happy (?) 250th birthday america (?)

Today I was greeted by media images and footage of a white supremacist types in white masks, marching in our Nation’s Capital.

That’s not my America.

I think the deadly horrible hot weather is a reflection of the emotions and sentiments of the ghosts of our founding fathers.

This is what 250 looks like, America? We should all be ashamed. We are probably as divided as we ever have been in that saying something, considering the Civil War, etc.

I love this country, but I don’t love this point in our history. We are standing on the edge of a crumbling, dangerous precipice. I’m tired of politicians talking. They need to do something about this.

This country has all but forgotten from whence it came and do average people now actually know what it means to be American?

People are going to read this post and say “She’s not a patriot. She’s bad.”

Patriot is now an overused trigger word that has lost its meaning because people now have a distinct lack of understanding of the term and our US history, good bad, and indifferent.

No, I’m not bad. But I am fed up. I’m fed up with the pablum being shoveled at us from politicians on both sides of the aisle. I am tired of the ugliness, the divisiveness, the overt racism, and just anything ugly that you can attribute with a stereotype of what an ugly American looks like. I’m tired of the faux Christians who think they’re actually Christian. They are not. They are lizards who slither back and forth from under rocks.

Our country is in the toilet economically. The Wizard behind the curtain would like us to believe it is hunky dory but ya know how they are trying to reframe social security? We’ve paid into this our whole lives and it could be out of money or seriously cut by 2032.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/your-social-security-benefits-could-be-cut-by-a-quarter-in-2032-heres-what-to-know

https://www.cbpp.org/press/statements/social-securitys-financial-outlook-deteriorated-in-part-due-to-trump-policies

The funny thing is I remember the Bicentennial. I was just a kid. and I remember people complained about it. And it wasn’t perfect, but I remember it was a real celebration and both sides of the political aisle came together for the greater good. I got to ride in a covered wagon to and through Valley Forge Park.

I saw an Inquirer article about the reenactment of the 2nd Continental Congress of some sort that was down at Independence Hall within the past couple of days and it was pathetic. Face it, today’s Congress couldn’t do anything that those men did 250 years ago, they simply don’t have it in them.

https://www.inquirer.com/politics/philadelphia/independence-hall-250-congress-ceremony-20260702.html

My country ‘tis of thee, don’t let a mad man subvert our liberty.

I will end with posting the Declaration of Independence because what else can we do but remind people what our founding fathers fought for ? Why? Because otherwise the future is bleak house.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

big boy chugs through gladwyne and enters philadelphia!

Courtesy of Sabina Louise Pierce

Big Boy did a whistle stop through Gladwyne, PA down on River Road.

Courtesy of Sabina Louise Pierce

The last two photos I will share was Big Boy rolling into Philadelphia. These photos have all been lent to me with permission of National Geographic Photographer/Explorer Sabina Louise Pierce. I am really lucky that she just happened to connect with me and say “Hey guess where I am?!”

Courtesy of Sabina Louise Pierce

Again, I have permission to share them.

People walking down Waverly Road in Gladwyne to the river to see Big Boy! Sabina Louise Pierce photo

The last two I will share are from Philadelphia, including a little seven second video which I think is great!

Courtesy of Sabina Louise Pierce

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you’re staying cool.

Courtesy of Sabina Louise Pierce

as the sword of damocles hangs over our heads

Resident photo, East Whiteland Data Center Site NOT TRESPASSING!

The Sword of Damocles. I think that’s a good and applicable metaphor for those of us in any community throughout Pennsylvania dealing with the issue of data centers. We live in a state of eventual peril, and our elected officials don’t really seem to get it and or really care. Or if they care at all, do they care enough?

East Whiteland in particular I’m beginning to find especially frustrating. With everything it’s no we couldn’t possibly, it’s never maybe we can investigate that as a solution.

Every time you turn around yet another community is being faced with a potential data center, or inadequate bad pablum smeared data center ordinance language developed by people who are really in it to get data centers in communities. And yes, I can have that opinion because it’s the truth in my opinion.

The developers are your typical developers and this could be a warehouse or an apartment building or condominium complex or bad stick frame townhouse development. They don’t really care, they’re just in it to make money. and like typical developers they will build their build and move on to the next community whose lives they are going to impact negatively.

There seems to be a couple of court cases pending, so there’s no actual data center building going on at the moment in East Whiteland, but it never should’ve gotten this far. This township had the ability when this first started to say no, but they lost their balls along the way.

This started in 2018. I know because I was following it and so was Ginny Kerslake. It was around the same time that the developer tried unsuccessfully to get a hydrogen hub in West Whiteland next to where he wanted the data center in East Whiteland.

