Florence Patricia “Pat” Rybinski, 77, of Oxford, died Tuesday, June 2, at Neighborhood Hospice in West Chester. She was the wife of Frank A. Rybinski with whom she shared more than 50 years of marriage.
Born in Wilmington, she was a daughter of the late James I. and the late Marie (Cann) Hamilton.
Pat began her career at the Bank of Delaware. She loved being a wife, mother and friend. She especially loved being a grandmother in recent years.
Survivors include in addition to her husband, one son, Craig Rybinski and his wife Margaret of Avondale; one daughter, Stephanie Crecco and her husband Keith of Kennett Square; one sister, Susan Mahala; three grandchildren, Bradley, Aidan and Megan and several nieces and nephews.
You are invited to visit with Pat’s family and friends from 6-8 p.m. Sunday, June 7, and from 10-11 a.m. Monday, June 8 at the Kuzo & Grieco Funeral Home Inc. (610-444-4116), 250 W. State St., Kennett Square, PA 19348. Services and Interment will be held privately. Contributions in her memory may be made to ALS Association, 321 Norristown Rd. Suite 260, Ambler, PA 19002. To view her online tribute and to share a memory with her family, please visit www.griecocares.com
A two-year-long negotiation between Chadds Ford Township and K. Hovnanian Homes has come to an end.
Supervisors on June 3 voted against a proposed zoning change and text amendment that would have permitted — with conditional use approval — the construction of a 107-unit townhouse development along Brandywine Drive across from Hannum’s Harley Davidson and Painters Crossing shopping center.
Supervisors Frank Murphy and Samantha Reiner voted against the request, while George Thorpe abstained.
John Jaros, the applicant’s attorney, declined to comment on the decision. Prior to the vote, however, he gave a brief history of plan.
K. Hovnanian first approached the township with the idea in 2013. Numerous sessions with the township Planning Commission saw the concept go from creating an overlay district and then to changing the parcel’s zoning from PBC, or planned business center, to residential-multifamily. Both of those ideas were rebuffed.
What remained was to change the zoning to PBC-1, and then write a text amendment that would allow townhouses in a PBC-1 district with conditional use approval.
The Planning Commission recommended approving that idea, and a hearing for the zoning changes was scheduled for February.
That hearing was closed in March with an April decision anticipated. However, the board decided in April to reopen the hearing in May because of some remaining questions. It was then continued to June 3.
The supervisors’ reluctance to approve the requested changes was obvious when none of the supervisors wanted to make a motion to approve. Reiner said there were “sufficient inconsistencies and a lack of attention to detail” in the presentation. “I have a number of reasons not to embrace this,” she said.
Murphy eventually made the motion himself and Reiner seconded. Thorpe then said he didn’t think the board had all the answers, but thought approving the change might lead to other changes that could allow other uses, such as a nightclub.
Other business
• Supervisors passed two resolutions, one approving the Brandywine Valley Scenic Byway Corridor Management Plan and one approving the Walkable Chadds Ford Master Plan.
Referring to Walkable Chadds Ford, Murphy said, “We’ll make sure this plan gets implemented properly.”
The Walkable Chadds Ford Plan, promoted by the Brandywine Conservancy, is a series of suggestions that would, as the name implies, make it easier to walk around in the Village of Chadds Ford. Suggestions include a pedestrian walkway between Route 1 and the Chadds Ford Historical Society, a walking and bicycle path along Route 1 from Ring Road down to Fairville Road in Pennsbury Township, and changing the direction of Station Way Road.
The scenic byway plan seeks to preserve historic and scenic features along Route 52. It would coordinate planning activities in the townships that the road passes through.
• Valerie Hoxter was appointed to the Planning Commission to complete the term of Mike Ashmore who resigned from the commission last month.
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.
Work on the exterior of the historic Barnard House in Pocopson Township is nearing completion.
In the early 1800s, the Eusebius Barnard House, a Chester County historic landmark, served as a station for escaping slaves in the Underground Railroad movement; more recently, it has served as a source of contention in Pocopson Township.
Most township residents and officials seem to agree that Pocopson has outgrown its facility on Denton Hollow Road.
The township assumed ownership of the house and its surrounding 68 acres from the county in 2008 with the goal of preserving it – an initiative that would create a township building and public meeting space as well as house the Kennett Underground Railroad Museum.
But the path to that repurposing has encountered periodic obstacles for the impassioned members of the Barnard House Steering Committee. Most of the hurdles have focused on finances, according to information discussed at the committee’s meeting on Thursday, May 28.
A number of committee members expressed frustration that the township’s board of supervisors had twice tabled the next step in the project: the Phase Two Scope of Work, which would focus on the interior and pave the way for soliciting bids. The exterior is 90 percent complete, said Richard Jensen, the township’s code enforcement officer, who is also serving as the project manager.
