be fellow Chadds Ford resident Frank Murphy, the man
he beat out for the interim appointment.

Wandersee
stepped down after 10 years on the board because he moved out of the district.

Nine
residents offered comments before the decision, with five speaking for Lindner
and four for Murphy.

Paul
Koch, of Chadds Ford, read an e-mail from Wandersee supporting the appointment
of Murphy, while Valerie Hoxter, also of Chadds Ford, said Murphy most closely
represented Region C – that includes Chadds Ford and Pennsbury townships – and
what Wandersee stood for.

LeLe
Galer, of Pocopson Township, said Lindner has proven his dedication to the
community while Murphy is too new to the area.

A
woman from Pennsbury noted Lindner’s attendance at every board meeting, adding
that he is sincere in helping the board improve communication with district
residents.

Heidi
Brown, also from Chadds Ford, decried the political polarization that was
taking place, and said it doesn’t matter whether someone is a Republican or
Democrat. She said Lindner would hit the ground running.

Four
board members spoke before the vote, but only Timotha Trigg, also of Chadds
Ford, endorsed either of the two candidates. She voted for Murphy saying his
views on education most closely matched the direction the school board is
going.

About Rich Schwartzman

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It takes people to build a village

Opinion

Area residents and nonresident alike were stunned and
dismayed when the Wawa in the Village of Chadds Ford shut down in early 2008.
For a year, the parking lot at the little strip mall with the US Post Office,
First Keystone Bank, and other businesses, was a virtual ghost town after the
bank and post office would close on Saturdays. All that was missing from a
photograph taken on a May 2008 Saturday afternoon was tumbleweed.

Everyone thought that the opening of the Cattie Shack this
year would infuse much needed life back into the village. While there is more
activity there now, there are still concerns. A reader posted the following
comment to a recent column in ChaddsFordLive:

“How do we get our village back
when the township does not want to allow the people of the township to meet at
the Cattie Shack and sit down with a cup of coffee and talk or eat a sandwich
together? How can the village survive when the rules for signs are so strict
that no one knows we have businesses here? The signs are so small and obscure
you can’t see them…The Cattie Shack was told they
could not have the chairs and tables and they were not allowed to have signs
showing they serve coffee and sandwiches. They had to be taken down. The Chadds
Ford Gallery was told they could not have balloons. Don’t know the answers.”

We agree that it seems ridiculous for the township to oppose
the three small tables, with two chairs each, that were put up on the porch
outside the Cattie Shack. They provide a nice, comfortable, and friendly
atmosphere for people to sit down, sip some coffee for a few minutes, and catch
up on the local gossip. People also read their mail at the table outside the
bank.

The township opposition seems especially hurtful to a new
business in light of the overall economic downturn. Signs have always been
issue in Chadds Ford Township, yet township supervisors displayed some level of
understanding when they amended the sign ordinance earlier this year to allow
for businesses to have additional signage, at least on a temporary basis.

Tables and chairs on the porch at the Cattie Shack and First
Keystone Bank are a zoning issue, according to Township Manager Joe Barakat. He
said the code restricts such seating to restaurants.

Mr. Barakat added that a bench for people to sit on would be
OK, but not the tables and chairs, and that supervisors would be willing to
accommodate a request, though they can’t make special exceptions.

Perhaps the supervisors could be persuaded to amend the
zoning ordinance to allow the tables and chairs to stay. There is a petition
that people can sign at the Cattie Shack, but residents should take their
concerns directly to the supervisors. Call them, e-mail them, and go to the
Board of Supervisor’s meeting to express those concerns face to face and in a
public forum.

About CFLive Staff

See Contributors Page https://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/

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Police log for Aug. 27

Police

Pennsylvania
State Police from the Media barracks will conduct a sobriety checkpoint at an
undisclosed location in Delaware County from Friday, Aug. 28 to Sunday, Aug.
30.

•
State police are investigating two more burglaries that took place on Pennsbury
Way in Pennsbury Township. In one incident jewelry and cash were stolen
sometime between Aug. 14 and 17. In another incident, between Aug. 11 and Aug.
18, power tools were stolen, according to a report.

• A
routine traffic stop in Chadds Ford led to the arrest of a Wilmington man on
drug charges. According to Pennsylvania State Police, William Harvey Sentman,
45, was stopped on Route 202 South at Chrsity Drive for improper display of
registration plate. It was determined that Sentman’s license had been suspended,
the report said, and a search of the vehicle revealed Sentman to be in
possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. Police made the stop 3:30
p.m., Saturday, Aug. 22

•
Pennsylvania State Police from Troop K, Media arrested a fugitive from justice
at the Targetmaster store and shooting range on Route 202 in Concord Township
after 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 21. A report said Keenan Aldridge, 26, of Philadelphia
tried to buy a firearm at the store but his ID check revealed an active warrant
from Philadelphia. When he was taken in to custody he was found to have in his
possession a small amount of what was believed to be marijuana.

