Sadly, this is still giving me major pause. And I don’t want to be that person, but this person running for school board in Octorara, where he is a current school board member. His name is Anthony Falgiatore, and he is also a Sergeant in the East Whiteland Police Department. I do respect people that follow their passions, but while many members of law enforcement might have side gigs and second jobs, for most people that is not a job as an elected official in the same county, but different municipality from where they work.
For those who are not familiar with Octorara School District it was founded in the 1950’s and is serving a still fairly rural area of Chester and Lancaster counties.
So allow me to share two snippets of the August 21, 2023 Octorara School Board Meeting:
Here is the entire meeting:
Here is the verbiage of what Mr. Fox said:
For anyone unaware, the District is involved in two legal actions concerning Mr. John Ryan Miller: a federal civil suit, and he was arrested on our campus in September for criminal trespass and possession of a weapon on school grounds.
I’m presenting an email to the board and the public. Miller provides this email, and its string of forwarding actions, amongst his filings in the federal civil suit.
It shows Mr. Falgiatore, in a breach of confidentiality, forwarded an email sent by former Superintendent, Dr. Orner. The email was on the topic of school safety and security.
Mr. Falgiatore forwarded this email from his Octorara email account to his personal email account. Within 3 minutes, through another intermediary email account, it was in Miller’s hands.Mr. Falgiatore forwarded this email knowing Miller had been arrested on our campus and awaiting trial for the criminal trespass and weapon charges.
The public handout is 1 page as the body of Dr. Orner’s email isn’t included because of its sensitive content. Start near the bottom, you see the original email header from Dr. Orner to only the board from March 2022. For the board handout, look to the bottom left for Dr. Orner’s email header. The board copy has the pages side-by-side.
Reading up the page, on Feb 8, 2023, Mr. Falgiatore forwarded this email twice. First to his personal account, then within 1 minute he forwarded it from his personal account to an email address of Whizwit. The unknown Whizwit then forwarded to Miller. All of this in 3 minutes.
You’ve breached confidentiality.
You’ve done so with sensitive information on the safety and security of our school.
Through your action, the person arrested on our campus and awaiting trial, received this information – all in a matter of minutes.
This is kind of a big deal, which leaves me even more uncomfortable. See a video about testimony in this case:
Anthony Falgiatore’s testimony begins at about the 1hr:14min point in the recording.
It’s because of Sgt. Falgiatore’s position as a police officer, his external sharing of confidential information related to safety and security entrusted to him, his statements during his testimony, and uncertainty of how he would respond to a call at a local school in his jurisdiction that causes concern, and is that over reaction and unreasonable or reasonable?
So Sgt. Falgiatore, I find myself torn and a bit stuck here. I applaud you living your passions, but this has been a very strange case and your own boss is among the people this Mr. Miller is trying to sue so how does this work? Our first loyalties are to ourselves and our family for sure, but you are an officer of the law and also a politician so don’t you ever feel conflicted by this? How can you compartmentalize? How can you be proud to be endorsed by Klanned Karenhood?
And then there is this from April:
Sir, I guess I am asking which do you wish to do more? Because this dual work life/political life thing is possibly not working? And why would you forward emails, internal emails to a person suing your school board, your boss, and who knows whom all else in Chester County?
I think gob smacked applies here as a term of expression. Maybe you need to choose what matters to you most in an effort to pay forward the greater good? Do you want to be a politician or in law enforcement? No offense, I don’t think you can do both.
Maybe it’s time to choose? If you were retired from law enforcement and then chose to be a politician, no one would have a problem with that. But this whole have your cake and eat it too is not working so well, is it? Or maybe you think it’s fine. Have a ponder on it.
There are things within a community that happen where people can no longer sit idly by and say oh that’s too bad or I really should say something and say/do nothing. Saving Lionville Station Farm is one of these formative moments. This is a pivotal issue within the community, where they can no longer sit idly by.
I believe in the people trying to stop this mega warehouse monstrosity from coming to pass. For whatever it is worth, I support them. I know some of the people. I also had friends that used to live back there at one time who would be affected if they were still there.
