Aida Rivera Agron, 91, of Avondale, died Wednesday, Dec. 14, at her residence.
Aida Rivera Agron
Born in Añasco, Puerto Rico, she was the daughter of the late Jose Rivera and the late Claudina Agron.
Aida was a homemaker and she enjoyed dancing, singing, and being with her family and friends. She was always happy and had a big smile on her face.
She loved the Lord and was a Catholic.
Aida is survived by her children, Luis Agron of Puerto Rico, Ruben Agron of Florida, Evelyn Agron (Daniel Valentin) of Kennett Square, Migdalia Agron of Puerto Rico, Nereida Agron of Puerto Rico, Aida Agron of Avondale, Vilma Agron (Manuel Figueroa) of Puerto Rico, Ivan Agron (Lissette Valentin) of Puerto Rico; her brothers, Roberto Arroyo and William Arroyo, both of Puerto Rico; 15 grandchildren; 28 great-grandchildren and four great-
great-grandchildren.
She was predeceased by four children Ivette, Orlando, Ovelia and Edemira; one brother, Miguel Agron, and four sisters, Naty Rivera, Maria Rivera, Monse Rivera and Amelia Rivera.
You are invited to visit with her family and friends from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, Dec. 20, at St. Rocco Catholic Church, 313 Sunny Dell Road in Avondale. Her funeral mass will follow at noon. Burial will be in St. Patrick’s Cemetery, Route 82, Kennett Square.
To view her online tribute and to share a memory with her family, please visit www.kuzoandfoulkfh.com
Arrangements by the Foulk Funeral Home of West Grove, West Grove.
Domenica M. Masciantonio, 87, of Kennett Square, died Wednesday, Dec. 14, at the Chester County Hospital. She was the wife of Angelo Masciantonio, who died in 2016, and with whom she shared 59 years of marriage.
Domenica M. Masciantonio
Born in Civitella Messer Raimondo, Italy, she was the daughter of the late Antonio Di Medio and the late Rosa Mastrippolito. She came to the United States in 1966 with her husband and children. She worked for 20 years at Chester Tricot Textile Mill in Kennett Square.
She was a member of St. Patrick’s Church in Kennett Square. She enjoyed baking, cooking, crocheting, knitting, gardening, and spending time with her beloved family and friends.
Mrs. Masciantonio is survived by one son, Mario A. Masciantonio and his wife Ann of Avondale; one daughter, Filomena Elliott and her late husband John of Avondale, and three grandchildren, Laura Elliott, Angela Masciantonio and David Masciantonio.
You are invited to visit with her family and friends from 9 to 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at the Kuzo Funeral Home, 250 West State Street in Kennett Square. Her funeral mass will follow at 11 at St. Patrick Church, 212 Meredith Street, Kennett Square. Burial will be in St. Patrick’s Cemetery, Route 82, Kennett Square.
To view her online tribute and to share a memory with her family, please visit www.kuzoandfoulkfh.com
Piazza Auto Group is still looking to bring two car dealerships — Hyundai and Genesis — to Chadds Ford Township. The applicant presented a sketch plan in July and returned to the Planning Commission for the second time Wednesday evening to get some more input on what the commission thinks and wants to see in order to get a favorable recommendation.
The auto group would need a zoning variance and a zoning map change to allow the dealerships to go in on the west side of Route 202, north of Garnet Ford. It would also need conditional use approval. The location is just north of Garnet, at 1540 and 1550 Wilmington Pike, and the parcels are in two different zoning districts, B and B-1. Car dealerships are not permitted in the B district, and that’s the reason for the requested map change.
If the plan goes through, three buildings would be constructed. Each brand — Hyundai and Genesis — would have its own showroom, while the third building would be a shop for both.
There was a meandering discussion regarding the impact the dealerships might have on nearby residential areas, as well as what benefits, such as trails and open space, there might be for the township. Several Planning Commission members said they are leaning in favor of having dealerships because they are a low-impact use compared to retail shops, but members still have not seen a traffic study or a lighting plan, and commission Chairman Craig Huffman said they still need to see both.
“Come back in January and get a firm opinion,” Huffman 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.
After decorating the township Christmas tree, members of the Chadds Ford Township Residents Association wish a Merry Christmas to all.
•A reminder that the Chadds Ford Township Board of Sup[ervisors will hear the conditional use and land use application for Hank’s Place during a meeting at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 22. Owners Anthony and Katie Young need supervisors’ approval for both so they can rebuild the eatery after it was destroyed in the flooding from Hurricane Ida. The supervisors are also expected to vote on the 2023 budget during that meeting.
•In addition to its normal hours Tuesday through Saturday, Brandywine Prime has announced special holiday hours. The restaurant will be open on Mondays through the rest of the month and on Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023. Holiday hours are Monday, Dec. 19 open from 4:30-9 p.m. and 3:30-9 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 24. Prime will be closed Christmas Day, but reopen on Monday, Dec. 26 from 4:30-9 p.m. and 4-10 p.m. on Dec. 31, and then 4-9 p.m. on Sunday, New Year’s Day, Jan. 1.
