It’s put away Christmas time. I really don’t like it. It takes a bit to create Christmas and I get so happy when my Christmas decorations get unboxed each Christmas. So naturally, I also get a little sad and overwhelmed as well when Epiphany rolls around and it is time to put everything away again.
I have found over time that it’s better to tackle a little bit of it each day so everything gets put away right. Once again, like every year, I’m rearranging some things. I even treated myself to some new storage containers because some are getting a little raggedy and will need to find other uses, or get recycled.
Today my AnnaLee Santas, elves, Mrs. Clauses, and reindeer went back into their containers. I also put away my Byers’ Choice Santas. I only have a few of the Santas. They are my favorites of the figures.
Tomorrow other things will be put away. This will continue until it’s all put away.
Until next year, Christmas.
I look forward to the magic of the season reappearing.
Our history and our identity as a country, and as a region, is tied directly to William Penn. He came here with people to settle in Pennsylvania the state that was named for him to escape religious and other persecution.
So here we are a few centuries later and it’s like we’re right back where we started.
To remove him from anything is egregious. And YES I get that the Daily Mail and other sources are perhaps being alarmist, but this is my opinion on the matter because I truly believe that this could indeed happen.
Why can’t different parts of history co-exist? Why does some history have to be suppressed in favor of other pieces of history?
And before some of you jump all over me for daring to have an opinion on this, my thought process is simple: if we deny or repress history (which is not always pretty), we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
And to remove William Penn when he had historically good relationships with Native Americans makes no sense. To me it runs contrary to the history of William Penn completely. If he could co-exist peacefully with Native Americans hundreds of years ago why does he have to not as a part of history not be able to co-exist with Native American history on this historic site?
History is good, history is bad, history is history. We can’t just keep replacing history. It all needs to be there for us. It’s how we grow as human beings and Americans. Oh and I am saying this as a woman, a Democrat, a Pennsylvanian, a Philadelphian.
By Stephen M. Lepore For Dailymail.Com00:11 08 Jan 2024, updated 00:44 08 Jan 2024
The Biden administration’s National Park Service is starting a ‘rehabilitation’ process for a Pennsylvania park that incudes the removal of a statue of founder William Penn and inclusion of representation of Native American tribes.
The Deb Haaland-led parks service sent out the request for input on the changes to Welcome Park Friday on their website and in a post on X.
Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania in 1681, was notorious for his amicable relations with the Native tribes of the region. The park was established 300 years later.
The park itself is named after the ship Penn sailed to America and includes a museum dedicated to celebrating the life and contributions of William Penn.
However, the parks service says it wants to ‘provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.’
The National Park Service (NPS) has announced it will be rehabilitating (via reduction) Pennsylvania founder William Penn’s Welcome Park to “provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience.” Named after the ship that bore Penn to that city of fraternal affection, the park is the site of his former Philadelphia home and the Slate Roof House. As part of this reimagining of Welcome Park, the park service has confirmed that “the Penn statue and Slate Roof house model will be removed and not installed.”
Needless to say, this is all very stupid.
Two things:
One, it’s true that Welcome Park is monumentally ugly — if no one said it, I will. It’s a slab of stonework (composing a street plan for Philadelphia) with the approximate footprint of a Division III high-school gymnasium in the middle of a city block. The spot could use a rethink to maximize the importance of a location that held the Slate Roof House, an abode in which the Quaker William Penn wrote his charter, a document that would see many of its tenets replicated in the U.S. Constitution. The location also hosted members of the Continental Congress, including John Hancock and John Adams.
Two, just because something might be in need of reinterpretation does not mean that progressive revisionists get carte blanche to “inclusify” benches and fire hydrants with Howard Zinnian signage while deleting the only two items of note — the Penn statue and the model house. Why not rebuild the Slate Roof House and keep the statue in its front entry? Or make a model ship and house, something interactive for kids to mess while maybe even learning something?
Ahhh East Goshen Township. A mostly beautiful township that historically likes to stay below the radar. Well below the radar. They might not stay so below this year, however.
For example here a potential land development things that affect both East Goshen and West Whiteland That weird sliver of acreage I wrote about a few days ago . A 15 acre parcel where 10 acres behind Old Phoenixville Pike are in West Whiteland Township and 5 acres are in East Goshen Township.
