Photo courtesy of Honey Brook Township Supervisor Valerie Shultz
May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
May God be with you and bless you; May you see your children’s children. May you be poor in misfortune, Rich in blessings, May you know nothing but happiness From this day forward.
May the road rise to meet you May the wind be always at your back May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home And may the hand of a friend always be near.
May green be the grass you walk on, May blue be the skies above you, May pure be the joys that surround you, May true be the hearts that love you.
So if you were part of Greek life in college, and I was, you know that pledge classes of fraternities have certain rituals they are responsible for completing. And that is not necessarily one and the same, but can be part of things that people would categorize as hazing…. especially if the task at hand is not completed.
According to Bill Rettew of the Daily Local, fraternity members are stealing bricks out of the historic sidewalks of West Chester University. This is based upon an interview with local residents:
Why are the historic bricks from the borough’s brick sidewalks disappearing?
Are they wearing out and not being replaced, stolen to replace those bad bricks by neighbors, or according to one neighbor, part of a long-time West Chester University fraternity hazing ritual, or is something else happening?
Sean Barry lives in the Southeast region of the borough where most of the students who rent live, and the fraternity houses are located. His bricks mysteriously started disappearing from his sidewalk.
He returned from his honeymoon to learn from the borough that he was responsible to repair and replace the bricks or face a fine…..The damage was widespread and the sidewalk bricks or pavers are no longer made. Barry sought an estimate and was told by a professional contractor that the bill would come to between $10,000 and $13,000 to repair his sidewalk. A simple Google search shows that several contractors will repair or replace brick or paver sidewalks for thousands of dollars.
Barry spent 11 hours repairing the sidewalk himself, with the aid of a friend. The thefts continue and bricks are currently missing from Barry’s sidewalk.
Barry witnessed a young male removing a brick from his sidewalk. He confronted him and asked the youth why he was removing the brick and was told that he was a member of a West Chester University fraternity and it was part of the pledging process and he had to collect a number of sidewalk bricks to fulfill a “quota.” The alleged student would not give his name or the name of a fraternity to Barry….Elizabeth Nebel lives on South Walnut Street. She sees some neighbors paving the bricks over with concrete and wonders if it is because of the thefts, and if consequently, West Chester will lose some of its charm.
Barry agrees.
“The bricks are a big part of the town,” he said. “It’s part of the charm.
“But brick by brick we’re losing what makes West Chester special.”
Barry said that he’s happy to live in the Southeast.
“We know it’s a select few and most are good neighbors,” he said. “I’m good to have students as neighbors, but the density comes with unique challenges.”
Now, when I read through the article, I noticed that West Chester University was kind of playing Pontius Pilate. Look that’s somewhat typical for schools with a big off-campus population. They say they can’t be responsible for their kids, yet they are, aren’t they?
And the fraternities’ national organizations are also responsible for their charges. It doesn’t take much to look up the fraternities currently active at West Chester, and not even includes ones that aren’t officially recognized. Sometimes fraternities are also suspended, I don’t know if they list them on West Chester‘s website or not. West Chester also maintains documentation of recent or relatively recent issues within their Greek community so to speak as far as hazing and what not. I also found this report- https://cm.maxient.com/chtr.php?WestChesterUniv
So these bricks levitating from sidewalks around the Borough of West Chester near the fraternities isn’t like typical hazing per se, but I am sure it is part of some initiation process. Now it’s relatively harmless if you take it at its face, except it’s destroying historic sidewalks.
As a historic town, West Chester will have lots of visitors, undoubtedly during America’s 250 celebration this summer. If you were “Greek” in college, please look at the attached list of organizations pertaining to Greek life with chapters on this college campus please contact your national organization an please ask them to ask the students to just knock it off and return what they’ve taken.
All of these organizations have service projects that they generally do, and a lot of times they do it right in their local communities where their chapters are located. It would be really nice to return the bricks.
Chase and David the owners who are now friends literally started with a small hoop house that I am pretty sure they made themselves. They delivered all the plants themselves at first. That’s actually how I met their dogs.