About CFLive Staff

See Contributors Page https://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/

Police log for Aug. 27 Read More »

Blogging Along the Brandywine

Along the Ford

Several months ago I was shopping in the Giant at Dilworthtown,
when I saw a lady coming towards me seemingly carrying on an animated
conversation with herself. I began to feel a bit uncomfortable,
thinking perhaps she was deranged. But as she got closer I noticed she was
wearing a Bluetooth headpiece, a wireless phone earpiece.

About 12 years ago, while on a rare visit to Broadway
to see a taping of the David Letterman Show, I had time to walk around
mid-town Manhattan. My sheltered Chadds Ford mindset was shocked to watch
businessmen and women crossing streets against the lights with cell
phones to their ears, totally absorbed in higher finance and business
strategies, oblivious to the taxi cabs, buses and vans coming towards them en
masse.

I get the same feeling when I am ready to pull out onto Route 1
in the morning watching the trucks and cars hurdling down the hill from
Route 202. I often see people pulling into my road, making a one-armed
cross-traffic, left hand turn or even an illegal one-armed U-turn blissfully
gabbing away holding a cell phone to their ear.

Recently I was in Happy Harry’s while a lady in the next aisle
was carrying on a very loud cell phone conversation about who was going to pick
up the kid from soccer practice. The conversation then drifted into some
issue with her neighbor and the problems she was having with her husband.
I’m wondering what made her think I was so interested in the dreary
details of her life.

And until two weekends ago, I merely regarded all of this as a
display of somewhat harmless, albeit boorish behavior.

My friend was taking me to dinner that evening at the new “1906
at Longwood Gardens” followed by the season’s final concert of the Kennett
Symphony. But this evening he seemed unusually quiet.

He told me the college-age daughter of a long-time childhood
friend had been hit by a car that morning while walking with her friend in
front of the Delaware County Hospital in Drexel Hill. Christine Bochanski,
a young dancer, had suffered severe trauma and multiple injuries including
a broken back after being thrown 30-35 feet. Her friend, Nicole Gallo, a
sophomore at Lebanon Valley had been killed instantly.

The driver of the car, also a young girl, had evidently been
fiddling with her iPod and had crossed two lanes of traffic hitting the two
young ladies.

The summer of my 16th birthday I enrolled in drivers education
classes at my high school. One day I was driving up Bear Hill Road
near Paoli when Mr. Lawrence reached over and turned on the car radio. I
think it was the Dave Clark Five or Gerry and the Pacemakers …you
know, primitive music from the Dark Ages.

As my attention was drawn to the strains of my favorite music, I
realized the radio was distracting me from this new skill of propelling a
3,000 pound piece of steel along the road at high speeds. I asked him to
turn it off.

What’s the answer?

Do we legislate away the freedom to use cell phones in our cars?

The next time you pick up your cell phone, iPod or Blackberry
while driving through the Brandywine Valley, just remember Christine Bochanski
and Nicole Gallo. Maybe that will help.

About Sally Denk Hoey

Sally Denk Hoey, is a Gemini - one part music and one part history. She holds a masters degree cum laude from the School of Music at West Chester University. She taught 14 years in both public and private school. Her CD "Bard of the Brandywine" was critically received during her almost 30 years as a folk singer. She currently cantors masses at St Agnes Church in West Chester where she also performs with the select Motet Choir. A recognized historian, Sally serves as a judge-captain for the south-east Pennsylvania regionals of the National History Day Competition. She has served as president of the Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates as well as the Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford where she now curates the violin collection. Sally re-enacted with the 43rd Regiment of Foot and the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment for 19 years where she interpreted the role of a campfollower at encampments in Valley Forge, Williamsburg, Va., Monmouth, N.J. and Lexington and Concord, Mass. Sally is married to her college classmate, Thomas Hoey, otherwise known as "Mr. Sousa.”

Blogging Along the Brandywine Read More »

Ellen J. Soltesz of Kennett Square

Obituaries

Ellen J. Soltesz, 69, of Kennett Square, died Tuesday, August 25. She
was the wife of John A. Soltesz, who died in 1988, and with whom she shared 29
years of marriage.

Born
in Pittsburgh, she was the daughter of the late Peter and Dolores Talak.

Ellen
was a registered nurse and committed her professional career to helping the
elderly. She was very passionate about gardening and earned a Master Gardener’s
Certificate through Penn State. Ellen’s life revolved around her loving family
and gardening.

She
is survived by her children, MaryEllen Matus and her husband David of Wyncote, Peter
Soltesz and his wife Carolyn of St. Charles, Ill., and Patricia Binkley and her
husband William of West Chester, two sisters, Janet Holzer of Pittsburgh, and
Patricia Wingertsahn of Chesterfield, Mo., and eight grandchildren.

Ellen
was predeceased by one sister, Rosemary Held.

Services
and burial are private.

Online
condolences may be made by visiting www.griecofuneralhomes.com.