Chester CountyPRESS
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas Volume 149, No. 33
INSIDE
Look to the sky this weekend at New Garden Air Show........................3A
Local scouts plant for a good cause......................3B
INDEX Calendar of Events.......2B Opinion..........................7A Obituaries.......................8A Classified......................7B
60 Cents
Wednesday, August 19. 2015
Chatham house fire results in fatality By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
Young campers learn discipline at this summer camp.........................1B
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A fire that raged through the Chatham home of 50-year-old Steven L. Tingley early Monday morning resulted in his death, according to the Pennsylvania State Police. The fire broke out at Tingley’s residence at the corner of Hannum Mill Road and Route 841 at about 1 a.m. on Aug. 17, just north of Chatham Village and about a mile south of Stillwaters Presbyterian Church. Members of the State Police and the West Grove Fire Company were dispatched to the scene, and upon arrival, located Tingley in the home. He was unresponsive. Tingley was removed from the residence and transported to
Jennersville Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. At press time, windows in the home have been boarded, and police crime scene tape encircled the property. The incident is being investigated by the Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Investigation Unit, the Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshal’s Office and the Chester County Fire Marshal’s Office. The West Grove Fire Company was assisted on the scene by the Avondale Fire Company, the Po-Mar-Lin Fire Company, the Kennett Fire Company, the Longwood Fire Company, and members of the Chester County Fire Police. To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, e-mail rgaw@chestercounty.com.
Photo by Richard L. Gaw
An Aug. 17 house fire near the Village of Chatham resulted in one fatality, and is currently under investigation by several police and fire units.
Housing Authority U-CF School Board tangles of Chester County over budget and teacher seeks exemption from contract sticking points By John Chambless Staff Writer The budget approved by the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board in June is still causing some friction, particularly in light of the ongoing contract negotiations in the district. At the board’s Aug. 17 meeting, board president Victor Dupuis announced that the board and administration will meet with a fact-finder from the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, after which the fact-finder will issue a written report by Aug. 31. The board will then vote on the report’s findings at a special Sept. 8 public meeting at the district office. Board member Jeff Hellrung gave his perspective on the contract negotiations, saying that there are three legs to anyone’s retirement plan: “The goal should be to replace 80 to 90 percent of your working income in your retirement,” he said. “That’s the world that most of our constituents live in. With our teachers, we have
a defined benefit plan, and for our teachers who were hired before July 1 of 2011, they earn 2.5 percent per year of their salary, times the number of years they teach. To get an unreduced benefit, they have to teach for 35 years. So if they started teaching right out of college, they might be 57 years old or so. They would get 87.5 percent of their salary, just with their work component of their retirement savings. If they retired at age 62 or so, they could get 100 percent. A teacher that starts later in life can get 2.5 percent per year times 30 years, so that would give them 75 percent of their income for the duration of their retirement period. “In return, teachers hired prior to 2011 pay 7.5 percent of their salary, and the district also pays,” Hellrung continued. “This year, the district pays 25.84 percent. Next year we’re going to pay about 29 percent because our PSERS plan is under-funded. So, in conclusion, teachers have a very generous defined benefit plan. They’re entitled to it. I
don’t begrudge it. But it’s very expensive to the district. So I think the biggest financial obstacle right now is the combination of Act 1 limits on tax increases, with these PSERS rate increases. For that reason, the salary increases are lower than what I would hope they’d be. I just wanted to give you an idea of the dilemma that we have, in hopes of fostering more understanding of what we’re up against. I’m hopeful that we can work all this out and get a resolution that’s satisfactory to both sides.” Regarding the 2.2 percent tax increase passed by the board and administration in June, board member Keith Knauss used several charts, one of which showed the district’s high and improving SAT scores over the past 17 years. “Our district had been known for its good schools. Now we’re known for our great schools,” Knauss said. “What’s remarkable about this progress is that it’s been made with modest spending. We’re Continued on Page 3A