I want to say up front I have been a devoted and regular customer. I am not ever compensated in any way, shape, or form. Quality plants- annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, herbs, fruit plants, vegetables and more.
I love to garden, they have great plants at fair prices. And they deliver. I do know some of the wholesale nurseries in multiple states that they use, so I know what I am buying and it’s quality plant material not all juiced up with Miracle Gro. Have I lost a few plants over the years? Yes, due to deer, not them!
I have bought so many wonderful things from them. I have introduced friends and family in multiple states now to them. I have watched them grow from a one hoop house and a couple of vans operation to a multi-state business where they have a hub up in Lancaster County and another in Maryland. They are even growing some of their own plants now.
Last year they added a new arm of their business called Second Chance Plants. It’s an overstock and discount concept put into pop-up locations. They tried it out last year and it was such an enormous hit that this year. They have the regular Bloombox business and like a dozen of these seasonal pop-ups stretching through PA and MD.
I went to the one in Exton on Saturday because I was jonesing to look for plants. Gardening is a definite passion of mine, and I put a lot into my garden every year. So the Exton location is that the Exton Square, Mall in one of the parking lot. And since it’s essentially a dead ghost mall, there’s plenty of space. Of course if those developers would actually pay attention it shows you what people want and it’s not more condos townhouses and apartments is it? It’s things like this and a hospital isn’t it? (But I digress.)
This additional arm of their business is freaking amazing and the prices are amazing and the plant quality is literally like Terrain, but not the Molly Markup. I bought three trees and they had so much stuff and it was just the soft opening. They even had a tremendous selection of beautiful ceramic planters. They have the grand opening next weekend. I think it starts on March 20. You have to look on the website or their social media.
I never had the time to visit any of the pop-ups last year. And I’m really glad they moved them into so many areas this year.
One of the things that we are lacking around here now with the constant march no stampede of big box stores and the cost of renting space and what not is there aren’t as many plant nurseries. There used to be so many gorgeous plant nurseries around so to me this is welcome. I’m not saying there aren’t any nurseries, but they aren’t nearly as many as there used to be.
The guys from Bloombox have worked hard and they have done this on their own. They drive all their own social media. They have wonderful people who work for them I and all of their other happy customers celebrate their success. Their success means our gardens look better and better every year.
However, their success means people want to make a buck off of it, doesn’t it?
Enter my favorite fauxblicist and some shall we say rather pushy or interesting unsolicited now not so private messages to the BloomBox guys:
Good lord. Does this woman not understand not being freaking rapid fire pushy? Yes fauxblicist, no thank you after trying to ignore the ping ping ping of unsolicited messages is a no means no situation is it not? Or does she think that is a maybe?
Welp….it’s a no. I spoke with them.
You see they don’t need her mailing list.
They don’t need whoever she thinks are her followers.
They do their own work. And trust me when I tell you, they work hard.
Social media also isn’t something a small business needs to necessarily hire someone for. A lot of this can be done by yourself for your business or for yourself personally with just a little effort. And that doesn’t mean buying followers. It means connecting with your audience. It means posting about your business. It starts with baby steps.
And if your business needs more, then you hire a real professional, which in my humble opinion which I am allowed to have it isn’t someone who only shares on their own channels.
I would also like everyone to look at the timestamp. It’s really not polite to message strangers later in an evening is it, or do people simply not have boundaries anymore as far as social norms? Just like it’s rude to message too late (especially someone you don’t know), it’s also equally rude to message them so early isn’t it?
And all of this goes into the context of if she wanted a shot at their business and this is what she’s doing? Would you also message someone early in the morning as they’re getting ready to launch a soft opening of multiple pop-up locations over a couple of different states?
A more prudent person might’ve sent an initial message to say hi but then you let it sit and maybe follow up with another brief message a few days later, right? Kind of the wrong situation to lack impulse control wouldn’t you say?