I have learned over the years East Goshen hates any kind of spotlight. That flawed and failed eminent domain attempt at the Hicks Farm which was referred to in a 2021 Daily Local op-ed:
Imagine a knock on your door, and somebody announces that they intend to purchase your home, and that you will need to vacate it shortly. Imagine, also, that you are told that the value of your home will be established by the purchaser, and that you must accept the offer without objection. Sounds like a nightmare scenario.
This nightmare has played out time again here in Chester County. It occurs when a local government decides that they want to take someone’s property for public use that is deemed more important than the rights of the property owner. It does not matter how long the property may have been owned, or how the owner feels about being forced to give up their land.
If the locality wants it, they can take it at a price that they feel they should pay. The process is called Eminent Domain, a somewhat gray area of law that has been in constant dispute for decades.
In the recent past there have been examples of localities using Eminent Domain to seize private property for values that owners have felt unjust, and for reasons the community has sometimes found inappropriate. In the view of the Libertarian Party of Chester County the use of Eminent Domain is nothing more than theft by forcing a sale to a government that cannot purchase property by accepted legal means. By taking property with a forced sale, the property is being stolen, and this is wrong.
The latest threat of Eminent Domain use is happening in East Goshen Township. The victim in this case is Goshen View Farm, owned by the Hicks family. The ancestors of this family settled in Chester County back in 1769. According to a family member, this farm was purchased by William Huey Hicks in 1909.
Hicks was interested in the land because of the new system of electrification along Paoli Pike. Hicks bought the farm from the Sharpless family the old-fashioned way, by offering the owner a fair price and having the seller agree to the transaction in a free and agreeable sale….None of us is allowed to knock on a door and force a sale of private property, and no politician should be allowed to do this either.
You may ask what the critical need there is for taking a strip of land from a farm along Paoli Pike may be? Is there a hospital being built? Perhaps some emergency access is needed for a fire department? In fact, this property is being seized for a possible walking trail no more than two miles long, according to some local residents.
Sometimes referred to as “The Trail to Nowhere”, this strip of property is supposed to meet up with other township trails that may or may not ever exist, or even meet with this section of the trail. Perhaps the prospect of millions in government grant money is affecting the decision to invoke Eminent Domain. By some estimates, the township is spending about $5 millions dollars per mile to build the trail, $10 million in total.
The family that owns the property is not only unhappy with the threat of Eminent Domain but is also concerned about how visitors may impact their valuable horse stabling business, and about liabilities that may ensue when bikers and hikers cross the vehicle traffic on the farm lane exiting to Paoli Pike.
Fortunately, Pennsylvania’s strong Sunshine Laws appear to require the local council to present the plan of Eminent Domain to the voters and allow them ample time to consider both this drastic action and accompanying expense before seizing property from the owners. The LPCC has no doubt that upon learning of this shameful plan they will insist that their politicians act in the same fair and proper way that the voters are expected to behave. Stealing is theft, no matter what law it cowers behind. It is time to debate the use of the unfair laws of Eminent Domain.
East Goshen now has a new Supervisor who ran based upon eminent domain. It was his property, after all, that they tried to take. Peter Hicks is a welcome addition to the board and so is the other newbie Barbara Emery. Cody Bright tries to do the right thing. BUT…it’s politics, so there is always a BUT isn’t there? I used to be glad Michele Truitt was a Supervisor and chair but I have to be honest, now the jury is out. That’s hard to articulate because I like her as a person, which is different than just liking a politician. And it has to do with the hanging chads of East Goshen issues and solutions the past few years. I just find it all confusing, so it makes it hard.
Michele Truitt is not going to like this opinion but can she really be surprised? I am not trying to be bitchy, but East Goshen needs to stand in the light. When Supervisor Truitt first told me eminent domain at the Hicks Farm would come off the table, I was thrilled. Then I kept asking for her to let me know when they were repealing it. It’s not that complicated, I consulted with the former Lower Merion Commissioner who wrote the language in the resolution to end eminent domain in 2006, Philip Rosenzweig. And basically it was a simple resolution to revoke the original resolution Lower Merion passed. But in East Goshen all I kept hearing was they needed time to “unwind” it. Why? No one has EVER answered that question really, so what took so long?