When I asked about this then and asked them if they had ever heard of Loudon County Virginia or how bad this could be the response was along the lines of (and I’m paraphrasing), “It couldn’t be that bad.”

I warned officials in this township then that a human tsunami would arrive when they least expected it about this data center. And the human tsunami is here and the residents are not backing down, which is something this township is not used to because there isn’t a lot of staying power on certain issues. But with this the issue of data centers, residents are united.

And it’s not just the residents of East Whiteland. It’s the surrounding communities who would be affected by this data center or who are going to be affected by another data center. This issue is non-partisan. People just don’t want them, and if you study the fine print in our electric bills, we’re already paying for data centers. We’re paying for what we didn’t ask to have dumped on us. That’s just classic isn’t it?

Resident photo no trespassing involved

A truthfully, we shouldn’t have to have it. There’s an opportunity right now in Harrisburg thanks to State Senator Katie Muth to pass a bill that would allow for a moratorium on data centers. It wouldn’t be forever, but it would give people breathing room, but of course the lobbyists and the politicians, who have swallowed the Emperor’s new clothes as being spun by Governor Josh Shapiro, just don’t get it, and their ignorance (or deliberate obdurance) could cost us our communities, our health, our environment, our home values, and more.

State Senator Katie Muth is the only elected official who seems to give a damn most days.

Who is going to take care of us when our wells run dry? Who is going to take care of us when we don’t have enough energy for our use because it’s being hogged by a data center? Who is going to keep us from literally losing our minds from the noise of a data center which will also affect our children, our pets, our wildlife?

Resident photo no trespassing involved

I’m tired of being Sister Mary Sunshine on this issue. It’s wrong and when did our government become people who didn’t protect the people who elected them in the first place? Do any of them have courage? That remains to be seen.

Now there’s this narrative being spun in East Whiteland that Foote Mineral really isn’t a super fund/EPA site any longer. Don’t know what they’re smoking, but it really must be good, huh?

Yes. It. Is.

That Foote Mineral site is a bad site and this is a greed driven bad plan. Data centers are not good for any community. And yes I can have that opinion.

And a brief segue to Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and Salem Township. Does anyone really believe that the data center land owners give a crap about the cats living on one particular parcel I mean, where are they going with them? Are they just making them disappear? Doesn’t the potential for animal cruelty matter either?

https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/luzerne-county/friends-and-ferals-removed-from-salem-township-data-center-properties-while-rescuing-cats-berwick-qts-salem-township/523-d8709ca6-4fac-418a-8948-b21a5153e2e5

My greatest fear with these data centers is the reality that our local governments and our state government is creating a Logan‘s Run scenario for the future. And that’s not as crazy as it sounds if you look at what’s happening with the negative effects of data centers in other states already.

https://www.eastwhiteland.org/government/departments/planning_development/sentinel,_green_fig_data_center_on_swedesford_road.php

East Whiteland Township among other municipalities still has the opportunity to grow balls and do the right thing.

But will they?

Signing off utterly disgusted.

I don’t know what we’re celebrating on July 4 but it seems like this country is on a bad track and data centers are just part of it.

Logan’s Run here we come.

Make sure you read Ginny Kerslake’s editorial in the Inquirer.

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/data-centers-moratorium-shapiro-katie-muth-pennsylvania-20260701.html

Resident photo no trespassing

gladwyne folks had best pay attention to the uncertain fate of saint peter’s village

I remember the first time I saw Saint Peter’s Village as I guess a teenager. My father wanted to see it, so one day we went. I thought I had stepped into a magical place. It has felt like that every time I have been there since. It is in Warwick Township and has a cool history.

is a preserved 19th-century industrial company town located in a narrow gorge along French Creek. A company town. Much like the Village of Gladwyne, hence the reference. In the 1840s, iron ore was discovered there.

https://theclio.com/entry/154077

Allow me to quote a Times Herald article from 2008:

Cradled in the hills surrounding French Creek State Park was a run-down, sad-looking town called St. Peter’s Village. It’s cheerless, empty shops and crumbling walks hid this little Victorian hamlet’s history and charm.Originally founded and built as a ‘company town’ by Davis Knauer to house and provide services to workers of his Black Granite Quarry at French Creek, this picturesque Victorian community began to take shape in 1880.

For many decades families flocked to the village to ‘jump’ the rocks and picnic by the stream. 

Winter sleigh rides and festivals were a constant as was, in later years, the sound of old Aunt Lena playing the saw. The village’s fascinating history and the memories of thousands who visited could not preserve it from the descent that followed the closing of the quarry and the subsequent selling of the village by the Knavery family in the late 1970’s.

