May 15, 2025 – ChaddsFordLive.com

Road Report May 19 to May 23

PennDOT has announced the following weather-dependent road projects that could affect drivers in the greater Chadds Ford area from Road Report May 19 to May 23. Motorists are urged to allow extra time traveling through one of the construction zones. Work schedules are subject to change.

• From Tuesday, May 27, through Friday, May 30, there will be overnight closures of Route 82, Union Street, between Mulberry Street and Scarlett Avenue in Kennett Square for utility construction. During the closure, motorists will be directed to use Scarlett Avenue, Lafayette Street, South Street, Center Street, and Mulberry Street. Local access will be maintained.

• Tree trimming and removal will cause daytime lane closures on Creek Road between Wylie Terrace and Meetinghouse roads in Birmingham Township through May 31. The work will also cause lane closures on Brandywine Creek Road in Newlin Township between Embreeville and Strasburg roads.

• Tree trimming will also cause daytime lane closures on Route 926 between Folly Hill and Whitestone roads in East Marlborough and Pennsbury townships, and on Lenape Unionville Road between Northbrook and Haines Mill roads in Pocopson Township through the end of May.

• Other roads and municipalities affected by tree trimming work include Brintons Bridge and Creek roads in Birmingham Township, Pocopson and Parkersville roads in Pennsbury Township, Creek Road in Birmingham Township, and Spring Mill and Burnt Mill roads in Kennett Township through July 2.

• Overhead utility work will force daytime lane shifts on the Conchester Highway between Featherbed Lane and Foulk Road through July 25. Utility work will also cause daytime lane shifts on Concord Road between Station Road and Overfield Lane, and between Smithbridge and Valleybrook roads. The work will also cause lane shifts on Smithbridge between Valleybrook and Bethel Road.

• Kennett Square is reporting that the Birch Street Reconstruction Project is scheduled to end in the spring of 2026. During this time, Birch Street will experience rolling road closures where one or both lanes of traffic may be closed for a few hundred feet at a time. In general, the road will be open to local traffic, and road closures will be minimized as much as possible. When both lanes of traffic need to be closed for construction activities, access will be available on both sides of Birch Street, from South Broad Street and South Walnut Street.

• Overhead utility construction will cause daytime lane shifts on Route 52 between the Kennett/Oxford Bypass and Old Baltimore Pike and between Baltimore Pike and Cossart Road in Kennett Township now through Dec. 31.

• Overhead utility work will also cause daytime lane shifts on Baltimore Pike between the Kennett/Oxford Bypass and Walnut Street in Kennett Township through the end of the year.

• Utility and drainage installation will cause daytime lane closures at the intersection of Routes 202 and 926 in Westtown and Thornbury (Chester County) townships through Nov. 13.

• Utility and drainage installation, along with paving, will cause a daytime lane closure at the intersection of Routes 202 and 926 through Nov. 13.

• The Doe Run Road bridge on Route 82 over Doe Run remains closed through September.

• Continuing through early November, motorists should expect daytime lane closures in both directions on Route 1 between the Kennett Oxford Bypass and Greenwood Road in Kennett and East Marlborough townships. The closures are to facilitate widening that 1.3-mile stretch of roadway to three lanes in both directions.

• Construction continues to replace Twin Bridges, the South Creek Road bridge over the Brandywine between Chadds Ford and Pennsbury townships. Work is expected to continue through fall 2025. South Creek Road will be closed 1,200 feet south of Bullock Road and 1.1 miles north of Cossart Road. During the closure, motorists are directed to use U.S. 1, Route 52, Center Meeting Road, and Delaware State Route 100 (Montchanin Road). Bicyclists traveling Bike Route L will be directed to use Bullock Road, Ring Road, Ridge Road, and Delaware State roadway Smithbridge Road.

Road Report May 19 to May 23 Read More »

How to spend $100K

Chadds-Ford

DSC_1008 ideas — Attendees at the Kennett Decides launch event review some of the suggestions made that night.

Kennett Square and the Square Roots Collective are looking for ways to spend $100,000. SRC and Chatham Financial have each kicked in $50,000 and are looking for ways to spend that money to promote artistic social initiatives in the borough.

To that end, the groups involved are soliciting ideas from the public on what people might like to see done. They began asking for ideas on May 1 and will continue asking for suggestions well into July. The official launch of the campaign was on Wednesday, May 14, at the Kennett Library with a discussion about what has been done elsewhere, specifically in Philadelphia, with some guidance and inspiration from Mural Arts Philadelphia. That program has led to more than 4,000 murals painted on buildings and buses.

After a presentation, people attending went into five different break-out groups to make suggestions and put them on sticky notes that they then placed on maps.

Chadds Ford Live asked Luke Zubrod, the chief of staff for SRC, what prompted the idea for Kennett Square.

“Square Roots Collective is about elevating community, and we just thought this was an opportunity to encourage civic participation,” he said, and explained that “elevating community” means encouraging civic participation.

“We believe that to really get at the challenges and opportunities that communities face and have, that it takes individuals and institutions coming together to kind of figure out how communities can grow,” Zubrod said.

He continued by saying the project can help the community because “Beauty is something that is in everyone’s heart. So, the point of this [evening’s presentation] wasn’t to necessarily elevate murals per se, but more to give an example of the kinds of projects that can make the community better.”

Other questions asked were how the project will elevate the community, and what ideas he thinks will do that.