I mean, can you literally imagine sitting in your beautiful backyard that you have worked so hard to earn, and your entire view shed is taken up by walls of giant warehouses as far as the eye can see, so large you can’t even take an adequate photo?
And along with this project, the whole right of homeowners to have an expectation of private enjoyment will go right out the window. 24 hours a day seven days a week truck after truck car after car in and out of this complex if it gets built? There will be no peace.
These are the projects that destroy communities. These are like the data centers. These are like the hydrogen hubs. These are the overly dense projects that developers bring into communities just like all the goddamn apartment buildings built on what was farmland that we really don’t need, but we’re getting anyway.
These are the projects that make you wonder what the hell the Chester County Planning Commission is doing, along with the County Commissioners? It also makes you wonder what the State Representatives and State Senators are doing for us in Harrisburg? Which is really kind of nothing on these issues.
A project like this shows you how woefullly outdated once again the Municipalities Planning Code is. The world has changed a lot since circa 1969 and the State Reps and State Senators are lazy because they have to enact an act of the state constitution to update this and they WON’T. You see it’s not that they CAN’T, they won’t.
This is why all of these bad overly dense development plans including but not limited to this Audubon plan in Uwchlan for mega warehouses on Lionville Station Farm need to be election issues every single election cycle until meaningful changes occur. This is truthfully an election issue on every level and it starts with the Downingtown Area School District School Board.
This is a standalone issue. And many supporters of the school board are trying to conflate this issue with others and that’s wrong. Truthfully this is essentially how everything gets stalled in Congress and the US Senate. Sometimes things can be their own issue and should be.
DASD has the ability during August to unwind the contract. That means they have the ability to stop mega warehouses.
This developer has developed other kinds of projects like Shannondell, which is a wonderful, senior living and life care facility. A project like that, for example, wouldn’t put more kids in the school district. And with an aging population, something like this is actually needed.
And while I am not, and never will support extremism and corresponding candidates for school board, but sadly if the DASD doesn’t stop the madness, they are going to lose the support of lots of people going forward. And that includes me.
With all the ugliness in this school district over the past few years, I have done my level best to support the path of right. For that, I have been verbally abused, harassed, harangued, doxxed, etc. This was for supporting the issues against the craziness of things like the anti-maskers/anti-vaxxers, anti-everything, Drag Queens reading to little kids and attending fundraisers, and more. I didn’t help to make myself money or anything like that, I helped because it was the right thing to do. But now I am asking for something in return. I am asking for them to withdraw from the contract with Audubon in August like they arelegally able to!
I have gladly supported the issues of these people fighting to save their school district. It’s time for them to support the people in their community on this issue. Giant warehouses, hydrogen hubs, and data centers don’t help any resident anywhere. these are projects which suck up land and ruin communities.
A friend of mine described mega warehouses as being so huge it was like somebody put a tarp over the City of Philadelphia. We were having a conversation about their drive recently down to Washington DC and passing mega warehouses. They had wanted to take photos of the warehouses, but they were so big you couldn’t take like just one photo to even grasp the concept of size and scale. Or how terrifying the tractor trailers coming in and out of these places made the roadways.
I suspect some Downingtown school board directors/members didn’t understand why they were being sent the questionnaire and the pledge from SLSF. The conclusion probably is that they feel it has nothing to do with their job. Actually, it has everything to do with their jobs because they’re elected officials who are also part of a community and as a school board director/member you have an elected responsibility to do what’s best. And if you think giant warehouses are the best thing for your community then you don’t deserve to be in office. It is pretty much that simple to me. And it pains me to say that because some of these folks are just wonderful.
And I’m not accepting the general school board cop-out that their solicitor “doesn’t think it’s a good idea.” I mean for real, do you really think he cares about all of you and your issues? That guy is just all politics of a certain kind isn’t he?
So to the Downingtown school board people that I have supported all along, sadly this is where I have to draw a line in the sand. I want you all to succeed and truly keep your school board seats, but this issue of mega warehouses? You need to stop being pussies and step up and do the right thing. I’m tired of mincing words.
