East Whiteland United
Neighbors, friends, and community — standing together
https://eastwhitelandunited.com
See you on September 9th! (visit the East Whiteland United website for more information!)
State Representative Paul Friel has a rather thin skin and doesn’t like being challenged does he? Apparently there was a dust up with a constituent at his town hall in a music hall and bar in Spring City called The Gem Music Hall.
Anyway, one constituent became frustrated and I guess interrupted him. This man is frustrated about hide and seek over data centers with his state representative which is completely understandable because if you live in East Whiteland Township, the residents in State Representative Kristine Howard’s district grow increasingly frustrated because she is literally invisible on everything, including data centers. People feel Kristine Howard is just in it for her lovely state benefits and pension plans, salary, and perks and you have to wonder is State Representative Paul Friel like that too? I ask because don’t know a thing about the guy other than observations that he is egotistical, thin-skinned, obnoxious towards constituents who don’t agree with him, and plays dodge ball over data centers while talking out of both sides of his mouth.
Oh yes State Representative Paul Friel I can have these opinions on your lackluster performance combined with a love of photo ops to publicly post. You are seemingly quite a doofus of a politician these days.
So back to last night….today a man name Chuck posted a note to his fellow residents in a data center group for losing his cool.
I’m anti Meta but made a page so I could apologize to the people in the crowd at the Paul Friel Monologue over at the Gem in Spring City who were patiently waiting. I definitely interrupted the Monologue and the event in general. To the people in the crowd, except the dude upstairs leaning over the glass wall yelling decorum louder than I was speaking, I truly am sorry.
If you know me you know that’s not my style. I like to come prepared, say my peace in a calm cool and collected matter, and then be silent in the background. I’ve done that at every BOS meeting. Tonight, my frustration boiled over. I got legal opinions on the ordinance and brought those to that BOS meeting. I asked questions and provided objective empirical evidence like effectively all of us, yet was painted as bringing a pitchfork. In my opinion Paul Friel quite frankly slandered/defamed every resident of EVT in his capacity as an elected official.
Context: 25 minutes into his monologue, and after Paul telling a woman in the front she can wait to ask her question (at the advertised Q&A), Paul went on a shpiel about how we cares about Main Street, not Wall Street, and about agriculture. How our farmers face uncertain pressure. I wonder how the data center would mitigate the pressure for the adjacent farm? I wonder how the few small businesses on Main Street in Spring City would do?
He then segued into saying how much small things matter in quality of life, and I’m assuming without seeing the irony, goes “so did anyone hear we’re getting a data center”?
I shouted out yea I forgot my pitchfork, that he had an ego, and how gathering legal opinions (from an environmental scholar at Francis King Carey School of Law and Fair Shake) is me bringing a pitchfork. Again, as I asked there, was he there for us or were we there for him? Who is he to say when we can or can’t ask questions at what he advertised as an open forum Q&A?
Paul Friel is at best tone deaf, at worst in the pocket of corporate America, and at most accurate easily intimidated and likely entirely out of his depth. A walking, talking, thin skin sack of ego.
So context on the “pitchfork” comment. That originated in a condescending manner from State Rep. Paul Friel’s lips:
So yes… residents of East Vincent and other areas this elected officials serve are mere peasants under the tread of his shoes? Nice.
So here was his response:
Mr. Baker congratulations on yes yelling out and interrupting the district updates, then running out after I said everyone has an opportunity to ask questions and that I would stay and answer each and everyone of them which I did. When other people in the audience, which you obviously did not respect, asked you for decorum you choose to yell and literally run out. The agenda and time of the meeting was published and printed out as you entered- there was clearly an update section on local, legislative and community issues followed by Q&A which was the majority of the meeting.
Your misrepresentation of my positions is both disingenuous and blatantly false. Your narrative is also disingenuous I respect the people who gave their time to be there tonight even though you chose not to, the only person who acted more important than everyone else was you sir.