“The beauty of this process is that we’ve set it up so that it’s not our of what would be best that will govern the answer to that question,” he said. “It truly is the community’s idea. Anyone in the community can submit ideas, and anyone who works, lives, or goes to school in Kennett Square on which of the ideas gets funded, and it will most likely be that several ideas that get funded.”

He said some of the ideas likely won’t be funded because they would cost too much, but several, if not many, will be just so long as the total cost is within the $100,000 limit.

“We’ll come up with a series of projects, the community will come up with a series of projects by voting on what they think the community needs,” Zubrod said.

Submissions are not limited to murals. Some ideas already submitted are a monarch butterfly garden, a crosswalk at Union and Fairthorne streets, mushroom benches, a bridge or path to connect Anson Nixon Park with the YMCA pickleball courts, as well as murals on mushroom houses and on traffic control signals.

Zubrod said that once the ideas are in, SRC and the borough will go through a process of determining which ones are financially viable, falling within the $100,000 limit. Then, sometime in September, ballots will go out for people to vote on which of the possible projects they want. Voting will be open for a few months, he added, and the projects will be announced by the end of the year and possibly implemented by next spring.

For more details on the project, go here. Click on the “Actions” drop-down button at the top to submit ideas and to review others already submitted.

How to spend $100K Read More »

Driver in fatal Easter crash identified

Police

It’s now being reported that the driver of the black BMW that flipped over on Routes 1 and 202 in Chadds Ford early Easter morning was Joseph A. Del Sordo, 19, of Media. Those reports came from two news outlets. Chadds Ford Live has asked for confirmation from state police, but there’s been no response yet.

According to earlier police reports, the BMW was speeding up Route 202 and flipped over at the intersection after hitting a pole. Two firearms and two spent shell casings were found inside the car. The female passenger, a 1`7-year-old from Brookhaven, was pronounced dead at the scene, found shot in the head. The driver also had a bullet wound to the head and was taken to Paoli Hospital, where he died days later.

Chadds Ford Live will update this story as more information is released.

Driver in fatal Easter crash identified Read More »

Around Town May 15

Around Town

BalletX 1_Photo Credits Gabriel Bienczycki_Group Shot — BalletX will perform at Longwood Gardens on June 5.

• BalletX is coming to Longwood Gardens on Thursday, June 5 at 7:30 p.m. Philadelphia’s premier contemporary ballet presents an evening of extraordinary dance with a dynamic program of three works intertwining themes of exploration, elevation, and transformation: Mapping Out a Sky, Exalt, and Become a Mountain. Showcasing the power of contemporary ballet, the performance pushes the limits of expression and movement in new, breathtaking ways. Tickets, starting at $28, are on sale now. Go here for tickets and more information.

• The third annual Race for the Watershed Duck Derby & 5K, at Newlin Grist Mill, is Saturday, June 14. This event is a fundraiser to help raise money for watershed protection projects, including controlling erosion along the streambanks, monitoring water quality, and restoring riparian buffers at Newlin Grist Mill. The day will kick off at 9 a.m. with a 5K race on the Park’s trails after a pre-race warmup provided by YogaSix Glen Mills. The Rubber duck races in the creek start at 10:30 a.m. There is a $35 per-runner entry fee for the 5K ($40 for day-of registration). Racing ducks can be “adopted” for $20 per duck or $50 for 3 ducks. Register for the 5K at https://runsignup.com/Race/PA/GlenMills/RacefortheWatershed. Purchase ducks at https://newlingristmill.org/race.

Learn about some famous people buried at Oaklands Cemetery during our pf the Chester County History Center walking tours of the cemetery.

• The Chester County History Center is offering a walking tour of the Historic Oaklands Cemetery this Sunday, May 18, from 11 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., and again on Sunday, May 25, from 1 to 2:45 p.m. Many of West Chester’s leading citizens are buried at Oaklands Cemetery (founded in 1854), but there are many stories that remain untold. Join the education staff of the Chester County History Center to learn true tales of the soldiers, statesmen, lawyers, doctors, musicians, athletes, artists, and more that found their final rest at this garden cemetery outside of West Chester.

• Sunday, June 8, marks the Summer Kickoff for events at the Concord Township Park at 701 Smithbridge Road. The day starts elsewhere with an 8 a.m. bird walk through Collman Trail at Phipps Farm and ends with a 7 p.m. concert in the park with a performance by the Sensational Soul Cruisers. In between are a farmers’ market, yoga in the park, a Pups & Suds Happy Hour, and an official ribbon-cutting reopening the park.

George Thorogood and the Destroyers are coming to The Grand in September.

• Tickets are going on sale Friday, May 16 for George Thorogood and the Destroyers: The Baddest Show on Earth, who will be playing Copeland Hall, the main stage at The Grand on Sunday, Sept.7, at 7 p.m. “If the circus makes everyone feel like a kid again, we’re gonna make you feel like a teenager,” Thorogood said of The Baddest Show on Earth Tour. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m., Friday, and can be purchased online at TheGrandWilmington.org or by calling 302-652-5577.

**Native Plants Sale**. Customers buying native plants at the Brandywine Museum of Art courtyard wait in line to check out. This was the first time for the sale in the renovated courtyard. The annual Mother’s Day Plant Sale was last weekend. Mark Gormel, the Brandywine Conservancy’s senior manager of horticulture, said the plants are all native species and provide a habitat for pollinators.

Around Town May 15 Read More »