If you do not stop the mega warehouses while you have the opportunity and support the community that pays taxes to you, please don’t expect me to be giving your causes and issues a supportive platform going forward. I’m not saying I won’t be supportive, but what I am saying is I will no longer go out of my way to help. If you can’t help with this issue and stand up and be adults and do the right thing, why do you expect everybody else to support you all of the time?
And DASD, you aren’t the only elected official who is ignoring this. There are two sitting county commissioners running for reelection, and one empty suit, baby kisser running for the Republican minority seat, who also are ignoring this situation and this pledge/questionnaire
So all of you out there know I like the truth. I also learned interesting factual unvarnished truth today while digging in to write.
My research indicates and is validated that the guy named Duanne and the co-opt candidate “Professor” Bressi talk a really good game about SAVING LIONVILLE STATION FARM BUT HAVE NOT RETURNED A COMPLETED CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE OR ACTUALLY SIGNED THE PLEDGE TO SAVE LIONVILLE STATION FARM!
To me that puts them in the category of liar, liar pants on fire. They are only trying to steal a campaign issue of residents of Chester County for their own political gain, which is why quite frankly I would throw their arses out of every social media group they belong to. If they meant what they said, they would sign the pledge and complete the questionnaire. Period. End of story.
If they are really interested in Saving Lionville Station Farm it would’ve been easy peeszy to complete the questionnaire and send it back in with a signed pledge.
BUT they HAVE NOT. So that is a very easy distinction for people to see why they shouldn’t vote for them for school board. These politicians are not doing things for people, only to further their own political gain. However, this is why it also looks really bad when the people who are in office haven’t signed the pledge. And that’s including two county commissioners up for reelection and not just the school board people.
I thought I would just point this out to all of you.
Here are all the politicians/candidates who have not signed the pledge, or completed the questionnaire:
Whether people like it or not stopping, mega warehouses has become a campaign issue for the fall of 2023. And it goes into the same bad category of pipelines, data centers, hydrogen, hubs, and too much goddamned development in general.
Politicians, this isn’t difficult. Working to stop mega warehouses will result in a plurality that will remember this on Election Day this fall. Ignoring the plurality on mega warehouses will most probably result in the demise of some candidates. It’s a simple fact of life sadly.
To the members of the Downingtown Are School District School Board, who are running for reelection and wish to keep their seats, ponder this carefully. This is literally your Waterloo. So y’all get to decide if you want to be Napoleon or The Duke of Wellington.
One of the topics of conversation this summer all over our area has been trash pick up. The formerly always reliable AJ Blosenski went off the rails.
There is no need to rehash all of our missed pick ups and all of our piles of trash and how hard it is to get them on the phone. Today I only waited half an hour. And waiting half an hour is utterly ridiculous.
A few days ago, I wrote the post to see embedded below.
I really wanted things to work out with Blosenski. I really kept hoping that they would fix their issues but when we had to start again this week with streets just arbitrarily being skipped for pick up with no prior notice and not getting notice until two days later after you had left multiple messages and filled out a missed trash pick up request online. This is why we decided we had been patient enough. We’re paying for a service and trash is stinky. So when you have a couple of weeks where the trash is fine and then the exact same problems start to repeat themselves and you’re the customer. the aggravation point isn’t worth it anymore.
So three days ago I called Opdenaker. I did not sit on hold forever before I spoke to a customer service person, and when that customer service person answered the phone, they were polite and friendly, and wanted to speak with me and wanted to be helpful. Essentially everything you want a customer service person to be.
This morning they dropped off our two new cans. They apologized profusely because they were actually a day late from their normal schedule of giving new customers cans but apparently they’ve been getting a lot of new customers because of the mass exodus from AJ Blosenski. And the man that drop the cans off was just so nice.
My husband had called to break up with A.J Blosenski formally. I had called the very nice regional person from Waste Connections that I have been dealing with to let him know. I wanted to extend that courtesy to him because the regional people have been so nice to us, trying to fix our missed deliveries. The Blosenski office told my husband that they would not be picking up our cans until August 28. Yes, almost a month from now.
