Tag Archives: bill martin

wake up tredyffrin, wake up.

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985 Mount Pleasant Ave in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County is far away from Tredyffrin’s Township administration building that Township Manager Bill Martin needs reminding that Tredyffrin has a responsibility to not only the 24/7/365 residents but in fact also to the college students living there, right?

So answer me this Tredyffrin: when is the last time this house now known as Villa Blue Tarp was inspected?

Why do I ask about this? Simple, once upon a time there was a big old yellow Victorian house on the corner of Booth Lane and Old Lancaster Road in Haverford in Lower Merion Township that was an off campus house even when I was in high school.

Originally the house was an off-campus house for rugby players. Then flash forward to late 90s/early 2000s and it became a duplex. We were never really sure if the duplex was done legally but it was done and it was two living units and still student slumlord housing.

It was a really tough party house to live in a neighborhood with. You would wake up and they would have 20 cars on their lawn plus additional cars on surrounding lawns. Trash, beer bottles and cans, etc. and they would keep you up until all hours, and they would sleep it off the next day. We all had to get up and go to work, get the kids to school, etc.

The police would come often enough, and truthfully, Lower Merion Township did not ignore calls from neighbors when the parties were too loud. But it was still a grandfathered off campus student rental.

Then, one day in November, right before Thanksgiving, the then slumlord landlord of that house at 20 Booth Lane called in an inexpensive roofer for some sort of repairs. It was a breezy/windy day and the roof caught fire. In a very short amount of time the upper floors of the house were completely engulfed.

I still remember the photo that was front and center in Main Line Media News. It is an amazing photo and was taken by Pete Bannan. A firefighter in the middle of the flames. Neighbors were so scared that day as firefighters battled flames because we were afraid embers would jump to neighboring roofs.

All of the college students from Villanova who lived in both halves of the duplex were absolutely obnoxious to residents but they lost everything that day. They were mostly seniors and they lost all of their belongings and college memories.

So it makes you wonder about the condition of off campus college rentals, doesn’t it?

If you have ever had a kid in college and you have had to pay for off-campus student housing, you know how these landlords gouge. For what they charge in rent it should be the Taj Mahal but it’s not. Maybe to a college student it’s the Taj Mahal because it’s their place, but usually pretty much overpriced dumps.

Bill Martin who is the manager of Tredyffrin, came from Radnor Township where he was an assistant manager, right? So he was familiar with how municipalities should keep an eye on off-campus student housing, right? But Mr. Martin came to this area from New York via Villanova University correct? So does he have a soft spot for Villanova off-campus student housing? It’s a valid concern, isn’t it?

MAIN LINE BANTER: Meet Tredyffrin Township Manager Bill Martin

Now Mr. Martin loves Tredyffrin and apparently lives in Tredyffrin, so I would find it hard to believe that he is not aware of the problems, faced by the residents of Mount Pleasant when it comes to off-campus student housing. and that includes when he was at Radnor Township, which tightened up the student housing ordinance around 2010, and he didn’t go to Bridgeport Borough until 2011, and then to Tredyffrin in 2012.

Housing issue resolved in Tredyffrin

Tredyffrin didn’t have a student housing ordinance until 2010. I remember because I had friends in more than one area of that township plagued by off campus student houses. It wasn’t just Mount Pleasant. I remember a couple of neighborhoods off of Old Eagle School Road, for example.

Tredyffrin board hears college-housing concerns

There were a lot of meetings packed to the gills about this issue, because true different was initially so reticent to add a student housing ordinance. One of the people affected by an off-campus student house, popping up with someone I’ve known since I was a kid. And pretty much after the student housing ordinance was passed they sold their house and moved out of Tredyffrin. Upscale neighborhood with lovely gardens and backyard pools, but they wanted to be someplace on the Main Line where their investment in their home mattered.

Mt. Pleasant Neighborhood. . . How Can We Help?

Bill Martin and the Supervisors in Tredyffrin? It’s well past time to wake up and stop pretending there’s not a problem with this house and other off-campus student rentals. If you were elected or hired, it doesn’t really matter, Tredyffrin owes her residents more.

