Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 151, No. 29
INSIDE
Landenberg resident creates GoFundMe account to assist family
Community rallies around mother and her children By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
Students learn about flight at annual summer camp...1B
D.A. commends Sheriff’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit...6A
that the family driveway has been surrendered to the creativity of the home’s youngest occupants. So it was without great surprise that Sachs did what he did after he read the story of Landenberg resident Hever Puac Domingo in the May 25 edition of Philly.com. The story, written by staff writer Michael Matza, chronicled the plight of Loida Marival, the wife of Hever and the mother of two daughters: Jendy, a second-grader in the Kennett
Consolidated School District who was born in Guatemala; and Esli, 20 Brian Sachs shares a months old, who was born home with his wife Heather in the United States. and their two small children On May 12, Loida was in Landenberg. riding in a car driven by It’s a busy house of hapher husband in Lancaster piness, filled with positive County, when the messages written in chalk Pennsylvania State Police on blackboards, photoasked Hever to pull over graphs of the family that to the side of the road. appear everywhere, baseAfter he offered the only ball gloves waiting to be identification he had – a used near the front door Guatemalan registration and, owing to the number of – police detained Hever exterior toys, the realization for two hours. Because he was never issued a ticket, received no fine and had no prior criminal record, it remains unclear what the nature of the traffic violation was. Hever was then turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and subsequently sent to York County Prison. Loida is currently living in an apartment in Landenberg with her daughters. After reading the story, Sachs communicated with Matza, who connected him with immigration attorney Lindsey Sweet of the Sweet & Paciorek law firm in Photo by Richard L. Gaw Avondale, who is representLandenberg resident Brian Sachs has created ing the Puac family. a GoFundMe account to help raise money for a Guatemalan family affected by deportation.
Avon Grove 10U team advances in playoffs...8B
INDEX Police Blotter..............6A
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
Seconds after speaker David Unger wrapped up his Calendar of Events......2B presentation that implored Obituaries..................3B the New Garden Township Classifieds..................6B Board of Supervisors to say ‘No’ to gerrymandering in Chester County on July 17, the sound heard in the normally reserved board meeting was as refreshing as it was unexpected. Several people in the audience stood up and applauded. Representing Citizens Commission for Legislature & Congressional Redistricting, Unger excoriated the current Pennsylvania law, which puts state legislators in charge of redistricting and redrawing voting districts,
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Photo by John Chambless
Artist Jamie Wyeth said his father, Andrew, would have been thrilled to see his paintings on stamps.
A day to celebrate Andrew Wyeth On the official ‘Andrew Wyeth Day,’ an overflow crowd packs the Brandywine River Museum of Art By John Chambless Staff Writer With traffic backed up in both directions on Route 1, and cars parked on every available square foot of ground, it was clear that something special was happening at
the Brandywine River Museum of Art on July 12. As the epicenter of Andrew Wyeth Day in Pennsylvania, the museum hosted hundreds of visitors for a ceremony unveiling 12 stamps featuring the late artist’s paintings. Continued on Page 2A
New Garden Oxford Borough Council seeks board encouraged additional grant funding for to support parking garage project redistricting reform
Opinion........................7A
© 2007 The Chester County Press
60 Cents
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
as a means of maximizing their influence, minimizing their accountability and keeping their jobs. “We should be able to choose our legislators and every vote should count, but unfortunately in Pennsylvania, none of these statements is correct,” he said. “The reality is that legislators can now choose their voters and the reality is that many votes don’t make a difference.” The issue of gerrymandering, Unger said, violates state constitutional law, which states that all districts must be geographically compact and contiguous, and that districts cannot unnecessarily divide existing geopolitical entities. Further, Continued on Page 7B
By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer
Oxford Borough Council authorized the submission of a multimodal transportation fund grant application as part of the ongoing process to secure funding for the construction of a parking garage and transportation center in the business district. Steve Krug of Krug Architects and Pauline Garcia-Allen of Econ Partners, were on hand at the July 17 borough council meeting to talk about the grant application and to update borough council about the latest developments related to the project. Krug and Garcia-Allen have served as consultants during the borough’s effort to
construct a parking garage during the last 18 months. Garcia-Allen said that the borough is seeking $250,000 in funding through a Department of Community and Economic Development multimodal fund grant program. If the borough secures the funding, it will be utilized for sidewalks and other upgrades to Second and Coach streets to improve pedestrian safety in areas near the parking garage. The borough has already secured more than $3 million in grant funding for the project, and they still have applications out for additional funding that hasn’t been decided on yet at the county and state level. Garcia-Allen said that they are providing updat-
ed information, whenever necessary, for these grant applications that are still outstanding. While the effort to secure funding continues, borough officials are at work developing a comprehensive parking ordinance that will establish regulations for parking throughout the borough. Through a series of discussions, borough officials are working toward making decisions about parking in the borough, including establishing the rates for parking in the garage. One of the borough’s goals is to have the parking spaces in front of the businesses in town open for customers. That means that store employees and Continued on Page 3A
Program for families with special-needs children gets national award By John Chambless Staff Writer An innovative program that unites families who have children with special needs got a national award recently, but for the two women who started U-PRISE in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District, the main point was to simply help families. District Administration Magazine honors outstanding programs from school districts around the world, and this year, U-CF was named a “District of Distinction” for the U-PRISE program. The magazine is the most widely read publication for school
district leaders nationwide. U-PRISE is a place for parents or guardians of students with special needs to share information, discuss programs, network with other parents and community resources, collaborate with administrators, ask questions, seek advice, and learn more about special education processes. The program was started this year by Dr. Leah Reider, Director of Special Education, and Shannon Brown, Supervisor of Special Education. Last week, Brown answered a few questions about U-PRISE and its early success. Leah Reider (Director of Special Education) and Shannon Brown (Supervisor of Continued on Page 3A
Special Education) presented on U-PRISE at the 2017 Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) Annual Conference.