I couldn’t believe that was true. So I sat on hold today to find out if it was and it was and I was told by the “customer service”person that arguing with him wouldn’t get it picked up faster I mean really? I wasn’t arguing I was however somewhat incredulous that they could have already charged us for the next quarter of service on an account we had canceled. Oh and we have to wait for that to be refunded, and they haven’t yet refunded the missed pick ups that they owed us for previously.
I’m not trying to be a difficult customer on the way out the door, but this is ridiculous. It’s like they are going out of their way to be as unpleasant as possible, and make this as difficult as possible. And it is indeed, a shame, because the regional person I had been dealing with from Waste Connections couldn’t be nicer.
So this is almost closing the door on A.J. Blosenski for us.
The trash photos you are seeing are all different examples of missed pick ups all over the area. There are some corporate acquisitions that go smoothly, this isn’t one of them. I am kind of shocked actually because prior to this we had a great service from them. But I guess the people that work there can’t handle being part of a larger, corporate structure. I hope it gets figured out. But we are moving on.
The cavalry arrived in my neighborhood yesterday a little before 6 PM
A few days ago I wrote about the problems we’re having around here with A J Blosenski. They used to be like clockwork, no problems, and for whatever reason since they were acquired by their new corporate overlord Waste Connections, there have been growing pains. And staffing shortages and you can’t get people on the phone easily anymore and people are having a hard time all over the region getting their trash picked up.
Now, I think part of this has to do also with Covid and when Republic Services dumped our area. And when Republic left, some of us got notice, maybe a week to 10 days in advance that they were leaving, others got no notice whatsoever. And you couldn’t get anybody on the phone to talk about it and that has been a problem for months leading up to this decision by Republic Services.
I still remember the day when Republic came through after hammering us that we had to return their cans. They told us they were taking their cans back. I guess to move them to other areas but literally we watched as their trash truck picked up our trashcan garbage and all, and just threw all of it into the big back mouth of the truck. It seemed so wasteful to me, especially since a lot of us at very new cans that they had given us not that long before.
And then, even though Republic Services dumped all of their customers in various parts of our region, it took months to get them to stop sending bills which was extraordinarily frustrating. They told you they were breaking up with their customers. You had to find a new hauler and scramble to do so, yet they were still sending you a bill…for services no longer rendered.
So then post Republic break up, we all settled into a nice routine with A.J Blosenski. Then we heard about the corporate acquisition, and since spring hit, it’s been difficult at times to get the trash picked up. Some neighborhoods it was recycling like mine, other neighborhoods, it was trash, and then there were other places all together where everything was missed.
It’s been bad in East Whiteland and I know it’s been even worse in Tredyffrin, and there have even been issues in West Whiteland where they are that township’s designated hauler.
As I had indicated in my prior post, it’s very frustrating to try to get somebody on the phone. And feeling less than satisfied after another missed pick up on Monday I’ve decided to take action on my own. So I literally did Internet research until I came up with a corporate phone number for Waste Connections who acquired A.J. Blosenski.
After I looked up the corporate phone number, I researched to some of the officers of Waste Connections. I researched what their emails were and how to format them. And then I called and had a really nice conversation with a woman down south in the executive offices. After my conversation with her I sent my email outlining all the things that had me going wrong in my neighborhood. They told me that they would make it right.
Yesterday at a little before 6 PM, Waste Connections and AJ Blosenski made good on their promise. They cleared the trash in my entire neighborhood.
I also learned today that hideous Whitetail Disposal has applied for soliciting permit in my township and I’m sure many others. Here’s hoping they know what no soliciting means this time around.
I don’t like Whitetail and I wasn’t the only one that had problems with their door-to-door soliciting. They completely ignored another friend’s no solicitation sign and then when she said no, they came back another day and that was part of their M.O. the last time around. I also remember they asked someone else I know if her husband was home to make the decision. Yeah just call all us ladies Donna Reed, Whitetail (said with major eye rolling.)
