Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 149, No. 49
60 Cents
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
U-CF School Board appoints new members and approves proposed preliminary budget
INSIDE
By John Chambless Staff Writer
‘Moveable Feast’ showcases Kennett Square dining and historic sites............1B
Photo by Steven Hoffman
Santa and Mrs. Claus were seemingly everywhere this past week, making stops throughout southern Chester County as Kennett Square, Oxford, and West Grove celebrated the arrival of the holiday season with special events. Please see our Christmas & New Year’s Guide inside this issue for stories and photos.
Poor shooting leads to Unionville loss.........4B
Budget approved in East Marlborough as Walker steps down from supervisors By John Chambless Staff Writer Cuyler Walker closed out 18 years of service on the East Marlborough Township Board of Supervisors on Dec. 7 with a meeting that addressed several of the issues he has faced throughout his tenure – budgets, traffic and construction in the
An Oxford Area High School swimmer is rewriting the record books......................5B
INDEX Calendar of Events......3B
told the board. “And I’m grateful to the residents of the township who have allowed me to serve. I’m confident that the township is in good hands.” The board approved a new ordinance that will limit truck traffic on Doe Run Road which has been causing damage to the pavement. The ordinance, Continued on Page 2A
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer At the time Dr. Avi Weiner
Opinion........................8A afflicted with obstructive
sleep apnea was one of the furthest things from his mind. Weiner was right in the middle of a post-graduate residency in General Dentistry at the Montefiore
Medical Center in New York City, when his father, Dr. Mark Weiner, a wellrespected neurologist in Boston, had become a board certified sleep physician. One of the things the elder Dr. Weiner saw in his patients was that some – not all – were not responding to the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine, commonly known as a CPAP, which has generally
been considered the gold standard of sleep apnea treatments for several years. “My father called me and said, ‘You’re a dentist, Avi. I’ve heard that there could be some kind of dental treatment for sleep apnea. Why don’t you look into it?” Weiner said. “It was early in my training, and I told him, ‘Dad, I’m learning how Photo by Richard L. Gaw to do fillings and crowns. Dr. Avi Weiner, DMD, of Avondale Family & Cosmetic Continued on Page 5A
Dentistry.
New book celebrates the Avon Grove basketball team that won a state championship in 1970 By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer
© 2007 The Chester County Press
Continued on Page 2A
Avondale dentistry program offers alternative for sleep apnea patients
Classified....................8B was studying to become Obituaries...................6A a dentist, helping those Police Blotter..............4A
township. Walker was presented with a framed antique map of the township, and board member Richard Hannum thanked him for his 18 years on the board – 10 of which were spent as board president. “Your work on this board has been unparalleled,” Hannum said. “It’s been an honor to work with you,” Walker
The Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board appointed its new members on Dec. 7 and quickly got down to the business of approving the proposed preliminary budget for the 2016-17 school year. The board now includes Elise Anderson, Carolyn Daniels, Victor Dupuis, Jeff Hellrung, Gregg Lindner, John Murphy, Michael Rock, Robert Sage and Steve Simonson. At the organization meeting, Dupuis was unanimously re-elected as board president. The voting for vice-president came down to seven votes for Hellrung and two votes for Simonson, so Hellrung will be serving as vicepresident under Dupuis. The brief meeting that followed included approving the purchase of a replacement truck in the amount of $40,612.55, and the approval of bids for liquid fuel for the coming school year. The main agenda item was approving the pro-
posed preliminary budget, which at this point totals $83,679,685 in total appropriations. Adoption of the preliminary budget is expected on Jan. 25, and adoption of the final budget and the levying of real estate taxes is expected on June 20. Robert Cochran, the district’s director of business and operations, outlined the budget process for the new members of the board. “This budget calls for $855,000 worth of exceptions,” Cochran explained, with a 5.6 percent increase in Chester County millage, and a 5.9 percent increase in Delaware County. The weighted average is a 5.66 millage increase. “That is over the Act One Index by $2,120,000 of expenditures that will need to be cut,” Cochran continued. “It is over the Act One plus exceptions limit by $1,170,000. So we will be looking at that in the ensuing months within the administration to bring this budget
Forty-five years ago, the Avon Grove High School boys’ basketball team made history by becoming the first team from Chester County to win a Pennsylvania State Championship in the sport. A new book by R. Scott Steele recalls that magical championship season and celebrates the accomplishments of the players and coaches on the team. Steele began work on “Champions in Every Sense of the Word” in December of 2014, and finished the project in less than a year. “I wanted to write this book because it’s a great local sports story,” Steele explained during an interview in late November. “I also wanted to write it because this was a part of
my high school experience. As an eighth-grader, I was walking the same school halls as the players on the team. I went to many of the games. It was time to put their story in print.” Steele writes in the book’s introduction that the basketball team’s coach, Bill Miller, a health and physical education teacher, had a talented starting lineup for the 1969-1970 season, but those starters were supported by bench players who delivered at key moments throughout the season. The starting lineup included a front court of junior center Jerry DuVall and forwards Garry White and Barry White. The Whites, twin brothers, were both seniors that year. The back court was comprised of a pair of senior guards, Mike Ferron and Allen Boddy. When
Miller looked to the bench, there were seniors Tom Lamborn, Fred Gebhart, and Austin Maxwell, and juniors Barry Frank, Ken Brown, and Bucky Brown. Steele interviewed many
people, including all five starters, as he was doing his research for the book. Four of the five starters still live locally, while Steele talked to Ferron, now a Texas
Leaders belie rural character By Uncle Irvin
Continued on Page 3A
Photo by Steven Hoffman
R. Scott Steele, pictured in the building dedicated to West Grove history, has written a book about the Avon Grove High School basketball team’s memorable run to the state championship in 1970.
It seems that Kennett Township Supervisors are getting ready for an explosion in the township’s population, recently passing three ordinances to control noise, loitering, and conduct of those under 18. These ordinances provide for fines of as much as $100. Supervisors Scudder Stevens, Richard Leff and Robert Hammaker apparently feel compelled to earn their $35 monthly stipend by adopting “scorched earth” ordinances that Continued on Page 5A