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Southern Chester County Connections
Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 153, No. 13
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
‘It needs to be cleaned up, now’
$1.00
Confronting the e-cigarette crisis
An abandoned nursery and aquatic services company in Kennett Township has become both a safety hazard and an eyesore, and it’s angering the residents of an adjacent neighborhood, who say that they’ve had enough By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
tive anger and frustration from a citizen group, which accused the township of not enforcing the clean-up of the long-closed Stephens Garden Creations, Inc. and Stephens Aquatic Services, located at 257 Kennett Pike in Chadds Ford. Just moments after the
township was given the distinction of being named “Audubon Bird Town” by a Students at Hopewell Elementary School in Oxford On a night when Kennett board member of Audubon learned about the dangers of e-cigarettes last week during a program that confronts the growing Township received recogPennsylvania at the towntrend of vaping. See story on Page 1B. nition from a nationally ship's Board of Supervisors known conservation group meeting on March 20, a for its efforts in sustaingroup of ten residents from spoke for nearly an hour Davies cited Section ability and conservation, it the 26-home Hillingham about their frustration and 168-25 of the township’s also absorbed the collecresidential development fear of living adjacent to property maintenance code an abandoned business that -- Items A through G -has been repeatedly cited which the Hillingham group for health and safety viola- believes the company is in tions. The group also shared violation of, specifically photographs with the board Item A, which states that that were recently taken of “Properties subject to this the abandoned property. section shall be kept free “We are unfortunately of weeds, overgrown brush, located next to the night- dead vegetation, trash, mare known as Stephens junk, debris, building mateGarden,” resident Joy rials, any accumulation of Davies began, in a written newspapers, circular, flystatement delivered to the ers, notices (except those board. “For years now, our required by federal, state, residents have appealed to or local law), abandoned Kennett Township to take vehicles, portable storsteps to have Stephens age devices, discarded Garden clean up its personal items including, grounds, and stop dump- but not limited to, furniture, ing chemicals which affect clothing, large and small our trees. These trees were appliances, printed matePhotos by Richard L. Gaw Residents of the Hillingham development brought their frustration to the Kennett planted at great expense to rial or any other items that Township Board of Supervisors on March 20, concerning the lack of clean-up that try to shield our view from give the appearance that the has been done by Stephens Garden Creations, Inc. and Stephens Aquatic Services, what has become a replica property is abandoned.” at 257 Kennett Pike. The Hillingham development can be seen in the background. Continued on Page 4A of a tornado.”
Oxford Borough to seek additional parking garage funding By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer Home & Garden Life
The construction work on a new multimodal transportation center in downtown Oxford will be taking place this year, but there is still time for the borough to secure additional grant funding for the project. At the March 18 meeting, Oxford Borough Council Kennett Township gets Audubon honor...5A
gave borough manager Brian Hoover the approval to file an application for funding from the Chester County Community Revitalization Program (CRP) for the project. Pauline Garcia-Allen, who has facilitated the borough’s efforts to secure grant funding for the parking garage project, said that the CRP grant is one
Toughkenamon intersection undergoing improvements By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
Construction began on March 18 on a project that will improve traffic flow and safety at the intersection of Newark Road and Opinion.......................7A Hillendale Road in New Garden Township. Obituaries...................2B The project is scheduled Classifieds.................4B to be completed in the fall of 2020. The scope of work will include adjusting the horizontal and vertical © 2007 The Chester County Press alignments to improve driver sight distance; constructing a left turn lane to facilitate southbound movements from Newark Road onto eastbound
INDEX
help Oxford Borough pay for the remaining portion of the project. Jim Hillard of Land Grant Surveyors made a brief presentation to the borough council about plans for an expansion of the shipping area at the Flowers Foods-owned Tasty Baking facility in Oxford. About seven years ago, there was an expansion of the food
production area. Now, they need to expand the shipping area to make that aspect of the operations more efficient. A looped conveyor line is planned to get products into an expanded shipping area more efficiently. “Everything they produce there is shipped out within 24 hours,” Hillard Continued on Page 8A
PennEnvironment in Chester County: One climate defender at a time By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
coffee shop in West Chester on a recent Friday, at the end of a week where she had already been everywhere. The extra-large strawberry beverage she enjoyed was merely a brief respite
in a whirlwind tour of the county. Earlier that week, she conducted volunteer education with a few of PennEnvironment’s more than 400 volunteer citizens
Jess Cadorette, the Chester County volunteer coordinaHillendale Road; installing tor for PennEnvironment's guide rail and single-face efforts in the county, sat at a Continued on Page 3A barrier; reconstructing two culverts; road widening; and extending a sewer line along Newark Road through the project limits. When completed, southbound drivers on Newark Road will be able to make a left-hand turn onto Hillendale Road, which is not currently accessible. “This infrastructure improvement project that includes modern safety enhancements to alleviate congestion and move traffic safely is vital to improving the quality of life of Photo courtesy of Garen Meguerian Chester County residents,” Climate PennEnvironment Climate Defender Organizer Jess Cardorette, second
Expected to be completed in fall 2020 Headliners announced for Connective Festival...1B
of the few that would still be available to the borough now that construction has started. Garcia-Allen said that the borough can apply for up to $800,000 through the Chester County Community Revitalization Program. More than half of the project is already being funded through state and county grants, and any additional funding would
Continued on Page 2A
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