Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 152, No. 17
INSIDE
Residents Avon Grove softball continue stand has a grand time against township tax increase By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
Landenberg Life magazine
Metal and earth at the Oxford Arts Alliance...1B
Two grand slams in Avon Grove win...8A
INDEX Opinion........................7A Police Blotter.............10A Obituaries...................2B Calendar of Events.....4B Classifieds..................6B
60 Cents
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
The Kennett Township Board of Supervisors meeting on April 18 may have only been half the length of its previous meeting two weeks before, but even though it only clocked in at a little more than two hours, it certainly offered up the same vitriol. From the time the board began the meeting at 7 p.m. to the time they concluded at 9:15 p.m., the board was again confronted by a select number of residents – many of whom were also heard from at the board’s April 4 meeting – for its decision last December to increase the township’s property tax by a whopping 475 percent, in order to help pay for the township’s new emergency services fund. The criticism against the fund served as a backdrop to what some residents perceived has been a frivolous overspending of the township’s money, which also includes its investment with five other municipalities in a new emergency services commission, and its recent purchase of a historic building in the township. Throughout the meeting, supervisors Dr. Richard Leff and Whitney Hoffman, board chairman Scudder Stevens, township manager Lisa Moore and police chief Lydell Nolt heard the words “bloated,” “unsustainable” and “gigantic” from the audience as they attempted to
provide justification for the township’s increase in property taxes, and its spending practices. The questions and concerns began early. Soon after the audience heard the monthly report of the Kennett Fire Company, resident Patrick Rita questioned why the department answers calls outside of its immediate coverage area. “Our taxes support an EMS tax in this township,” Rita said. “Once we exit the township, do we get reimbursed for the time and expertise to pay for the fact that we are paying for people to service a town that is not paying taxes?” Stevens and Moore explained that the formation of the Emergency Services Commission, formed in October 2017, calls the township to pay a 20 percent fair share formula – paid this year in the amount of $470,000 – a figure that contributes to a $1.7 budget that provides fire and EMS services to the township and five other area municipalities. Prior to the formation of the commission, Moore said that the township gave the Kennett and Longwood fire companies $160,000 each a year ($320,000 total) for operating expenses. “There really aren’t any commissions like this in Pennsylvania,” Stevens said. “We are really setting a new precedent for how to address the needs of the community in the broadest sense, and in a
The Avon Grove softball team celebrated a grand slam hit by Megan Kristman during a game on April 20. Kristman’s second inning blast was actually Avon Grove’s second grand slam of the game—starting pitcher Lexi Barnhart also hit one. Please see Page 8A for a recap of the game.
Oxford Borough preparing to put parking garage project out to bid By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer
Oxford Borough Council approved putting the multimodal transportation center project out to bid at its meeting on April 16. Borough manager Brian Hoover said that the action will lead to Oxford having actual costs, rather than just estimates, for the construction of the parking garage, transportation center, and new borough administration building on a parking lot between 2nd Street and 3rd Street. Council voted to authorize putting the project out to bid by a margin of 4-2, contingent on the bid package being reviewed by the borContinued on Page 3A ough’s solicitor, as well as
some of the alternate options being included in the document. Council members Peggy Ann Russell and Robert Ketcham both opted to vote against the motion, even though the action of putting the project out to bid is not the same as voting to allow the project to move forward. Pauline Garcia-Allen, the director of development of Econ Partners, who was enlisted to facilitate the parking garage project, emphasized that there’s no obligation for the borough to accept the bids on any of the work. Obtaining the bids would give Oxford Borough officials real numbers to work with when it comes to costs. Proponents of the parking
garage project view it not only as a way to address the town’s parking needs but, perhaps more importantly, as a key piece of Oxford’s revitalization efforts. Parking garages can be catalysts for economic development in downtown areas. In Oxford’s case, a lack of convenient parking in the business district has, for years, hindered efforts to attract an anchor business—a restaurant or a larger employer—to the downtown. The project has been amazingly successful in attracting grant funding through state and county sources—at the onset of the effort, few people could have predicted that it would Continued on Page 6A
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Bike Kennett planning collaborative ideas for creating trails, sidewalks and bike lanes
© 2007 The Chester County Press
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer In 2016, an idea began to float around Kennett Township and Kennett Square Borough to create a bicycle advocacy group that would link families with activities, and provide input on behalf of bicyclists in the creation of a master plan of bikeways, trails and sidewalks. Kennett Borough resident Josie Marsh, a former comCourtesy photo petitive bicyclist and the Bike Kennett is currently collaborating with area municipalities on projects to cre- mother of two small chilate trails, bike paths and sidewalks throughout Southern Chester County. dren, saw the proposal in
the context of what she was not seeing: a community without a connective bicycle advocacy organization, and the lack of infrastructure substantial enough to support the enthusiasm that would likely result from starting such a group. So Marsh began Bike Kennett in August 2016, and in the past two years, she and others in the group have helped connect families with activities, and municipalities with ideas, in order to create safe opportunities for their residents. Continued on Page 2A
McGovern to compete at regional CrossFit event in June By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer For five consecutive weeks in February and March, Andrew McGovern, the co-owner of the CrossFit Wheelhouse in Avondale, was one of 400,000 people around the world who competed in the first rung of the CrossFit Games Open, a test of endurance, strength and speed. He competed in events that included a 20-minute workout involving rowing on a machine, a clean-and-
jerk event with a dumbbell, and a gymnastic event called “Toes to Bar,” and after all of the times and tabulations were calculated, McGovern finished 279th in the world and 15th out of 13,000 competitors in the Mid-Atlantic region, which includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. McGovern’s strong finish has qualified him to participate in the next phase of he CrossFit games, which will Photo by Richard L. Gaw take place from June 1-3 Andrew McGovern, the co-owner of the CrossFit Wheelhouse in Avondale, was among Continued on Page 6A
the top finishers in the first rung of the CrossFit Games Open, a world-wide event.