May 6, 2025 - ChaddsFordLive.com

Brandywine Flood Study completed

After several years of scrutiny since the flooding from Hurricane Ida, the Brandywine Conservancy and its partners in the project released the Brandywine Flood Study. The conservancy launched the study in August 2023, two years after the storm.

Flooding from Ida caused nearly $45 million in damages in Southeastern Pennsylvania and Northern Delaware. The purpose of the study was to find ways to mitigate damage from future flooding events and possibly prevent flooding in certain areas if possible.

Teaming up with the conservancy were the Chester County Water Resource Authority, the University of Delaware Water Resource Center, and Delaware County. Also working on the project were Stroud Water Research Center, West Chester University, and Meliora Design. The study was funded through grants from FEMA, PEMA, and Chester and Delaware counties in Pennsylvania.

The study teams reached out to a variety of people, residents, business owners, municipal government, and non-profits to review the impact the storm had on them and to solicit recommendations through surveys.

Among the findings mentioned in the executive summary were the facts that only 28 percent of those surveyed had flood insurance, while 79 percent said flooding greatly impacted their ability to travel for work or recreation, and had difficulty getting emergency services. More than 50 percent had property damage, and more than 66 percent said they experienced financial loss.

The summary also mentioned flood mitigation recommendations that include some structural changes, including the evaluation of existing flood control facilities, the various dams and reservoirs along the Brandywine. Some may have to be replaced or removed.

According to Grant DeCosta, the conservancy’s director of community services, the planned removal of the dam beneath Route 1 in Chadds Ford Township would help reduce flooding there.

Also recommended are floodplain restoration and other stormwater recommendations.

Non-structural recommendations include identifying “vulnerable bridge crossings and low-lying roads and paying special attention to roadways and access points that may be cut off by flood waters, which could prevent emergency services from reaching those in need.”

Also needing identification are those municipalities that are divided by a waterway that may require multiple emergency response plans. Various easements and open space preservation ordinances on the local level are to be considered.

The Brandywine Watershed covers 325 square miles, with 303 of those miles, 93 percent, in Pennsylvania, and 23 square miles, 7 percent, in Delaware.

The 20-page executive summary of the study may be found here, and the full 96-page report may be found here.

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.

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Proposed school budget hikes taxes

School & Education

Unless there’s a major change in numbers, taxes in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District will increase again. During a presentation of the proposed final budget, Director of Finance Joe Deady said during the May 5 budget meeting that the proposed budget increases anticipated revenue and expenditures, and with an increase in the school property tax.

Expenditures are anticipated at almost $108.42 million, an increase of almost $2.6 million, or 2.44 percent, over the current budget. The proposed millage rates are 33.91 mils for Chester County property owners in the district and 19.25 mils for Chadds Ford property owners. The rate of increase is 3.99 percent for property owners in the Chester County area of the school district and 3.66 percent for property owners in Chadds Ford, the lone Delaware County municipality in the district.

Those two millage increases amount to a weighted average of 3.92 percent, which is below the 4 percent allowed by the Act 1 index, Deady said.

The impacts of those millage increases equal an additional $344 per year for the average homeowner in Chester County, and $305 per year in Delaware County.

The largest parts of the $108-plus million in expenses are salaries and benefits that total almost $80 million, or 74 percent, according to Deady’s presentation. Adding to the expenditure side is the cost of all-day kindergarten. Full-day kindergarten adds $1,015,272 to the expenditures, but the state is kicking in$94,568, leaving the district to kick in $940,704.

On the revenue side of the ledger, local sources would bring in an anticipated $87,396,092, with $81,749,092 from local taxes. Other sources include $20,323,745 from the state and $636,437 from federal and other sources.

As part of the presentation, Deady also said the district has the fifth-lowest millage rate in both Chester and Delaware County.

Even before Deady’s presentation, soon-to-be-retired Superintendent of Schools John Sanville gave an overview of the budget. He called the 2.44 percent increase in expenses “a number worth noting.”

“What that tells you is that we have a budget year over year that is increasing by less than inflation,” he said.

Sanville added that the district has had budgets over the years that are “responsible, prudent, and sustainable,” despite annual increases in expenses and taxes. Part of the presentation does show that the weighted tax average did drop in the 2020-2021 budget.

He reiterated that the increases “are below inflation and the CPI [consumer price index]. Our weighted tax increase is also below the CPI since 2018-2019 and also below the Act 1 Index.”

A full breakdown of the proposed budget may be found here.

The board will vote on the proposed final budget next week, during the May 12 work session, and then vote on the final budget during the June 16 regular board meeting.

About Rich Schwartzman

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Photo of the Week: For the Addams

Photo of the Week

The Victorian House on the Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art campus has a spooky feel to it on a gray evening, a bit reminiscent of the house on the Addams Family. The building is one of several that will be demolished because of damage from Hurricane Ida flooding.

About Rich Schwartzman

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