PECO Energy is planning a single lane closure on northbound U.S. 1 between Orchard Avenue and Ladbroke Lane in East Marlborough Township, Chester County on Wednesday, Oct. 9, and Thursday, Oct. 10, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., for road restoration, PennDOT announced today.
Motorists are advised to allow extra time when traveling through the work area because backups and delays will occur. All scheduled activities are weather permitting.
Kennett Township supervisors will soon begin the budget process, and the new township manager wants to hear from residents about what they think the priorities should be.
“The budget is a statement of the priorities of the township,” Eden Ratliff said at the Oct. 2 supervisors’ meeting, his first official one as township manager. “The priorities of the township really need to come from the citizens.
“Where do you want to see your money spent?” he asked. “What is important to you? How should that look? We look forward to having those conversations.”
The supervisors will begin discussing the budget at the Oct. 16 meeting, where they will look at revenues and expenditures for operations and administration.
The Nov. 6 meeting, according to Ratliff, will look at things like capital projects and the effect of township growth on expenditures. There will likely be a special meeting in November, between the supervisors’ meetings on Nov. 6 and 20, to address the budget, he said.
Ratliff said the supervisors will need to adopt a preliminary budget by Nov. 20, so it can be advertised for 20 days and the public can comment on it. The goal is to have the supervisors formally adopt the budget by Dec. 18 – the last regularly scheduled supervisors’ meeting of 2019.
Supervisors meet at 7 p.m. in the township building at 801 Burrows Run Road.
The 2019 budget kept taxes the same and featured general fund revenue of $4.391 million and expenditures of $3.229 million; emergency services fund revenue of $1.727 million and expenditures of $1.721 million; capital fund revenue of $800,800 and expenditures of $787,000; open space revenue of $2.152 million and expenditures of $2.47 million; library fund revenue of $154,150 and expenditures of $159,000; sewer fund revenue of $1.787 million and expenditures of $1.571 million; and state fund revenue of $336,548 and expenditures of $336,000.
Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies.
She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field.
But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard.
Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.
Health care is a top issue on voter’s minds and with good reason. Everyone seems to have a story about how difficult it is to see a doctor, fill a prescription, or access affordable care. Congress is debating a lot of fixes, but one solution they should focus on has already been making a difference for more than 50 years: community health centers. Health centers care for one in 12 Americans, approximately 28 million people. They save the health care system $24 billion per year by eliminating waste and keeping people out of emergency rooms. They promote health and save lives.
Congress passed a short-term funding package that pushed the community health center funding cliff from this past, Oct. 1 to Nov. 21. While this is a great relief, it is obviously only a temporary solution. We must impress upon our representatives the importance of health care access to everyone, and the need for long-term, sustainable funding for our health centers.
Community health centers are already addressing public health challenges – insurance landscape changes, the opioid epidemic, caring for our veterans. Health centers are a bipartisan program, but even strong support doesn’t guarantee survival in Washington. Let’s encourage our representatives to act soon to protect health center funding before time runs out.
Ronan W. Gannon,
board president
La Comunidad Hispana
I am writing to ask readers to support Andrea Cardamone for judge of the Chester County Court of Common Pleas on election day, Nov. 5. Andrea is one of only two candidates in the race (along with Charles Gaza) who was rated “Qualified” by the Chester County Bar Association. She is the only candidate in the race endorsed by all three major law enforcement associations. Andrea is a brilliant lawyer, a woman of the highest integrity, and an experienced trial lawyer. Her first job out of Harvard Law School (magna cum laude) in 1999 was working for Dechert, a large international law firm, where I was a partner.
Andrea took a nearly 70 percent pay cut to join the Chester County District Attorney’s office because she wanted to make a difference in the world. During the last 17 years, Andrea has handled all sorts of criminal cases, including some of the most difficult and serious prosecutions the DA’s office has handled. You can learn more about her at her campaign’s website, andreacardamoneforjudge.com.
Andrea has exactly the kind of jury trial experience needed in a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. The first time I visited her office in the Justice Center, years ago, I noticed a sign on the wall: “THE RIGHT THING, THE RIGHT WAY, FOR THE RIGHT REASON.” That is exactly how she lives her life. Please consider giving her your vote on Nov. 5.