As to facts:
My moratorium bill is the only bill to be voted on in both chambers. It provides a path for a one year pause on data center development. My votes on every bill run is to limit or control data center development- 8 bills passed the house – zero in the senate. I cosponsored and voted to repeal and eliminate tax breaks for data centers- there is literally no bill limiting data centers that I did not vote for.
Then this got more interesting and allow me to share an array of screenshots:
Paul Friel is up for re-election this November. Will he ride the Shapiro data center wave? Time will tell. I think he could sadly get re-elected because I think people won’t want the woman on the other side for posing for photos with the likes of Wella Balsam man.
Her name is Samantha Horosky and she is a kindergarten teacher at Owen J. Roberts. How she does as a candidate depends upon her spine. She has an interesting background and people like her. And people from both sides of the aisle don’t like Paul Friel and feel let down by yet another institutional Democrat.
And that is something that the Chester County Democrats don’t seem to get: they didn’t come to current power by being institutional political hacks. They actually came to power thanks to the hard work of individuals like Samuel Stretton, Esq. But do they remember any of their own history of the not so recent past? Nope.
Meanwhile, the Chester County Republicans also have a learning curve they need to pay attention to. They need to field more normal candidates and to stop embracing people like the Wella Balsam guy and types like duplicitous State Senator Tracy Pennycuick who wants to be grandma with the cookies…but what cookies is she selling? The data center kind?
The sad thing is the skunks in Pennsylvania politics live on in both sides of the aisle in Harrisburg. There are few saints, many sinners. Sinners like Paul Friel.
Cheer up Paul, you can always have photo ops with State Representative Danielle Friel Otten. She’s a nice enough woman who has become a giant disappointment. She came to Harrisburg as a pipeline activist. I personally defended her through a couple of her re-election bids because of her now past life as a pipeline activist, but won’t be able to do that again because quite simply put, Danielle needs to be judged by the company she keeps (do-nothing and mute State Representative Kristine Howard) and the Shapiro Kool-Aid she has drunk.
Paul would you like me to lend you my pitchfork? I do use it in my garden so you would have to give it back.
Last night I published the following on socials:
Dear East Whiteland residents,
Fellow residents are getting outreach from outraged types past and present over us having the nerve to want additional representation in local government. This tells all of us that we are on the right track.
People this is our right. It’s not political. It’s decidedly non-partisan and it’s about representation.
It is literally our right as residents in a second class township in Pennsylvania to wish to go up to five supervisors from three. Our mechanism for doing this is to get something on the ballot, a referendum. It costs us nothing and it doesn’t increase our taxes, but it does increase our representation and perhaps gives us balance which I think is lacking in a lot of local governments no matter how good the representation is.
People who think it’s a bad idea are people who have something to lose. They’re being narcissistic and selfish, it’s personal to them. We might not ever know why it is personal and frankly, I don’t care.
Keep up the good work. Regardless of political affiliation, we are stronger together than apart. And that residents is what people are really scared of who don’t want two more seats on the East Whiteland Board of Supervisors.
One more day for signatures.
Well allow me to expand upon that with real world experience. Back in the day when I was part of Save Ardmore Coalition and we were fighting eminent domain for private gain in Ardmore, we experienced every dirty trick possible.
We will start with I had a price put on my head by a then publicist doing contract work for Lower Merion Township. You see, we as a group of local community activists were at first fighting an issue that wasn’t sexy enough for media coverage. So we had to get creative. We joined what was anew thing called Twitter (now X.) We also joined a new thing, kind of a grandmother of regional blogging called PhillyFuture.org
PhillyFuture.org was a community blog and aggregator launched in the early 2000s (founded by a wonderful human named Karl Martino) that served as a central hub for the Philadelphia political and local blogosphere. It was early days when I and a couple of friends discovered it. It was the most marvelous thing. We learned about things going on all over the region. Even Natural Lands had a blog on this blog.