For over 20 years this charming Victorian town sat neglected with its magnificent Inn deteriorating into a shabby shadow of its former grandeur. But all that has now changed.

Tom Drauschak of Earth Companies, the builder of the nearby Stone Wall Golf Course, and his partner, Vince Piazza, the father of future baseball Hall of Famer Mike Piazza, purchased the Inn as well as several other buildings in the village two years ago and already life has come back to the town. Paver sidewalks were installed, the quarry had what can only be called a ‘face-lift’ and working with the Chester County Historical Society, existing structures have been restored to their 1880s Victorian charm and are now occupied. The historic Inn at St. Peters Village (http://theinnatsaintpetersvillage.com/), which first opened in 1881, has been radiantly restored…The best part, however, are the careful measures that are being taken to maintain the historical integrity of St. Peters. Mr. Drauschak is working with the historical society to ensure that the new construction will be representative of the architecture of the era, thereby making this lovely neighborhood fit seamlessly into the charming village and its setting. Home site reservations at pre-construction pricing are now being accepted. So, what happened to St. Peter’s Village? It’s Renewed, Revitalized and Open for Business!

Wellllllll….I had not really paid attention to the whole thing that this little village always had overlords err owners and then the news broke:

https://www.phillyvoice.com/historic-st-peters-village-chester-county-auctioned

St. Peter’s Village, a 19th-century industrial town along French Creek in northern Chester County that’s protected under the National Register of Historic Places, is being put up for auction by its owners.

The sale includes the Inn at St. Peter’s Village and accompanying restaurant, 121 residential and 13 commercial properties and subterranean mineral rights to the land, according to Philly-based Traiman Auction Company. The village will be sold Sept. 30 at the Desmond Hotel in Malvern.

~ Molly McVety
PhillyVoice Staff/ June 29, 2026

June 29 is ironically the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul.

AUCTION???? yeah this gets an oh fuuuuuuuuck for sure. The auction house has tried to be coy about ownership but Philadelphia Business Journal burst that cherry:

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2026/06/30/saint-peters-village-auction-piazza-chester-county.html

An entire 83-acre village in Chester County with a hotel, shops and over 100 developable home sites is being put up for auction by Piazza Management Co.

The historic St. Peter’s Village will be auctioned off Sept. 30 with no reserve price at the Desmond Hotel Malvern. At that time, the village will be sold to the highest bidder, no matter the price, and with no set starting bid.

~By Ryan Mulligan – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal

Jun 30, 2026

https://www.saintpetersvillageauction.com

Philadelphia Business Journal also pointed out that this is the SAME Piazza tearing up Ardmore in Lower Merion Township for a mixed use development that will supersize and citify.

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2025/12/29/piazza-ardmore-development-radnor.html

Radnor Property Group is set to begin construction on a mixed-use development in Ardmore that will add hundreds of apartments to an area drawing attention from multifamily developers looking to build near transit hubs.

The $187 million, 270-unit development at 100 W. Lancaster Ave. is planned to have about 30,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 480 garage parking spaces, including 108 for public use by retail customers. The project is named The Piazza at Ardmore after property owners Daniel Piazza and his family.

Radnor Property Group CEO David Yeager said he and Daniel Piazza view the project as an opportunity to “create a gateway” into downtown Ardmore.

Those are my photos from when I was in Ardmore recently and I was horrified. Another fun fact? Former East Whiteland Supervisor Rich Orlow works for Piazza, who also has a seemingly stalled project in East Whiteland – a car dealership.

According to the auction website:

Engineer’s plans, plot plans, and other property details will be available at the property.

Description

Owner has directed an Absolute Auction for their portion of its property located in historic St Peters Village, Warwick Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Step into a one-of-a-kind opportunity in the heart of St. Peter’s Village, a nationally recognized historic destination in Chester County, Pennsylvania. This mixed-use development invites major builders, venture capitalists, and historic preservationists. Located in a growth corridor, this intriguing property sells at absolute auction to the highest bidder. The offering includes 121 Home Sites, consisting of 33 single-family homes, 33 twins, 34 town homes, and 21 expansive 2-acre home sites; also a wastewater treatment plant that services the existing structures, which must be improved by the buyer to accommodate the full build out. Thirteen historic and commercial village buildings—totaling approximately 43,500+/- square feet—create exceptional potential for retail, hospitality, or adaptive reuse. The property also conveys valuable subterranean mineral rights, including documented iron ore deposits, adding a rare investment dimension.

Facts & Features

It’s all being sold “as is, where is”.

