Chester County Press 03-15-17 Edition

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Chester CountyPRESS

www.chestercounty.com

Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas

Volume 151, No. 11

INSIDE

60 Cents

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

LaCosta, Schaen run for re-election to Kennett School Board Bowden seeks to represent Region A on the board By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer

Police operation nets 49 drug dealers...8A

Putting on a magical ‘Mary Poppins’...1B

Heather Schaen and Kendra LaCosta, two leaders of the Kennett School Board, are both seeking re-election this year, while Mark Bowden, an awardwinning author, is making his first bid to represent Region A on the board. LaCosta, the current school board president, is seeking her second fouryear term on the school board from Region B (New Garden Township).

INDEX Opinion........................7A

There will likely be a lot of new faces on the Oxford School Board when the reorganization meeting takes place later this year. According to a stillunofficial candidate list on the county’s Voter Services website, there are no incumbents in the races for four seats on the board.

Calendar of Events...10A Police Blotter............11A Obituaries....................2B Classifieds..................4B

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There are, however, plenty of new faces. Bruce Henderson has cross-filed and is seeking the Democratic and Republican nomination for an at-large seat on the school board. Kristen Dean, meanwhile, has filed to earn the Republican nomination for that at-large seat. This at-large seat is currently held by Rebecca Fetterolf, who Continued on Page 3A

More public transportation for southern Chester County? A report by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission looks at the potential for public transit service connecting Southern Chester County and New Castle County in Delaware By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer

A report released earlier this year by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) looked at the potential for more access to public transportation for southern Chester County residents—specifically, public transit service connecting southern Chester County and New Castle County in Delaware. The report concluded that there

is a need to explore public transportation options to solve some of the transit gaps that already exist. According to Amy Bernknopf, a senior transportation planner with the DVRPC, the commission relied on data from the DVRPC Household Travel Survey and from the U.S. Census to determine where commuters are coming from and going to. Approximately 15,675 commuters travel from southern Chester County

to work in New Castle County, while 6,755 commute from New Castle County to southern Chester County for work, with no public transportation options currently in place. “Commuter travel patterns that were identified in the Chester County Public Transportation Plan show that there are more people traveling from southern Chester County into New Castle County for work than vice-versa,” Bernknopf Continued on Page 2A

Part visionary, part gatekeeper

New township manager pointing London Grove toward its future By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer

© 2007 The Chester County Press

Continued on Page 2A

Candidates line up for Oxford School Board By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer

Seeking a solution for Penn intersection...6A

LaCosta has cross-filed, as has Paola Rosas, who is challenging her for the seat. In Region C, which is comprised of Kennett Township and portions of East Marlborough Township, Schaen is runImage from the DVRPC report ning for a fourth term on This graphic from the DVRPC report shows the existing commute flows in and out the board. She has served of Chester County, based on figures from the Chester County Transportation plan. as school board president several times during her 12-year tenure on the board. Vicki Gehrt and Bill Brown have also both cross-filed as candidates in

As a young boy growing up in a firefighting family in Caln Township, Ken Battin jumped on fire trucks and equipment at the Thorndale Fire Department, the same items he would later use when he first became a volunteer firefighter there in 1977. Firefighting was, in many ways, the Battin family business. His cousins served. So did his grandfather, and in fact, his great grandfather even helped build the station where the

Thorndale Fire Department is located. “The first apparatus I ever drove at the department was an antique 1937 Chevy, which all of my family members touched at some point,” Battin said. So it was to no one’s surprise that soon after he began as the township manager for London Grove Township on Jan. 17, Battin joined the West Grove Fire Company as a volunteer. For 24 years, Battin served in East Whiteland Photo by Richard L. Gaw Township, where he was London Grove township manager Ken Battin, second from right, with township the director of the codes receptionist and recycling coordinator Suzanne Sylvina; Lois Zunino of the codes Continued on Page 5A

department; and building code official Charles Shock.

Chadds Ford Art Show marks 68 years By John Chambless Staff Writer There’s no other art show in the region with the pedigree enjoyed by the annual Chadds Ford Art Show. Founded by Betsy Wyeth in 1949, the show – now in its 68th year – returns to the Chadds Ford Elementary School on March 24 and 25, offering original works by 67 artists with both regional and national reputations. This year will also mark the return of Karl Kuerner III, an artist whose family is Photo by John Chambless intertwined with the Wyeth Artist Len Garon, art show chair Nichole Scull and family, and whose home artist Jacalyn Beam. The annual Chadds Ford Art Sale Continued on Page 3A

and Show will be held March 24 and 25.

New Garden, East Marlborough cheapskates By Uncle Irvin It appears that the New Garden supervisors have joined East Marlborough supervisors as traffic cheapskates. New Garden spends no money on the safety problem on Newark Road, while East Marlborough refuses to spend a dime on Route 82 in Unionville. There are devices available now that are less expensive than traffic lights. There are many other mobile lighting devices that can be moved by each township’s police force, as well as cameras that can be installed to catch speeding and reckless drivers. Larger signs may work in some areas. The safety of local roads is the responsibility of the Board of Supervisors, not PennDOT or state police. Why wait until a fatal collision or avoidable accident Continued on Page 3A


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