So this was the news we were greeted with this morning. You can read the articles on Patch and in The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly Voice.
The University of Valley Forge formerly known as Valley Forge Christian College is no more. They are closing up.
Am I surprised? Honestly, no. It’s been dying for years. We had a child who went to Renaissance Academy Charter School, and they were originally on this campus before they found their permanent home in Phoenixville.
In 2024 I saw them show up on some kind of a tax sale list. I was kind of shocked. The listing of course for that is gone now, but here are the screenshots I retained from back then:
I remember, I was fascinated by the Hobby Lobby of it all looking through the ownership.
This parcel is pretty big though it’s 46 1/2 acres.
That is concerning. The parcel is in Schuylkill Township. Here is current ownership:
I didn’t know what HIS Property Holdings was so I looked it up:
In 2014 Valley Forge, Christian College became University of Valley Forge. It is still a faith-based school and it has the prettiest little campus, but it’s belly up and now what happens?
I’m afraid it will be sold for development.
I feel sorry for the students. I can’t imagine choosing this place to continue your education and it’s what you can afford, and now where are you? I’m not surprised because again it wasn’t that many weeks ago that there was the article. It was in the Inquirer about them potentially losing their accreditation.
Here is the thing they posted to their students and I guess alumni today and employees who are also screwed:
So another college/university bites the dust in this area. People should keep an eye on Delaware County Community College and no one even covered it when they just axed people recently. No one covered that.
So Cabrini is gone. Rosemont is done and now University of Valley Forge is done.
I figure I should mention this because God knows if East Whiteland will wake up to look out for her residents who will be affected by this plan. This may also affect other nearby residents in East Goshen Township and even West Goshen Township.
Look I have known since Weston started to exit as a company that this property would be developed. I’m grateful it’s not a giant warehouse or a data center. This property was re-zoned in 2024 to allow residential development.
My personal opinion is the development is still too dense. But my personal opinion doesn’t mean a hill of sheit here and I know that.
My main concern is this development’s access on West King Rd. There needs to be a traffic light at Weston Way and W. King Rd. If there is not a traffic light at Weston Way and W. King Rd. residents of East Whiteland and West Whiteland are screwed.
It is already incredibly difficult a lot of days to get out of driveways and side streets onto W. King Rd. So Willow Hill Development Group, my opinion is you are making enough money that you can request a traffic signal here.
I should also note for people who have been interested here and there and what happens at Weston that it sounds like there’s going to be some kind of egress or driveway from Phoenixville Pike?
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got.
No one wants more residential development anymore than warehouses or data centers. But until elected officials in Harrisburg, get off their collective asses and comprehensively update the municipalities planning code which takes an act of the state constitution that will never happen.
The plan is down to 49 houses and 6 apartment type units, I guess in the old mansion. honestly that is tremendously better from where this first started. It’s like 53 acres give or take.
Like I said, they could have neon pink houses on this property for all I care as long as there’s a traffic light at King Road and Weston Way.
I have had to play this little tape over and over because I wanted to make sure I heard it properly. And what I heard is the master plan for the Exton Mall that the supervisors in West Whiteland had in place has just been completely undone by the Zoning Hearing Board and their solicitor?
I have literally got nothing because I just don’t understand. I do believe according to the average process that comes to play here, if the Board of Supervisors wish to appeal, legally they can.
I really don’t understand. But it lends itself to another conversation about solicitors. There’s a big one going on in East Whiteland for example over data centers.
There seems to be contretemps that is ongoing in Tredyffrin Township.
In Westtown, it’s a state of chaos as they just dismissed the entire historic commission.
Now, what do West Whiteland, Westtown, and Tredyffrin have in common? Would it be that they all use Gawthrop Greenwood for main solicitor or zoning?