It makes anyone wonder why did it take so long, and why was it shrouded in mystery? Did it have to do with that trail to nowhere?
There have been questions whispered in shadows the past few years about money and this township haven’t there been? And they say the township budget is out of whack and what they still blame COVID? Perhaps it predates COVID in reality? How about a real forensic accounting that is finished and made public? Just rip the Band-Aid off, right?
And what is this latest thing about *supposedly* one Supervisor wants to eject all Democrats from various volunteer committees/appointments? And yet another Supervisor is working on this? I mean come on now Chair and Vice Chair, did you think these fissures wouldn’t show? What is wrong with BALANCE? One party rule doesn’t work, we are a country designed on a two party system and if East Goshen REALLY wants to put their money where their mouths are, then balance not dictatorship, please, right?
I know East Goshen Republicans didn’t like the plastic bag ban of it all. Even that reached my ears My question there of course with these bag bans is what about plastic trash bags? Don’t we think we use more of those? (But I digress.)
So East Goshen once also did big talking about an updated comprehensive plan, didn’t they? I believe the last one was 2015, so it’s not 10 years yet, but it’s just like another thing announced with much fanfare then fizzled out?
Of course one thing removed from that planning circus was the once upon a time grand plans circa 2019 for 352 and King Road, or how to freak people out with a PennDOT traffic circle that would have take private property from East Whiteland residents and East Goshen residents. Yep, they didn’t want to own that but I was at the Immaculata meeting that night and that is when I discovered how obnoxious a couple of former East Goshen Supervisors were.
So the rumor mill is still going fast and furious in East Goshen. They try so hard to be stealth over there and all Glocca Morra, but there is this undercurrent again, like an unpleasant, tainted underbelly, ok? They whisper and whisper and things drip out, don’t they?
What is going on there and did Madame Chairman’s former State Rep hubs whom I also like get appointed to some East Goshen Board? If so, perhaps that is a little too cozy?
Maybe it’s time to let something from 2022 out for an airing? It’s about that trail….
here is the cost of the trail. This finance guy found that NONE of the costs were documented! He had to do a forensic investigation, pulling invoices & bank statements, & tried to reconstruct what had not been documented anywhere. He found that out of the $8 million borrowed in 2017 for the 3 big projects-PPT, Hershey’s Mill Dam, & Milltown Dam-that “they” (Marty, Rick, Jon, other boards) knew that the HM Dam would be $300K SHORT, & that there was a distinct probability that Milltown would be short as well. “They” figured they’d find it somewhere. The $8 million loan was supposed to be like the loaves & the fishes!
Now that we voted to give the land back to the Hicks, segment B will have to be reconsidered & go in a different direction, if we want to complete the stupid trail. I’d rather finish at least ONE project before we start anything else, so that means we need to complete HM Dam (to be completed 1st quarter).
Again, please note that this was a forensic probe into PPT costs. Jon Altshul did not keep track of the costs. Dave Ware did a fantastic job of digging into this. And it’s NOT the only line item he has done this with.
I’d like your feedback. Michele
~Wednesday, January 5, 2022 3:05 PM
Michele, per your request, here is what has been spent on the PPT thus far…$5.4M, $2.4M out of EGT’s pocket.
Please let me know if you have questions or need explanations.
That document is a very interesting spread sheet of balance sheets if that is your jam. It will have to be downloaded to open.
Last thing are the meeting recordings and live viewing. I don’t think anyone has as bad a system except West Vincent Township. The meeting this week was vague and fuzzy to view and you could not actually hear the public comment from members of the public. Same with the replays.
That is not sunshine friendly either.
Time to play in the light, East Goshen, time to play in the light. You make it very confusing to understand what is going on, and why? You are a great municipality, you were my first municipality when I moved to Chester County, so I will always have a soft spot for you. But it’s time to play in the light again.
I will preface this entire flowing stream of perhaps random thoughts and consciousness with yes, more people post on social media than not. This is not about the average everyday folk who post and use social media to stay connected to those perhaps living far away, or locally connected for whatever reason. I am talking about the incessant public look at me and my fabulous self posters….it’s not about doing good or even sharing is caring. I am talking about social media narcissism.
