Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 159, No. 5
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
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New Garden Township water study reports high levels of nitrates in four tributaries By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer As the new year begins, New Garden Township finds itself not only grappling with how to alleviate high levels of Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) emissions from outdoor fresh mushroom production facilities throughout the township, but the recent news that its waterways are contaminated with harmful nitrates.
INSIDE
A water sample study conducted in the township last fall revealed extremely high levels of nitrates at four tributaries that greatly exceeded safety standards for drinking water established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The study was facilitated by Dr. Gerald Kauffman of the University’s Water Resource Center and President of the National Institute for Water
Sodium and Sulfur ranged between a little over the standard to a recorded level of 72.873 milligrams per liter of Calcium at one tributary. The results of the study were presented at the Jan. 27 Board of Supervisors meeting by township resident Don Morgan, who partnered with Kauffman on the testing. Kauffman and the University’s Water Resources Center work with
local, state and regional governments in Delaware, the Delaware Valley and along the Eastern Seaboard in poviding water resources planning and policy assistance. These potentially harmful levels of nitrates in the township’s water may be tied to the township’s proximity to the agricultural industry. In its 2018 study, “Drinking Water Nitrate and Human Health: An Updated
Review,” the National Library of Medicine wrote that nitrate levels in water resources have increased in Continued on Page 2A
At Lincoln University press conference, non-profit announces availability of grants for HBCUs By Chris Barber Contributing Writer Lincoln University stands
Makerspace plans underway at Avon Grove High to receive a $2 million grant for capacity-building School...4A
if its request for the funding is deemed compelling and it is among the top eight of 32 university applicants applying. Harry Williams, the president of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund,
The restoration of Barnard Station...1B
Resources. The testing studied the results of water samples taken on Sept. 21 at four locations – three along the White Clay Creek and one at a Red Clay Creek tributary. While levels of Aluminum, Boron, Copper, Iron, Manganese, Phosphorous, Zinc and Aluminum Nitrogen fell below the EPA’s standard of 10 milligrams per liter, the recorded amounts of Magnesium, Potassium,
which is sponsoring the grants, hosted a press conference at Lincoln University’s Vail Hall on Jan. 24 to announce the news and explain details. Williams is also the former President of Delaware State University. During the conference, Williams said that Jan. 24 marked the 32nd anniversary of the death of Marshall, who served as the first
Black Supreme Court justice and one of Lincoln’s most famous graduates. The Thurgood Marshall College Fund is a large charitable organization that helps support its 53-member historically Black colleges and universities. Williams said $25 million, which will be distributed among eight colleges, is competitive and designated for infrastructure and inno-
Features refurbished general store and six-bedroom home
vation. It is not a tuition program. The outcome of the contributions, he said, will hopefully increase enrollment and retention rates in those recipient colleges. The source of the money that came to Thurgood Continued on Page 2A Photo by Chris Barber
Thurgood Marshall College Fund President Harry Williams announced the availability of grants at a Lincoln University press conference last Friday.
FROM OUR LENS
Landenberg Store, Hotel for sale, again
Art, in celebration
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Photo by Richard L. Gaw
The upgraded Landenberg Store has doubled its sales since it was last sold in 2023.
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer Beginning in 2005, the Landenberg Store, as well as the Landenberg Hotel and a nearby four-unit wool house structure, were owned and managed by Bill and Beth Skalish, but after
17 years of stewardship, the couple placed Landenberg Village, LLC up for sale in August of 2023. In less than a month, Fenix Capital Group, a real estate company that specializes in creating innovative and sustainable projects in
Courtesy image
Landenberg artist Chad Cortez Everett’s work is being featured as part of “Here and Now,” an Afro-Centric exhibition celebrating Black History Month at the Newark Arts Alliance that is on view through Feb. 13. Everett will host a reception on Feb. 14 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The Newark Arts Alliance is located at 207 Louviers Drive, Newark, Del. To learn more about Chad Cortez Everett, visit www.chadceverettart.com.
Continued on Page 3A
New exhibit at Brandywine Museum of Art opens on Feb. 15
Where the bad girl wins: Celebrating the work of artist Barbara Shermund By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer In the mid-1920s, when Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant began to imagine a magazine that would capture the erudite sophistication, humor and literary wit of New York City, they sought out writers and artists at a time when the island of Manhattan was the cultural capital of the universe.
They called the magazine The New Yorker. They found the writers Dorothy Parker, E.B. White and James Thurber, hired cartoonists Peter Arno, Saul Steinberg and Whitney Darrow, Jr., and in January 1926, the magazine debuted the work of Barbara Shermund on the magazine’s cover. For the next five decades, over 600 of Shermund’s cartoons were published in the mag-
azine, including nine cover illustrations. Her images illuminated the rise of early feminism, and her characters – mostly female – freely spoke their minds against the grain of the proper decorum of the time. Beginning on Feb. 15 and extending through June 1, visitors to the Brandywine Museum of Art will get to step inside the party Continued on Page 2A
Images courtesy of the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection and Records, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.
The work of cartoonist Barbara Shermund – seen here in a self-portrait – will be shown in “Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund,” which will premiere on Feb. 15 at the Brandywine Museum of Art.