October 17, 2024 - ChaddsFordLive.com

Around Town Oct. 17

1Z0A3013-scaled-e1722366826899-960x700 — Family fun at Mt. Cuba Center on Saturday, Nov. 2≥

• Enjoy a nature’s play day. Discover the wild side of Mt. Cuba Center with a day of outdoor fun at the center. Take to the open skies with kite-flying; get up close to Mt. Cuba’s trucks and tractors; navigate a nature obstacle course; and more. Embrace your inner explorer on a guided hike through rolling terrain. Food and beverage selections are available for purchase. Free parking for this event is at 1003 Old Wilmington Road, just east of Brackenville Road. It happens on Saturday. Nov. 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The day is included with admission. Get tickets here.

• This Saturday, the Kennett Regional Fire Department will host their first-ever joint Fall Festival on Saturday, Oct. 19, from 2 to 6 p.m. at Po-Mar-Lin Fire Coat 36 Firehouse Drive. The department comprises Po-Mar-Lin, Longwood, and Kennett fire companies. There will be live music, food and canned cocktails by Saloon 151, apple cider and apple cider donuts from Northbrook Marketplace, coffee and treats from Farmer & Co, and family activities such as pumpkin painting, an Autumn Sensory Bin, and crafts provided by the Kennett Library. All three fire companies will be present to answer any questions from the community and will showcase the specialties of each company. The event is free to attend.

Last chance for illuminated fountain performances at Longwood for 2024.

• Longwood Gardens is closing out its Illuminated Fountain Performances for the year on Oct. 26. Watch as colorful fountains dance to stunning Italian melodies … the music of Adele and Prince… spooktacular favorites to get you in the Halloween mood … and much more. Get tickets here.

• The Chadds Township Ford Residents Association and the Brandywine Battlefield Park will hold a flag retirement ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 9, from 2-3 p.m. The event is in honor of Veterans’ Day.

Volunteers are needed for Christmas Parade.

• The West Chester Christmas Parade is accepting applications for 125 parade marshals as 13-foot-tall floats, local Olympians and the 2024 Mummers Champion String Band prepare for the parade on Friday, Dec. 6. Parade marshals ensure spectators are safely on sidewalks, move the parade along and assist with some clean-up. For those who prefer an alternative role, the Greater West Chester Chamber is seeking about 15 volunteers to help with the setup and breakdown of the main stage area before and after the parade. Sign up here, or here.

• Now through Jan. 18, The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick is on display at the Brandywine River Museum of Art. Explore the legacy of Wharton Esherick (1887-1970), one of the most creative and interdisciplinary figures of twentieth-century American art, craft, and design. Co-organized by the Brandywine and the Wharton Esherick Museum (WEM), this major exhibition details the artist’s career from his early woodcut illustrations for books by the avant-garde literati to his revolutionary reimagining of furniture forms as organic sculpture.

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Quick meeting in Pennsbury

_1JF8322-Sinkhole — A sinkhole in the Knolls.

Pennsbury Township supervisors made quick work of a short agenda Wednesday night. They granted conditional use approval for a coffee shop on Ponds Edge Drive and authorized the township engineer to start looking for a company to repair a sinkhole in the Chadds Ford Knolls.

The conditional use hearing was held on Sept. 18 for FRU Property Management and Little Brothers Coffee Roasters. They propose a coffee shop for 4 Ponds Edge Drive.

Solicitor Tom Oeste read the hearing decision, saying there are several conditions.

Approval was given for a drive-thru, but that drive-thru is for the coffee shop only and there may be no additional off-street parking. The applicant must also provide evidence that the coffee shop can be served by “adequate” public water and install whatever modifications are necessary to provide that service. Additionally, there shall be no direct vehicular ingress or egress to and from Route 1.

Oeste also said no signage has been approved, but any proposed signage must meet the township code. Also, allotted parking spaces must be restriped.

The vote to approve was 2-0. Supervisors’ Chair Aaron McIntyre didn’t vote on the matter because he was not at the hearing.

The board also gave engineer Matt Houtman the go-ahead to start the process of soliciting bids to fix a sinkhole at a small bridge on Constitution Drive in the Knolls.

Houtman said the bridge looks fine, “but the footing for the abutment has been undermined.”

He said there isn’t a concern about a car’s tires getting caught in the hole, but it could be a hazard for pedestrians.

“The soil underneath the footing has been undermined to the point where it’s completely under the footing so, the soil which is being retained by the abutment wall is falling into that void and is being washed away. That needs to be corrected sooner rather than later,” Houtman said.

However, during further discussion, Houtman said it would still be a couple of months before work could start. He said it would take about three weeks for him to get the bid documents together, and then potential bidders would need another three to four weeks to analyze and get their bids in.

About Rich Schwartzman

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.