Yes, 2024 means we still have too many “influencers“.
I’m going to be honest maybe it’s me and I’m just getting too damn old but I don’t understand influencers any more than I understand overly trendy, which is something I have never gotten. What do they actually do except post pictures of themselves? Do you buy something because they talk about it on social media? Do you go to a restaurant because they went to it and took a picture and you’re not sure if they actually ate anything?
And we’re talking about random areas, not merely Los Angeles or New York City. So when you see these people sometimes you really want to reach into your phone or computer screen and virtually shake them because they don’t get that fashion is not merely putting on a designer label or something expensive. Part of what makes fashion fashion is style and most of them do not have either that or a good full length mirror. But then you realize narcissists aren’t probably going to listen to anything you say anyway so you have a good giggle and make a mental note for that old Glamour Magazine “don’t” column where they put a black box across faces for the magazine column.
Some of my favorites are the Instagram shots of those “influencers” who have these almost glassy eyed professionally bored shots playing with their food somewhat unnaturally. Do they actually like the food or is it just a shot for followers? Do they also not get that you can’t just squeeze a hat on one’s head like the lid to your Dutch oven?
Or the megawatt bad descriptive adjective laden shots of self proclaimed “public figures.” Everything is amazing and they have goals of removing toxic people from their lives but what will happen if they look in the mirror? Will said mirror crack and does it have a warranty?
And then there are all the lifestyle “influencers.” I’m wondering whose lifestyle they are influencing because I’m thinking their taste is all in their mouth most of the time. Even I know that looks I rocked at 25 don’t belong on my middle-aged self. I also know if I couldn’t wear something in my 20s I definitely couldn’t wear it in my 50s.
I don’t pretend to be an interior designer or an actual lifestyle or fashion expert, but I know gaudy and ostentatious when I see it, or just cheap. I do actually know some of those who are the real deal and I appreciate them. Of course they feel no need to bombard you with anything. They quietly show you what they’re doing and put it out there. And usually it’s a lesson in less is more.
If you are somewhat of a fireplug shape, you also shouldn’t wear what they keep calling ball skirts on Instagram. And for the record they’re not ball skirts. They look like the tulle undergarments that used to go under the skirt of a ballgown to give it extra fluff and body, but what would some of those people know from actual ballgowns? It’s like I thought wearing your underwear on the outside went out with Madonna’s early videos, but what do I know? You can find these skirts on Anthropologie‘s website and really cheaply from places like Amazon and Temu. When I kept seeing them, I actually looked them up because I was tired of seeing social media “influencers” wearing them. I mean, barf, it takes the fun out of how those skirts were intended except to me they still look like slips, etc.
And then there are the socially aspirational, who consider themselves influencers, and I still wouldn’t pay any amount of money to have a meal with them. What makes them an expert? What do they actually know about wine or cooking or entertaining? Again, just because you paid a couple bucks for something doesn’t mean it’s fabulous. It’s like the people who take a gardening course, proclaim themselves “master gardeners” but don’t actually plant anything so why bother?
And these “influencers“ are all over the area. Even if you don’t follow them, they buy ads and they pop up in your feeds. All they do in my humble opinion is contribute to the extraordinary lack of reality on social media in general. And none of these people get that just because they take thousands of selfies and are constantly posting on social media, it doesn’t make them society. More like gauche and obnoxious and obvious.
Among my favorites are the occasional giggles watching a fish lips bunch pose for photos. The Botox collaborative who can’t quite smile naturally because they have frozen face syndrome.
I’ve basically said before that the concept of actual society in Philadelphia is basically dead. It truly is. It kind of is in other areas too. Probably because society wasn’t just posing for photos. Today the concept of it is closer to look at us, and Andy Cohen we are ready for our Bravolebrity Real Housewives close up.
Seriously, these perennial selfie posers just don’t understand is what they are doing is not actually society, it’s merely what they think it should be. These influencer types simply don’t get that was not what society used to be about. Yes, it was about pretty dresses and gracious living but those photos and those events? Good was accomplished and the actual event itself was always centerstage, and the nonprofit having funds raised for it.