Since Whitetail Disposal first broke into this area, what I have noticed, is they leave cans in the middle of the road and they often leave bits of trash in the middle of the road. I always hear about people complaining that they have missed pick ups, and that they are sloppy and inconsistent. Their average rating on Google reviews alone is 2.6 stars out 5. On the Better Business Bureau website also bad reviews. I also found a curious thing on the Attorney General’s website for PA:
Whitetail Disposal is only applying for permits to solicit around here again because of the problems A.J. Blosenski is experiencing which is kind of like what Whitetail Disposal reviews are like all of the time. My opinion is they are like opportunistic parasites.
So today A.J. Blosenski was featured on NBC10 news with Deanna Durante. It was an honest reporting job of what consumers are experiencing.
I will continue to give A.J. Blosenski a chance. I am not going to say I am not frustrated by the issues that they have been having. But I’ve been reading about people talking about Whitetail disposal for a couple of years now and they have these problems all of the time, so I will stick with who I know at this time.
My Aunt Connie showing the suits at PGW in Philadelphia a new hot water heater circa 1953.
Being a stepmother is not for sissies. I have been one for quite a bunch of years at this point.
Being a stepmother means that you literally step into a role of being the mother figure to a child or children who you did not give birth to. You married their father. You are a parent yet you don’t parent because you aren’t their mother, although you are a parental figure.
It’s a tightrope at times. Wonderful. Rewarding. Sometimes magical. Sometimes frustrating. You have, as a stepmother, a biological disconnect. So there are things that might not be a big deal to a biological parent that will totally get to you.
I realized the other day when my cousin Kevin posted he had seen some of his mom’s family that his mother was the first stepmother I ever knew. His mom was my Aunt Connie. She was my Uncle Jack’s second wife. His first wife Millie died of an aneurysm when two of my cousins were very little.
Aunt Connie was the first stepmother I ever knew except to me she was just my aunt. And she also had a stepmother because I learned through Ancestry research that her birth mother died when she was two from tuberculosis.
After her mother died, Aunt Connie’s father remarried, and she gained a stepmother. Then, a few years after that her father, who was a Polish immigrant and a relatively young man in his early 30s, died of sudden heart failure as per my research. So then her stepmother remarried, and she then had a stepfather. That also meant siblings from every marriage.
That is a lot of crazy change for a kid, during a time when change like that was I imagine, rather hard. My Aunt Connie helped take care of her stepsiblings, because both parents worked. And when she started working on her own until she married my uncle, my cousin said she was expected to hand every paycheck over to her stepmother. She went from that situation to becoming the stepmother of a 9 year old girl and a 19 month old baby boy.
As an adult, now, well into middle-age, having been a stepmother for a bunch of years now I am truthfully in awe, of what my aunt did. I actually can’t imagine doing that. That’s a lot of love to give to be able to do that.
I remember when I was little that, my cousin Suzy had frequent flyer miles on my parents’ sofa. Her relationship with her stepmother, my Aunt Connie, was tempestuous at times. When she married the first time the wedding was at our parish church and reception was at our house.
I do not pretend to know, or to have understood the intricacies of the relationship between my two cousins from my uncle’s first marriage and their stepmother. I don’t really know what it was like for any of them. I do remember that the relationship settled out when my cousin Suzy became an adult and had her own children. Then I remember going to my cousin Suzy‘s house on the weekends and often my aunt and uncle would be there.
But now, as an adult, being a stepmother, I know that it couldn’t have been easy a lot of the time for my Aunt Connie. And my two cousins from my uncle’s first marriage, lost their mom when they were really little due to a tragedy so it was hard for them too. It’s not like today, where there are resources to help create and foster the growth of blended families. And grief counseling.
I remember my mother was crazy about her brother’s first wife. Almost seemed to idolize her. And I never realized until I was doing this Ancestry research that when my uncle and his first wife were married, they lived with my mother and her parents. So they were all really close then, I guess. Of course, what I never remember growing up is ever seeing any of the family of my cousin Suzy’s birth mother Millie. It’s like they kind of disappeared after their daughter died.
