Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 150, No. 30
INSIDE
Destination Delaware special section
60 Cents
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Sewage rates to rise 30 percent in Oxford area Local municipalities may also need to make up the difference on the Oxford Area Sewer Authority’s debtservice payments as a result of significant revenue shortfalls By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer
The Oxford Area Sewer Authority Board approved a 30 percent increase in rates for customers at its meeting on July 20. The new rates will go into effect on Oct. 1, but that could be just the start of the An Oxford business financial pain for local resihelps customers stay dents as the sewer authority attempts to deal with signifiorganized...4A cant revenue shortfalls. Patrick Hughes, a West Nottingham Township representative on the board, said that the sewer authority was not able to make most recent debt-service payment on a $27 million loan that was due on June 25. Another debt-service payment of $637,000 is due on Dec. 25. Even with the whopping rate Martial arts students learn valuable lessons ...11A
increases, the sewer authority may not be able to meet its financial obligations for the rest of the year. Hughes painted a grim picture of the sewer authority’s financial situation during the two-and-a-halfhour meeting. The revenues generated from the rate increases will be used in part to secure new loans to buy some time for the sewer authority until revenues from tapping fees and new customers to the public sewer system increase. The sewer authority secured about $27 million in low-interest loans through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service program and another $5 million was acquired through the H20PA grant Continued on Page 8A
Photo by Jenni Autry/Eventing Nation
Eventing is a popular spectator sport in Europe. Here, Phillip Dutton tackles a difficult course aboard Fernhill Cubalawn in Aachen, Germany.
Chester County riders comprise half of USA Eventing Team at Rio Olympics By Nancy Johnson Correspondent Chester County boasts two riders representing Team USA in Rio as members of the eventing team. Phillip Dutton of West Grove and Boyd Martin of Cochranville each will travel with a primary horse, as well as a reserve mount, to compete in a very tough sport. “I first came to Chester
County because Bruce Davidson [of Unionville] helped me find a farm there to base from,” Dutton said. “I have seen no reason to move, as I think it’s the premier horse community to live in anywhere in the United States.” Eventing can be likened to a triathlon, but on a horse. On each of three successive days, the same horse and rider team compete in a different phase. From its
roots in the military, eventing was designed to test a horse and rider’s discipline, endurance and athleticism. In the first phase, dressage, the horse and rider perform a test of specific movements in an arena. It is the most elegant phase and the only one which is subjective, as judges score each performance on accuracy and smoothness. The second day, the horses and Continued on Page 2A
Public meeting spells out specs of proposed sale
Township seeking $29.5 million price tag to place gun laws offered for New Garden back on books
sewer system
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer Kennett Public Library As people began to gather introduces spy theme at a public meeting on July for kids...1B 25 to discuss the proposed sale of the New Garden Township sewer system, the front of the township meeting room was filled with enough men in suits Calendar of Events......2B to resemble a boardroom Classified....................5B photo shoot. They were all there: memObituaries...................3B bers of the township’s Sewer Opinion........................7A Sale Evaluation Committee, Police Blotter...............6A the Board of Supervisors and various attorneys, engineers and consultants, all of whom came armed with information, legalese and rationale. Yet, it was the team from Aqua Pennsylvania Wastewater, Inc. (Aqua), however, who absorbed most of the spotlight, because they were there to spell out their reasons and intentions for wanting to pay the township $29.5 mil-
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INDEX
© 2007 The Chester County Press
lion to purchase its sewer system. For the last two years, residents of New Garden Township have heard the repeated rumor that the township may sell off their sewer system. In fact, the topic was been on the board’s agenda 18 times over that period and been the focus of five separate written reports. Although no final deal has been reached, Aqua has tendered a hefty offer, one that would alleviate the township from having to invest several millions of dollars over the next few years to repair a severely outdated system. “The board is always looking at our revenues and expenses, as well as how they relate to our assets and liabilities,” said supervisor Randy Geouque, who also serves on the Sewer Sale Evaluation Committee. “The sewer system is probably the township’s biggest
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
asset, but it’s also our biggest liability. As we look at the capital plan for the sewer system, we realize that a substantial investment would need to be made over the next ten years, and would undoubtedly require a significant increase in sewer rates to our customers.” Geouque cited additional reasons for pursuing the sale of the system: increasing regulatory mandates that are being placed on sewer systems, and the increasing costs to maintain systems within these regulatory environments. “During this entire process, the driving factor has not been about money, but what is best both short-term and long-term for our sewer customers, and the township as a whole,” he added. As introduced by company president Steve Tagert, Aqua, based in Kennett
For those Kennett Township residents who waited for the future to arrive on re-enacting gun laws in the township, the future is just about here. By a vote of 3-0 at its July 20 meeting, the township’s Board of Supervisors voted to advertise its currently repealed gun discharge ordinance, in response to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s June decision that declared the amendment to the Commonwealth’s Uniform Firearms Act (Act 192) unconstitutional. Formal re-adoption of the gun discharge ordinance will be included on the board’s Aug. 3 meeting agenda, when it will be expected to be officially approved. By agreeing to take the dormant ordinance off the back burner after more than a year, the board added yet another chapter to a law that has been steeped in controversy. On Dec. 17, 2014, the board voted to repeal its current gun laws as well as pull their name from a lawsuit it had locked its name to a month before, against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and other state leaders, including former Gov. Jim Corbett. The reasons were simple: after spending the better part of a year ironing out its own gun laws, the township opposed the vote by the State’s House and Senate that approved House Bill 80, signed into law on Jan. 6, 2015, which significantly amended the Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act (18 Pa. C.S.A. Section 6101) and cleared the way for the National
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After-the-Bell enrollment is growing, so volunteers are needed Program for middle-school students begins its fall cycle on Sept. 27 By John Chambless Staff Writer The good news is that enrollment in the After-theBell program in Kennett Square increased last year by 25 percent. That means 367 middle-school students had a place to go after school, to do homework, or learn something new from community volunteers. But the increased number of eager students means that more help is needed to keep the program running. After-the-Bell executive Courtesy photo director Kathleen Do wants Hundreds of area middle-school students take part in After-the-Bell activities durto let the community know ing the school year.
how important programs like this are to young people who are at a crossroads in their lives – pursuing education in a positive environment, or having hours after school in empty homes where temptations can lead them in wrong directions. “When After-The-Bell was created in Kennett Square 18 years ago, our founders, John and Denise Wood, and Marshall Newton, believed that people would step forward and lend their experience, their passion, and their time to keep adolescent children Continued on Page 3A