hed: Birmingham supports
battlefield mapping plan

intro: Conklin re-elected
chairman during annual reorganization meeting.

bod:

Birmingham Township supervisors
voted to send a letter of support for continued work on a Brandywine
Battlefield Preservation Plan. The request came from Jeannine Speirs, chairman
of the Brandywine Battlefield Task Force and member of the Chester County
Planning Commission.

The vote, coming at the end of
the Jan. 3 reorganization meeting, in favor of the letter was unanimous.

Supervisor Bill Kirkpatrick
said it was not a request for financial support. Supervisor John Conklin said
things are better coordinated on the county level. Supervisor Al Bush said the
map the task force has developed so far is “terrific.”

“If that’s the work you get,
it’s great. We’re in the heart of the battlefield,” Bush said.

The electronic mapping done so
far shows troop movements throughout the day of Sept. 11, 1777, the day of the
Battle of Brandywine. The bulk of the battle was fought in Birmingham Township,
along Meetinghouse Road, near the Birmingham Friends Meeting and at Sandy
Hollow.

Chester County intends to apply
for at least two grants totaling $78,000 from the American Battlefield
Protection Program and the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission to
complete the project that will cover lands within 15 communities in Chester and
Delaware counties.

The project includes a land
conservation plan as well as mapping.

During the reorganization,
Conklin was reelected supervisors’ chairman and Kirkpatrick the vice chairman.
Bush was reappointed as police chief.