Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 152, No. 28
INSIDE
Meet Mary: Foundation Stop sign placement leads launches opioid to confrontation in awareness campaign that East Marlborough reaches Chester County By John Chambless Staff Writer At the opening of their
Summertime artwork in July 9 meeting, the East Kennett Square...1B Marlborough Township
Board of Supervisors held a hearing on an ordinance that would place several new stop signs in the township. The meeting was straightforward, under 10 minutes long, and was held without incident. When the issue came up for a vote during the formal meeting a little over two hours later, however, resident Dave Adamson – who had been waiting through the whole Kick back under the meeting – was ready to constars for Friday Night front the board. Lights...1B Reading from a prepared statement, he said that stop signs that will be placed at the intersection of Schoolhouse Road and Cascades Boulevard were dangerous and unwarranted, and he questioned the authority of township traffic engineer Jerry Baker, who had recommended the placements. Adamson had appeared
Avon Grove champs...6A
softball
INDEX Opinion........................7A Obituaries...................2B Calendar of Events.....5B Police Blotter...............5B Classifieds..................6B
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before the board several months ago because his property sits at the intersection of Schoolhouse Road and the planned Longwood Preserve community access road. One of the proposals regarding the entrance to the as-yet unbuilt development was to widen Schoolhouse Road and take a small piece of Adamson’s property, paying him for it. At those earlier meetings, Adamson said that developer CJK Associates would have to pay a “fair price” for the property. In subsequent discussions, however, it was decided that stop signs would suffice at the intersection and that paying Adamson for any property was unnecessary. At the July 9 meeting, Adamson took exception to being excluded from the deal, saying that his property “was still available for purchase,” and that Baker had excluded him and was proposing an unsafe solution at the intersection. In response to repeated Continued on Page 4A
Kennett Square Borough Council addresses 120 North Broad Street demolition and more at meeting By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer
© 2007 The Chester County Press
60 Cents
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Kennett Square Borough’s plans to build an expansion to the parking garage are moving forward, and now the borough’s Historical Architectural Review Board (HARB) approved—reluctantly—the application to demolish a borough-owned property at 120 North Broad Street to clear the way for that expansion. At its July 2 meeting, borough council accepted a series of HARB recommendations, including the one pertaining to 120 North
Broad Street. The building has been vacant for a number of years, but previously served as a borough hall and as a district court. As the owner of the building, Kennett Square Borough submitted a letter requesting a certificate of appropriateness for the demolition from the HARB. The letter noted that the original parking garage was designed with the eastern walls built to be removed so that the garage could be expanded to Broad Street. The demolition of Continued on Page 4A
Courtesy photo
Independence Blue Cross Foundation President Lorina Marshall-Blake, with Michael, one of the contributors to the “Someone You Know” campaign.
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer Mary, a resident of Chester County, once worked in the New York City fashion world for a period in the 1970s and 80s, at a time when drug usage was thought be a glamorous accompaniment and accessory to the industry she worked in. When she was in her early 20s, she was introduced to heroin. Soon after she began using, she developed blood clots in her lungs and a 106-degree fever. Her mother came to see her at her East Side apartment building, and saw immediately that her daughter needed medial care. She immediately called for a car that would take them across town to a hospital on the West Side of Manhattan. “It was Columbus Day and the parade was going on down Fifth Avenue,” Mary said. “My mother got out of the car, and told a policeman, ‘Stop this parade. My daughter is dying.’” After they eventually reached the hospital, Mary’s mother asked the attending physician, “Will my daughter live?” The doctor replied that he did not know for certain. “The best I can say for her is that she is young,” he said. Mary was in intensive
Local mom of six set to launch a sanity-saving product for parents By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer When Leeah Toto was still a toddler, she was what her mother Laura likes to call a “diaper ditcher.” A determined diaper ditcher, in fact. Whenever Laura or her husband Nick would put Leeah down for a nap in the crib in their Lincoln University, Pa. home, the sweet girl would wiggle her way free of her clothes and diaper. A toddler, once diaper-less, can unintentionally create a big mess in the crib in no time. This Courtesy photo was the situation that Laura Laura Toto’s Diaper Diva Designs is taking a product and Nick kept facing back to market that will prevent toddlers from ditching their Continued on Page 2A
diapers while they take naps or sleep at bedtime.
care for the next 12 days, remained the hospital for another six weeks, and was then released to her first rehabilitation treatment, but 10 years later, however, her addiction did not end, but intensified. She was living in Harlem and copping heroin every day to feed her habit, and even her family’s decision to take her young daughter from her could not wrestle her life away from her demons. “I felt I was the worst person in the world,” she said. “Shame increases drug use, and I ended up with bacteria from using dirty needles. I went back to a hospital and was told by a doctor, ‘If you use heroin again, you will die.’ After being released six weeks later, I immediately copped heroin, and said to myself in the mirror, ‘This may kill me, but everyone will be better off without me.’” She then injected heroin into her neck. Luckily, she survived, and several years later, after repeated visits to rehab and six months at a halfway house in Minnesota, Mary declared herself sober on July 26, 1984. “I didn’t think there was help available, and I went to rehab thinking, ‘There is no way out of this. I should be dead,’” Mary said. “What changed for me was when I discovered
through rehab that I had an illness, a disease, and when that realization came to me – that I learned that I was a sick person and not a bad person – the compulsion to do drugs was released from me. “And that’s when I began my recovery.” Now Mary’s story – and the stories of other residents of southeastern Pennsylvania, including Chester County – have been woven into a new multimedia awareness campaign called “Someone You Know,” developed by the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, that is designed to reduce the stigma of opioid misuse and inspire hope in people seeking help with addiction and recovery. The campaign features a mix of print and outdoor advertising, personal videos, and print stories from people affected by opioid misuse, such as men and women in active recovery, a mother who lost her son to an opioid overdose, and a grandmother raising her granddaughter while her son gets treatment. The Foundation is collaborating with the Justice Center for Research at Penn State University to enlist the individuals who have already shared their stories as part of the campaign. “Through bold, direct, and highly personal stories, we Continued on Page 3A
Teachers union stranglehold cut In one swoop, the U.S. Supreme Court has removed the chokehold that teacher unions (and all municipal employee unions) had on their non-members. The unions forced management, in their contracts, to compel all employees covered by collective bargaining to pay dues to the union that were checked-off each paycheck from those employees who chose not to belong! Union dues are used for any purpose the union sees fit, including political action. While this abuse of teacher union power has been removed, there are still areas that need to be addressed: Individual teacher reviews and a merit pay system must be instituted to reward good teachers; Tenure rules need to be changed so that ineffective teachers can be terminated and replaced; and These reforms are essential to maximize tax dollars in public education. (This is part of an occasional column written by Uncle Irvin. As always, the column is the opinion of Uncle Irvin, and is not a news story.)