For Westtown and Tredyffrin they specifically use Patrick McKenna, Esq. West Whiteland is a little different. They use “Gawthrop Greenwood” as the zoning hearing board solicitors. They don’t specify on West Whiteland’s website but it seems to be Patrick McKenna and or his wife Stacey Fuller also with the same firm, correct?
Of course, the other thing with West Whiteland’s Zoning Hearing Board is you don’t know who’s speaking half of the time because the zoning hearing board members do not introduce themselves at the beginning of the meeting and neither does the solicitor.
Anyway, I didn’t see this covered in the media at all so hopefully this prompts them to look into this because doesn’t it seem unusual?
East Whiteland residents and registered Chester County voters we have a very important task this week: to rock the petition to get 2 supervisors added under the second class township code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania!
We. Can. Do. This!!!!!
Years ago when this township was founded and they formed a Township government there were far fewer people. Over the last 15 years I would say, this township has grown exponentially. It is time to add two more supervisors to the three so we have better representation as residents and taxpayers.
Five supervisors is perfectly attainable and normal. If I am completely honest, I wanted to do this a few years ago and I was talked out of it. I was told it was a mistake. I should have listened to my inner voice because I knew it was right and I believe it’s right for residents now.
We need more representation in our 3 board member municipalities. More representation does not create chaos, in fact, it helps restore order and balance, and we should want that.
And in East Whiteland there are already people who are interested in running for office!
Here is the Google doc where you can sign up to be contacted for an in person visit. The important thing about this petition is you have to sign in person, you cannot do it online so to speak.
This petition can only be signed by legal residents of East Whiteland Township who are registered to vote. If you are not registered to vote, you cannot sign this petition.
“Should two additional supervisors be added to the board of 3 supervisors, creating a board of 5 in East Whiteland Township?”
There’s no hidden message. It’s not like playing the Beatles White album backwards. It is what it is. It is as it is stated.
So come on East Whiteland let’s do this for ourselves. 
3 to 5 supervisors. It’s time to modernize.
Git’ R Done… we can do this this week! It literally takes like a minute and a half to sign and fill in your address. Again, you read the ballot question as presented to you in person and you sign your name like you do your signature for all legal documents. Then you print your name so it is legible along with your legal mailing address in East Whiteland Township as in the physical mailing address no PO Box. And the last thing you do is you date when you’re doing it.
It’s easy and it’s important. We get the government we deserve, and our vote is our most powerful tool. Some people will get very up in arms about this and the thing is it’s not a threat to democracy, it’s about democracy and our right to do this.
Plymouth Township just said NO to the data centers?
Why?
Simple there is NO permitted use under the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of PA for data centers. It’s NOT a warehouse. Ginny Kerslake has been saying this forever and places like East Whiteland keep telling her she is wrong, right?
Further and somewhat related apparently developer is trying to get these places classified as warehouse locations even though it’s energy and isn’t that nuts sounding?
Last question for people is do we think developers are going through approval processes for data centers in order to flip the properties? Didn’t that come up at recent Upper Merion Planning Commission meeting?
Would someone kindly tell me what is in the water in East Pikeland Township??? And I am not talking about the superfund site (yes there is a fairly large one and where are all of the monitoring wells and plumes and what not?? https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/CurSites/srchsites.cfm )
Every time you turn around, there seems to be something funky oozing out of East Pikeland isn’t there? My guess is they don’t want anything oozing out of there correct?
Kimberton AKA East PIkeland has a largeish superfund site so why don’t they talk about it much?
Would she be the one to ask this of? Or would people ask the supervisors led far too long by that unnaturally red-haired old man and his underlings who do his bidding?
The thing about superfund sites is there really is no safe distance away from them is there? It all varies depending upon the contaminants, wind patterns, local groundwater flow, and cleanup status, doesn’t it? While the EPA investigates and remediates these areas, studies often highlight according to what I have seen, approximately a 1 to 3-mile radius as an area of potential or actual exposure don’t they? Or is that wrong?