But then again this is the woman who even made a write up and Bitchy Waiter once upon a time:
And then there was the time when she went a little Rambo on a restaurant:
And another restaurant:
And then, of course she does this Easter bunny thing with this creepy costume. And she’s a made herself a public figure so I can have an opinion about the creepy, flat faced rabbit outfit. And no she’s not a furry, just seasonally a bunny. But then she post this recently about that jam:
Yeah….ummm… if somebody’s possibly bringing you somewhere to possibly be around their small children to entertain, they want to know you’re OK, right?
And when we’re talking about the email, I never signed up for her emails and I’ve been trying for I don’t know how many years to not get her emails yet there she is along with the other junk mail that covers nice topics like erectile dysfunction etc.
She’s a peach. A frenetic one….and that is being kind.
A reminder of some of the political boot lickers when it comes to data centers.
A reminder that while Senator Katie Muth shows up every time East Whiteland residents need her, Rep. Kristine Howard tells people she will show up if she can squeeze it into her busy schedule doing nothing for constituents and nothing to upset her handlers.
State Representative Lisa Borowski has knee pads with the guvvie’s face on it.
State Representative Chris Pielli is only ever about himself and let his constituents down, abandoning them as a West Goshen Stupidvisor over pipelines and Rep. Paul Friel? He’s hustling his pussy angle it seems.
Her name was Megan Nieberle. CBS News released at first, so I am not breaking any confidences or being insensitive. She knew people that I’m friends with. I have known her name since this happened and I kept it to myself but now it’s out there along with an obituary.
She was a nurse at Children’s Hospital. she was a mom, a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a niece, a friend. I could go on, but you get the picture.
And she was a nurse, a natural caregiver. I have so much respect for nurses and she was a children’s nurse. She was a local Chester County girl through and through, having also been a proud graduate of Henderson High School in West Chester.
I have no pity or empathy for Steve Jahn who shot her. Random acts like this make me quite run out of the milk of human kindness.
And while I also understand per the other media reports about how it’s hard to 302 someone. I really feel Tredyffrin should’ve tried harder and I really hate anything that sounds critical of law-enforcement because they have such a tough job and we’ve already lost someone in law-enforcement at the same time in Chester County….at the same hospital.
I will also note to everyone again that there is an official obituary at this point. This is it:
There is also very rando stuff floating across social media. That is literally Clickbait that will probably infect your phone or your tablet or your computer. Please don’t click on them, but please do report those because they’re not being put out by the family. They’re being put out by ghouls.
Steven Jahn mugshot
So NBC10 and Deanna Durante said yesterday I think it was that Jahn’s friends were trying to contact police along with his own call Saturday a couple of hours before the murder of Megan Nieberle? NBC10 interviewed a couple different lawyers about it when I was a little confused about because I thought he was like education related law?
Megan’s life mattered. This also could be any of us. I spoke to a couple of people who are my friends who are in and around Berwyn. Both of these friends of mine had been out around a similar time frame and almost went down that road close to that time when the murder was committed.
Life is a fleeting and fragile thing, indeed.
Now let’s go back to what people told police about this guy was being like, and was he not known to the police for past behavior?
Online there have been many people commenting about situations even from within their own families where the police took someone’s weapon, etc.
I don’t know what else to even say at this point. I didn’t know Megan, but this could’ve been any woman on a dark and often too quiet road. and my opinion remains that this maybe could have been prevented.
My heart goes out to her friends and family. I will remember her in my prayers. Heaven gained another angel, who is there way before she should be.
RIP Megan Nieberle.
May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
May God be with you and bless you: May you see your children’s children. May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings. May you know nothing but happiness From this day forward.
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home, And may the land of a friend always be near.
May green be the grass you walk on, May blue be the skies above you, May pure be the joys that surround you, May true be the hearts that love you.
I haven’t written about this yet, but started now. I think I needed to sleep on it some more because I found this so profoundly upsetting and disturbing .
First up: a wrong place, wrong time. A woman in Berwyn murdered by an out of his mind lunatic….whom police had dealt with just a couple of hours before he shot this woman. This was a mom. She was a sister. She was a friend. she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time when someone decided to have a psychotic break. I hope they lock that guy up for a really long time.