And the thing about these old events is the actual media would be invited to events and they would be on a press list just like the guests were on a guest list. But it wasn’t garish and it wasn’t grotesque. And the gowns/dresses were awesome and they fit because after we bought them they were tailored as necessary.
When I started to see the influence of the new people in, shall we say…polite society…. it was at the Academy of Music, and it was Opening Night for The Philadelphia Orchestra, which used to be a big deal. There were young friends parties, (I was actually chair of Young Friends for The Philadelphia Orchestra for a few years) and there were varying levels of adult parties and people got dressed up. Beautiful black tie, and white tie that came out for the now defunct Academy Ball. Guests went to dinner, they came to the concert, and they knew how to behave.
“Back in the day” I was among other things Co-chair of the Young Friends of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Opening Night 1996. This was one of the Philadelphia Orchestra strike years. The concert was canceled, but the party went on. Ours that year was at the Rittenhouse Hotel. That was also the year the more mature ladies on the Opening Night Gala Committee tried to make us fold our party into the other two parties. We declined. Ours was the better party that night as was evidenced by the crashers from the other parties 🤣 including then Inquirer music critic Daniel Webster and then Society Editor David Iams. It was a fun night and I loved that dress. Of course it was when black tie was still truly elegant.
How I knew it was changing was when it started to get more corporate for a lack of a better description. People started bring alcohol in plastic cups into the interior of the Academy of Music, which is one of the oldest theaters in constant use in the country (doubled as a NYC theatre the series The Gilded Age in the recent season) and you’re not supposed to do that. These people were also talking during the performance and didn’t even turn off their phones.
That’s when I stopped going to a lot of those events. There were smaller events I would still go to after that, but today? I don’t find any joy in them so much anymore. I used to love them. It was so much fun getting dressed up, putting on a beautiful black tie dress or gown. It was kind of like living Cinderella moments . It was so much fun. Great people to talk to. But when it stopped being fun and people stopped volunteering for the right reasons, I decided I would find other things to do. You see, it got to the point where people wanted to have their name on an invitation, but not actually put in the volunteer hours.
And it’s gotten worse because last year I went to an event at the Kimmel Center, where someone took off their shoes and put their bare feet up on the backs of the seats in front of them. That was enough to make you vomit for sure.
The other thing is people stopped being able to have conversations at these events. It’s like with the onset of social media. People are no longer able to have actual conversations. It’s becoming a lost art form.
A friend of mine, who is a writer, said to me recently that she doesn’t go to a lot of these events that they are also inviting all the “influencers” to for just that reason. Basically, she said, you go to those events, and these people are only interested in two things: photos for their socials and talking about themselves. Other than that, for the most part, they’re kind of rude and dismissive. And manners are one of those things that transcend social classes and groups, you either have them or you don’t and today it’s more don’t than have. It’s kind of sad.
I could go on but I won’t. I realize life doesn’t exist in a bubble and things change and evolve, but sometimes things don’t change for the better. And for all the good that social media can accomplish, it seems to be that that the can do good aspect of it is more and more forgotten and I think it’s sad.
Bermuda Triangle of booze if Giant gets a Liquor License
Someone asked me today what did I think of Giant at Lincoln Court in Frazer getting a kind of liquor license to sell I guess beer and wine in that store. That’s on Route 30 in East Whiteland Township.
I actually didn’t know until today it was a possibility. So I looked it up.
My thoughts include: Why?? and No.
It would be like the Bermuda Triangle of Booze – PA State Store next door (Fine Wine & Good Spirits #1512), a great store called The Beer Store across the way (also a small business and they sell beer & wine) and oh yes, an Alcoholics Anonymous clubhouse at the end of the shopping center with a door around the side right there.
Malvern Center where AA Meetings are held.
It’s quite a redundancy isn’t it ?
Soon everyone can park in the fire lane!
They resisted boozifying this store until now and there is already the Giant Exton location on Swedesford that has it. It’s a much bigger store and much more parking.
Parking in Lincoln Court is a constant issue, why add to it? Can you imagine all of the illegal fire lane illegal parking if Giant gets a liquor license?
East Whiteland should have said no, but they did not as far as I have heard they approved it at some point late this past fall of 2023.