Do residents need to start packing meetings again? Probably. Especially from Mount Pleasant which although incredibly historic an area, has been utterly disenfranchised by Tredyffrin for more years than not.

We are Standing With the Volunteer Firefighters, Can We Show Support for the Mt. Pleasant Community?

How many years do people have to ask for Tredyffrin to take off the blinders?

Oh and back to 985 Mount Pleasant. It went from individual to entity holding but is it really a new owner?

Wake up Bill Martin and Tredyffrin Supervisors, just wake up and remember WHY you are all there.

here we go again in tredyffrin

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I haven’t written about Tredyffrin in eons. But the news out of Tredyffrin is disturbing if true.

In July of 2012, then Township Manager Mimi Gleason resigned.  In 2014, Tredyffrin relieved then Public Works Director Scott Cannon of duties. In more blunt terms, Tredyffrin fired him.

Tredyffrin Township released a statement at that time (TT Press Release 2014 02 10 ) which said in part:

In his capacity as Director of Public Works, Mr. Cannon engaged in conduct, himself, and directed vendors and subordinates to engage in such conduct, involving two instances of the improper disposal of materials on Township property in a manner prohibited by Pennsylvania’s environmental laws. Since the areas affected are not easily accessible to the public and, as addressed in more detail below, since no immediate danger was identified by DEP, we cannot disclose the locations until that agency’s investigation is complete.

 

Well apparently Mr. Cannon was arrested and is facing criminal charges on chemical dumping (MDJReport Tredyffrin Cannon ).

Tredyffrin issued a statement over the past few days (Tredyffrin Press Release Nov 2015 ) which states in part:

Former Public Works Director, Scott Cannon turned himself over to the Tredyffrin Township Police Department for processing on Friday, November 20, 2015.

The charges brought by the State Attorney General’s office arise from facts that were disclosed publicly in February 2014 during a meeting of the Board of Supervisors following the Township’s own internal investigation. The Township is unaware of any allegations of violations other than those disclosed in February 2014.

 

Walt Hunter at CBS3 was the first media to cover this story. Walt quotes Cannon’s lawyer on the charges:

In response to a CBS 3 inquiry, Cannon’s attorney, A.J.Chotkowski, emailed a statement that reads in part:

“Mr. Cannon was surprised and disappointed to learn that charges were filed against him today… the charges occurred less than a year after Mr. Cannon initiated a civil action against Tredyffrin Township stemming from his termination as the Director of Public Works… Mr. Cannon denies that he, or any other employee under his supervision, violated any law or caused any environmental harm. The substance alleged to have been released is magnesium chloride, which is merely a common salt product used to treat roads.”

 

Ok but according to the state, aren’t chemicals like this supposed to be disposed of properly?  As in not just dumped on Tredyffrin Township owned property and allowed to spill into the Valley Creek?

Yes, the Valley Creek. You know where Tredyffrin had raw sewage issues? Remember groups filed suit against Tredyffrin this time last year over violations of the federal Clean Water Act? 

To quote Penn Environmental at the time :

penn enviro 2014

Last December 2014, Tredyffrin agreed to a costly clean up settlement in the raw sewage case .

And now this. The Philadelphia Business Journal says in their article:

Scott Canon, 56, of Glen Mills, is facing four counts of unlawful conduct and a count of prohibition against other pollutions for opening a large tank containing magnesium chloride, and releasing 1,000 gallons of the chemical into the township’s public works facility, according to the Office of the Attorney General.

Main Line Media News has a story today on this as well and the comments are as interesting as the actual article.

MLMN article

Political chess anyone? Mimi Gleason (so much for that pretty quote of “a job is not a life”, eh?) went to West Whiteland and Bill Martin came out of the polluted Bashore era in Radnor Township via problematic Bridgeport, correct? Is there culpability when it comes to Tredyffrin’s former Public Works guy and the current and former Township Managers of Tredyffrin when it comes to this case? Has anyone contacted Mimi Gleason in West Whiteland for her thoughts? Did she hire this Scott Cannon?

I can’t help but wonder what else will surface in the always politically charged muck and mire of Tredyffrin Township. Because can it said nothing there is ever simple?