residential inspection fees in Oxford By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer
Vince Donohue, the solicitor for the Housing Authority of Chester County, was at the Oxford Borough Council meeting on Aug. 10 to ask council to consider the request to exempt the Housing Authority from the residential inspection fees that the borough imposes when it inspects apartments. The Housing Authority of Chester County owns the Oxford Terrace Apartments, a 48-unit facility on Market Street. Donahue said that because the Housing Authority is a government agency that is providing housing to senior citizens and disabled residents, many of whom are on a fixed income, it is seeking relief from the $60 per unit fee that Oxford Borough charges when it does inspections every other year. The units in Oxford Terrace already undergo annual compliance inspections, and HUD
A gateway to nature: Land Conservancy opens new headquarters By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
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It can safely be said that over the course of the last decade, the Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County created the 12-mile loop trail that is now the first phase of the Red Clay Greenway Trail System, piece by single piece. Armed with roll-up-thesleeves dedication, vision and the kindness of neighbors, TLC is now forging the next link to the trail system – the Chandler Mill Nature Preserve – which includes the historic bridge that the conservancy group fought tirelessly to save. Indeed, the bridge is about to be preserved for future generations under the ownership of Kennett Township which is collaborating with TLC to convert the century-old structure into a pedestrian-only bridge. Although it is largely known for its link-by-link, step-by-step fortitude, TLC now has a new
home that is so perfectly located in the epicenter of its mission that it seems as if it literally fell from the sky. On July 10, the staff moved from its former headquarters on Route 926 to Walnut Hill, just over the Chandler Mill Bridge in Kennett Square. Operated as a bed and breakfast for 27 years by Sandy and Tom Mills, it served as the longest-running B & B of its kind in Kennett Square. The home traces its beginnings to the 1840s, when it operated as a tenant house to a nearby gristmill. The new location increases the square footage of TLC’s headquarters from 972 square feet to 2,700 square feet. The aquisition of the Walnut Hill home coincides with a generous donation of 45 acres of preserve from the Brokaw family that is located nearby the new headquarters -- all of which has been rolled into the Red Clay Greenway Trail System. “The stars aligned on this,”
inspections are more rigorous than the borough’s, Donahue said, adding that Oxford Terrace Apartments routinely earns high scores on these evaluations. If the borough would grant the request for relief, Donahue said that the Housing Authority would be willing to provide the borough with all the HUD inspection reports that are filed. He added that Phoenixville Borough has a similar ordinance to Oxford’s regarding the inspection fees, and Phoenixville officials have agreed not to impose the fees. Two years ago, the Housing Authority of Chester County sought a similar exemption from the fees and Oxford Borough Council rejected the request at that time. Oxford Borough and the Housing Authority of Chester County have had some issues that have been unresolved over the last few years. The issue that seemed to concern Continued on Page 2A
Property tax fear spreading By Uncle Irvin
Photo by Richard L. Gaw
The Land Conservancy of Southern Chester County recently moved to its new headquarters at the former Walnut Hill Bed and Breakfast on Chandler Mill Road in Kennett Square. Pictured are: (Front Row) Vanessa Braun, Emily Thomas and Executive Director Gwen Lacy; (Second Row) Abbie Kessler and Hannah Greenberg; and (Back Row) Betsy Hepps Pinsky, Mary Armstrong and Sequoia Rock.
said TLC Executive Director Gwen Lacy. “We were bursting at the seams at our other location, and we thought, ‘Wait a second. What if we just purchased the Mills’ house at Walnut Hill?’ The entire process
that enabled us to come here was very organic, and it was just one of those things that you feel it was just meant to be.” The new headquarters won’t just be a place for offices and Continued on Page 5A
The massive downdrafting on people’s lives caused by the Pennsylvania property tax has rapidly shifted from poorer school districts to their wealthier brethren. Township supervisors and borough council members are feeling the lancing in their sides inflicted by their school district members as the schools continue to close massive spending holes by jacking up property taxes. The public is losing local police protection, local fire protection, and local services as property tax millage increases are being sucked up by school boards who are in charge of de-fanging the Continued on Page 5A