According to the timeline laid out, Tredyffrin Police HAD Steven Jahn IN CUSTODAY earlier that evening and perhaps if they had kept a hold of him, this woman might still be alive?
It also speaks to the need for mental health evaluations to be added to requirements for carry permits etc.
I hate to refer to her as just “a woman” or “this woman” but out of respect for her family I am while they try to adjust to something anything but normal.
This woman is known to friends of mine. I have woken up thinking about her these past couple of days. This was about a quasi homeless man on a psychotic break and maybe some sort of substance abuse (who knows?) who murdered a woman who will never wake up again to see the sun rise or take joy in her family, smile at her kids, go for a walk, kiss her husband goodnight. This is a woman with kids and a husband who have to try to make sense of something utterly senseless.
And this piece of crap who shot her? Here is the police comnplaint thingy:
Now was Jahn truly homeless or unhoused? He went to Conestoga and supposedly grew up around Midland in Berwyn? People I spoke to indicated he had lived in Florida, New Jersey, and Maryland before coming back to PA in the beginning of the year? Someone said he had been at some place called the “French Creek Inn” which is some sort of no tell meets meets flop house in East Pikeland? Did anyone check that out? I never heard of that place and someone said it actually came up recently at an East Pikeland meeting?
Anyway, this guy was picked up with his guns at his cousin’s house on Conestoga Road? Look at him? Is that just a full mental break or something else as well? Why do I ask? Because I figured out WHY his name was familiar. 2013. Crazy car accident after hit and runs in East Goshen on North Chester Road. Like 3 hit and runs and his own car upended in the woods.
And next we go to the death of that poor State Trooper Corporal Timothy O’Connor. Fatally shot while performing a traffic stop by one Jesse Nathan Elks. This happened out in West Caln. Another guy who snapped who owned a gun. Elks then ate his own gun.
Timothy O’Connor leaves a wife, daughter, and other family like his beloved parents behind. I literally started crying at one simple comment on the Chester County District Attorney’s Office Facebook Page from his namesake father. All it said was “I love you son.”
So I can’t really find the social media of Jesse Elks but obviously they are out there somewhere because people are posting about it.
Screenshot
When you dig into Elks you find he fathered kids by two women, married one who later divorced him. He was living in a mobile home park in Honey Brook, not sure if it was the township or West Caln area. He seemed to me to be a POS with anger issues and a coward. He took the life of Timothy O’Connor and then killed himself depriving the State Troopers and O’Connor’s family of justice. At least the women who bore his children are free of him…and I hope his kids do okay through this as innocents in his act of murder.
So why did Jesse Elks have a gun?
Look I am not debating the right to own arms. I am asking when the f*ck are they going to add mental health evaluations to the ownership process? It’s the people with the guns doing the killing, so it’s a different conversation to the regular or more typical gun control conversation.
It’s like the fact that sometimes when people have these mental health breaks, law enforcement needs to confiscate weapons sooner, rather than later.
Corporal O’Connor and currently unnamed wife, mother, sister, friend both were taken to Paoli Hospital. What a terribly sad duty for those who work at Paoli. Two tragedies that were random acts of senseless violence. I hope they met on the way to heaven.
I am not particularly eloquent about these senseless acts and I so want to be because these two victims whose souls left their human form at Paoli Hospital deserve that….from all of us.
We live in an awful world right now that needs more happiness. Pray for these families and for these two people murdered through random acts of violence and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This could happen to anyone, and that is the most gut wrenching thought of all.
I close with what Timothy O’Connor’s mom posted. It was public. Mrs. O’Connor, I don’t know you either, but like the currently unnamed murder victim in Berwyn, we share people in common and I am just so damn sorry.
People, we need to strive for a better world. And heaven has two new angels way before they should have been there. And can we also put in a plug for Chester County officials to get a hospital back in the area of where the other two closed with a trauma center?
It was a packed house at Penn State in Great Valley. Quite literally standing room only and hundreds of residents turn out to tell the East Whiteland Planning Commission they didn’t want this data center.