But at the end of the day what disturbs me the most are Tredyffrin’s pollution problems. It’s bad enough when it’s a specific company in a certain municipality and all of this has been well, municipally caused has it not? First raw sewage, now this?

And how have these issues affected Tredyffrin residents as well as their municipal neighbors?

To all the sewage add a 1000 gallons of Magnesium Chloride.

What the heck, Tredyffrin Township? Well only time will tell where this case will go , especially given all the problems in the attorney general’s office in Pennsylvania.

Sign me glad not to live in Tredyffrin but I sure wish they would clean up their act (and pollution problems).

 

 

 

well john dibuonaventuro & tredyffrin, guess that other shoe just dropped, huh?

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It ain’t over and I do not blame Pattye Benson one little bit.  She is RIGHT, John DiBuonaventuro and those Tredyffrin Supervisors (who in my opinion are complacent and accepting of his unacceptable behavior by their silence and lack of action), need to be held accountable for what they did. It will be interesting to see what new mananger and Radnor ex-officio Bill Martin will do.  It will interesting to see if he leads in the right direction on this, won’t it?

It has long been whispered that the political culture in Tredyffrin has not been healthy for decades.  After what happened to Pattye, I don’t even want to patronize businesses in the township. I want to avoid the township.  After all, I am a blogger, and who says they won’t try to intimidate more bloggers and residents?  A Septa official I had contacted about my input on the Paoli  Transit Project wanted me to go to the recent public meeting in Tredyffrin.  I told them it was not possible and why.

The culture in Tredyffrin politically and governmentally has to change.  I don’t view it as either safe or sustainable.  And John DiBuonaventuro needs to realize it’s not the wild, wild west and he can’t just do as he pleases at the expense of others.  He was elected to do a job, hold a position, not pick on residents, correct? I mean the First Amendment isn’t subjective is it? It is what it is, is it not? And since when should elected officials tell us how to think?  Correct me if I am wrong, the plurality as a collective are their bosses, right?

So Pattye has apparently retained Sam Stretton.  Sam Stretton is probably one of the few lawyers in Chester County not afraid on some level of bully governments.

Sam wrote a letter:

Here is Pattye in her own words:

It has been 8+  weeks, since Tredyffrin Township Supervisor John DiBuonaventuro wrote and posted his September 5, 2012 letter to the citizens on the township website. (click here to read the letter). Over the last 2 months, I continue to receive phone calls, emails and have had many discussions with residents that are troubled and concerned about DiBuonaventuro’s letter and use of government letterhead, government website and government resources for his personal attack of traditional news sources as well a private citizen, who dare to question our government. Subsequent to September 5th, we have learned that DiBuonaventuro’s personal letter and use of government resources, was apparently sanctioned and approved by former township manager Mimi Gleason, township solicitor Vince Donahue and the other six members of the Tredyffrin Township’s Board of Supervisors.

At the September 17, 2012 Board of Supervisors meeting, I read a personal statement (click here for Community Matters post and links to BOS meeting and statement) which addressed DiBuonaventuro’s letter and subsequent email and joint phone call from the township manager and police chief on this topic.

When the framers of our Constitution insisted on Freedom of Speech rights, one of their aims was so that all Americans – no matter their social class or position in our society – could vigorously examine and criticize our government. These rights have throughout our history nurtured our democracy and made us a beacon to the whole world. However, as history has played out, the battle for these rights has proven at times to be hard-won rights that we have to continually fight for and renew.  First Amendment rights are a cornerstone to this nation’s government and citizens have a right to discuss issues that are of importance.  The freedom is speech is in place for all of us – including the citizens of Tredyffrin Township.  Further, freedom of speech includes ‘me’ as a citizen and Community Matters.

 

Brava Pattye!  Brava!  I know this must be incredibly hard to do.  I suggest everyone take the time to read Pattye’s entire post. And next time any of these supervisors in Tredyffrin come up for re-election vote ’em out of office.

Pattye does a lot for Tredyffrin.  She is also a business owner and resident who pays taxes.  She is a thoughtful, intelligent, and caring woman.  She is also a friend, and nothing cheeses me off more when good people are upset by idiots.