Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 152, No. 12
60 Cents
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
INSIDE New Garden to use open
U-CF mascot space funds to acquire question dominates meeting as St. Anthony in the Hills controversy expands By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
Following nearly an hour of public comment that fluctuated between overwhelming support and hard questioning, the New Garden Township Historic Chester County Board of Supervisors voted deed on display in West 5-0 to pass a resolution that Chester...4A commits the township to use money from its’ open space fund to acquire the 137.5acre St. Anthony in the Hills, for the purpose of eventually converting the property to a township park. The decision was reached at a public hearing held on March 19 at the New Garden Township building. Currently, the township has a letter of intent filed with the owner of the property, St. Anthony of Padua Parish in The enduring ties between Wilmington, but does not yet have an agreement of sale. the U.S. and Cuba...1B The township’s next step will be to negotiate an agreement of sale with St. Anthony’s, and bring the agreement of
By John Chambless Staff Writer
Photo by Richard L. Gaw
New Garden Township’s Board of Supervisors agreed on March 19 to use money from the township’s open space fund to acquire the 137.5-acre St. Anthony in the Hills.
sale back to the public at a future board meeting, for consideration and approval by the board. While the purchase amount of the proposed expenditure was not disclosed at the hearing, it was shared that the open space fund balance
currently stands at $1.97 million. The fund earns about $400,000 every year trough the township’s earned income tax. The hearing was dotted with comments that said that the acquisition of a Continued on Page 3A
There was plenty of work on the agenda at the March 19 meeting of the UnionvilleChadds Ford School Board, but the issue of the Indian mascot of Unionville High School dominated the evening. A news crew from a local Fox News affiliate was set up at the back of the Unionville Elementary School gym, where the meeting was held. Several residents came to the meeting to address what they say is an attempt to eliminate the mascot. School Board president Victor Dupuis opened the meeting by reading a statement. “Some of you are here about the topic of the school mascot,” he said. “A few vocal antagonists on this issue have flooded our community with false and derogatory statements regarding our district, our administration, our faculty and staff, and most impo-
rantly our students, in misleading social media and news articles. There is no recommendation by the administration that could potentially remove the Indian mascot. There is no vote, no debate, no agenda item scheduled by this board. What is going on is a conversation among a group of high school students on a variety of topics around inclusion and tolerance. The topic of the Indian mascot was going to be a subject of their conversation. Instead, the fake news frenzy – that was particularly poorly role modeled by adults who want this to be an inflammatory debate – made it nearly impossible for these students to even engage in a conversation. “The administration is taking this as a learning experience for the students, and is bringing in facilitators to help them role model to their community on how certain topics can be handled in a mature manner,”
Large crowd turns out for Oxford parking Therapist seeks to work with KCSD garage discussion Words and images at Oxford Arts Alliance ...4B
INDEX Opinion........................7A Obituaries...................2B Calendar of Events.....3B
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By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer The March 19 meeting of Oxford Borough Council was moved from borough hall to a larger venue—the Oxford Area Senior Center—to accommodate a big crowd as the proposed parking garage project was once again at the forefront of a council agenda. Approximately 50 residents turned out for the meeting, and a lively discussion ensued as borough council listened to numerous residents and business owners as they expressed their views regarding the project. Some of the comments were in favor of the parking garage, while other residents had concerns about the impact the parking garage will have on the borough. Wilson King, a longtime business and property owner in the commercial district, talked about how organizations like the Oxford Arts Alliance are bringing more people to the downtown. He
said that the parking garage is already needed, and the demand for parking will only continue to grow in the coming years. “I think, in the next ten years, Oxford is going to get better and better,” King said. Judy Petersen, the executive director of Oxford Arts Alliance, echoed King’s sentiments. She said that the Oxford Arts Alliance employs 17 people and brings about 150 students to town each week for the various classes and programs that the Arts Alliance offers. The Arts Alliance also attracts many visitors to town for its gallery shows. Petersen said that the two most frequently asked questions from visitors is where to eat in town and where to park—and she believes that the parking garage will help. “I’m glad that the parking garage is coming in,” Petersen said. Others were less enthusiastic about the parking garage project.
Borough resident Dick Winchester talked about the ongoing financial woes of the Oxford Area Sewer Authority. Oxford Borough is one of four member municipalities of the sewer authority, and the organization has struggled financially since it missed debt-service payments on a $27 million USDA loan in 2016. Winchester expressed concerns that the borough and the other member municipalities will be called upon later this year to make good on the debt-service payments that the sewer authority is late on, and the financial position that this would put the borough in. The sewer authority has raised rates and taken steps to improve the financial situation, but still is not on strong enough financial ground to meet the obligations, leaving a potential burden for local residents to be concerned about. “The elephant in the room is the Oxford Area Sewer Continued on Page 3A
Continued on Page 2A
on school safety initiatives
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer On February 14, a mass shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that resulted in the deaths of 17 people and the wounding of 17 others. It became one of the world’s deadliest school massacres on record, and just the latest in a continuum of school tragedies that have burned names like Sandy Hook and Columbine into the consciousness of America. As she watched the events unfold on television and social media over the next few days, Winden Rowe, M.S., a Kennett Square resident, therapist and the mother of two teenage sons who are students in the Kennett Consolidated
School District, feared that the Florida shooting, on the heels of countless other tragedies just like it, had become just the latest stopping off point for a once seething rage against violence that was tapering off on its way to full acceptance. She wrote a letter to KCSD Superintendent Dr. Barry Tomasetti that detailed her rage against complacency, both in the community and what she perceived was also true in the school district itself. In short, Rowe wanted to work with the school district on finding ways to address the causes of school shootings, not just reactive protocols. “Silence in anything is cosignatory, and irresponsible in this matter,” she wrote. Continued on Page 9A
Thomas Macaluso, the owner of a beloved bookstore, passes away at the age of 85 By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer Thomas Macaluso, the owner of Macaluso’s Rare and Fine Books, Maps, and Prints, and a lifelong lover of learning and literature, passed away at the Chester County Hospital on Thursday, March 15. He was 85. Macaluso was a college professor for 37 years. He taught English at Monmouth College in New Jersey, Ohio State University and at Delaware County Community College. He and his wife Brenda owned and operated Macaluso Rare & Fine Books in Kennett Square for more than 40 years. The bookstore featured six rooms where
approximately 25,000 rare books, maps, and prints were lovingly on display. Macaluso’s Rare and Fine Books was one of Kennett Square’s most distinctive businesses, and was once featured in a New York Times article, “36 Hours in the Brandywine Valley,” that was published in 2013. Gene Pisasale, a local historian and author, described Macaluso as a rarity―a lover of books in the digital age. “He was the owner of a bookstore when giants like Borders have long since closed up operations and others are struggling to survive,” Pisasale said. “Yet, walking into his store, one immediately gets the sense that he pursued this not for
Courtesy photo
Thomas Macaluso, pictured surrounded by great books at Macaluso’s Rare and Fine Books, Maps, and Prints in Kennett Square.
profit so much as for the love great works of literature and back hundreds of years. He of learning and literature. rarities―like signed first told me he had owned and Continued on Page 3A He was quite familiar with editions of classics going