it’s dress up day for chester county politics!

Some political seasons just lend themselves to photoshopping and political lampoons. It’s a tradition as old as this country – political lampoons not photoshopping, come on now keep up.

Gail Newman and Sarah Marvin who are both running for PA State Rep make election season fun! Always posing for photos, always patriotic, searching for their “patriots.” (Is that code for political pimp? I honestly don’t know, so I’m asking.)

Now I realize their best buddy #whereisGUY , Napoleon “Guy” Ciarrocchi will be very upset they aren’t wearing a dress with HIS face on it, but oh well, they all must worship their ultimate master, yes?

But I do think these nubile politicians look lovely, absolutely gorg doing matchy matchy with one of their political heroines, while wearing bespoke dresses featuring their lord and master.

Cheers and stay dry this weekend!

Politically yours in Chester County,

💋💋 me 💋💋

nasty subdivision potential in east goshen? file under another chesco farm about to bite the dust?

I remember years ago when East Goshen was having their yard sale day going to a yard sale here. Or I am pretty sure this was the house. I bought a brass oil lamp that I had electrified. I remember thinking what a spectacular property this was. This has to be the place. I have a pretty good memory for places like this.

Anyway, imagine my horror when I noticed this on the October 5th Planning Commission Agenda for East Goshen.

So this will be another farm bites the dust, won’t it? Another cul-de-sac subdivision on a road that already can’t handle the traffic it has? More houses in an area that has significant stormwater damage almost every time it rains, doesn’t it? 15 more houses in Chester County. These houses will affect the West Chester Area School District, BUT this isn’t so far from the border with East Whiteland Township, is it ?

This is a spectacular property. I found some more photos on the Internet. And I’m also sharing some of the stuff off of the planning commission agenda. I don’t think residents in East Goshen around here will like this plan. I don’t think their neighbors next-door in East Whiteland will like this plan either. I mean why would anybody like this plan?

Pipeline activists, is this in the midst of any of that?

How many more freaking subdivisions do we need in Chester County?

Well residents of East Goshen and neighbors in next door East Whiteland it’s up to you guys now, I told you about it, here it is. Another potentially bad plan for Chester County. A cluster F of a cluster development is being proposed. Proposed is the operative word if you care about this road which is truthfully rather special.

It would be really nice if municipalities would stop blowing smoke up all of our collective asses in Chester County about open space. It would be really nice if local supervisors made state representatives and state senators earn their keep and update the Municipalities Planning Code before Chester County is overdeveloped out of existence.

Fresh development hell for October has arrived.

dear chesco gop, our rights are not subjective

Let’s talk about this for a minute. The Republican Committee can “announce” anything they want, but the truth of the matter is unless you agree with them lockstep you’re not welcome. Take drag queens as the most recent example.

Let’s talk about a woman’s right to choose. I’m not talking about WHAT that choice might be, because that is up to the individual woman as in HER business, but the Republican Party in Chester County, in Pennsylvania, and across this country want to REMOVE a woman’s right to choose. No matter where women sit on an issue, they should have the right to make their OWN decisions.

Let’s also talk more locally about the “marginalization“ of parents for a minute. Which parents are they referring to? The ones they agree with or everyone else? Because the ones that they agree with are the ones that disrupt our meetings disrupt public events spread hatred, misinformation, and everything phobic but they are the poor pitiful pearls of the world? They are the ones that everyone is supposed to feel sorry for? What about everyone else?

When the Republican Committee of Chester County is espousing their beliefs, and they’re talking about simple economics, do they actually speak about how much these parents they think are being “marginalized” are actually COSTING school districts and municipalities every year? No of course not, it doesn’t fit the lockstep of their narrowminded narrative, does it?

Most of their candidates are quite literally bullies. The ones who are decent are going to get passed by because of all the crazies that the Republican Committee of Chester County is supporting.

The Republican Committee of Chester County does nothing except support and embrace extremism. The party of Lincoln? Nope. Somewhere the ghost of Lincoln weeps.

I’m allowed to have this opinion, our founding fathers bled and died for it, but the Republican Committee of Chester County sees me as an enemy of their state. Their state is not our state, and so many of their own party members don’t even agree with them.

