The Pennsbury Township Parks’ Committee continues to seek
ways to get people to use the 54-acre township park. It hosted a picnic in the
park Saturday, Sept. 25.
“The picnic is to promote the use of the park, have people
know the park is out here. We want to increase the visibility of the park with
a mild, low-key activity that would be fun for a family in the afternoon,” said
Kendal Reynolds of the committee.
Attendance was less than what was hoped. By 4:30 p.m. there
were only 19 vehicles parked by the open field.
Reynolds said the 3-6 p.m. time frame was chosen because it
was a “casual time frame.”
“A lot of activities are happening locally. We don’t want to
compete with them, but if people just want to come and hang out, listen to
music it’s not an all day event. It’s not a festival, it’s just a casual picnic
in the park,” she said.
The group Leadfoot and the Accelerators provided live music,
while the Concordville-Chadds Ford Rotary sold burgers and dogs and HG Haskell
was on hand roasting fresh corn on the grill. There was also a hayride and a
raffle for bicycles from Garrison’s Cyclery of Centreville, wines from
Chaddsford Winery, a gift certificate from Ming Village and a lunch for two at
Mushrooms.
Reynolds said the Parks’ Committee is continuing to look for
ways to get people into the park.
“There will be a local dog park. We’re putting in a fenced
in area so people can have off-leashed dogs. We have a farmers market here
every Friday. So it’s just utilizing the park and having people have access to
it,” Reynolds said.
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.
According to state Rep. Stephen Barrar, Democratic Party
politicians are out of touch with economic realities.
Barrar, a Republican, is the representative from the 160th
Legislative District is running for an eighth term in office. He hosted a
health fair Saturday in the parking lot of Endo Pharmaceutical in Chadds Ford
Township.
“In this campaign,” Barrar said,
“we’ve seen an awakening of the voters and they’re asking a lot more questions
than I’ve ever seen them ask. And, I think, fiscal responsibility is going to
be the biggest issue in this campaign.”
He said most of the questions he
gets from constituents as he knocks on doors now are about the budget, spending
and taxes.
Cutting state spending is a big
part of getting the fiscal house in order, he said.
“You can’t just cut taxes. One
thing I hear from the voters everywhere I go, they say ‘have to get your house
in order.’ The people that I represent, I know they’re facing tough times. A
lot of them have cut back on a lot of things. I think it’s very unfair for
government not to do the exact same thing.”
Barrar brought up his well-known
disagreement with Gov. Ed Rendell. He said the governor says the people want
more and higher taxes.
“This just shows how out if touch
the governor is and the entire Democratic Party. If they’re out there thinking
[they’ll] get support for higher taxes in this commonwealth…I just can’t
imagine where they’re getting this information.”
Barrar said he opposes any sort
of increase or expansion of taxes such as the governor has proposed. The
governor’s plan includes adding professional fees to things subject to the
state’s sales tax.
“That would just go to increased
spending at the state level, and that’s what the governor wants to do…He has no
support in his own Democratic Party. The only Democrats I see supporting him
that are Democrats from inner city areas, which are the biggest beneficiaries
of these tax increasers.”
Barrar said that job creation
should be the focus for the state. To help that along, he advocates regulatory
reform.
“A lot of times regulations are
written by the bureaucrats; they’re not necessarily approved by the
legislature. So, we see all kinds of new regulations from the EPA, from the
DEP, that are killing jobs in the state of Pennsylvania,” Barrar said.
As an example, Barrar cited
regulations regarding the building industry. He said 30 percent of the costs in
building a house happen before a shovel ever hits the ground, costs associated
with regulatory reviews, approvals and permit fees.
”Now we’re looking at additional
mandates…One of the rules I want to propose to the House is that when
regulations are approved, there has to be a cost benefit analysis done to every
regulation so that we know exactly what that regulation is going to cost a
business or a homeowner when we approve that regulation,” he said.
Barrar said it was happenstance
to have the health fare at a time when healthcare and health coverage have been
a dominant topic in the news.
He said he’s a proponent of
allowing people to buy health insurance from insurers in other states to make
the market more competitive.
“Look at Blue Cross. Blue Cross, in this area, has about an
86 percent market share. When you have 86 percent of the market, you have a
monopoly on the consumers here. So, I really feel the only way to address this
issue is to make the market more competitive by allowing people to buy their
health insurance wherever they feel they can get the best deal,” Barrar said.
“We can buy auto insurance from any state in the union, so I would think that
buying health insurance that way would make us just as competitive.”
Barrar’s Democratic Party opponent, Nick DiGregory, has not
made any public appearances in the Chadds Ford area. On his Web site, www.nickdigregorypa160.com,
he says using green technology will reduce costs and that taxes need to be
“more evenly shared.”
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.
Molly
is an 8-year-old spayed female Labrador retriever that is available for
adoption through the Chester County SPCA. She
came to the shelter because her owner’s son was severely allergic to her. Molly is a very sweet older girl who
would benefit from some exercise. She loves to play with her squeaky toys and
would make an excellent family dog. She is housebroken and gets a long with
children and other dogs. Molly is now looking for a
responsible care giver who will give her the love and attention she deserves. If you are able to provide that home,
visit the Chester County SPCA at 1212 Phoenixville Pike in West Goshen or call
610-692-6113. Molly’s registration number is 96801908. To look at some of the
other animals available for adoption, visit the shelter or log onto www.ccspca.org.
