Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 158, No. 40
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
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Police, Fire & EMS at top of expense ledger
Kennett Township proposes 2025 operating budget By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer Kennett Township moved closer to the approval of its overall 2025 budget on Oct. 2, highlighted by an introduction to its proposed operating budget which is projected to begin the new year with $12.4 million across all funds, including $5.5 million in the general fund. In a slide show presented
by Director Finance and Human Resources Amy Heinrich, the township has eight to ten months of general fund revenues and expenses, far greater than the Government of Finance Officers Association’s recommendation for a municipality, which is to have a minimum of two months general fund balance. On the operating expense side, the township’s bud-
get is proposed to be $8,356,569, an eight percent increase ($633,649) from 2024. Of those top cost centers, 32 percent will be directed to the township’s Police Department, which stands at the top with an expense budget projected at $2,703,706 for next year, a 14 percent increase ($338,667) over 2024. The primary drivers for its increase will reflect a 7.3 percent increase in
its pension municipal obligation and a 7 percent overall increase in salary and benefits that include overtime, medical and dental insurance and tuition reimbursement. The township’s contribution to the Kennett Area Fire & EMS Commission is anticipated to reflect 22 percent of the township’s anticipated costs for 2025 and see a 17-percent increase in operating expenses
INSIDE East Marlborough
FROM OUR LENS
Township supervisor resigns Board is now accepting applications for the vacancy By Monica Fragale Contributing Writer Oxford Feed and Lumber brings the farm to the community...1B
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Newark Life Magazine
East Marlborough Supervisors’ Chairwoman Kathryn Monahan has resigned from the board, and applications are now being accepted to fill her supervisor seat. Monahan sent township Manager Neil Lovekin an email Sept. 5 announcing her resignation “effective immediately.” The supervisors voted at their Oct. 7 meeting to accept that resignation and advertise the vacancy. Applications for her seat will be accepted until Oct.
Balloons of imagination
Photo by Richard L. Gaw
Two sisters enjoyed personalized balloons handcrafted by Ranita the Clown at New Garden Community Day, held before hundreds of families who flocked to New Garden Township Park for a full day of festivities on Oct. 5.
Continued on Page 2A
Unionville Community Oxford Mainstreet, Inc. manager seeks Fair returns with clarification on record attendance event applications
By Chris Barber Contributing Writer
It is not likely that the agricultural students at Unionville High School who founded a small corn show in 1924 could have imagined what it would turn into 100 years later. Last weekend, on its centennial, the Unionville Community Fair drew thousands of visitors – the most in anyone’s memory. Those visitors appeared Photo by Chris Barber largely local, many of them At this year's Unionville Community Fair, the entries of Continued on Page 2A
produce and art filled the barn to record levels.
By Betsy Brewer Brantner Contributing Writer Amanda Reynolds, the Oxford Mainstreet Inc. (OMI) Manager, was at a recent Oxford Borough Council meeting to question the permitting of vendors outside of OMI’s footprint for events. This issue recently came into question when a vendor, outside of OMI’s Car Show footprint, displayed a table at the event that was
not a part of the planned activities. “I received numerous questions regarding a person who was located outside the event,” Reynolds said. “I ask you to kindly consider the protocol for those holding events at the same time OMI is doing that.” OMI’s protocols for events include providing insurance, securing PennDOT permits on a PennDOT road, filing a special event application Continued on Page 6A
Three-day journey involved 21 flights, 22,000 pounds of items
New Garden Flying Field contributes to relief efforts for Hurricane Helene victims By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
© 2007 The Chester County Press
30 at 4 p.m., and a new supervisor is expected to be announced at the board's meeting on Nov. 4. It is the second time since June that a supervisor has left the five-member board. On May 5, Eric Matuszak resigned from the board and his resignation was accepted at the June 3 meeting. Township resident John Auger was appointed at the July 1 meeting as his replacement for the remainder of Matuszak’s term which ends Jan. 2, 2026. In her email, Monahan wrote, “Effective immediately I resign as supervisor
next year ($260,216) to cover its capital contribution to the Commission. Currently, the township is responsible for 30.5 percent of the Commission’s entire budget. In 2025, the Commission is projecting a $500,000 increase to pay for new vehicles and equipment and another repairs at the Kennett Fire $407,000 that is expected Department’s facility. On the revenue growth to be designated for salary increases, the hiring of an side, Heinrich said the Continued on Page 3A additional truck driver and
On its website, there is a slogan included that is very apropos of what the New Garden Flying Field has become to the pilots and the communities it serves: Not just an airport…a destination. For three days last week,
however, the destination was not New Garden Township but North Carolina, the site of extreme devastation after Hurricane Helene swept through the City of Asheville, ravaging the area in the wake of a storm that had already touched down in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Virigina and Tennessee and
to date has left 227 dead. Last Sunday, as Flying Field General Manager Jon Martin watched the horror unfold on his television screen, he immediately sent a post out asking for donations of household items, infant supplies and food that would be delivered from the Flying Field to the Hurricane Helene relief
effort near Asheville. By the following day – Sept. 30 – the staff at the Flying Field arrived at the airport in Toughkenamon to find residents from neighboring communities dropping off donations, and soon, the entire aviation center was filled to capacity. Over the course of the next few days, the amount of
donations doubled and tripled to the point where the main hangar at the airport became a storage facility patrolled by airport staff and volunteers, including 24 members of the boy’s hockey teams at Upland Country Day School, who sorted donated items according to category and packaged up Continued on Page 4A