Now someone has to ask the question is Saint Peter’s Village being auctioned off to pay for Ardmore?

Well?

Last year part of the road was closed by PennDOT, does that have anything to do with this? After all it is no great secret in Chester County that PennDOT road closures can help kill businesses, right?

According to Evan Brandt at The Mercury, the sewage treatment plant has major issues:

The small sewage treatment plant nestled into the hill behind St. Peter’s Inn discharges directly into French Creek, an “exceptional value stream” that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is charged with protecting.

The sewage treatment plant has had serious problems over the years with aging pipes that allowed stormwater to infiltrate. Every time it rained, the plant would not be able to handle the flow, and thousands of gallons of raw sewage were discharged into French Creek.

In 2008 and 2009, the DEP stopped expansion work at the sewer plant that it said was being done without a permit. 

Evan also mentioned the ghostly was to be a development where only about 5 model units were built. Today he remarked only a couple seemed occupied.

https://tomdrauschak.com/projects/st_peters_village (this website which was old, disappeared overnight after I had found it)

Anyway….GLADWYNE PEOPLE like the good for nothing civic association and Lower Merion Township sit up and pay attention as this could be the fate someday of Gladwyne Village. You have a new owner turning it back into a company/mill kind of town. Don’t say it couldn’t happen in 19035, it certainly damn well could.

I am sure I am not the only one extremely worried about Saint Peter’s Village which to be honest has started to look a little run down in the past couple of years. If residents and preservationists don’t get busy and pay attention who knows what could happen here and it might be on the National Register of Historic Places but how many times have things on that register been demolished for “progress”?

No rest for the historic preservation weary, I’m afraid. Only potential profits for developers, right?

#SaveSaintPetersVillage (pass it on)

https://tomdrauschak.com/projects/st_peters_village

https://web.archive.org/web/20260000000000*/https://tomdrauschak.com/projects/

https://web.archive.org/web/20251017134539/https://tomdrauschak.com/projects/

being involved in your community.

I’ve written about this so many times I don’t know why I’m bothering to do it again but I am.

There are no better advocates for a community than the members of said community. It takes a lot at times, sometimes it’s easier.

But people ask, how do you do these things? You gather together. It starts with that.

I think the biggest problem I see that people have with local governments today are the poor decisions, and trying to hide things from people.

Sometimes it takes a while, but the truth always does come out. But there are things that I don’t understand today that comes out of the mouths of our local elected officials. Elected officials are the ones that are driving the bus of the municipality, yet they can’t contemplate their navels without being told what to do by staff.

Now of course they’re just places where the elected officials are just off. Do we call them corrupt or are they just stupid? I think they are stupid a lot of the times because they think their residents are stupid?

If you don’t like the face of who governs you change it, one of your most powerful tool in a citizen toolbox is your vote, along with your voice.

My friends and I have done it. It’s often a slog. Pure and simple. And while it is great to have t-shirts, catchy phrases and acronyms and lawn signs, that is literally the fun part. The crazy rest of it? It’s like having a second unpaid job you didn’t sign up for.

In East Whiteland and East Vincent and Limerick and Plymouth and West Conshohocken and Upper Merion it’s the blasted data centers. In Chaddsford, Radnor, and Malvern Borough and some other areas it’s unwelcome development.

In Easttown things are a little below the radar right now, but I keep getting inklings that things are simmering.

And Willistown is its own hot mess. You have unresolved major development issues with Rockhill Farm. And the guy who won’t let the township fix a culvert on Spring Road. And every once in a while you have people who pop up wanting sidewalks on absurd roads. In some places sidewalks are helpful, but the can’t be on dangerous roads that are not safe for walking or sidewalks to nowhere right? And the eternal thing of who pays for sidewalks when they are installed is an issue that the sidewalk advocates have no realistic answers to.

Another example I’m going to use today is Tredyffrin – what are these people thinking?

Residents are asking for transparency because everything they get is talking in circles, a non-answer, clear as mud. Like how is a supervisor named David Miller able to just write a check for a big chunk for the park being formed out of Picket Post Swim Club? The Chase Road Park but does that check really buy naming rights? (Watch the meeting)

https://www.youtube.com/live/wQ_L-VTRLmo?si=YHmswdPbfx29QvWE

Just the other day after sharing a concern from a resident in Mount Pleasant, a sitting supervisor, replied the following:

So let’s review: she is a sitting supervisor. Her job is to help her constituents and residents of this township. What I’m sharing is a resident asking for help. What she’s sharing meaning the supervisor is she couldn’t possibly. She can call about a leaky fountain, but she can’t also say to the township manager and traffic safety “Hey, we have a problem and there’s going to be a fatality or a really bad accident if we don’t improve the signage in Mount Pleasant.”

