South Washington Street, between State and W. Cypress streets, will be closed on Thursday, Jan. 18, and Friday, Jan. 19 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. due to construction.
Two day road closure in Kennett Square Read More »
Kennett Township will recover an additional $56,000 in the embezzlement case involving the former township manager.
The supervisors issued a statement Monday announcing that the township and Brian Gore, former township manager Lisa Moore’s significant other, reached a settlement “regarding potential claims arising out of Moore’s embezzlement of township funds.
“Without admitting or conceding liability or wrongdoing, the parties have determined that it is in their best interests to resolve this dispute,” according to the statement.
The township had a legitimate case against Gore but the agreement makes that point moot.
The statement will likely be brought up at tonight’s supervisors’ meeting, as part of the embezzlement recovery update that has been a mainstay at township meetings since the embezzlement was discovered in 2019.
Gore’s involvement in the embezzlement case surrounds medical benefits he received from the township after Moore allegedly “created a phony marriage to defraud the township, resulting in medical benefits for Gore in excess of $50,000,” according to a press release the supervisors issued in May 2020. At the time, the supervisors said they were “committed to recovering every dollar, and it is wholly appropriate for Moore and Gore to make the township taxpayers whole.”
The Kennett Township supervisors meet tonight at 7 p.m.
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.
Gore settlement in Kennett Township Read More »
As anticipated, Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board directors approved a preliminary budget for the next school year. The vote was 7-0 with two members absent for the Jan. 16 vote.
Director Brian Schartz said the preliminary budget “represents a 5.79 percent increase in total expenditures. Assuming this preliminary level of spending, the historic rate of tax\ collections in state and federal revenues, the adjustments in assessed property values and the changes in market value between Delaware and Chester counties, the resulting millage rates for Chester County would be 33.17 mils, and for Delaware County would be 18.89 mils.”
Those millage rates represent increases of 3.82 percent for Chester County and 12.98 percent for Delaware County for a weighted average increase of 5.77 percent. 
(A mil is a tax of $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.)
Appropriations for the 2024-2025 school year are anticipated to be $106,740,156 with revenues expected to be $106,728,061.
Schartz added that this preliminary budget is “intended to be the worst-case scenario, and the final budget and tax rates are subject to significant revisions between now and the end of the process in June.”
He also acknowledged the disparity in tax rates between the two counties.
“This is entirely due to the statutorily mandated process for assessing taxes across county lines,” he said but added he expects developments that would lower the currently anticipated tax increases.
A vote on the final budget for the next academic year is scheduled for June 17.
Also during the Jan. 16 meeting, directors followed up on three other items discussed during last week’s work session. The board approved spending $39,834 for a new tractor for the groundskeepers. The actual cost is $50,834, but trading in two older work vehicles drops the cost of the new tractor by $11,000.
Directors also voted to spend $562,808 for the replacement of playground equipment at Unionville Elementary and to apply for grant monies toward the purchase of electric school buses.
The district is looking to buy five of the electric buses. If the grant application is approved, the district would get $200,000 for each bus. The actual cost for each bus is $350,000 and the district would have to pick up the remainder of that cost.
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.
U-CF school budget moves forward Read More »
Pennsylvania State Police
Avondale Barracks
• Edward T. Hughes, 68, of West Grove, and Edy Medina-Jimenez, 23, of West Grove were charged with following too closely after a three-vehicle crash on Route 1 south of Bayard Road in East Marlborough Township on Jan. 11, police said. The accident happened at 6:33 a.m. The report said all three vehicles were traveling north on Route 1 when the truck Hughes was driving struck the rear of a car that had stopped at the traffic light, and Medina-Jimenez then struck Hughes’s truck from behind. No injuries were reported, police said.
• Police said Andrew J. Clarke, 28, of Kennett Square, was charged with following too closely following a two-vehicle crash that sent the other driver to the hospital. The accident happened at the Route 1 split in East Marlborough Township on Jan. 12 at 7:31 a.m. According to the police report, both drivers were heading south on the bypass ramp but Hughes was following too closely and struck the other vehicle that had braked suddenly due to traffic conditions. Longwood EMS took the other driver, Anthony E. Vaughn, 60 to Chester County Hospital for treatment of injuries.
• A 19-year-old woman from Bear, Del., was arrested for shoplifting at the East Marlborough Walmart on Jan. 11. The unidentified woman is accused of stealing $170 worth of merchandise.
Police Log Jan. 17: Crashes, theft Read More »