Our rights as Americans are not subjective, but these people want them to be. So yeah, voters have a choice to make this November and it comes down to the simple difference between right and wrong. The Republican Party of Chester County and all the way up the food chain are wrong.

hot tip

I am a tea drinker as well as a coffee drinker. And I like looseleaf tea. Which means when you brew it you have to strain it unless you want to drink all the little tea leaves. You need some kind of a tea ball if you’re doing just one mug or big cup of tea for yourself. I also think brewing looseleaf tea just taste better than tea out of a tea bag.

My favorite tea strainers and tea balls are the ones that come from Germany. They are vintage or antique, and they are woven like a little baskets, hence the basket weave description.

These tea strainers come in brass and silver. But over time they can get quite dark because no one has cleaned them and also the tannin from the tea stains them.

I use and collect these whimsical tea strainers. Sometimes I even sell some because you can’t keep everything. But cleaning them up sometimes can be a bit of a bother. But the whole idea of using something that is going to sit in my tea cup as it strains, makes me think more holistically and chemical free as far as cleaning the actual strainers. So I use the old baking soda and tinfoil method.

I literally put the strainers in a mixing bowl of hot water lined with tinfoil and loaded up with baking soda. And then I just let everything soak. Sometimes I do it overnight and it’s fine, other times I have to do it over the course of a couple of days and change the water and baking soda out for fresh. And then I wash everything and polish it up with a soft cotton cloth.

It might not get shiny bright as if I used silver polish or brass cleaner, but I think that’s better for my cup of tea and me as far as ingesting chemicals.

Anyway that’s your hot tip, and if you’re wondering what tea company I like to buy a lot of my tea from that is looseleaf, it’s a company called Golden Moon. I discovered them completely by accident a few years ago and their teas are very good. I also like Scottish blended teas but they’re hard to get here.

the chesco gop is inviting a monster to town

Next weekend is a busy fall weekend for communities across Chester County, like the beloved Chester County Day, which is EXACTLY why Republican Committee of Chester County is bringing #Monsteriano to town.

THIS is why Chester County residents need to rise up against THIS event which isn’t about family or community or inclusiveness. This event is about supporting a hate-mongering wannabe dictator who apparently also has been voting in New Jersey? (Google Mastriano and New Jersey)

This event is about supporting hate mongering, bigotry, and every societal phobia known to man. This event is about ugliness.

This event is about removing a woman’s right to choose, a cornerstone of the Monsteriano campaign.

This event is about removing the free and fair part of elections, another Monsteriano campaign cornerstone.

Most importantly, this event is about removing a two-party system from our area, and completely decimating what was once known as the party of Lincoln. The Republican party actually needs to be saved from candidates like Monsteriano because democracy needs to be a real thing, not an abstract thought process. Our country was built on a two party system not a totalitarian regime which is what Monsteriano and other Trump acolytes support.

Here’s hoping Monsteriano gets a warm PEACEFUL protesting welcome to Chester County.

Americans still have the right to assemble peaceably and protest and I really hope hoards of people show up to protest BOTH the Chester County Republican Committee and Monsteriano. If you don’t know Chester County, Kimberton is a beautiful place to visit, and it deserves better than this trash and so does this amazing fire company.

It’s time to take back our region and our state, Pennsylvanians. This is why it is SO important to VOTE this November. As Pennsylvanians we need to take out the trash. We live in such a beautiful state, but it is in an inner state of ugliness. Voting against candidates like #Monsteriano isn’t just a thing to due in November because free and fair elections are a necessity to democracy. And literally if we keep letting in these people, that my friends is what is at risk.

You can also ask Kimberton Fire House to politely cancel this event and give them a donation instead. You can also inundate the Republican Committee of Chester County with emails, letters, and phone calls, as well as municipalities and community leaders who support hate mongering events like bringing a monster to town. Just be polite. Don’t be like them.

Happy Sunday.

surprise! outfest lives!

Guess what I got today? The above notice. And I will tell you I have nothing to do with it, I’m just sharing it.

It’s time for the everything phobic people to let things go. If you don’t want to participate, don’t participate. If you think your children are going to be harmed or their eyes will burn to the back of their heads seeing a drag queen, then by all means keep them in the house October 1st and allow their eyes to burn into the back of their heads playing video games or watching TV.

I can tell you that I honestly don’t know who is behind this, and I also don’t care. I report all threats to law-enforcement. And the person who gave me this poster is County Commissioner Josh Maxwell. He has been told by his sources that the event will not be canceled.

mice

Now see, that title. Mice. Bet you think I am talking about real mice? Nope. Felted mice and a nice memory.