PhillyFuture gave us a voice. It was the beginning of blogging. We didn’t have publicists or anything like that. It was just us. So we had to get creative. While we were on this platform fighting for Ardmore’s historic business district, Lower Merion Township which still wanted eminent domain for private gain in Ardmore did not like it. The small group of malcontents or whatever it was they called us was starting to get traction. The township at some point for a while hired an outside publicist for in my opinion damage control of a very unpopular and bad plan. Said publicist put a price on the head to know the identity of the Save Ardmore Coalition blogger. At that point there were a few of us, but I always believed they were after me.
https://www.phillymag.com/news/2005/10/01/suburbia-we-can-t-work-it-out
What we went through was the stuff Netflix and Prime series are made for. We were literally targeted as residents for wanting to stop eminent domain. Small businesses were targeted in a most petty manner as well. Back then one of the businesses threatened with eminent domain for private gain was HuNan Restaurant. That was actually WHY I got involved. The family that owned HuNan were dear to me. So when they said no to eminent domain, all of a sudden township folks who always ate lunch at Hunan because it was literally next door to the township building stopped eating lunch there.
Why is this pertinent today? Because everything old is new again and politicians always regurgitate the same old stuff. See this text message screenshot I was sent last night:
Meet Bill Holmes and his charming text message. For the last 10 years or so he and the Great Valley Democrats have eaten lunch together at Dixie Picnic. So he sends this text – to a woman named Tracey who has been a devoted Democrat and supported him as a supervisor AND when he was head of Great Valley Democrats. And she is an owner of Dixie Picnic.
Today none of them showed up. So they all followed daddy to where? Wegmans or Wendy’s?
I first met Tracey not that long after we moved here. I can tell you that she feels such a sense of betrayal by these people. Like literally she’s one of the most devoted Democrats, and always has been. I think she may have even had some sort of gathering for Bill Holmes in the past? I’m a little fuzzy on that detail because that was around the time we were just coming into East Whiteland or before.
But do we see the irony here that she actually lived up to her Democrat and personal values by wanting to put a petition out for people who were interested in enlarging the Board of Supervisors by two that is allowed under the 2nd Class Township code? So she exercised her right as an American and as a resident of this municipality East Whiteland Township and now this guy wants to punish her as a small business owner and a resident? Talk about acting like petty bitch, right?
Also there were signing events for this ballot petition initiative to add two more supervisors and guess what has been reported? Bill Holmes showing up with some unidentified man and one guy named Jerry Pyne whom I believe was the vice chair of the county Democrats and is now on the following committees: Property Committee, Collaborative Planning Committee (WTF is that? The give out gold star stickers committee?), and System Administration Committee? LOL LOL LOL how many committees do they need?
Ok so the fact they showed up is not the problem. The problem was they reportedly showed up with signs to essentially harass other residents into not signing the petition? They literally had “Do Not Sign” signs. Below is a photo taken of him and his cohorts being gently spoken to by the lovely woman who organized the petition. She was a lot nicer than I would have been. Sadly no sign was being held up in that moment.
This further cements, why change must happen.
If you don’t regularly go to Dixie Picnic in Lincoln Court shopping center I am urging everyone to go and support Tracey because of what is being done to her which is petty, chauvinistic, and misogynistic.
And so we are all clear on who Bill is he is somebody who is a politician. He still plays politics. He’s the past chair of the East Whiteland supervisors as well as a supervisor and he was the past chair or cochair of whatever the Great Valley/East Whiteland Democrats.
A man who wants to hurt someone with a small business who’s also a great human is just a tool. Oh and didn’t he come to power thanks to Michele Vaughn? makes you re-think her on county row, doesn’t it?
Here is Dixie Picnic’s website: https://www.dixiepicnic.com/ They are an amazing scratch kitchen and home of the UPcake and nice positive things. You can order through GrubHub and I think Instacart and you can place orders on their website for pick up and they do catering and their hours are your basic lunch hours. This is a restaurant which is also an amazing little community hub.