But hey, it’s Mount Pleasant right, so why give a damn?

I see you lazy supervisor and so does everyone else.

I will also note this is the woman who actually lives extraordinarily close to where Megan Nieberle was murdered and did we ever hear a word out of her about that?

Now another weird thing in Tredyffrin. Humble brings up Hans van Mol and he’s a curiosity to me. He likes to play parliamentarian at meetings right? So why does he not recuse himself from Parks and Rec stuff? His mama, Diane van Mol is the chair of the Parks and Rec Board is she not? Isn’t that a conflict if he doesn’t recuse himself? And has he recused himself?

And let’s talk America 250? If Tredyffrin is so proud of their flag why did Sharon Humble have the attitude of a cold wet noodle when Michelle Kichline was there. How could she not recognize Michelle’s service to the township as a supervisor for years, she was a chair and she was a county commissioner and a chair there as well!

Tredyffrin residents are waking up. Residents in other Chester County communities are waking up. Government needs to realize that we are all not sheep on this big bus of life.

Ciao.

a day for advocacy in harrisburg: stop the march of data centers.

cuckookatchoo crazy is back in town: be careful chesco republicans….

I just can’t with these people. I got an email this morning:

Guess who just declared she is running for Chair of the ChesCo Republican Committee?

Ada Nestor. Yep. Nutjob at large. I have never met her but she is one of those people that when I read her writings, they sound legit….until you start looking into it. But lazy people don’t. They take things at face value. And the crazy thing is she has a following.

This woman is dangerous! She belongs to this group that is some kind of political machine. The RCCC will become some kind of arm of a murky group called Keystone Fair Business that is a 501(c)(6) that will control the RCCC for it’s specific donors, basically making the RCCC a lobbying group. And who is her right hand girl? Felice Fein, chair of whatever area has West Goshen, I can’t remember right now, where Ada is now the Vice Chair. 

Anyway, I know you are a fan, so I thought I would clue you in! Re-org is the following Thursday.

She used to love Raffi Terzian until she didn’t. But I’m sure as was the case when she used to go yell at Michelle Kichline at Chester County Commissioner meetings as she thinks her vote means she owns Republican politicians personally, right?

Here’s something off of someplace she scribbles. Just an excerpt:

The screenshots are out of order, probably but they don’t matter because they never make any sense like most things that come out of her mouth.

I love how she’s talking about “success stories.” Let’s start where she lives in West Goshen what Republican success stories do they have there where she is Vice Chair of that Republican Committee? Didn’t they have the guy that scribbled on lawn signs of Democrats and then there was the whole gun raffle ticket at tables at the polls during an election that even appalled the fellow Republicans. Yep so #winning right?

And lest we all forget, this was a woman who thought January 6th and assaulting people at our nation’s capital and defacing our nation’s capital was OK ? And she is part of Klanned Karenhood too?

This is a woman who is a legend in her own mind. She even took to trying to say earlier this year that I was impeding law-enforcement because I wrote about ICE in either Coatesville or Phoenixville or both.

Now the people she brings with her? Felice Fein who has been at the helm of the sinking ship of West Goshen Republicans not knowing her ass from a hole in the wall for how long? And the crazies from Oxford and Tammany Hall politics in the cornfield of Honey Brook Township? Gosh how exciting! (No not really.) These are the people that keep what is left of the Republican party in the toilet. Remember what my pen pal said:

The RCCC will become some kind of arm of a murky group called Keystone Fair Business that is a 501(c)(6) that will control the RCCC for it’s specific donors, basically making the RCCC a lobbying group. And who is her right hand girl? Felice Fein

So it’s up to all of you whomever you are as Republicans. Do you want nutbags to further ruin what national politics has done to local and regional Republican committees, or someone like Dave Buckta who will tell them to sit down and mind their place?

Did Raffi Terzian set the world on fire as chair of the ChesCo Republicans? No, but at least he wasn’t playing footsie with a politician of Russian descent like one of his predecessors of recent past, right? (https://www.governing.com/archive/tns-pa-gop-chairman-resigns-sexual-misconduct.html)

While Raffi’s politics have never been mine, he is not a bad person. I first met him through the Tredyffrin Historic Preservation Trust events years ago. He has tolerated an unbelievable amount of constant garbage from the QAnon Princess and those like her. Well, now once again, they want to take over. Why??? Because of the guy Dave Buckta who is in line to be Chair. NO BS about him and they can’t have that, can they? And no, I do not know Dave Buckta, only have actually heard positive things about him and he is not a crazy nutbag QAnon conspiracy theorist who suffers from chronic identity crises.