I have a bunch of wool felted mice. Mostly for Christmas. But I have a few other cute ones that I tuck here and there because they just make me smile.

The mice at the top my friend Kristin found for me. They are obviously for Christmas, they are Santa and Mrs. Claus mouse.

Yesterday at the preview for Life’s Patina fall event I bought two more felted mice. Halloween mice. One with a giant piece of candy corn, another in a cute little witch’s hat.

When I was taking the picture of the fault of mice this morning to send to a friend to show them, I have a little flash of a memory. And it would’ve been the mid 1970s to the late 1970s. I was inside a little store in Bryn Mawr.

The store was called Katydid and key was next to Parvin’s Pharmacy. Katydid was a cute gift store. And up around the counter area towards the front of the store and behind them on little shelves were these little collectible mice that so many of us had back then.

These were literally little fur mice they were made in West Germany I think the company was called The Mouse Factory. These little mice had all sorts of different outfits and costumes, and they would even come in your school uniform.

My friends and I all had these little mice. My sister and I had a bunch of them and we put them in our dollhouse. We had this really cool doll house that my father found in an attic of a house being demolished in Society Hill when we were really little and he restored it.

Anyway, I love those mice. And the flashback to the memory this morning made me realize this is why I like the felted mice.

Thanks for stopping by.

meet the busy beaver of west vincent township AND new garden township

Sometimes I forget about people. Take this guy John Granger, Township Manger for hire. I first heard about him in March, 2009 when he was appointed interim township manger in Radnor while manager in Solebury Township, Bucks County, after they fired Dave Bashore. It was almost former Coatesville now Phoenixville guy Jean Krack, but that is another story entirely, isn’t it? In 2016 Granger was in Aston, Delaware County. Before West Vincent, Granger was in Exeter Township, and his contract wasn’t renewed.

I remember literally saying when West Vincent hired him full time, couldn’t they do any better? But whatever, I am but a mere mortal and a female of many questions and opinions. But now there is an “A ha” moment of sorts. Why?

Well because John Granger is a pattern guy. He is doing something in West Vincent he did while full time manager in Solebury, Bucks County: He’s straddling two townships. Yes I am being repetitive.

And sadly, no, I am not kidding you.

Granger will be a “consultant” compensated at $100 per hour, said Board of Commissioners president Tom Masterson (Ward 6).

He came recommended by Radnor’s special labor counsel Neil A. Morris, according to one commissioner. Morris also recommended the township’s interim solicitor John B. Rice of the Bucks County law firm Grim, Biehn and Thatcher.

Granger has been manager in Solebury since 2003. Before that, he was manager of Towamencin Township in Montgomery County from 1991 to 2001.

He also runs a consulting business, Granger Associates, which he describes as “management services for local government, focusing on grant writing and strategic planning,” according to his resume.

The Chalfont resident said Monday he will be using some saved up vacation time at his Solebury Township job, and estimates that he will work anywhere from 30 to 50 hours per week in his Radnor position.

~ main line media news, sam strike article 3/24/2009

New Garden Township Agenda September 19, 2022

So West Vincent Township explain to me how your full time manager John Granger can be your treasurer too and NOW he is interim manger and secretary for New Garden Township as well? West Vincent has approximately 5500 residents and New Garden approximately 11,500 residents? Does he still live in the Chalfont area or did he move?


Great work if you can get it and clearly he can and how much is he making for everything? And this is again what he did when at Solebury Township. He also became Radnor Township’s interim manager. So is West Vincent is supposed to be full time and he’s only there on average 3 days a week, is West Vincent getting a rebate on salary? Wowza West Vincent one would have thought you learned with Wendelgass but even West Pikeland didn’t did they?

Granger has done this before. Kind of double dipping, eh? Township Manager and Treasurer in West Vincent. Interim Township Manager and Secretary in New Garden Township.

Not my country, not my people. But hey, putting it out there. Below after the photos of camera shy Manager Granger today is your history lesson:

So for the “Radnor Time” , Granger came from Solebury, Bucks County. He was not a fan favorite when an interim manager in Radnor Township circa 2009, was he? Didn’t he try for a FL job at some point too? Anyway. He popped up as a name on the Main Line in 2014 with some litigation a former candidate for Radnor Manager filed:

Jury rejects claim against Radnor Township by manager candidate
By RICHARD ILGENFRITZ | rilgenfritz@mainlinemedianews.com | The Delaware County Daily Times
PUBLISHED: March 5, 2014 at 1:26 p.m.