The committee plans a half-hour Power-Point presentation for the next supervisors’ meeting on Monday, June 8, when the Barnard House will appear on the agenda again. It will explain “how we got here and how we’re going to go forward,” said Supervisor Georgia Brutscher, who chairs the steering committee.
During previous supervisors’ meetings, Brutscher favored approving the next phase; however, Supervisors’ Chairman Barney Leonard and Supervisor Ricki Stumpo both expressed concerns about whether the interior layout met the township’s needs for space, function, and security.
At the board’s April 13 meeting, Brutscher responded to her colleagues’ comments by suggesting a meeting with the project’s architect, Dennis Melton of Melton Architects, so that he could address those topics. Melton attended the April 27 meeting and urged the supervisors to approve the Phase Two Scope of Work, but Stumpo and Leonard said they wanted the issues they had raised resolved first. Since the board did not hear back from Melton before the May 11 meeting, a vote on the second phase of work got tabled again.
A historic marker in front of the Barnard House explains its significance as a stop on the Underground Railroad.
Melton, who attended the committee meeting last week, said he believed that the issues of workflow and security could be resolved easily. “Are there compromises to be made?” he asked. “Yes, but they’re fairly minor.”
He said it was unfortunate that the work had to be done in stages for financial reasons, which also caused the project to be scaled back. Some of the grants the committee hoped to acquire dried up during the recession, and some of the work, such as restoring the windows, had to be eliminated after determining that one window would require $4,500.
In a May 12 letter urging the supervisors to move forward with the project, Melton detailed more than 30 steps required for phase two, such as finalizing “a detailed scope of work,” selecting contractors, revising the space utilization, and participating in the final punch list. His proposal caps the cost for that work at $13,000. Township records show that since 2009, Melton has received about $100,000 for the project.
Originally, plans called for an addition to the building that was also deemed too expensive and placed on hold. Steering committee member Alta Hoffman said it was unfortunate that costs have been an issue. “Do you know how many millionaires we have in this township?” she asked.
Despite that, some residents have expressed fears that the renovations could become a black hole for the township. Township records show that $728,977 has been spent on the project to date. Subtracting $226,320 in grants and donations brings the township’s net cost to $502,657. Pocopson has budgeted $825,000 in projected costs for 2015, the bulk of which would cover a loan.
The negative feedback has distressed the steering committee members, who said residents have no idea how much work has gone into the project and how many other potential sites for a township building were exhausted. The opportunity to preserve a significant historic structure and transform it into a signature building that will engender community pride represents a double win for the township, they said.
“It’s the right thing to do,” said Brutscher.
Committee member Jean Conary agreed, noting that the current township building, which is basically a garage, doesn’t meet the township’s needs. “I just think this is part of the soul of this community,” she said of the Barnard House.
Lauressa McNemar, another committee member, questioned why a small group of residents is trying to derail the project at the 11th hour. “Someone wants to stop the wheels,” she said. Brutscher noted that “a lot of untruths went out” during the primary election campaign.
Sean Rafferty, a longtime township resident who attended the Barnard House Steering Committee meeting last week, said he believes the historic building “should be used to honor those who helped African Americans escape the horrible conditions that existed in the South.”
But he said he is also seeking “fiscal responsibility” and expressed concern that the committee is trying to advance the project without sufficient feasibility planning. He pointed out that two recent outside studies suggested that the layout of the building doesn’t match the township’s administrative needs.
The other was prepared by Grace Sagnor, a space-planner for Rubinstein’s, an office supply store in West Chester, who recommended keeping the township offices in the current space and using the first floor of Barnard House for meetings and the museum.
“Why is the board talking about Phase Two when two recent and separate studies confirmed that the Barnard House is not a proper township building?” Rafferty asked after the meeting. “Feasibility studies are usually done before a project commences, not at the end.”
Brutscher disputes the notion that the project wasn’t thoroughly researched. “This was a thought-through process,” she said.
She added that she believes residents will support the project when they see the progress that’s been made. She said she hoped residents would come to the meeting on June 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the township building.
Rafferty, a GOP committeeman, said numerous conversations with voters at the polls earlier this month suggested that many township residents share his misgivings. “If this project is so popular as the board promotes it to be, then there should be no problem with obtaining enough votes from the taxpayers to move forward with it,” he said, advocating a referendum.
Brutscher said she hoped the many residents who had voiced support for the project since the committee first elicited feedback in October 2009 would attend Monday night’s meeting, and she expressed hope that those with reservations about it would come with an open mind.
“I think the meeting will be an educational opportunity that will address a lot of questions and quell fears,” she said.