I would be curious to know where the license is coming from other than Caln (looks like it is coming from a place that was/is called Teazers or Appeteazers?) and if Giant has all of this money for liquor licenses do they think they could also clean up and modernize that store? It’s pretty depressing inside.
I am also amused by the lawyers letter which is a file saying LTR City of Bethlehem.
License Number: R12656. GIANT #6477. LID Number: 120955. It says it expires March 31, 2024 and I don’t know what that means, probably means it expires or becomes permanent? I went through meeting minutes and couldn’t find a reference so maybe nothing has happened yet? There are upcoming meeting dates for the PA LCB but no agendas posted yet:
Public meetings of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board begin at 11:00 AM in Room 117 of PLCB Headquarters in the Northwest Office Building, Harrisburg, Pa. Meetings are open for in-person attendance, and meetings are broadcast via Microsoft Teams over the internetOpens In A New Window and telephone (267-332-8737, code 240 679 670).
All public meetings feature at least two opportunities for public comment. The first happens early during the meeting. The second happens at the conclusion of agenda business. If a license that is listed on the agenda is recommended for non-renewal during the meeting, the Chairman will ask for comments about that specific license before a final vote is taken.
If you are interested, I think those are the meetings to watch for agendas on. We can, as members of the public, join the meetings via online or go in person.
If you wish to email the PA LCB about this, I think the email addresses look like:
ra-lblicensing@pa.gov ra-lbconsumer@pa.gov
To me this is about redundancy. There is a PA state store there already and a beer store. The beer store is a small business. How much booze in one corner of a strip shopping center is necessary especially in one instance they would be removing business from their own state store?
2024 is here. I turn 60 this year. I am not particularly upset by this thought, but I feel like the rest of my life…. was just yesterday. Life does go fast. When I was 47 I wondered if I would get this far, that was the year of my breast cancer diagnosis. I am not being morbid or negative, it’s just something I thought about back then, and remembered today.
I have been doing this blog since 2012. That is 3,730 posts ago. That’s kind of astounding to me. I wondered if I would run out of things to talk about, but I haven’t. People like to criticize what I write about, and that does include at times people I actually know, not merely keyboard warriors. But then criticism will often end when someone then thinks I can be of use. They don’t get there is being of use and being of service. I will leave that right there.
I am still not a compensated blogger. That means I don’t run ads and I am not paid for my blog pieces or articles or whatever you want to call them. People still don’t get that a blogger and traditional media are not one and the same. Some of my favorite mentors are traditional journalists, a lot of whom are now retired. I am fortunate to have them in my life.
2023 was an eye opener of experiences for a lot of us, not just your friendly neighborhood blogger. I personally noted things about the human species I wish I hadn’t at times. Which brings me to new year, new thoughts.
I know some people who are struggling. The reason they are struggling is a combination of alcoholism as self medication for other things, as well as other things. After consulting with people I know who are sober living humans, I have made the conscious decision not to enable them. However, my decision while made in love and the best intentions has not been popular in some quarters. It could cost me these long term relationships, but I have to not continue to say the behaviors are ok. I get that people struggle, but those of us who live knowing these people can’t always pick up the pieces, smooth things over, or take the abuse that a combination of alcohol and mental health issues can generate. It’s not fair. It’s not right and it is not doing any of these people or anyone who cares about them any favors. These people are not family, but they matter to me, and I hope they find their way and don’t become a statistic.
None of us have led perfect existences. I have never pretended to be other than a human being, flaws and all. I still keep a gratitude jar. I have written about keeping one several times before. It is not full of anything particularly profound, just when the spirit moves me, I add a thought. Like today. There but for the grace of God go I. That is my thought today.
Other things include people in my orbit, life, world, whatever that I don’t think value me. There are people in all of our lives for whom we will drop everything for, especially when they need to talk, who don’t exactly reciprocate. Life is not about tit for tat, but after a while feeling invisible? Well that hurts. I experienced that in 2023, and I didn’t care for it.