Dave Buckta who is the current Vice Chair of the Chester County Republicans is too normal, doesn’t live his best fake life on social media, therefore in Ms.- Pretzel -Logic -QAnon- Princess- with- a- Bible- Verse style, he must be bad. That means of course he has probably said no to her or her sidekick Felice- I -Whine -Fein right?

She’s even tried to pervert the data center issues. Going back to her QAnon roots, bless her heart, and everything has a bible verse like it absolves her behavior. (It doesn’t.)

Of course now, Martyr QAnon Princess will rise from the ashes and create a wailing wall about me for writing this. She still never gets her largest impediment to her success is herself, and always will be. She will launch another campaign making me the problem.

LOL I am neither Republican nor Democrat. Her followers with speak about how “liberal” I am, but am I really? I have never thought so. I am just not a Stepford Wife. Women like her say they admire independent thinkers and women, but they don’t. Maybe just my opinion, but a lot of that has to do with their insecurities and feverishly wanting to belong, yet always being slightly on the fringes.

Look Chester County Republicans, you have a choice, and if this one gets another insecure foot in the door, you can really and truly kiss the Republican Party good-bye. If you want a better party, don’t let the worst in. Keep the tin foil hats outside, and The Real Housewives of West Goshen cast members OUT.

fake roofing scam

I love a good phone solicitation don’t you? No, not really, right. Yes, I get it and neither do I, was just being sarcastic.

I received one yesterday. Another fake roofing inspection one. Ever since some in the area had hail, they have been relentless. Door to door people but mostly phone solicitors.

It’s always Philadelphia roofing something or other or Pennsylvania roofing something or other. And when you pretend to be hard of hearing and ask them to repeat the company name, it’s another company name (that doesn’t exist and none of them exist.)

This turdsticker yesterday started again with the tired old “we are doing work for your neighbors.”

Yeah umm no you are not anymore than the summer seasonal driveway sealing gypsies.

Well this one told me to shut up as in shut up stupid woman I’m speaking.

Yeah that didn’t work so well and this time I called back. Told them off and told them that I was recording the call.

Don’t fall for this BS and I know some people do. Legitimate businesses don’t operate this way, pure and simple.

why much ado about data centers? simple, they will kill what we call home.

It’s hard NOT to think about data centers. We are living this nightmare, just like pipelines. It is a very crazy thing to realize not enough people in positions of power give a shit about residents in the equation of data centers.

In East Whiteland they never, ever should have said “yes”. The could have IMHO said freaking NO.

In East Whiteland if the supervisors would only find where exactly they left their collective balls, they could still say “no”. But will they? So far it’s the residents are wrong and Papa Government is right.

I am not buying it. It’s like living in a parallel universe, but then again this is the township who few years ago also thought pipelines were nothing to bother about. Of course it doesn’t matter apparently that their residents are still in blast zones.

Then there are things with the East Whiteland that just make you scratch your head. At the recent meeting among other things they had a public hearing where they closed the record before they took a vote….and the solicitor on duty didn’t catch that and WTF?

But the other thing is this: the zoning officer guy for the township (not the zoning hearing board lawyer) was disappeared…in MAY. And WHY? Did he retire? Was he ill? We would have heard right? So what actually happened? And OMG they did NOT like being asked why he was gone and why the current assistant manager was chosen? She was the former manager of East Vincent when the zoning change went through for PENNHURST, correct? What are some of the concerns with how the East Whiteland data center came about? The ZONING. Sorry not sorry. This is how conspiracy theories start and have some actual justification don’t they?

This is exhausting. How do our elected officials except for people like State Senator Katie Muth NOT get data centers? They are getting it in Luzerne County. Look what they just did:

And State Senator Katie Muth has introduced a data center moratorium bill:

There is no law on the books that precludes the East Whiteland from saying no to this or anything else but it just has to be legal, right? The supervisors need to believe what they are doing is right and tell the solicitor and staff to find a way but they don’t, do they? Why don’t they argue the supremacy clause to the US Constitution, for example? They are the government and protecting the residents is the right side of this issue, right? Hows about procedural due process right?

Now Judge Verwey bounced an East Whiteland residents’ case yesterday (just one of them) but that is not bad I think because is it quite possibly not merely a procedural bounce but what lawyers will call a complex jurisdictional? Will this not result in a de novo hearing in Commonwealth Court? De novo means a fresh look, doesn’t it? So this was a move on a chess board, not the end of the story. (Maybe just my opinion, but I am allowed it.)