Although a jury declared Wednesday that his future military obligations were a factor in Radnor Township’s decision not to hire an Air Force major as manager in 2009, the same jury added that there were still other reasons as to why it did not hire him.

John J. Murphy, who is currently the city manager in Hobbs, New Mexico, filed suit in federal court in 2011 claiming that Radnor did not hire him as manager because of his future reserve military obligations when the township was looking for a new manager after firing its old manager, David Bashore, in 2009.

In its decision, the jury had to answer two questions.

The first question was whether Murphy’s ongoing reserve military obligations were a contributing factor in its decision not to hire him.

Though the jury answered yes to that question, it was also tasked with the next question as to whether there were other reasons for Radnor not to have hired Murphy. Again, the jury decided the answer was yes.

In order for Murphy to have won the case, the jury would have had to find that there were no other reasons for the township not to have hired him.

Following the verdict, both sides declined comment…..

The township launched a nationwide search for a new township manager in 2009 by bringing in a consultant. The hiring consultant then conducted the nationwide search and received 76 applications for the post.

Radnor has said Murphy was not among the top 17 qualified of the candidates. Murphy, however, had been the put in with a group of eight who were interviewed based on the request of Commissioner John Fisher.

Murphy, the son of a retired Philadelphia police officer and raised in Northeast Philadelphia, had been working as the city manager in Wilkes-Barre, for several years before learning that Radnor was looking for a new manager. In court he said getting the job in Radnor was his chance to come home again.

In testimony during the trial, Radnor said the board believed that Murphy had overstated his qualifications and his role in turning around the troubled finances of the city of Wilkes-Barre when he was manager.

Murphy is also the brother of former Congressman Patrick Murphy who represented a district in Northeast Philadelphia and Bucks County.

Among the issues that came up during the four-day trial was a phone call that Patrick Murphy made on behalf of his brother to the commissioners president at the time…

There were also disputes as to what was said to Murphy by former Radnor interim township manager John Granger.

Granger, in the interim position, was tasked with facilitating interviews with potential candidates in 2009 for Bashore’s replacement.

In his suit and during his testimony, Murphy claims that Granger told him prior to his interview that he was in his list of top candidates. Murphy added that after the interview, Granger called him and said some of the board members had concerns over his ongoing military commitments and he was not selected for a second interview.

On the stand Wednesday, Granger said he did not recall the conversations Murphy was referring to and that he would not have made some of the statements attributed to him.

Granger was brought in to be the township manager in Radnor temporarily while he was also township manager in Solebury Township in Bucks County.

According to Granger’s testimony, he planned on working for Radnor from April through Labor Day in 2009. In the end, he stayed until Dec. 31, 2009.

Granger disputed Murphy’s statements by telling the court that he did not have any favorites because he didn’t really care who Radnor hired.

So….I remember I wrote briefly about this again in 2020 when John Granger was appointed Township Manager of West Vincent Township. West Vincent has a checkered past and present when it comes to elected officials and appointed ones, doesn’t it? Granger was also in Towamencin too:

NEWS
Towamencin officials must remain vigilant

By LANSDALE REPORTER |
PUBLISHED: April 19, 2003 at 6:41 a.m.

Instead, they must keep foremost in their minds that the review highlighted an overall failure to follow formal municipal procedures.

And they must learn from their mistakes in allowing former township Manager John Granger to assume power that wasn‘t his – power he used to transfer $1.9 million from the township to the Towamencin Infrastructure Authority without authorization, according to the independent review.

Township officials and residents are living with the aftermath of these actions, and continue to grapple with such thorny issues as widening Forty Foot Road, building a pedestrian bridge over the widened highway and “village plans“ that have been both touted and questioned in Towamencin.

AT THIS POINT, the township is forging ahead with the controversial project, restarting the procedure to acquire rights-of-way needed for the road-widening and pedestrian bridge project…..WHAT HAS occurred in the past can‘t be changed. And instituting written procedures such as these should go far to ensure the township does not encounter similar problems…..

The other troubling aspect is the topic of John Granger, who apparently has not had to answer for any of his deeds. He left the township abruptly, worked for a time at Temple Ambler‘s Center for Sustainable Communities and now has left that job.

He is a difficult man to track down and refuses to comment on the topic. It would be the right thing for him to come forward and offer an explanation for his actions.

The supervisors should demand this explanation. The public deserves it. And then, with new procedures in force, perhaps the township can move forward.

