I figured everybody could use a giggle. I’m sorry if it’s at Willistown‘s expense but it is pretty funny.

You will note with this sign that, although people in Willistown know how to spell the word rooster at the township, they don’t know how to spell recycling.

It’s not RECYCLEING!

That gets a FFS dear old Willistown. But hey, it’s a busy time.

But there are things that Willistown needs to do in order to come up with the times.

Like take for example, whatever the work is being done in the boardroom and right now meetings are being held elsewhere off site, and no meetings are being recorded. That is not sunshine friendly. They could have someone recording the meetings and uploading them free to a YouTube channel but instead, Willistown wants to revert to form and make people think they have something to hide.

Please note, I am not specifically saying they are hiding anything, but I am saying they are taking full advantage of not having to record meetings.

Now we’re going to go back to ordinances that haven’t happened and zoning where the cuffs don’t ever match the collar so to speak.

One of the biggest flaws that Willistown has other than the sewer rats, who are incredibly rude at meetings, is the fact that they leave themselves as a township wide open to so many things, because there are problems with their zoning. If zoning doesn’t align with the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania it can and will get overturned if challenged.

Or take for example, if there is no ordinance for something like noisy roosters in 100% residential neighborhoods. Even if a judge said in the past that someone shouldn’t get another rooster, it doesn’t really matter a hill of stinky goat manure, because the zoning and ordinances, in Willistown say nothing.

If you go to one Willistown neighborhood, there are a lot of unhappy neighbors who avoid one neighbor in particular. And that neighbor has who knows how many goats at this point, two donkeys that should NOT be grandfathered to anything, countless chickens, and a rooster as loud and obnoxious as their owner. And an absolutely beauteous manure pile. It’s Fred Sanford designing for the Clampetts. Basically it’s like farm animal hoarding. And yes, that is an opinion, and it is allowed under the first amendment.

Willistown is a beautiful township, but there are neighborhoods that are definitely agricultural-centric and others more residential-centric. Please note flower farms and great agricultural uses like actually growing beautiful crops are so amazing to see. And I love those belted cows, AKA Belted Galloways, and the horses. And I really like goats, but not when they are jammed up in a small space in a residential neighborhood. They aren’t living their best lives and that is grossly unfair.

But all of these things actually occur on farms NOT on residential streets that are all residential houses under 3 acres, in most cases 2 acres. And a conglomeration of shoddy sheds does not a barn make.

Willistown’s zoning guy knows all this. Yet…problems persist. And not just with the eternal circle jerk of roosters. As a matter of fact, one of Willistown‘s greatest flaws is they never quite have really good zoning people. You have seen this historically over the years.

There are two supervisors, whom I think are very nice gentleman. I actually really liked both of them, but I do think (and I say this with respect), that they do need to deal with things like the rooster of it all. And ensuring that meetings are recorded, even when offsite from the township building.

And then there is this whole growing thing about sidewalks again. Willistown has a lot of roads that are not made for sidewalks, and I know there are people who are going to disagree with me and I don’t really give a damn. For example, sidewalks on Sugartown Road and some of the windy and hilly roads like Providence Road are pretty much the dumbest places in the world for sidewalks. And to put sidewalks in front of active farms presents a unique set of liabilities that these farms have to deal with, and I don’t think that’s fair.

And as we have all seen in East Goshen, sidewalk conversations can and have led to eminent domain attempts. Eminent domain does not breed a sense of community. It only breeds a sense of divisiveness.

The other thing about sidewalks that proponents of sidewalks don’t get in Willistown is that once the sidewalks are put in place, the property owner, who has the sidewalk on their property becomes responsible. There is nothing that will change that it’s the basic law of the land. You might be able to dig up grants to put sidewalks in, but once they are in, maintenance on other people and it’s not the municipality unless the sidewalks are in front of the municipal building or police station or fire house.

However, in the meantime, we’ll start with correct spelling on the township sign 🤣