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Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 151, No. 33
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Four-way stop approved in Franklin Township By John Chambless Staff Writer On Aug. 11, Franklin Township manager Joan McVaugh got a phone call confirming that PennDOT will put a four-way stop at an intersection that has been the focus of community concern for years. The intersection of Appleton and Strickersville roads in Franklin Township has been a longtime concern. Three Amish families are now farming the 108acre property surrounding the intersection, and family members, as well as horse-drawn wagons, must cross the intersection several times each day. Traffic moving north to south on
Appleton Road does not currently stop. Traffic on Strickersville does have to stop, but motorists often assume that the intersection is a four-way stop. The township has unsuccessfully tried to get the intersection turned into a four-way stop several times. PennDOT representatives had previously responded that there weren’t enough reportable accidents to warrant a four-way stop, and State Police officers have reported that the sight distance is adequate on the road. The property has been farmed for years, but the Amish families working on the property are the focus Continued on Page 3A
Parking garage project moves forward in Oxford By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer Through three different votes on Monday night, Oxford Borough Council took the biggest step yet toward authorizing the construction of a parking garage and new borough administration building in downtown Oxford. The parking garage project has been a topic of discussion in Oxford since a comprehensive parking study was completed in 2015. After nearly two years of discussions, there was very little debate before the vote, which was part of a special meeting for borough council. Borough council voted 4-1 in favor of moving forward
Chester County Tax Rates - 2017
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SCH DIST
MUNICIPALITY NAME
CO 17
MILLAGE MPL 16
AG U-CF K O O AG K K AG AG O K AG U-CF O AG U-CF U-CF O AG O
AVONDALE EAST MARLBOROUGH EAST MARLBOROUGH EAST NOTTINGHAM ELK FRANKLIN KENNETT TWP KENNETT SQUARE LONDON BRITAIN LONDON GROVE LOWER OXFORD NEW GARDEN NEW LONDON NEWLIN OXFORD PENN PENNSBURY POCOPSON UPPER OXFORD WEST GROVE WEST NOTTINGHAM
4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369 4.369
4.0000 2.1830 2.1830 0.0000 0.2170 2.4950 0.2000 6.3500 4.6550 1.2500 0.2500 1.6200 1.0000 0.7500 12.2500 0.5300 1.4900 2.2000 0.5000 5.0000 1.3200
SCH 17-18
TOTAL MILLS
29.7700 28.4100 29.8789 31.1484 31.1484 29.7700 29.8789 29.8789 29.7700 29.7700 31.1484 29.8789 29.7700 28.4100 31.1484 29.7700 28.4100 28.4100 31.1484 29.7700 31.1484
38.1390 34.9620 36.4309 35.5174 35.7344 36.6340 34.4479 40.5979 38.7940 35.3890 35.7674 35.8679 35.1390 33.5290 47.7674 34.6690 34.2690 34.9790 36.0174 39.1390 36.8374
AG- Avon Grove School District; U-CF- Unionville-Chadds Ford School District; O-Oxford Area School District; K-Kennett Consolidated School District. Source: Chester County Department of Assessment
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60 Cents
with the parking garage and then authorized two significant expenditures associated with the project, also by the same vote. Council president Ron Hershey and Randy Grace, John Thompson, and Gary Tozzo approved moving forward with the project, while council member Peggy Ann Russell voted against it. Council members Sue Lombardi and Paul Matthews were not present at the meeting. Russell said that she couldn’t vote for the project right now because of uncertainty that still remains regarding funding for the project, and the potential impact that that could have on borough residents. There are also ongoing concerns
about the impact the Oxford Area Sewer Authority’s financial issues might have on taxpayers. Russell said that she regularly hears from residents expressing their concerns about the costs of the parking garage. “I don’t feel comfortable voting for this transit center at this point,” Russell said. She added, however, that her hope is that the parking garage turns out to be the right decision for the borough, and that one day her vote against the project will turn out to be the wrong one. Hershey said that he hears from residents about the parking garage project too, and many of them have voiced their enthusiasm for Continued on Page 3A
School immunization change has some parents scrambling By John Chambless Staff Writer A change in the state school code regarding immunization requirements is creating a last-minute scramble for some local families. The Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board addressed the issue at their Aug. 14 work session, hearing from Sally Palic, the nurse at Patton Middle School. “We have a database that we use to enter immunizations based on documents from the physicians of our students,” she said. “Each
student has a paper medical chart and an electronic chart as well. This summer, the database was updated, and some of the incoming kindergartners and other incoming students popped up in this database as not compliant for this school year. “The fourth polio immunization is a new requirement,” Palic continued. “That affects every student, from kindergarten through grade 12. Seventh grade has the tetanus shot and the meningitis requirements, and grade 12 has Continued on Page 3A
Kennett Square author publishes book about her remarkable mother Josephine B. Pasquarello’s “Love & Loyalty” is the true story of a widowed immigrant Italian mom raising twelve children in 1950s and 1960s Philadelphia By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer
In the second chapter of her book “Love & Loyalty,” Josephine B. Pasquarello writes about the day that her father didn’t come home. “Wednesday, May 11, TV show is looking for old
1955 was the day my family went into a tailspin, a rapid, out-of-control descent with a devastating emotional impact that would be felt for many years to come,” she writes. “Our lives as we knew them would be forever changed.”
Josephine, the tenth of the twelve children, was six years old on that fateful day in May when her father, Mike, did not return home to his wife, Romania, and their family. Despite her young age at the time, Josephine can recall in vivid detail what it was like that evening when her father was not at his spot at the head of the dinner table. Romania Pasquarello knew that there was something
wrong when her husband missed dinner that evening, but she had twelve children to care for so she took care of dinner as if nothing was wrong. She put the children to bed. There was still no sign of her husband. The next day, she walked to Mike Pasquarello’s produce store at 1829 North Seventh Street in South Philadelphia. The door was locked. She knocked. She called out her husband’s name. When
Mike Pasquarello finally answered the door, he wouldn’t let his wife in. He pleaded with her to go home and take care of their Continued on Page 2A
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INDEX Opinion........................7A
West Grove youth center is beneficiary of Lowe’s Heroes project By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
Calendar of Events......2B
Natalie Thomas, who works in the electrical Classifieds..................6B department at the Lowe’s in Avondale, surveyed the Garage Community & Youth Center in West Grove last week, and saw © 2007 The Chester County Press a place of connectivity, resources and education temporarily buried beneath a pile of sawdust, contractPhoto by Richard L. Gaw ing tools and grand plans. Bill Rose, director of operations for The Garage Community & Youth Center, stands Flanked by a team of with Lowe’s Heroes project manager Natalie Thomas and a team of Lowe’s volunObituaries..................3B
Continued on Page 6A
teers, at The Garage’s West Grove location.
On paying school taxes at age 81 By Uncle Irvin I just sent in my 201718 school tax payment to the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District, and I am wondering if I am a hero or a schmuck. My wife and I love our home and have decided Continued on Page 6A