***UPDATE: The Oct. 14 hearing date has been canceled. The first hearing before the supervisors will be in November. End Update.***
Toll Bros. has presented another plan to Westtown Township for the development of Crebilly Farm, and it isn’t much different than the one the township denied almost two years ago. And the plan comes even while Toll and the township are waiting to hear Commonwealth Court’s opinion on Toll’s appeal of Westtown’s denial of the previous plan.
The new plan still calls for 319 homes on the 322-plus acre property along Route 926 between S. New Street and Route 202, and West Pleasant Grove Road on the north. The plan calls for keeping two existing homes but adding 182 single-family homes and 135 townhouses. Attorney Gregg Adelman said that there would be 196 acres left as open space.
Traffic engineer Nicole Kline responds to questions from Westtown Township Planning Commission members during a special meeting on a new plan from Toll Bros. for Crebilly Farm. The audience jeered when she said the development would not worsen traffic at Routes 926 and 202.
He said one of the differences is that some of the homes are shifted away from the western side of the property. The updated plan also includes a collector road connecting W. Pleasant Grove Road with Street Road (Route 926). The collector road is something supervisors said they wanted during the first conditional use hearing.
Traffic engineer Nicole Kline said Monday night the collector would mitigate additional traffic at the intersection of Routes 202 and 926 from the development. Groans and jeers came from the audience when she said the development wouldn’t add to traffic congestion at the intersection.
Kline also said that a revised traffic study indicated that dedicated turn lanes are warranted for the intersection of Route 926 and S. New Street, but that there might not be enough road space for them.
The new plan also shows three access points into the proposed development along W. Pleasant Grove Road and access on 926 directly across from Bridlewood Boulevard but no access off of Route 202. A right-in/right-out access was on the previous plan but removed from the new one.
Adelman said during an Oct. 7 township Planning Commission meeting that his client filed the new plan in August because township supervisors were trying to change the zoning code in a way that, he said, would have a negative effect on property rights.
He did not say at the meeting how the change would have that effect but said, “The township put forth a zoning amendment that would take away landowners’ rights,” he said. “Toll had no choice than to file to preserve [its] rights. We’re here because of what the supervisors did.”
In an appeal of the zoning change filed September in Chester County Court of Common Pleas, Toll and the Robinson family said the change “specifically targeted the property in an effort to prejudice the exercise by Toll and the Robinson family of their right to develop the property for a flexible development.”
The zoning appeal asserts that the township created “an alleged ‘Brandywine Battlefield Swath’ over almost the entire property and construing it to be a historic and scenic landscape that must be preserved.”
The zoning appeal further asserts that the creation of scenic views, scenic landscapes, historic resources and historic landscapes was an effort to “counter [a] lower court’s ruling that requirements to preserve such views, landscapes or resources were subjective and not applicable to the proposed development.”
Supervisors denied conditional use approval of the previous plan in December of 2017 after a year-long conditional use hearing. Toll appealed that decision to the Court of Common Pleas but the court upheld Westtown’s decision. Toll then appealed to Commonwealth Court this past spring. That opinion is still pending.
Planning Commission meetings and the conditional use hearing before the supervisors will be happening concurrently, Planning Commission Chairman Dick Pomerantz said. The next Planning Commission meetings on the proposal are scheduled for Oct. 21 and Nov. 17. If a fourth meeting is needed, that would be on Nov. 18. Supervisors are scheduled to hear the matter on Oct. 14, Nov. 18 and Dec. 18 at Rustin High School.
Pomerantz said anyone seeking party status needs to attend the Oct. 14 meeting.
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.
Craft will be front and center in Philadelphia later this week. American Craft Council (ACC) is coming to town and CraftNOW is hosting its conference “Present Tense 2019.” Leaders in the field from around the country will assemble from Wednesday, Oct. 10th to Saturday, Oct. 12th at the Loews Hotel. If you have an interest in works made of natural materials like clay, glass, metal, textiles or wood, this conference is worth looking into. Numerous events have been organized in partnership with the conference including walking and bus tours, workshops at The Clay Studio, The Fabric Workshop and Museum and The Center for Art in Wood, to name a few, as well as several gallery exhibitions. Visit https://craftcouncil.org/conference/program for all the details.