  1. The entry way for Commonwealth Court is Common Pleas Court, correct?
  2. If this was a bad case it would have gotten bounced at preliminary objections. A hearing was had, briefed, argued, yes?
  3. Based on this, this is not a case you consider on the outset, you do it based upon the hearing, correct? Off it goes to be heard elsewhere.

This is why I think this has legs. Maybe just my opinion, but those are some thoughts. This was a case of first impression yes? And it wasn’t immediately bounced in the hearing was it? Verwey chewed on it, and then decided.

https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/east-whiteland-data-center-judge-denial-challenges-20260611.html

https://www.inquirer.com/business/natural-gas-whitehawk-data-centers-20260612.html

The government is an adverse party to the citizenry because they should have looked after the residents, right?

It makes me sad. I was thinking about all of this the other day. I actually drove out to the developments the other day to sit on their road and look across Swedesford at the location for the data center. How can they not see this is most simply put a bad plan? Here are some photos. A few were taken by the neighbor of the permits.

That’s all I have got, and yes this was a meandering ramble. I am just sad that we are dealing with this EVERYWHERE.

We as residents have everything to lose and government is NOT protecting us. Period.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/12/opinion/data-center-ai-democrats.html

If you would like to donate to the legal fund for the data center group, no donation is too small. Here is a link: https://venmo.com/u/communityfriends

Stay cool, it’s hot outside and try to conserve water as we are in a drought warning. Last thought? How would we survive serious drought warnings with data center around here? In my humble opinion, we wouldn’t.

From a RTK request results Ginny Kerslake received

Put that in your proverbial pipe and smoke it. The devil is in the details East Whiteland residents (and neighbors.) Keep fighting.

Ciao for now.

let’s talk about kelly’s in bryn mawr.

Kelly’s from his history, didn’t start out life as a college bar.

Further back in the 19th century it was originally called the Ivy Inn. Located on the corner of Roberts Road and Lancaster Avenue in Bryn Mawr, it’s always just kind of been there.

The building it is today is kind of a flat roof monstrosity that I’m not quite sure how it ever got built. I remember when the Biggins brothers wanted to expand it and make it something different. All of a sudden it was this unfinished monstrosity and the place that gone belly up. Then the current owners bought it.

Honestly, I swear I’ve heard more complaints about that bar under the current ownership than the prior ownership.

There were lots of joints in Bryn Mawr years ago. Not fancy or pretentious, just bars. Like the Erin Pub and then I swear there was a place called Bob’s Mystical Garden. And also a place called You Bet Your Life we called You Beat Your Wife (then it became Mallory’s and is now and still The Grog.)

Kelly’s seems like it has had a growth of issues with the reincarnation of what was once a dive bar with pool tables in the back. When I knew it. that was fine. It was a joint.

Once the students cleared out for the year, or even certain times of the week there were local characters, some quite sad. One I met by accident once. It was while I was interviewing for first “real jobs” a million years ago. You know those in between days before true adulting started? I will also note that I never got in there underage because I never had fake ID etc.

Anyway, I literally went this one random day many, many years ago to Kelly’s with one of my friends. Yep we went to check out what they call “day drinking” today. I don’t like beer, so for me not so much drinking. It seemed quite scandalous to do that, and I remember thinking at the time how pissed of my mother would have been – who didn’t like those places to begin with – so that is probably why I did it.

There were some older locals in there that day. There was also a somewhat more refined older and really, really drunk Main Line-ish woman. Blondish hair flirting with the bartender. She was too wasted to drive. Came in that way apparently. I still think she was doing her own crawl. We hadn’t been there that long so we drove the woman home. She lived down College Avenue, on the other side of Haverford Road where the houses get more grand again closer to Merion Golf.

We made sure that she got into her big, overly quiet house and left. Seemed very lonely. Wanted us to come in and have a drink with her and that kind of killed us on the day drinking experience. We figured that when she sobered up, she would call a cab to get her car or maybe a family member would help her. My friend and I commented at the time to each other after we had left of how that could’ve turned out very differently for her if a pair of women hadn’t helped her get home.

That was like 40 years ago and I never forgot that. A lesson learned- what not to become. A very sad and lonely bar fly, whomever she was. And that was a beautiful house she lived in.

But that was old Kelly’s. I was not ever a regular, it was just an occasional place for me. So many people were these devotees of this place and that’s the only place they would ever go. They definitely had a devoted following back in the day. I remember like a giant moose head and a really big jockstrap hanging up. I also remember the old bar and always wondered what it would look like if it was truly cleaned up?