Things I remember about my Aunt Connie was her laugh, and she had a great smile. She was also a very talented crafter. She taught me how to make paper flowers out of tissue paper when I was little. And things like paper chains for Christmas trees. I also remember when everybody was making those ceramic Christmas trees with the little lights she made and gave us one. I love those trees. I don’t know whatever happened to ours.
I’ve actually learned more about my Aunt Connie as an adult from my cousin Kevin, and from Ancestry. I didn’t see her a lot as a child. We lived in different areas, so it was holidays mostly. As a child I was also quasi oblivious to the relationships between all of the adults.
But now that I am an adult, I am thinking about what it was like for my aunt to be a stepmother in a time when stepparents weren’t really supported, especially if they were women. You got married, sometimes you worked, sometimes you stayed home, you took care of the kids from the first marriage, and then you may or may not have had your own children in addition . But nobody talked about creating a blended family or what it was like.
Being in a blended family does take work. And it’s not simple. I can tell you there have been moments of incredible self-doubt and panic on my part wondering if I could do it, if I could even be a stepmother. I wonder if my aunt had those moments in a time where she probably wouldn’t have told anyone she was having those thoughts even if she had them.
A big difference between the two of us is I married later in life and was unable to have children. She married my uncle the day after her 29th birthday. The next photo is her wedding photo with my uncle that my cousin Kevin gave me to use. She was a beautiful bride and they looked so happy.
I wonder if she was still alive what she would have said about being a stepmother starting in 1960?
Anyway, just some food for thought and a little grist for the writing mill. And many thanks for my cousin Kevin for letting me pepper him with questions and ask him for photos.
We’re having some hazy days of summer but it’s not because the birds are chirping and it’s a sunny day with a breeze. It’s because of the Canadian wildfires.
The video above was from the today show this morning. My sister sent this photo from New York City this morning:
Even here we are seeing it and smelling it. It smells like a campfire outside and has since yesterday. Yesterday it freaked me out a bit because if you live with any woods, there was a burn warning.
Today I’ve been in an out but mostly in because when you’re outside the air is heavy and it’s smoky you have allergies or asthma. It’s a little hard to breathe, and I have allergies and it’s really bothering my allergies and my eyes are burning.
In different parts of Chester County the conditions are worse. I have a friend who lives down around Oxford who said they couldn’t believe the haze and just the smell of like somebody’s campfire or barbecue only it’s not. As a matter of fact, my friends, all over Chester County are commenting on it, as well as other areas in the region
So does anyone recognize that broad side of a barn or the logo on that tractor thing?
Well, apparently, if it’s something weird that will happen, it will happen in Willistown Township.
A friend has come to me asking if I recognized anything about this tractor like the logo and she knows it’s grainy because it’s from a security camera. Here is the tiny video. The video was taken May 3, 2023 at 9:50 AM. This video was taken on their property on Creek Road. They think that this vehicle came from Wildwood Drive.
The homeowners here were not home. They were out of town. They had not contracted with anyone for any sort of work on the property. And as far as they have been able to ascertain neither have their neighbors.
They went to the Willistown Police Department via phone because they were out of town when the security camera went off. They filed a police report right then, but right or wrong, recounted to me that they didn’t feel taken seriously, or the person taking the report didn’t understand how bad this could actually be.
Not only was their lawn completely turfed, and I have photos to post next, there is this smell emanating from where whoever this was dumped whatever it was and people need to know what the chemicals are! And yes the smell is still there! And it’s now days later!!
Now my friend does appreciate that Willistown sent an officer to check it out, however, this is something that is kind of a big deal potentially. Like many of us they are on a well. Like many of us, they have pets that could be potentially fatally sickened from whatever was tossed on their property. The officer who responded did not seem to get out of their vehicle?
This dumping event is SO not OK. Not only does this person not know what chemicals were dumped, but whoever the company is and employee totally ruined her lawn. She and her husband feel utterly VIOLATED and environmentally conscious Willistown Township needs to get on the stick here.
If you have any information, leave a comment, and or message any other kind of proof to this blog’s Facebook page. I will pass it along to the homeowner. If you saw the truck carrying this weird little tractor thing and Bubba in his big blue suit, also helpful information.