CraftNOW ran an ad in American Craft Magazine with the headline “Curating Philadelphia as the Capital of Craft.” It’s exciting to see that attention being given to the city in a magazine devoted to fine craft in America and CraftNOW is the reason why. I met its Executive Director, Leila Cartier, last winter and contacted her recently to talk about CraftNOW, the upcoming ACC conference, and her own art.
Cartier explained CraftNOW’s purpose and how the organization was formed. “The field has been expanding dramatically over the past several decades, but there wasn’t a unifying organization to help convene practitioners and patrons. CraftNOW came together from a core group of institutional directors, curators, educators, and makers to answer this need. We work with nonprofits, galleries and makers all across the city on collaborative projects that elevate contemporary making and the profile of the city.
With its inaugural events in 2015, CraftNOW began its mission to showcase the city’s craft community and create opportunities for public engagement.” I asked her if its efforts had changed people’s reception for craft as fine art. Interestingly, Cartier said, “I wouldn’t say it has changed the reception for craft so much as it has drawn more awareness to how important Philadelphia is historically and currently. When we started saying that Philadelphia was the capital of craft, we expected some push back. That hasn’t been the case. Everyone is in agreement that Philadelphia is an important city and provides an ideal urban craft experience.” About the upcoming conference, Cartier said, “We are thrilled to have a national audience come to see the work being done by curators, educators and artists in Philadelphia. Our primary objective is collaboration and working to generate new opportunities for partners and artists by convening locally has yielded successful results.” For more information about CraftNOW visit https://www.craftnowphila.org/
Cartier is also an artist. She used to work exclusively with oil on canvas but she recently became obsessed with collage. Her collage work is primarily constructed using hand-cut images of jewelry found in magazines and adhered to paper made from stone. The scarabs she features are based on the Mediterranean traditions of depicting the grotesque insect as a sacred being. Right now she is thinking a lot about transitions and how they inform her studio work. “Moments of transition are difficult because you have to be open, experiment with the unfamiliar, and even fail before you arrive at your next body of work. I have a hard time not continuing to refer to myself as a painter. I find myself mechanically mining these pictures from sources promoting excess consumption. Thousands of clippings are sorted into piles of color as one would organize a painter’s palette before arranging them into new forms.” She just finished a large installation that includes insects collaged from cut paper and it is stunning. “Leila Cartier: Bejeweled” is on view now at Philadelphia Airport in Terminal E. She said, “The wallpaper backgrounds in the installation have been designed based on tile patterns in my great grandmother’s home still preserved by my family in Hasbaya located in Southern Lebanon.” For more information visit https://www.leilacartier.com/
Also in Philadelphia, see “Crafting Narratives” at the Art Gallery at City Hall (Room 116) through Dec. 31st. The show is featuring 34 artists making work that tells a story. Philadelphia Sculptors is presenting “FLOW” at the Independence Seaport Museum, through Dec. 7th, where eight artists have created some amazing site specific floating sculptural installations. Visit https://www.philaflow.org/ for more details.
Other Events worth checking out: At Historic Yellow Springs, watch demonstrations by the curators of “Celebrating Clay” on Saturday, Oct. 12th from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. In Delaware this month, see “4 on the 4th”, an exhibition of paintings and sculpture at Hardcastle Gallery in Centreville. It features artists Michael Brock, Lele Galer, Terry Newitt and Kathy Ruck.
A native of Philadelphia, Constance McBride lived in Arizona for 16 years, where desert observations made a transformative impact on her work as a research based visual artist. Passionate about contemporary art, she was actively engaged in the local arts community. She served as a board member for several art organizations, managed an artist collective/gallery space, curated and juried several exhibitions and wrote for two arts publications in Phoenix. She taught ceramics at Shemer Art Center and Museum and exhibited her work both locally and nationally. McBride returned to Pennsylvania in 2018 and resides in Chester Springs with her husband and two dogs. In West Chester, she serves as a board member at The Art Trust Gallery at Meridian Bank and teaches ceramics at Chester County Art Association. She also teaches at Clay on Main in Oley, PA. She is a member of American Craft Council, Philadelphia Sculptors, and Women’s Caucus for Art, Philadelphia Chapter.
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.