It was a crazy contentious meeting and in the last 20 minutes one member of the planning commission learn not to mess with State Senator Katie Muth when she was defending her constituents.
One of my favorite speakers was the line man. He was freaking awesome.
And so was Ginny Kerslake and so were so many people.
Be proud East Whiteland residents and keep up the good work. Next stop supervisors.
And I know that the developer said at the meeting that he was doing this for the benefit of residents or something like that I’m paraphrasing. I don’t recall any residents requesting a data center so we’ll leave it at that.
Join them Monday at Penn State Great Valley at 6 PM Monday March 9th for the planning commission meeting! Auditorium of the Conference Center at Penn State Great Valley, located at 30 East Swedesford Road, Malvern, PA 19355.
In addition to in-person attendance, the Township has arranged for the meeting to be livestreamed via the Township website. https://www.eastwhiteland.org/
Public comment for those unable to attend in-person may be submitted via email to bcarosello@eastwhiteland.org. Please submit comments by 12:00pm on Monday, March 9, 2026.
So the other day, David Byerman Chester County CEO was fired, let go, made redundant… so Byerman is now airing shall we say selective dirty laundry? Really? Why?
There was this bombshell article in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday that I didn’t actually read until this morning when my phone started blowing up about it.
Before I get into this, I’m going to set the stage and say this guy is a complete 100% political operative and bare knuckles political brawler in my humble opinion. But I’m also going to ask is selective disclosure of certain information pertaining to termination of employment the whole story? I mean that is executive session and human resources stuff so what is the end game?
Anyway, apparently the Nevada native allowed website access I guess some kind of gambling or sports betting or however you want to categorize fantasy sports leagues?
So he told the Inquirer he made an “administrative decision” (that’s a direct quote from the article from him) to allow…wait for it…online betting etc sites to be accessed by employees? Huh?
Say what? Dude, it’s Pennsylvania not Nevada. Was legalizing brothels next? To me that means he allowed changes to whatever the Internet and web permissions are countywide to allow websites that often aren’t necessarily particularly secure?
I mean, think about it —-every time you watch a crime procedural or you pick up a paper every now and again you hear about how people gain access for hacks and even to talk below the radar of law-enforcement and it’s like gaming platforms, etc. so this isn’t like a video game platform or whatever, but it’s still a big deal, yes?
It is also a really big deal perhaps that the county wouldn’t have picked this up ASAP because it sounds like it went on for a while? As CEO, he was a paid employee of the county which meant he worked under the commissioners, etc. and I hate to say it but where was county commissioner leadership?
I came out of the financial services industry, and the thing about that is regarding the Internet and stuff they didn’t allow certain things, because things are supposed to be seriously regulated so there’s no wiggle room for impropriety and poor behavior, correct? So it would be similarly expected one would hope in government? Especially since if you think about it, at its most simplistic, government sets regulations for financial institutions right?
Exactly how would this Byerman think that allowing websites like that are OK? I mean websites like that are things that should only be viewable in county offices perhaps by like the district attorney’s office because they have to investigate cases etc. and can we all agree on that?
But this guy kind of said it was no big deal and he admitted to visiting these websites to update some fantasy league or whatever during office hours? Does he have any covered bridges or anything he wants to sell us while he’s at it?
So technically, that means potentially if you were in the courthouse using their Wi-Fi when you had jury duty, you could access online gambling or whatever? Does no one remember the judge that kind of lost his job for this kind of stuff?
WEST CHESTER — A former Chester County judge charged with using campaign contributions to gamble has pleaded guilty to theft and election code violations.
Former Magisterial District Judge Michael Cabry III had been charged by authorities with using money from his campaign finance account to feed a six-figure gambling habit at various casinos in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
And the thing I also can’t get past is he allowed employees to access some of these websites and aren’t also a lot of county employees responsible for shall we say sensitive or personal information of residents as well?
Gambling in any form is considered an addiction for some, so that’s like having a bar cart being wheeled through the halls of the county offices at 4 PM on Fridays isn’t it?