2023 was a year with lots of moving parts for us as a family and me as a person. It was also a year of loss. Family and friends who left this earthly plane. Medical stuff involving surgery. I appreciate who was there for me and for us a great deal. But there are some who kind of were not. Is this terminal to a relationship? I don’t think so, I hope not, but it gives me pause. And when people give me pause, I give them space. I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to argue, but I don’t want to feel bad either. I don’t do bullshit well. Never have. It’s a character flaw I suppose.
One person hadn’t been in touch in over a year. Heard from them as they were planning an event. I told them we couldn’t this year because I had a post skin cancer reconstructive surgery the morning after the event under general anesthesia and I was really sorry. Never heard from them again, not to see how I fared, or at Christmas. It was like my use was over. That made me feel really crappy truth be told because it was someone I would drop everything for if they asked.
And then there are the people who don’t say thank you. That’s all, just a simple thank you. If you put out the effort to do something for them or to help them, it’s just a simple thing that is appreciated. I get that people get wrapped up in their own lives, but sometimes there is a world going on outside of that, isn’t there? 2023 saw this a few times. And again, it was with people that I would always stop whatever I was doing if they needed someone. I thought that was what friends did.
When you have a use, people remember you. When you are of less use, more human being, sometimes not so much. The flip side is, just because I do something I shouldn’t expect them to do the same.
2024 and my 60th year on planet earth in a few months means putting myself first a little more. It means learning to say no thank you to what I do not actually care for or don’t want to do. It means saying when something bothers me and not bottling it up to be polite all of the time. It means sometimes it will be all about me and that is perfectly acceptable. It means another year as a bloggeress not suffering fools lightly.
Life is like a tide: in and out against the shore. Sometimes calm, sometimes stormy. I prefer calm seas…and pretty gardens.
These are tough times to be a small neighborhood. I am writing today about a neighborhood just up West King Road past Weston in West Whiteland Township. The street is Old Phoenixville Pike. It’s a little neighborhood on a tiny road that is a dead end street. And to me, in my opinion, it’s potentially under siege.
This is a sweet neighborhood I think. Little houses, maybe not so Chester County farmhouse historic, but important to their owners, nonetheless. It’s a narrow dead end street. So when unusual things happen, like trucks you don’t normally see, people notice.
So in the fall I guess it was, I started hearing about this neighborhood when the Weston Tract on West King Road was being discussed. Why? The neighbors back there have been on alert because of a developer sniffing around.
There were many West Whiteland residents who spoke up that recent December night, when Weston was discussed. Among them were the residents over on Old Phoenixville Pike who are also trying to figure out exactly what a developer is doing back behind their neighborhood since somebody keeps doing perc tests or something. Some poor older gentleman spoke about getting his property torn up every time they send an excavator through, and I think that’s horrible. No plans have been filed and that’s what the John Weller from West Whiteland Township said that December night, but obviously something is going on if a developer is doing testing.
John Weller also made a comment that evening about Phoenixville Pike being narrow where those former helicopter warehouses are. BUT…the other side of West King, where those people in that small neighborhood on Old Phoenixville Pike also have a very narrow street, perhaps not even as wide as Phoenixville Pike across King. Another thing to note is neighbors are also concerned there about development happening because the land that’s being tested apparently also has 5 acres that are actually in East Goshen.
A little bit before this all occurred, a West Whiteland resident had reached out about this:
There have been surveyors galore on Old Phoenixville Pike telling residents they plan to build homes or something on the old farming area behind their homes. Supposedly, there is only one way into that property due to an easement the farmer produced back in the 1970s and no other entry or exit around the perimeter. It’s kind of crazy they would put so much traffic on a no outlet road…seems like it could be a safety concern. A developer has been reaching out to residents about drilling back there, but the township claims they haven’t heard anything. Guess it’s time to keep an eye on those agendas!
~ Old Phoenixville PIKE resident November 2023
What I learned then was some neighbors were getting outreach from this developer. There were surveyors all over and maybe some notices or something? (I haven’t personally seen any notices or anything but this is what I was told.) And then came what must have been boring or digging for those perc tests or whatever since you have to perc properly before development occurs, yes? That meant excavators. Big equipment in a tiny neighborhood. If this development goes through, the street is so tiny, existing residents are not only concerned about car lights in their windows constantly, but losing land because (again) the street is tiny narrow. It’s like 14 feet wide maybe?
