Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 158, No. 37
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
$1.50
New Garden places 7.8-acre Landenberg property on its project list By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer At the Aug. 19 New Garden Township Board of Supervisors meeting, Cindy Hiles, a former resident of 308 Penn Green Road in Landenberg, criticized the township for its inactivity in forming a long-term plan for the use of the pristine 7.8-acre property that the township acquired from her on Dec. 16, 2021. Following her husband’s passing in 2016, Hiles began discussions with the
township’s Open Space Review Board and Natural Lands to determine how the property could become a valuable link in the open space corridor to the White Clay Creek Preserve, but at the Aug. 19 meeting, Hiles said that to date, she had not been involved in any future plans for the property. In fact, the only visible reminder that the property is now in the township’s hands has been a “No Trespassing” sign that is tethered to a chain-link fence across the property’s
front driveway. At the board’s Sept. 16 meeting – likely spurred on by her criticism – Hiles and several other residents with a creative stake in the property began to hear some answers. In his presentation, township Manager Christopher Himes unlocked the closed door to the dormant property with several ideas that will begin to be rolled out over the next several months, in order to create “a summary level proposal of alternatives and options”
for the site based on an extensive understanding of the site from an engineering, public access and usage standpoint. After the acquisition, Himes said that the township had a sense of what it wanted to do with the property, but no obligated plan behind it. Consequently, the property has not yet received an on-site hazard mitigation that involves the removal of vulnerable trees and the implementation of safety measures. Further, the township has not pro-
vided needed security and personnel to sustainably patrol the site. Himes said that a key reason for the township’s lack of action with the Hiles property stems from the
fact that its purchase was wedged between two larger property acquisitions – the 2018 purchase of the 137.5acre Saint Anthony’s in the Hills property, now New Continued on Page 3A
FROM OUR LENS Loads of health
INSIDE KCSD officials continue to
discuss policy regarding cell phone use by students By Chris Barber Contributing Writer Kennett Consolidated School District Board Policy Committee Chairman Ethan Pendants from the Penn Oak bestowed on the kin- Cramer objected to seeking community input on cell dergarten students...5A phone usage by students in school, saying the public does not understand all the legal ramifications the board has to deal with. Early in the Sept. 9 meeting, Technology Director Dan Maguire presented a timeline for the school board to determine how
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ed, “This is an unworkable plan.” He continued, “The policy decision is not one that we should be asking stakeholder groups. It comes down to the nine of us who are policy makers.” A stakeholder is defined as anyone who is interested in or affected by the policy. This includes the public. Cramer contended that members of the public do not understand the legalities of Weingarten rights or Loudermill hearings, and
Courtesy photo
On Sept. 10, the Equity Health Center in Coatesville hosted “Loads of Health,” an event that shone positive light on the importance of achieving health equity. Held at the Fluff & Fold laundromat, the Center paid laundry costs for everyone who visited the facility that day – a total of 300 loads of wash – as well as collaborated with Coatesville Center for Community Health to provide information about health care services and resources that are available in the Coatesville area.
Continued on Page 2A
By way of the grape vine: Wayvine opens tasting room in Kennett Square By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
© 2007 The Chester County Press
to regulate use of the cell phones. His timeline directed a committee to seek input from stakeholders through October 2024 to the end of the calendar year. The board or its committee would then be directed to put together a draft recommendation for approval based on public input for the April meeting. That final recommendation would be up for adoption at the June 2025 board meeting. Responding in a lengthy objection, Cramer conclud-
In a town that continues to add to its list of attractions to accommodate widening tastes and enjoy maturing social options, Kennett Square has tacked on one more gem to a main street already filled with diamonds. As a complement to its 24-acre vineyard in Nottingham, Wayvine Winery & Vineyard opened Wayvine Kennett Square, its new tasting room on Sept. 4 at 217 East State Street, in the space previously leased by Hilltop Flower Company. As Wayvine’s newest “sister brands” business venture, the tasting room complements the Tulip Pasta Bar it
operates in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia and the popular Ethereal Farms airbnbs that are located on the Wilson Farm in Nottingham. “Luckily in Pennsylvania, we are allowed to use satellite licenses to create tasting rooms, so we can expand our main farm in Nottingham with up to four other locations,” said proprietor James Wilson. “We have already used one of those licenses to create the Tulip Pasta Bar, which has been a great success, and it showed that there is a lot of opportunity. “We’ve spent the last four years doing several events in Kennett Square, and then we began being invited to participate in the borough’s Third Thursdays, and then we donated cases of our wine
to the opening of the new Kennett Library. Kennett Square is the kind of town where everyone collaborates to a community driven energy, and we knew that we wanted to contribute to that energy.” After conversations in early July with Kennett Square Borough President Bob Norris – who owns the property – Wilson discussed the concept of a tasting room with his brother, Zachary, and then began retrofitting the tasting room into the available space. From the beginning ideas that ultimately brought the tasting room to its opening, Wilson said that Wayvine Photo by Richard L. Gaw Kennett Square is about Bartender Brooke Rush offers a glass of 2020 Barbera filling up the gap in an at Wayvine Kennett Square, a new wine tasting room Continued on Page 3A
on State Street in Kennett Square.
Eagle Scout remembers the fallen of 9/11 By Betsy Brewer Brantner Contributing Writer Most of us don’t think about death. If we do at all, we would like to believe that we would live a long life. We also wonder if we will be remembered, and if so, how will we be remembered? Will anyone speak of us when we are gone? Will Fasick, 17, thought about those Americans who Courtesy photo Boy Scouts from Troop 44 and Troop 13 remember died during the terrorist the fallen on 9/11 at the Oxford Memorial Park. The attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. monument they surround was an Eagle Scout project The fact that he wasn't even for Will Fasick. alive at the time makes
his actions all the more poignant. The death toll was 2,996 people, including 2,977 victims and 19 hijackers. Thousands more were injured and deaths continued as a result of long-term health effects on the first responders and those involved in the massive cleanup. As of August 2013, medical authorities concluded that 1,140 people who worked, lived, or studied in Lower Manhattan at the time of the attacks have been diagnosed with can-
cer as a result of “exposure to toxins at Ground Zero.” In September 2014, it was reported that over 1,400 rescue workers who responded to the scene in the days and months after the attacks had since died. At least 10 pregnancies were lost as a result of 9/11. Christine Lee Hanson, a toddler who loved Mickey Mouse and making her family smile, was less than an hour into her first airplane ride, sitting with her mom and dad, when her father placed a call to his parents. Continued on Page 4A