~ landsdale repoter 4/19/2003

Now back up to 2007, when Granger was quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer regarding open space:

Open spaces pinching suburbs
Municipalities find that keeping land free can turn into a money pit.

By Diane Mastrull, Inquirer Staff Writer
Published Aug 12, 2007

….In town halls across the suburbs, conservation euphoria is giving way to the sober realization that open space can be a money pit.

“What did we get ourselves into?” is the increasingly common refrain among municipal officials, said John Granger, manager of Solebury Township in Bucks County.

READING EAGLE: Exeter will search for new township manager

By KEITH SMOKER
PUBLISHED: January 14, 2020

Exeter Township supervisors on Monday voted to officially open the position of township manager. The vote came a week after they agreed not to renew current Manager John Granger’s contract.

Supervisor John Cusatis said later that Granger was given 30 days’ notice when the decision was made Jan. 7. Cusatis did not, when asked, specify a reason for Granger’s pending exit.

Then this pops up:

WFMZ 69 News: Exeter Twp. supervisors take back supervision of police department
Gregory Purcell Jun 27, 2022

EXETER TWP, Pa. – Monday night’s meeting of the Exeter Township Board of Supervisors was relatively calm and quiet, compared to last Wednesday’s special meeting during which the board voted to censure and remove as vice president David Hughes.

The subject of the supervisors’ focus at Monday’s meeting wasn’t Hughes but controversial former Township Manager John Granger, who was fired in early 2020.

Granger had changed the reporting protocol for the chief of police, having the position report to the township manager rather than the supervisors. During Monday’s meeting, the supervisors changed the reporting structure for the police chief back to the way it was before Granger became township manager.

Oh and this is a public record for the PUC from 2019:

sex lies and videotape…and more tall tales in willistown now seem like an unhealthy obsession with two supervisors by a certain resident?

The title of this post pertains to the craziness of Willistown, not AQUA.

Is this gentleman (using that term loosely) safe to be around in the community? He seems dangerously obsessed with Willistown Township Supervisors William Shoemaker and Bob Lange.

Personally I think he is underneath it all, a man with a big case of the green-eyed monster. This man is jealous of those men. He wants to be those men, down to the generational land they live on. I am allowed that opinion. But those men he will never be.

The obsession over these two supervisors in Willistown is unhealthy. The behavior stalkerish and creepy A.F.

I mean how many god damn times do we have to discuss a $250 campaign contribution that was not accepted? Really, is he still saying Bill Shoemaker sold out his township where his home is and family land for $250? Dude you are like a quackery version of Dynasty episode. Or what about the mythical party where supposedly Bill Shoemaker was at the home of Aqua’s chairman? For that especially, who cares and I guess the Pied Piper of Willistown who also hates chickens doesn’t get invited anywhere? Lord love a duck, no scratch that, he might hate them too. Oh and that never happened, this party dinner thing, did it?

This man wants to imply Bill Shoemaker is dirty. He wants to imply Bob Lange is dirty. Ok, so he doesn’t have to like them, we don’t have to like him. But these constant posts and harping on a non-issue? BIZARRE. UNHEALTHY.

Of course I laugh that this is the wagon the sewer folks have hitched themselves to. The pied piper of misconstrued facts and personal animus and he is NOT even on sewer is he? What is his end game? Run for supervisor? Run someone else for supervisor?

Like I have said all along, I have no problem with people protesting sewer sales. It’s all how it is approached. And for Willistown, having this as someone involved, creates a lack of credibility for those residents who are fighting this. We are judged by the company we keep, and in polite society, that still counts for something. It’s time to leave this man some rubber chickens.

Willistown, this really needs to stop. It’s all just too much. And truthfully sad. The ugliness is seeping into all of your corners. Is that really what you all are about? Ugliness? I mean damn people, is it PFA time in Willistown?

bishop tube news: it’s about god damn time someone started cleaning up.

It’s no secret how I feel about the Bishop Tube Site in East Whiteland. It’s the poison ground and apparently now some sort of cleanup is starting. We would not have gotten this far without the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. There really doesn’t need to be any more commentary from me, I am just posting what the DEP posted today and I’m also including the YouTube link to the Bishop Tube documentary.

https://www.ahs.dep.pa.gov/NewsRoomPublic/articleviewer.aspx?id=22193&typeid=1

https://www.dep.pa.gov/About/Regional/SoutheastRegion/Community%20Information/Pages/Bishop-Tube.aspx