How would development work? Or would it only work if the developer acquired more land and how would they do that if no residents want to sell? Would West Whiteland stick up for existing residents?
Then around the beginning of December a resident heard pec test number 1 was a fail, but number 2 was OK? I don’t know from perc tests but it struck me as potentially curious.
A percolation test (known as a perc test) is a test to determine the water absorption rate of soil (that is, its capacity for percolation) in preparation for the building of a septic drain field (leach field) or infiltration basin. The results of such a test area a must to properly design a septic system or decide if something goes public sewer. A perc test consists of digging one or more holes in the soil of the proposed leach field to a specified depth, presoaking the holes by maintaining a high water level in the holes, then running the test by filling the holes to a specific level and timing the drop of the water level as the water percolates into the surrounding soil. There are various formulas I am told for determining the required size of a leach field based on the size of a development, the percolation test results, and other parameters.
For leach line testing, test holes are drilled or dug. I read these should be drilled to different depths from three to six feet below the surface. Testing of these holes will result in a value with units of minutes per inch. This value is then correlated to a predetermined county health code to establish the exact size of the leach field.
Testing for horizontal pits typically requires five to eight test holes drilled in a straight line, or along a common contour, from three to ten feet below the surface. Testing is identical to leach line testing, though the result is a different type of septic system, established through a different calculation.
Recently I was told West Whiteland Supervisor Brian Dunn did meet with residents back there and walked their neighborhood. I was not privy to that, but I can tell you the residents were so grateful to him because literally an old timer said in 50 years no one ever came back there to listen to them or visit. I think that’s a disgrace, but with what West Whiteland has been dealing with the couple of years or so cleaning up after old managers and administrations, can you say it’s no wonder?
So West Chester University was given this land by the former landowner it seems?
I received a message on New Year’s Day….as in a holiday, a holiday around the world. The message I was sent was that supposedlysome lawyer or someone for they think West Chester University called some neighbor on New Year’s Day about a shed on an easement I think it was? If true who does that on a holiday? Bully much? It could not have waited until a business day?
Old Phoenixville Pike residents are also constantly bringing up that part of that acreage potentially at play is in East Goshen. That means whenever this whatever pops will it be presented in East Goshen or West Whiteland or both?
Of course this all makes you wonder what is going to happen with the rest of the Schiffer Farm, doesn’t it? Isn’t this a tail end of it? Because if I read the names on the deed right, same names as farm on Morstein with all those wonderful horses, yes? And that’s in two townships too, right? And East Whiteland is right next door over a fence literally.
So the neighbors of Old Phoenixville Pike are extremely concerned with the flooding of their neighborhood. They don’t want to become the storm water run off dump off to new development, either so they are legitimately fearful, aren’t they? With development planned for Weston, and whatever is going on on those West Chester University acres behind them on Old Phoenixville Pike, in 2024 West Whiteland needs to start helping them out sooner rather than later, right?
Post storm photos shared with me come next – from a few different storms. Essentially just like Meadowbrook Manor in West Whiteland. When it rains it can be a problem.
Also back in that area I have to ask, is that a legit landscape or wood business we drive by on 1377 Phoenixville Pike? I thought that was zoned residential but when I asked another person I know from around that way they said always full of trucks and a lot of noise. Also West Whiteland.
But I digress.
Back to Old Phoenixville Pike.
West Chester University could do something other than flip gifted land to a developer. They offer environmental degree programs correct? Why not use this gift for good? So it’s what? 15 acres of nature as in environment? Couldn’t they actually do something related to nature and the environment with the land and NOT sell to a developer? Build an arboretum? Or sell to a nature conservancy perhaps? I mean hello Chester County has a few right?
My entire life I have loved small neighborhoods and open space. You can actually combine small neighborhoods and open space.
Well that’s all I have got. No one seems to really know what’s going on, only that something obviously will happen given the activity onto these acres behind the small neighborhood on Old Phoenixville Pike. Those West Whiteland residents matter. All of the residents in multiple townships in that area matter. Between this and Weston and who knows what else, it’s an area to watch closely. After all, life happens while you’re making other plans.
Happy New Year. Let’s do more in 2024 to preserve where we call home.