Now I fully expect the Great Valley Democrats powers that be and think they are still powerful will have a hissy fit over my posting this but they should KNOW that a MAN saying something like this to a woman who owns a small business, lives in East Whiteland, and is a supportive member of their political party is literally indefensible. Is this the only female Democrat he’s had issues with as a perennial politician now without an office?
And so we are clear on how I feel about this bullshit aspect to local politics, allow me to share more of my personal experiences with Great Valley Democrats.
When this all happened to me, I was still a Republican. In 2016 when a certain someone became the presidential nominee, I left the party because as a woman it had already kicked me and my rights as a woman to the curb I felt. I tried on the whole being a democrat but between Chester County Dems and Great Valley Dems it was so institutional, bad corporate and often soulless and that’s being polite. So again, once more I am an Independent.
It doesn’t matter in the big picture but I thought it is good for people to know. Just like it is good for people to know Bill Holmes also ran unsuccessfully for state rep once upon a time. Oh and he only beat his 2013 challenger when he was supervisor by 10 votes. In 2007 he only beat Rich Orlow by 7 votes. Rich Orlow eventually became a Republican supervisor in East Whiteland and then was defeated by Scott Lambert. Then in the true nature of flip floppy politics, Rich Orlow became a Democrat to finish out Bill Holmes term when he stepped down, didn’t he?
Below are some articles about East Whiteland politics and one about East Whiteland population growth. And old blog posts.
Politics is a dirty business and it’s time for people like Bill Holmes to retire and just sit down to begin with. If someone is doing something they believe in personally, don’t you encourage them especially if it is something positive?
These tired ass folks like Bill Holmes think better representation for a community that has grown exponentially is a threat to Democracy and they don’t actually get that it is literally Democracy in action. Behavior like he exhibited is thug politics and it’s time for him to stop.
Also please visit Dixie Picnic. You will be glad you did.
I completely expect I will be targeted with unpleasantness for this post. After all I have never been “on board with Bill” and I have been targeted by unpleasantness before because I believe in growing three person boards to five and I think the data center is a bad plan. Some of those folks should be glad I don’t share their emails calling me what was it? A back stabber? And why? Because I think the three person board in East Whiteland should be five person and I think the East Whiteland data center plan is a bad plan.
East Whiteland your political slip is showing in the most unattractive way possible. Put that in your proverbial pipe and smoke it.
People, if they don’t want this then get out and vote for it in November if t makes the ballot this time. If not, we will do it again.
#ShopLocal and #LoveWhatIsLocal and #ShopSmall and remember that community transcends politics in the end. Always.
https://www.readingeagle.com/2003/11/11/chesco-board-to-welcome-new-commissioners/
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?
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.)
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/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.
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.
And that’s a wrap until next year! Another amazing holiday house tour from Surrey Services for Seniors
I am an in kind and regular sponsor which I am just mentioning so you know WHY I do the photos and that they are done as a volunteer. (Otherwise you’re not allowed to take pictures inside people‘s homes obviously.)
This year, the houses were so beautifully and perfectly festive!!! I have to say the homeowners knocked themselves out for all of us and it was much appreciated!
I loved all the homes and will be going through photos over the next couple of days, but I will be sharing a little video with you guys below so you can get a flavor for the tour and the shops afterwards, which were also so much fun!
I do have to say my favorite house was on Poplar Avenue in North Wayne. I love that section of Wayne. It is so historic and just being in the neighborhoods there makes you happy because mostly everyone decorates.
If you would like to give a Christmas donation to Surrey, which does so much for people follow this link:
Here is the little compilation video:
So my neighbors through our woods and behind us ended up with chicks that weren’t properly sexed and yes, the end result was a rooster surprise.
And it’s not like they wanted him, but today they found a farm further out in the county that had room for a young rooster. this rooster had been making all of us laugh because it was just so crazy.
Mr. Rooster had a crow that sounded broken. And he started his day often between 3:30 AM and 3:45 AM.
His owners, as opposed to someone who shall remain nameless in Willistown, have been actively looking to find him a new home on a farm further out. As in a place 10 acres plus.
