Chester County Press 06-06-2018 Edition

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Chester CountyPRESS

www.chestercounty.com

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

Volume 152, No. 23

INSIDE

60 Cents

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

In the wake of school Oxford Area shootings, a Chadds Ford High School’s company steps up

Class of 2018

St. Cornelius School is first in the nation to get bulletproof backpack panels

Cecil County Life magazine

Photo by Steven Hoffman

Octorara Area HS holds expo...4A

Oxford Area High School held its 138th commencement on June 1. Kassandra Echevarria, Luis Davalos, Allison Acuna, and Jessica Fonseca were among the 328 students to receive their diplomas that evening. Please see Page 1B for the story about the graduation ceremony.

Oxford officials host lawmakers to discuss big project

Kennett Square hosts antiques and arts this weekend...6A

INDEX Opinion........................7A Obituaries...................2B Calendar of Events.....4B

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Classifieds..................7B

© 2007 The Chester County Press

Oxford Borough officials are looking to finalize the plans to fund the construction of a new parking garage and administration building. They met with federal and state lawmakers last week to discuss the benefits of the project and to seek additional funding By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer On consecutive days last week, Oxford Borough officials hosted state and federal lawmakers in an effort to finalize the funding plans for the multimodel transportation center project in the town’s commercial district. On Wednesday, May 30, congressman Lloyd Smucker and Kate Schramm, a manager of U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey’s regional office, toured the downtown as borough officials outlined how the project would benefit the entire area. Then, on Thursday, May 31, State Sen. Andrew Dinniman and State Rep. John Lawrence stopped by the Oxford Mainstreet Inc. (OMI) office for an update on the plans. The project, which includes the construction of a 345-space parking garage and a new

borough administrative building, is at a critical point right now. The borough has already secured approximately $4 million in grants from state and county sources, and the borough has committed about $1 million from a gift fund that was donated to the borough for the purposes of constructing a new administration building. The borough is looking to borrow somewhere between $1 million and $1.5 million to help pay for the project. For the borough to keep its own spending in that range, it would need another $1 million to $1.5 million in grants to finalize the plans for funding the project, which has an estimated cost of more than $7.5 million. Borough manager Brian Hoover emphasized that at this point, the parking garage is a shovel-ready project, which makes it Continued on Page 3A

Photo by John Chambless

Robert Vito presented 15 eighth-grade students with their own bulletproof protection on Monday morning.

By John Chambless Staff Writer A Chadds Ford private school took a bold step into a strange new world on Monday morning when every member of its eighthgrade graduating class got a bulletproof panel for their backpacks. Twenty-five staff members at the school also got the Safe Shield, a

patented product making its public debut. Robert Vito, owner of Unequal Technologies, a company based in Glen Mills, handed out the 10-by12-inch panels to the 15 students during a morning assembly at St. Cornelius School that was covered by two local television stations for its groundbreaking subject matter.

With the eighth-graders sitting beside him on the stage, Vito admitted that he hoped they would never have to use the Safe Shield, but “It’s better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it,” he said. “This fits into the backpack and students can forget it’s there, until the moment of need.” Continued on Page 3A

Girls on the Run 5K draws 2,500 to New Garden Flying Field

Photo by Richard L. Gaw

More than 2,500 youngsters, volunteers coaches and parents participated in the “Run the Runway” 5K, held June 3 at the New Garden Flying Field and sponsored by the YMCA of the Greater Brandywine Valley.

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer For the past several months, hundreds of local boys and girls had prepared hard for what awaited them at the tarmac and runway last

Sunday morning at the New Garden Flying Field, and no amount of chilly weather was going to stop them now. An overflow crowd of more than 2,500 that was made up of young girls from the YMCA Greater Brandywine Valley’s Girls

on the Run and Strides program and a small army of volunteers and parents braved an unseasonable cold to participate in the “Run the Runway” 5K race on June 3, on a course that navigated Continued on Page 8A

A day of smiles and farewells for Unionville High School Class of 2018 celebrates the end of their high-school years By John Chambless Staff Writer June 5 was a day to say goodbye to school days and step into the future for the 2018 graduating class of Unionville High School. The school’s 95th annual commencement was held at the Bob Carpenter Convocation Center in Newark, Del., and offered the usual mix of broad smiles, handshakes, heartfelt speeches and congratulations for hundreds of graduates and thousands of family members who came

to cheer them on. School principal James Conley addressed the assembled Unionville students and spoke about “The art of gratitude,” noting how saying thank-you to someone has become a lost art. “Class of 2018, I encourage you to live a life of gratitude,” Conley said. “To truly take the time to thank those around you who have helped to get you to this moment in your young lives. … Put your devices away and spend some significant moments with the individuals in your life as a Continued on Page 2A

Photo by John Chambless

Students toss their caps at the end of the ceremony.


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