Also to be considered, which I thought of this morning before I got distracted from writing this post, is in the article no matter how innocuous a reference it is he admitted to personally using one of these websites while at work right?
So in his role as CEO of Chester County he handled budget stuff correct? Other money things? It doesn’t matter how innocuous what he did or says he did might have been. It’s the appearance isn’t it? And he’s a grown-up so shouldn’t he have known better?
Now to be crystal freaking clear, I’m not implying anyone stole anything, but given the nature of this new Inquirer article and the comments by this man, will they now have to do a forensic auditing of sorts in the county for his tenure?
Also, in the article there’s the kissy face back-and-forth from a county response to his response and they wish him well blah blah blah, and he says he has this profound appreciation or something for the commissioners, etc.? To that I say really? People with “profound appreciation” don’t try to throw shade at their former employer to try to make themselves look better, do they?
And then I have to ask is this article a precursor to a shoe yet to drop?
Obviously, Byerman is politically experienced, yes? A political operative? So let’s go to another thing in this article and it was something I bought up in one of my posts. It was about him being head of the Democrats of Chester County in the late 90s. (1997 or so?)
In the Inquirer article this morning he says he disclosed that fact to the commissioners during the process I guess of hiring him and/or interviewing him? I have to ask timing is everything so when specifically during the process did he disclose that information and to whom precisely?
I have some thoughts about that. I think Commissioner Moskowitz knew exactly who she who he was, and why I have that opinion is like she’s been involved in Democrat politics out here for a donkey’s age correct? Josh and Maxwell and Eric Roe would’ve been like a guess about 10 or 11 when he was in Chester County given their age?
Byerman put Chester County in his rear view like for a couple of decades plus before he returned. So what made him want to return? I mean he had had this job with the state of Kentucky most recently before this correct? I think that’s what was in the article so why wasn’t his contract renewed there because that’s what my research indicated? Did he get a political knifing from a more Republican state or something as a Democrat? And what about his jobs in Nevada? How was he received in his home state when they were all done?
He ends the article with he wanted taxpayers to know how hard he worked for everyone or something, but did he? I mean, for example Karen Barsoum is still employed and if he is the CEO and he watched all those problems in voter services why does she still have a job as of today?
But I also have to wonder if this is the whole story? After all, isn’t it kind of unusual for someone who will now be entering the job market to kind of fall on his sword in a way and say along the lines that he was a bad boy, but I’m not sure it was justified to make him lose that job?
Also, he wasn’t here very long this position so how could he have had so many performance reviews? Because isn’t that what the article implies?
So now, as I’m starting to wrap up this article late this afternoon an article came out from the Daily Local.
Here is an excerpt from that article because it’s also very interesting just like the Inquirer article:
WEST CHESTER — Life is full of surprises.
In the 1990s David Byerman was the chairman of the Chester County Democratic Committee.
And on Monday, as reported by Daily Local News, he was unexpectedly let go from the county government’s top position….On November 20, 2024, during a public commissioners’ meeting at 313 W. Market St. in West Chester, commissioners voted 2-1 to hire Byerman, with Roe, a Republican, casting the only “no” vote per the HR agenda adoption….Byerman said a CEO should be judged on that person’s ability to sell the county as a great place to work, and to build a great team.
He spoke to the the Daily Local News on the record from Philadelphia on Thursday….
Byerman said he had to kind of feel his way in the dark to figure out what the parameters were.
He said there was no manual on what decisions he could make versus what needed to be brought back to the commissions.
“This was a situation where I was told on Monday that the commissioners felt like I had overstepped my bounds and had made this decision on behalf of the commissioners and that was inappropriate,” he recalled.
Yeah, is this his PR fixer tour or something?
I just don’t necessarily believe that the whole gambling fantasy website stuff being allowed is the only thing and none of us will probably ever know because it’s quite literally an HR issue. Let’s face it we wouldn’t have known any of this unless he chose to disclose it so I’m circling back as to why?