So today was moving day for Mr. Rooster and he was not having any of it. He liked his suburban subdivision street and his cushy coop. Now, granted, if the lots were just bigger, roosters are good for a flock. I know that. But the street behind me is basically 1 acre lots.
We actually didn’t hear him through the woods until the leaves came off of the trees. But our neighbors are super nice, and we have all. had quite a few giggles about this rooster trying to rehome him. Of course they have small children so a lot of the times it wasn’t funny for the littles.
We were outside today doing gardening chores, and as I had taken a break from planting bulbs to throw some pine straw mulch down, I saw a rooster darting through the woods.
So my husband and I came to our neighbors assistance and it took four adults to wrangle a rooster.
Mr. Rooster thought he could escape us by squeezing through the fence of our other neighbor’s pool enclosure. But he was so indignant about being chased that once he got in there, he had puffed his feathers up so much he couldn’t get out so we were able to keep him corralled until they could get him in a transport box that rescues use for things like cats or small dogs so it was big enough.
As of now, he is settling in to his new home. Hopefully he behaves he wasn’t a mean rooster. He just was loud and his alarm clock was definitely broken.
But I have to admit I laughed so hard my sides were aching afterwards since it was just funny chasing a rooster. And when he ran into our woods and realized there were other humans standing there, he literally had the bird equivalent of an “oh crap” look on his face.
Anyway, you can now add wrangling a rooster to my repertoire.
Freaking Weston is back. I knew it would be and development is inevitable here but West Whiteland’s planning guy talks in circles, and I have always wondered if he was really there for residents?
I haven’t had a chance to read through it, but I am distinctly unsure how many houses they’re talking about. And are they all single-family home or are we talking twins and townhouses?
I don’t trust anything and I certainly don’t trust this township planning employee and I’m sorry not sorry on that regard. I can have these opinions.
And they NEED a traffic signal at Weston Way and King because residents will never be able to get out of driveways and roads in East or West Whiteland.
People can participate on Zoom and I strongly encourage everyone to do so.
This plan is right on W. King Rd. right in West Whiteland over the East Whiteland boundary. It is across the street from the land that Eli Kahn bought from Johnson Matthey for warehouses. that land in particular needs definite careful environmental testing. And I hope that parcel is not big enough for a data center or a mega warehouse.
But first things first and what we’re seeing now is Weston. If you don’t participate where you live, you can’t complain about the outcome.
Tuesday, October 14, 7PM
https://www.westwhiteland.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_10142025-1520
Yesterday we saw this image from the screenshot above all over TV news stations. The backstory? A 15 year old boy named Kevin Donohue, a sophomore at Malvern Prep in Malvern PA ( public source on this is NBC10 Philadelphia.)
NBC 10 had this to say about young Kevin:
“It is with deep sorrow and profound sadness that we share the tragic news of the passing of Kevin Donahue, a beloved student of Malvern Preparatory School, who was tragically killed in a fatal car accident. Kevin’s untimely departure has left a void in our community, and our hearts go out to his family, friends, and all who knew him during this difficult time,” school officials said in a statement. “Kevin was known for his bright spirit, kindness, and positive attitude. As a student at Malvern Prep, he was admired not only for his academic dedication but also for his genuine compassion and friendly nature. Kevin’s presence was a source of joy and encouragement to peers, teachers, and staff alike. His infectious smile and warm personality made him a beloved member of the school community, and his loss is deeply felt by all who had the privilege of knowing him.”
Kevin was transported to the hospital, but did not survive his deer related injuries. The was on Route 322 in West Bradford. We can’t say deer alley because well Chester County is overrun with deer. Young Kevin’s sister apparently survived and I can’t imagine what this family and his school community are experiencing. I do know Malvern Prep parents who were devastated by this news.
As the media has reported, including our own IrishEyez in Chester County, the deer was hit by a vehicle traveling the other direction (eastbound 322) and was literally thrown onto this car (traveling westbound 322.) The other vehicle has not been located and police would like to speak with the person. They were possibly driving a black Toyota Sienna. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Pennsylvania State Police Embreeville barracks at 610-486-6280.