Hazardous stuff can migrate can’t it? I mean that is why people living around the Foote Mineral EPA site in East Whiteland (which isn’t so far from the Kimberton site, is it?) are freaked out by even earth being moved for that planned data center, right?
In 1992, The Philadelphia Inquirer did a pretty big spread of an article on Kimberton and how organic the area was. Laura Quinn the reporter of an article dated August 28, 1992 titled the article “A Place Where The Cows Eat Organic”. Today when I saw that in the archives I had to snort. I will share some screenshots of some dead and buried newspapers about Kimberton I find amusing at the end – just not that Inquirer article as I can’t find an archive link on their website. It is a shame I can’t find it on their website to be able to share a link if you subscribe… but anyway, article did happen.
According to this article from 2008, there was a lot of trichloroethene (TCE) dumped into multiple “pools” and oh shades of Bishop Tube which never became a superfund site in East Whiteland and is still contaminated, right? Also the article mentions that back then (18 years ago now) they had been removing lots of “volatile organic compounds” from ground water and then when the waste was filtered and decontaminated or something it went into the French Creek? (umm, ick???)
Also according to the EPA stuff online, supposedly between 1947 and 1959, a predecessor of Ciba-Geigy manufactured epoxy resins and textile products there. Overall research from the EPA etc indicates that chemical residues were primarily trichloroethene (TCE), dichloroethene (DCE), and vinyl chloride. A nice toxic cocktail in organic land much?
When you put this crap into Google, this comes up:
Remedial Cleanup Actions
Operable Unit 1 (OU-1 – Drinking Water): EPA mandated an alternate water supply in 1988 due to residential well contamination. Individual local wells were initially treated using granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption filtration. A permanent public water supply line was fully installed in 1992, removing local dependency on contaminated private wells. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Operable Unit 2 (OU-2 – Source & Groundwater Control): A comprehensive groundwater pump-and-treat system was launched in December 1993. Extraction wells capture the contaminated water before it leaves the property bounds, running it through an on-site air stripping treatment facility. [1, 2]
Institutional Controls: Mandatory deed restrictions are enforced to prevent groundwater exposure, block the drilling of new domestic wells, and preserve the integrity of the protective caps over the former lagoons and septic areas. The site achieved Sitewide Ready for Anticipated Use (SWRAU) status in 2018. [, 2]
Then there is Roberts Packing (meatpacking?) which is a CERCLA site. So that I think means it is a hazardous waste location managed under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (1980).
Also not that long ago a resident asked a simple straightforward question:
Then there is this:
Basically you have to wonder what is going on and what has been going on for decades in East Pikeland Township? Ron Graham has been a supervisor since 2008 and chair of that board since 2009, yes? To quote (him) on the website:
Ron believes that efficient and successful governance is based on integrity, open communication, compromise rather than confrontation, and sound fiscal organization.
Mmmkay Ronnie old man (and you are dude complete with unnaturally red hair), if you believe in integrity and open communication, maybe its time for (a) a completely new board of suprvisors (won’t say new chair because the currents do your bidding don’t they?); (b) a ballot referendum to add 3 more supervisors under the 2nd class township; (c) actual transparency and open government; (d) no more bully politics? Also how can this dude been chair of the board since 2009? It’s good to be king right?
This Kimberton Superfund site gives me the willies. Read that new thing. Test your wells and groundwater. Question it all residents, it is your right. And if you start to flip the board, you can also get township administration and solicitors (including zoning) that you trust, yes?
And speaking of questions what happened with the recent zoning hearing board and the hippies are us thing being planned Altair Eco Village? That is partially on superfund land isn’t it? Has stormwater issues?
I don’t know but in my opinion, East Pikeland needs a whole lot of sunshine and residents need to question everythng.
My opinions are brought to me by the first amendment. No McPhails need apply, do they? (Yeah I knew about that East Pikeland.)
