Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 157, No. 34
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
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Kennett School Board presents building plans at Act 34 hearing By Chris Barber Contributing Writer The Kennett Consolidated School District board presented its plans for two new elementary school buildings at an Act 34 hearing in a mostly empty room at Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center on Aug. 14. Act 34 hearings are public meetings mandated by the state and applied to districts that are planning a significant building project. The hearings are described as a chance for the public to see what is coming and to
INSIDE
provide those individuals an opportunity to express their own opinions or ask questions about the details of the project. Although no one from the public attended, the board and building contractors proceeded with the meeting twice consecutively that evening: once for New Garden Elementary School and once for Greenwood Elementary School. The hearing was publicly broadcast online, officials said. District CFO Mark Tracy was tasked with introducing the speakers and describing
the planning process up to that point. He also announced that this was a review of decisions already arrived at. Nothing new was to be announced that evening. Tracy said that his personal anticipation of elementary school building projects to replace the current New Garden and Greenwood elementary schools went back many years. In fact, he said, when he was hired by the district in 2001 and toured the buildings, it occurred to him that some day he would be involved in Act 34 hearings for those facilities.
New Garden Hills’ planting project taking root
New demonstration project groundbreaking...1B
aging schools,” he said. He added that the board is not only thinking of the students in their planning, but the needs of the community as well. “The board has done its best to determine what is best for the community,” he said. Tracy recounted what the board has done so far in the process: There has been a feasibility study in 2019, an enrollment projection in 2021 and another feasibility study by Breslin Architects in 2022. Tracy’s first task at the
hearing was to call upon legal counsel Colleen Degnan to introduce the legislation that prompts Act 34 hearings. She was followed by architect Michael Bell of Breslin Architects and Henry Guarriello of D’Huy Engineering, and then a review of financing options by Jamie Doyle. Bell presented diagrams and sketches of the two new proposed buildings in the successive hearings at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Both elementary school plans showed two adjacent Continued on Page 2A
FROM OUR LENS
By Richard L. GaW Staff Writer
The Quiet Man...4A The Mushroom Festival comes to Kennett Square September 9 & 10
Tracy described both schools as “aging” and each is over 55 years old. New Garden was opened in 1957 and Greenwood opened in 1963. In that connection, Tracy also praised the maintenance crew of the district for keeping the buildings clean and safe all these years. Still, he acknowledged that the time has come to address the building conditions for both schools. “The district has identified the need to address the capital needs and educational program deficiencies at the
Bike ready, family ready
In the middle of the black-and-white, page-turning business of the Aug. 21 New Garden Board of Supervisors meeting, another color took center stage, and it was the color of nature. Township resident Stan Lukoff, a master watershed steward with certification from Penn State Extension and a key component of the township’s efforts to provide education about the importance of plantings to the environment, gave an update of a year-long project that has created a riparian buffer and live stake nursery in the southeastern quadrant of New Garden Hills. A riparian buffer is an area adjacent to a stream, lake or wetland that contains a combination of trees, shrubs and/or other perennial plants and is managed differently from the surrounding landscape, primarily to provide conservation benefits like improved water quality, erosion and flood control, food for wildlife, as well as serve as a deterrent to flooding and low stream flows. Similarly, live staking of shrubs helps to stabilize stream banks, prevents erosion, and filters nutrients and other pollution from upstream runoff. Originally approved by the township in April of 2022, the project received a $33,000 grant as well as an additional $34,000 in in-kind contributions that kick-started the project last September with site clearing, invasive and dead tree removal, mowing and
Photo by HaLeigh Abbott
Members of Bike Kennett joined with local officials on Aug. 17 for the official opening of the Kennett Bike Park .
Continued on Page 3A
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‘Stop the insanity’
© 2007 The Chester County Press
Supervisor slams PECO at township board meeting By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer As the Aug. 16 Kennett Township Board of Supervisors meeting was coming to a close, supervisor Scudder Stevens used the public comment portion to deliver a sharp criticism of PECO on the heels of the Aug. 7 severe storm that saw PECO power lines throughout Chester County damaged by fallen trees
that left as many as 27,000 county customers without power. Referencing his handwritten notes on a yellow legal pad, Stevens delivered a ten-minute diatribe against the power company that was preceded by his expression of gratitude to the PECO employees who work to restore power during sever weather incidents – several from states other than Pennsylvania.
Despite the company’s best effort to restore power during severe storms, Stevens said the company is at fault for not developing underground cabling which would have prevented the power outages that occurred throughout the township and the entire county on Aug. 7. “Early on as a supervisor, I expressed a concern that Photos courtesy of Kennett Township Public Works Department PECO would continually PECO power lines were damaged along several roads Continued on Page 2A
in Kennett Township on Aug. 7.
State Police continue search for missing Lower Oxford Township woman The Pennsylvania State Police Troop J - Avondale Station is continuing its search for 44-year-old Linda Teti of Lower Oxford Township. She has been missing for months. Teti is described as a fivefoot-one, white female with brown hair and brown eyes. She often wears a headband. She has a rose tattoo
on her chest, “Teti” tattooed on her arm, and a large scar on her right hand. Teti was last seen several months ago. She frequents the Kensington and Hunting Park areas of Philadelphia. Any person with information about her whearabouts is asked to contact the Pennsylvania State Police Avondale Station at 610-
268-2022 or anonymously contact the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers toll free at 1-800-4PA-TIPS (8477) or online at https://www. p3tips.com/tipform. aspx?ID=107. All callers to Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers remain anonymous and could be eligible for a cash reward for information that leads
to an arrest, the solving of a crime or cold case or the location of a wanted person, fugitive or a missing person. Courtesy image
Linda Teti, who lives in Lower Oxford Township, has been missing for months. Anyone with information about her whereabouts should contact police immediately.