Malvern Prep is I am told asking for people to respect the privacy of the family, classmates, and school who have suffered a great loss. To that end, be wary of clicking on crap on social media. I have personally reported innumerable and ghoulish predatory Facebook pages today on this. It is click bait and if you click who knows what will happen to your device, computer, etc. Here are few examples so you can avoid them:
This horrible event also prompts a conversation we need to have in Chester County. development has eradicated and drastically condensed not only native habitat for deer, but the predators of deer. I mean yes we have plenty of coyotes, but they seem more intent on what we as humans leave behind, and even our pets.
Deer herds need to be culled, drastically. And humans should want that, not feeding them because they are cute bearers of deer ticks and Lyme disease. I don’t want to hear about BS of deer birth control that will occasionally crop up. We need to cull those herds. All over the county. It needs to be done legally, but it needs to be done. This year there seem to be more deer than ever.
Development. All of the development county-wide, gobbles land like a Pac Man. Why can’t we get Harrisburg to update the Municipalities Planning Code and even allow moratoriums on development? It’s NOT sustainable.
I am so sorry for what people and family of this young man are experiencing. I hope the driver who hit the deer first comes forward. It was a freak accident but their input is needed. Media reports put the accident on 322 near Romig Road.
The outdoor courts are padlocked but the racket over pickleball at the Upper Main Line Y (UMLY) is far from over.
After two years of back-and-forth with UMLY and Easttown officials that cut the hours of play but failed to quell the din to their satisfaction, neighbors decided to play hardball – they sued.
Standing firmly in their corner: local land-use attorney Phil Rosenzweig, who’s made a career out of crusades for the little guy.
Among his local skirmishes, Rosenzweig championed neighbors’ fights over stadium lights at Lower Merion High School, bulldozers at historic Oakwell in Villanova, and the development of Willistown’s Rockhill Farm. When he was a Lower Merion Commissioner, he wrote the resolution that banished the threat of eminent domain for private gain in Ardmore.
These days, he’s a field general in the pickleball wars. The UMLY lawsuit is his 12thpickleball action.
“I’m really charged up about this because it’s just not right,” Rosenzweig tells SAVVY. “Just because pickle is a hot sport, it doesn’t mean that should take precedence over the quality of life for residential neighbors. Businesses and governments are rushing to find spots to put this stuff. This is literally about whether people have the ability to live peacefully in their homes. Why should any taxpaying citizen be subject to conditions that make it impossible to live there? It’s just offensive.”….
On May 16, three weeks after papers were served, the Y closed its outdoor courts until further notice, sending players scrambling just as the season was heating up.
Among other charges, the suit alleges the Y’s 2022 conversion of clay tennis courts to 12 hard-surfaced pickleball courts was not “simply trading one racquet sport for another” but was a “substantive, massive change” that violated township zoning code and noise ordinances.
The suit claims homeowners’ have suffered “irreparable harm” – with their physical and mental health threatened, their daily lives disrupted, and their right to enjoy peace and quiet in their own homes and yards denied.
Also alleged: the township turned a blind eye to ongoing infractions and conspired with the Y to protect pickleball, “synching narratives” and encouraging the Y to have pickleball players speak at supervisors meetings.
…. “We had a wonderful caring community of pickleball players at the Y that the neighbors blew up with their mean-spirited lawsuit,” player Cathy Rubenstone tells SAVVY. “We are devastated that the Y closed the courts forcing us all to different venues to play.”
Goodness gracious. One would think the chair of another municipality’s planning commission would not be such a salty bitch to residents in a neighboring municipality. She certainly puts the pickle in pickle-puss. Isn’t she the one that used to say there would be no roosters in residential neighborhoods in Willistown?
Anyway read the whole article. It’s fabulous. Caroline O’Halloran did a great job and the pickle of it all is still very much happening in Easttown, complete with a full complement of pickle-pusses.