I also think Erin Brocovitch would also love East Pikeland. maybe if lots of East Pikeland folks contacted her about the Kimberton Superfund site, more answers would be forthcoming?
East Pikeland maybe no more cloudy sunshine free days are in order? Unless y’all are vampires?
Here are the funky newspaper clipping from dead papers:
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. RIP Blackburn Farm at 1135 Sugartown Road in Easttown Township – from the dust another McMansion of the nouveau will rise?
Who knows.
But yet another piece of Chester County history is now gone forever.
The gorgeous house that sat at the crest of a small hill that you could see as you went up. The long driveway was demolished the other day.
Blackburn Farm was part of Chester County’s equestrian and agricultural past as well as part of the tradition of the Devon Horse Show before that went bougie obvious. For 31 years it was part of the staging for the horse show. I believe it mostly had to do with carriaging from what I read on the Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society website (I do belong to this organization and they have the most wonderful historical publications.)
It looks like in the early 2000s is when that development behind Blackburn farm was subdivided and developed. Originally I think the parcel was 100 acres or better.
I was actually on the farm once for a very special house tour posted by the Tredyffrin Historic Preservation Trust.
The last photo set in this post is Blackburn Farm.
The whole property was quite magical and obviously well loved and well-maintained. When the owner listed it for sale just because it was time to downsize, it never occurred to me in my wildest dreams that it would be destroyed like this.
Yes, I understand that people have their private property rights. But why do you buy a spectacular historic property with other than a need for maybe some updating because that’s just a necessity every now and again, only to destroy the history quite literally?
I can’t even imagine how the prior owner felt. I know I would be so sad if one of my childhood homes had been demolished, and of course there’s no guarantee that that won’t happen someday.
It’s so weird a concept to realize that I’ve visited some of these amazing homes that have made Chester County so beautiful and some of them have been torn down. This is one reason why I think it’s so important to save the Darlington Inn in Westtown.
It’s a shame in Pennsylvania historic preservation means so little. It’s paid lip service, but we can have data centers right?
I have not seen a public notice or media report on this yet but sources in the courtroom are saying Kurt Schenk’s trial has ended in a mistrial I guess yesterday?
Former District Attorney Deb Ryan who is now Judge Ryan was the judge listed on the docket.
What I was told is trial DID end yesterday in a mistrial and supposedly 8 out of 10 jurors found the accused guilty. The victim’s family must be devastated but is it the end?
A mistrial is a non-ending isn’t it ? It is not innocence is it? The case can return to a pretrial state unless the prosecutor (DA) dismisses the charge, the court (judge) bars retrial, or the parties resolve it by plea right?
So again a mistrial does not mean innocence correct? I am sure the accused’s supporters will say that right? Ironically looking at the docket yesterday was the man’s birthday so he has a present for now? But does he?
What happens next? I don’t know, hopefully someone will report on this or some statement will come from the DA.
The victim, the young woman, is special needs. We all know how defense attorneys can treat victims because their job is to get the accused out of a situation right? God don’t like ugly and I believe in that.
What we CAN’T have here is street justice. We might not like the outcome but we have to abide by the law or we become as bad as those accused of crimes.
Hold this young woman and her family in your hearts and prayers.
And that church he is a minister of? New Beginnings Church of the Cross? Just don’t go to it.
Waiting like all of you for formal reports or media reports. As a woman I am seriously sad right now. I feel very strongly about crimes against women. It took TWO years for this to come to court. For that young woman and her family in my opinion that must have been two very long and possibly agonizing years.
The accused is someone who has been in the spotlight before when he was a politician in Coatesville. I did a newspaper search and for The Philadelphia Inquirer alone it showed that he was in 16 Coatesville related articles from the early 2000s in addition to the 2024 article. And then there was Daily Local, a paper in Coatesville etc. So my whole thing is every time this guy comes up in a media related thing like a newspaper article. It’s never very positive is it? (And yes that is my opinion you read newspaper archives, and tell me what you think.)