• The
Delaware Museum of Natural History opens “Be the Dinosaur: Life in the
Cretaceous” Saturday, Oct. 2. It’s a hands-on exhibit where visitors can find
and communicate with others in their “herd,” cooperate in defense
strategies, use a dinosaur’s sense of smell to find food, cool off in the
waters of a jungle stream, observe fish and insect life and design their own
dinosaur. The exhibit runs through Jan. 9. Admission is $7 adults, $6 seniors, $5 children (3-17) and
free for children 2 and younger. For more information call 302-658-9111 or
visitwww.delmnh.org
• The Civic
Association of Chadds Ford will hold its annual meeting 7 p.m. on Oct.
19 at the Brandywine River Museum. The speaker will be Dr. George W. Franz,
President of the Chadds Ford Historical Society who will trace the founding and
preservation of the Chadds and Barns-Brinton Houses and there will be live
music by Skip Barthold. The association will donate funds raised for the
Brandywine Battlefield Park to Linda Kaat, president of the Friends of the
Battlefield Park.
• The Great Pumpkin Carve returns to the Chadds Ford
Historical Society meadow Thursday, Oct. 21 5-9 p.m. each night. Carvers will
work their magic before the lights go out and the carvings are lit by candles.
Visitors can also see the creations Friday and Saturday, Oct. 22-23, between 5
and 9 p.m. Admission is $5 adults
18 and up, $3 for kids 7 to 17, free for children 6 and under.
The leadership of the Democratic Party is showing itself to be as hypocritical over civil liberties as the Republican leadership has been about fiscal conservancy. And the finger pointing is coming from the left itself.
Glenn Greenwald, a liberal blogger for Salon.com, along with The New York Times and even Keith Olbermann, have ripped the Obama administration for ordering the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen now living in Yemen, for alleged connections with three of the terrorists who struck on 9/11, the Fort Hood killing and the failed Christmas Day airline bombing.
The assassination order became public earlier this year. The Obama administration ordered the hit without any due process of law, no trial, no conviction or verdict of guilty, just an order for a bullet to the head or a predator drone strike. So much for adherence to the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution.
But the administration isn’t giving much loyalty to the Fourth Amendment either, that pesky little guarantee of people being secure in their houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Mr. Greenwald, in his Sept. 27 Salon blog, “The Obama Administration’s War on Privacy,” says the administration is now seeking the same intrusive powers sought by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emerates to get into the private electronic communication of people who have done no wrong.
Those two countries can’t get into a backdoor to intercept communications made through BlackBerry because of its protocol, so they are banning the devices.
“Those two governments demand the power to intercept and monitor every single form of communication. No human interaction may take place beyond their prying ears,” Mr. Greenwald wrote.
The Bush administration wanted and received powers for warrantless wiretaps, and the current administration is no exception, according to a New York Times story by Charlie Savage:
“[O]fficials want Congress to require all services that enable communications—including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct ‘peer to peer’ messaging like Skype—to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.”
What this means, according to Mr. Greenwald, is that “Internet services could legally exist only insofar as there would be no such thing as truly private communications; all must contain a ‘back door’ to enable government officials to eavesdrop.” (Emphasis added.)
In the same blog, Mr. Greenwald refers to a Washington Post story that the Obama administration wants banks to report all electronic money transfers, no matter how small. By today’s rules, banks are only required to report transfers in excess of $10,000.
Banks would also be required to provide the social security number of those sending and receiving the transfers.
Republicans and Democrats have both put the country into a $13 trillion debt. Gitmo, rendition and warrantless wiretaps under George Bush have now turned to assassination and even more pervasive eavesdropping and loss of privacy under Barack Obama. What is the difference between the two parties?
• State police are investigating a case of theft and
identity theft in Chadds Ford Township, and police said they think the
perpetrator may be someone who struck the area months ago. According to the
report, a woman working on Dickinson Drive had her purse stolen from a handbag
while she was out of the office. The victim’s credit cards were used to make
$1,200 in purchases in Delaware.
• A state police report said someone broke the driver’s side
passenger window of a car parked at the Big Fork Restaurant in Old Ridge
Village and stole a school backpack containing a biology textbook and several
folders of notes. The stolen items are valued at $100, but total damages are
valued at $400. The incident happened between 4:45 and 9:50 p.m. on Sept. 22.
• An unknown suspect reportedly stole the wallet of a woman
dining at the Texas Roadhouse on Sept. 21 between 7 and 7:30 p.m. Police said
the wallet was in a purse that was hanging on the victim’s chair. Stolen credit
cards were then used to make several purchases at a nearby department store.
• A Pennsylvania State Police report said two white males
stole a digital camera—valued at $130— from the Walgreens store on Concord
Pike. The incident happened 3 p.m. on Sept. 23, the report said.
• State police from the Avondale barracks reported no
injuries following a one-vehicle accident in Pennsbury Township. According to a
report, Enrique Betanzos Lopez, 37, of Wilmington, was driving a1993 Ford
Explorer north on Route 100 near Cossart Road when the vehicle went off the road,
and then hit a guardrail and a tree. Lopez was cited for driving too fast for
conditions and careless driving, the report said. The incident happened 12:37
a.m. on Sept. 18.
• On Sept. 3, according to a state police report, Laura
Yovanovich, 25, of Chadds Ford was charged with leaving the scene of an
accident after she drove her car off the road and into a fence along Fairville
Road near Hillcrest Lane in Pennsbury Township.
