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Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 153, No. 15
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Run For Our Kennett Consolidated School Sons is a great District’s proposed final community effort budget totals $88.2 million Event has raised $520,000 over ten years
Henry and Elliot Johnson were at the race again this year.
By JP Phillips Correspondent April 6 arrived as a cloudy and crisp spring morning as the tenth annual Unionville Run For Our Sons wound its way through the rolling terrain of the La Reserve and Fox Lee Manor neighborhoods, starting and ending at Charles F. Patton Middle School. People came out to run, walk, ride scooters, or push strollers. But mostly they came to show support for the Johnson family and their fight against Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Organized by Unionville high school Spanish teacher Joanna Johnson and her Avon Grove tops Bishop husband Paul, the run honShanahan...8A ors their sons Elliot (15) and Henry (12), who both have the disorder. The purpose of the event is to raise community awareness and funds to fight the disorder and one day, hopefully soon, find a cure. Joanna explained the disease’s effects in an infor-
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The Sanderson Museum has a link to the Lincoln assassination...1B
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mational video posted on the Unionville Chadds-Ford School District website. “Duchenne is a fatal genetic disorder that slowly robs people of their muscle strength,” she said. “First they lose their ability to walk, then they lose their ability to use their arms, then they need breathing assistance, and eventually die from heart failure. Survival beyond age 30 is rare, and there is no cure.” Joanna said that in year one of the run, the boys’ disorder was barely noticeable. But now, ten years later, the differences are stark. “Right before last year’s run, Elliot fell and suffered a femur break and has not walked independently since that day,” she said. “Henry can only take a few steps with assistance.” Then she added, “I don’t allow myself to focus on the negative. I focus on what I can do to make a difference. This community has shown me over and over again that you care, and that you are
By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer The Kennett School Board authorized the release of the proposed final budget for the 20192020 school year at its meeting on Monday night. The budget is now available to the public for a 30-day review period, as required by the state. The proposed budget totals $88,253,792 and would require a tax increase of approximately 2.07 percent if it were to be approved as is. That amounts to a $115 tax
increase for the average residential property in the district, according to school board member Michael Finnegan, who serves on the district’s Finance Committee. Overall, projected expenditures are increasing by approximately $2 million over the current school year—an increase of about 2.38 percent. Salaries are increasing by about 2.50 percent. That figure will likely change as some staff members will decide to retire or leave at the end of the current school year. Most of the increases in the
2019-2020 budget, when compared to the spending plan for the current plan, can be attributed to fixed costs like salaries and the contributions to the Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System (PSERS). The school district’s PSERS costs are increasing by about 2.57 percent for the next fiscal year. Finnegan said that district officials are still working on the spending plan so the final budget could be less than the proposed final budget if any Continued on Page 2A
Photos by JP Phillips
Runners begin the 10th annual Run For Our Sons on April 6.
all by my side in this fight, and I really could not be more grateful.” All proceeds go to Parent Project for Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD), a nonprofit group started in 1994. Their mission is to end
Duchenne by investing in research and advocating in Washington, D.C. PPMD has invested more than $50 million and has leveraged over $500 million more since its inception. Joanna said that PPMD
is integral to the progress in finding a cure. There are now 20 drugs in clinical trials. This past January, a promising new gene therapy trial was started. This year’s run raised Continued on Page 6A
East Marlborough supervisors contract for a new environmental resources plan By Chris Barber Correspondent At their April 1 meeting, the East Marlborough Board of Supervisors selected the Brandywine Conservancy to update the township’s Open Space, Recreation and Environmental Resources Plan. The Brandywine Conservancy is a community-based, nonprofit organization based in Chadds Ford that is dedi-
‘Poetry of the Body’ in Kennett Square...8B
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cated to the protection and stewardship of natural and working lands for the public good. The current plan set for update was presented and prepared in 1993 by Glackin Associates and Conservation Advisors. This lengthy plan, presented in book form, is an accounting and inventory using objectives and strategies to address the geography, population, institutions, byways and resources in the township.
It has a stated mission of maintaining the rural character of the township. It recognizes, as well, that growth and changes will occur as time goes by. It also seeks and reports the prevailing public attitudes at the time. It is estimated that the new project will cost slightly more than $51,000, of which $48,300 is in grants, Township Manager Laurie Prysock said at the meeting. In the 26 years since the
present plan was written, much has changed in the township, although many things have not. In 1993, the population of East Marlborough was 4,781, and the annual township budget was listed at $721,000. The stormwater management plan needed updating and the formation of a non-profit land trust was a suggestion about to take shape. Open space was 77 percent of the township area, and more than half
the respondents to surveys favored cluster development with open common spaces, according to the report. Today there are about 7,400 people living in East Marlborough, the annual operating budget is $2.9 million, and the township has revised its sewage treatment ordinances and implemented stormwater management measures. Other things remain the Continued on Page 2A
Township to pursue code enforcement on abandoned garden center By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
At their March 20 meeting, the Kennett Township Board Obituaries...................2B of Supervisors heard the comCalendar of Events.....3B plaints of several residents Classifieds.................4B of the 26-unit Hillingham development, who targeted both their neighbor – the © 2007 The Chester County Press long-closed Stephens Garden Creations, Inc. and Stephens Aquatic Services, located at 257 Kennett Pike – for the unsightly mess it left behind – and the township for not Opinion.......................7A
Continued on Page 3A
Photo by Richard L. Gaw
The Kennett Township Board of Supervisors voted on April 3 to pursue a hearing in District Court immediately, in order to pursue the enforcement of the township’s zoning ordinance and appropriate codes against Stephens Garden Creations, Inc., whose abandoned business has upset the residents of a nearby development.