Like I have said many times before crimes against women is something that resonates with me. And in my opinion, this stuff probably happens more than we are informed about because so many women are afraid to come forward because of the way they are treated in court and isn’t that the truth?
My heart goes out for this young woman who is special needs, who is on the spectrum of something. She was very brave to come forward and I hope she finds closure in the event the court system is unable to attain it for her.
Sometimes Lady Justice doesn’t get the result people think she should and then I think sometimes she just weeps. And sometimes there is just karma and maybe this isn’t the end of the story for this young woman or any young woman in the future right?
What I keep thinking about is a hung jury and a mistrial isn’t an acquittal. It’s not innocence. It’s just its own thing in the legal system. But it doesn’t mean that the accused is innocent does it?
My final question is was 13 hours too short to deliberate?
Packed house in Westtown Township and I hear many are calling out Supervisor Tom Foster and it’s not Ollie Ollie Oxenfreed.
Oh and breaking news they fired the entire historic commission on bullsheit trumped up charges.
Jodi Nawrocki ran for office trying to convince people she loved historic preservation, and what’s her first big act as a supervisor and the baby chair of the supervisors who doesn’t know how to run a meeting? To axe a volunteer commission. I guess she still believes in the tooth fairy if she expects to believe that this has nothing to do with the Darlington Inn or politics. she is just one of three disgraces, but she’s the only Democrat on the board and she might as well just be Tom Foster’s Sarah Palin.
Oh and former non-profit name- dropping- former -stupidvisor Carol DeWolf? I love love love the ego in you that you can’t bother to introduce yourself to the audience. You’re not the queen freaking mother, but you are still obnoxious, and now that you’re just regular old Carol from Westrown I think you can just stand at the podium like a normal person.
There is no point in being subtle here. This is a complete shit show and a travesty. This is obviously political and if you’re on a board in Westtown, you should just resign now before they fire all of the rest of you.
And that manager, she needs to go to. She also doesn’t know what in the Sam hell she’s doing.
What a freaking joke. Except it isn’t is it? This is actually really bad for residents and I’m allowed to have that opinion too.
So how can they get rid of that entire board of stupidvisors and the manager? and in the meantime, I hope everyone on that historic commission knows that they are entitled to a televised hearing and bring lawyers.
Montauk NY’s Pine Barrens. Ravaged by fire and Southern Pine Beetles. 2026 photo.
The photo above is how I am feeling this afternoon. Empty, chewed up, and feeling a little…well…betrayed. I have expressed this in Italian (which is rather embarrassingly rusty) as I am still living with the excellence of Lisa Scottoline’s latest book which made me channel my inner Italian.
So friendship is and always has been a big deal to me. We are only as good as our word in this life. Last night a friend, not an old for decades friend, but a more recently minted variety contacted me and flew completely and undeservedly off of the proverbial handle with me. Flipped out. Accusing me of craziness and “back stabbing” and what are we 12? Is this the 8th grade lunch table or something?
What happened in truth is people who don’t like them being friends with me, whispered in this person’s ear. I have never been anything but honest and straightforward with this person, and a friend. I got the big mad in addition on things where this person ASKED my opinion – I was not offering my opinion, there is a distinct difference. I also got a big mad from them over a conversation we never actually had.
So here we have another case of gossip and the human effect.
The person who flipped out on me sent a text to say they were sorry. That’s nice but what they did? Literally created in me a sense or feeling of betrayal: Un senso di tradimento. Sadly this makes this a trust issue. Which means if this heals, it will take time.
I can’t control what people whisper in someone’s ear. Not everyone has to like everyone else, but it is super sleazy to interrupt another human’s friendships just because you don’t like one of their friends, and it is that simple and you can simply choose not to be around that person when the mutual friend is with them.
I am also not a punching bag. Friends don’t treat friends like shit.
Trust is a big deal, so right now, I have got nothing except literally un senso di tradimento.