It was of course also a fun place to play pool once in a while. I am and always will be a less than mediocre pool player, but back then it was still fun. However, even my younger self knew residents and small businesses didn’t love the Kelly’s crowd. But I don’t remember the place getting as bad a rap until the current ownership. Or maybe none of us were aware of prior issues because it was before social media and everything all over the Internet?

I remember there was this roof deck thing when it first reopened and I remember there were actually pictures that the neighbors had taken because it was so loud at night and lots of people on these roof areas, and I think the Bryn Mawr Civic Association was trying to deal with it and I know this is actually true because I found an old email that I had been sent. It’s completely random that I had this email because it was from 2011. Not sure if it was prior or current ownership, but there were a flurry of court cases back then.

Recently I noticed in the media coverage of Kelly’s issues at present, they (the owners) feel like they’re being targeted, but are they really? Or is this just a continuation of past issues?

And the college-age behavior (and bars) is something that has always existed, but the attitude of some of the students now I think is different. Big senses of entitlement, yes? I also still think this has to do with the school, in this case Villanova University, because in my opinion they’re rather hands-off about their students off of campus and they’re a big presence in the area so I don’t know that they really can be anymore can they?

And do the students behave the way they do off campus because they feel that the school does not really care about their behavior in the community anyway? I mean, look at Mount Pleasant in Tredyffrin? It’s back to business as usual over there with new student rentals. Delta Chi frat bros in some of the rentals, and oh the richness of the other fact that a couple of the ones charged with disturbing the peace from the last round pled not guilty and are taking this to court because you know it’s fine to scream whore (among other behaviors) at a full time resident in the middle of the night, right?

Now to be honest, we tried going in there a couple of times over the past few years because new look Kelly’s advertises themselves as a pub and you can get lunch, etc. etc. Well I thought the food sucked. Both times we went there was like a Saturday and it was also empty. I don’t think school was in session both times we were there.

So maybe the people that own the place should be honest as you know people aren’t going in for the food and gastropub-ish ambiance, and it’s not really catering to the entire community just the student community, correct?

The bottom of their online menu says it’s the only place you’ll ever want to be. No, not really. And if they actually really tried to make them themselves an all age more inclusive feeling pub, maybe they would have different reception from the community and the police and the local townships?

I also had to giggle at the bar’s recollection of the history on that site when it opened as “The Ivy Inn” in the 19th century. I don’t know that it was ever completely respectable, and you weren’t going to find people on the Main Line staying in their “summer cottages” there in my opinion. I mean maybe the gents on occasion but definitely not the ladies as it would not have been socially acceptable. I kind of mentally did an eye roll on that. Yes the place started in the late 19th century but to me it was probably more of a location for the average Joe working man, versus fancy-schmancy.

I do remember reading a thread online at some point in time where somebody had a elderly relative that remembered it had a side door for ladies.

And it’s a bummer because I can’t seem to find any old exterior or interior photos or anything of even the late 20th century rendition of Kelly’s before they turned it into what it is today. And I honestly do think these old joints play a part in local history not just the fancy houses. I’m not looking for people partying it up in there, I was looking for what it looked like inside. When I was cruising around the Internet for old shots, I found one random photo from 1985 and you can’t even really see the bar or anything it’s just a bunch of people.

Now, when I was looking to see if I could still find some of these old threads about the history, I came across a guy remarking about something that happened in 2018 and it was some kid basically was followed from the bar and stabbed in Bryn Mawr.

College bars are college bars. Yet they need to co-exist in the regular world which they are a part of. If Kelly’s Taproom has a bullseye on it then they need to take some responsibility don’t they? Based on the past it’s nothing new.

(Ummm it’s about the
Pope picture 🤮🙄)

Maybe Bryn Mawr doesn’t want college bars anymore? What about hookah bars? Are they still in existence?

I am going to share the recent media. But in my humble opinion it is not so simple as a college bar merely being targeted. Lower Merion’s s current police superintendent doesn’t start these things unless he has proof. I might not know what the heck is really going on, but I do know that much.

Also as I went this morning to noodle around for more for this post that there is a petition circulating by the owners to stop foreclosure. Didn’t know there was a current issue with foreclosure? Also a bit of a Hail Mary?

https://c.org/8nPQMVtwds

Sharing links on present and past.

And again, I don’t have a problem with the old joints so to speak. Like one of the best hamburgers you will still ever get anywhere is Roache and O’Briens in Haverford. Somehow they have managed to survive just the way they are since 1933. Kelly’s should take a page out of their book.

Thanks for stopping by.

https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/kellys-bryn-mawr-bar-investigation-villanova-students-20260605.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/popular-bryn-mawr-bar-under-041214238.html

https://www.suburbanlifemagazine.com/article/1805/Serving-with-Spirit