•Concord Township will have Christmas tree recycling this year. The Public Works staff will pick up your holiday tree during the first week of January to be chipped for use or composted. Residents must register for pickup by noon on Dec. 22 by calling the township office at 610-459-8911 or emailing their name and street address to office@concordtownship.org. All decorations must be removed, and the trees placed on the curb by 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 3 for pickup from Jan. 3-6.
Learn about “Mad Anthony” from the Chester County History Center on Jan. 1o.
•He was known as “Mad Anthony Wayne.” But why? He was considered an unlikely general and he was not Gen. George Washington’s favorite. He was a notorious womanizer, heavy drinker, and spend-thrift, and was removed from Congress for voter fraud. Learn more about the “Unlikely General” on Tuesday, Jan. 10 from 7-8 p.m. with the Chester County History Center on Zoom. The event is pay-as-you-wish, but registration is required.
Sanville sent the following email shortly before 7:30: “We have been keeping an eye on the forecast. The mixed precipitation could leave ice accumulations up to 1 to 2 tenths of an inch. While this doesn’t sound like much, it is all it takes to make for dangerous road conditions. Additionally, temperatures are hovering around freezing right at that time when students, staff and families would be on the roads. I think that it is best to err on the side of caution with this one and keep everyone home. We will now have a Flexible Instruction Day (FID) today, Thursday, December 15. All UCFSD schools and offices will be closed. Click here to view the FID Quick Guide.”
END UPDATE
Unionville-Chadds Ford School District schools will open two hours late today, Thursday, Dec. 15.
In an email sent at 5:08 a.m., Superintendent John Sanvile said, “The combination of freezing rain forecasted to hit our area early this morning and temperatures below freezing is a concern. With the uncertainty of what secondary and tertiary road conditions will be like for our regular morning pick-ups and arrivals, as a precaution, we will operate on a two-hour delay today…,” adding that there would be no morning class for TCHS students.
Schools in the Kennett Consolidated School District will also start two hours late, according to the district website. Kennett High School and Kennett Middle School will open at 9:40 a.m. Bancroft, Greenwood and New Garden Elementary Schools will open at 10:45 a.m. The Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center will open at 11:05 a.m.
On Dec 15, 1791, three-fourths of state legislatures ratified the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution — the Bill of Rights. And today is the anniversary of that ratification and is known as Bill of Rights Day.
I sometimes wonder how many U.S. citizens know that, or even care about it. And when they do consider the Bill of Rights, most people tend to speak as if that’s what gives us our liberties. Those amendments do no such thing. They are not permission slips from the government. What they do is act as guarantors of natural or, for those who believe, God-given rights.
Those first 10 amendments do specify some rights but, if you actually read the amendments, they refer to those rights as being antecedent, or in existence even without governmental action. Consider the phrasing of the 1st Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble…”
Notice it does not say that Congress or the Constitution grants those rights. Rather, the Constitution says Congress can’t interfere with those rights. The same holds true for the 2nd Amendment. And it should also be noted that the Constitution doesn’t refer to the rights of citizens, it talks about the rights of the people.
Furthermore, rights are not limited to those specifically mentioned. As the 9th Amendment says: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
And again note, it says rights are retained “by the people.”
One question that needs to be addressed is why the need for those 10 Amendments, which might more properly be called the Bill of Guarantees.
Even though the founders failed to apply the concept of liberty to all people, as they should have, and maybe even because they knew they were wrong in not applying the concept to all, they knew the nature of government was to grow its own power — power over the people. After all, they had seen what Britain had done to the colonies, how the Crown and Parliament disregarded the rights of the colonists. And people, at least those on the state level, knew that an unrestricted national government would pose a danger.
Those amendments were designed to prevent the abuse of power, as stated in the preamble to the Bill of Rights: “The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added…”
Too bad it didn’t always work as designed. From the earliest days of the republic, there was power lust and a desire for government to be construed as superior.
Consider John Adams, one of the loudest voices for independence leading up to our secession from Great Britain. As president, he signed into law the Alien and Sedition Acts which, among other things, made it illegal to insult the president.
While the “alien” part of the law was in response to a possible war with France, the “sedition” part made it illegal to write, publish or even speak anything that could be considered an insult to President Adams, aka “His Rotundity.” It was an attack on free speech and on a free press.
The Alien and Sedition Acts were signed into law in 1797, just six years after the Bill of Rights became the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. Even now, 231 years after, they are still under attack.
Politicians and mainstream media types are playing word games with the concept of rights, using today’s dictionary to give false meaning to what the founders were saying. But what might be the saddest part, is that no one seems to be reminding politicians that they must never violate those guarantees, and too few people care.
People may argue about which of the amendments is the most important, or which few. But the fact is they’re all important. They’re important on their own and in concert with the others. And they are all important or should be, to everyone. They are our guarantees. But, as some say, “Use ‘em or lose ‘em.” And never vote them away.
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.