Illegal dumping is actually a crime. And this counts is illegal because they didn’t authorize any work or anything.
If you are media, and you would like to be connected to this person, you can similarly contact me and I will pass your information along to them.
We have enough environmental hazards on a daily basis without some thing that is intentionally bad news like this.
UPDATE – following screenshots sent by a Nancy Drew doing sleuthing- not me FYI:
Missing. This is brand new, and I was contacted by the boy’s mother and asked if people could kindly share this. He is from West Bradford. He is in the category of endangered person because he is slightly on the spectrum but high functioning.
He is a nice boy. He is nonviolent, but because he has slight challenges, he might be extra wary of strangers BUT he likes to talk about dogs and animals .
He goes by Jon or Jonathan.
He has been missing since May 3 when he POSSIBLY went for a walk and didn’t come home. I say possibly because no one really is sure what happened.
Please keep your eyes peeled and if you see him call 911.
Keep this boy and his family in your prayers. We want him to come home soon so please share.
We all know that “UHHH OHHH, OHHHH NOOO” feeling when we see something. Like the real estate sign above. It is one of the two parcels that make up Johnson Matthey. To East Whiteland residents, Johnson Matthey is also a familiar name as one of the successor names to Bishop Tube over in General Warren, but I digress…only not really because things all seem to be related around her, right?
Another bite at the apple above was a post referring to the where’s Waldo as it keeps popping up issue in West Whiteland as to data centers and hydrogen plants etc there. It was a topic for discussion at the West Whiteland Planning Commission this Wednesday (oh and West Whiteland, that person your zoom bouncer didn’t let speak was ummm the chair of East Whiteland Supervisors, and since we all don’t live on islands, maybe learn who is on your calls. A neighboring township being interested should have some sort of professional courtesy, don’t you think?)
So. WHY is this 15.70 acres which is wooded with a cell phone tower of concern? Well Johnson Matthey wants to sell this chunk of their land on West King turning onto Phoenixville Pike is right on border with East Whiteland. Johnson Matthey is TWO parcels totaling 35+ acres.
And this is a real worry as to what kind of developer would snatch it up. Whether industrial or residential the scenario sucks. Because is it someplace they could put an Amazon hub for example? Or try to put a Data center or a hydrogen plant for example ? Or God knows how many townhouses or apartments?
And let us not forget Weston is across W. King Road, correct? And although residential plans have been shopped there it does have the labs and offices thing going on, right? And Johnson Matthey land has industrial going on correct? Is it as simple as 1 + 1 = 2? I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but this area right there in West Whiteland is truly the perfect storm for data centers and hydrogen energy plants, right? Are we wrong worrying about this? Like is the land at Johnson Matthey clean? As in DEP and EPA clean and isn’t that reasonable to ask considering it’s industrial?
The Johnson Matthey land for sale has a sign up and a listing on Loop Net for 15.70 acres. East Whiteland and West Whiteland need to pay close attention. They have to. First of all, how much more stress can W. King Road and that stress of Phoenixville Pike take? People who live on those roads have a hard enough time up and down getting out of their driveways and the ever increasing problematic four way stop sign and intersection of King and Ship is just up from there. It is already a shit show from existing development including West Goshen Township’s development. And next there is the piggy glut of development coming to Ship and 30 (Lancaster Avenue) and the rest of the development on the other side of the traffic light past the old Ship Inn, and east on Lancaster Ave towards the boundary there with East Whiteland.
This could be another bad plan coming our way when this property sells, couldn’t there be?
I also have *heard* via sources the intimation that some of the hierarchy of the Chester County Democrats don’t want to appear business “unfriendly” which is undoubtedly putting pressure on Democrat supervisors locally…like in East Whiteland and West Whiteland, right? But if these honchos are worried about appearing anti-business, are they also worried about appearing anti-resident and anti-environment? I think that could come into play here, sorry not sorry.
I also feel that in West Whiteland there is ONE Supervisor you can count on to do right by residents every time and that is Brian Dunn. Theresa Hogan Santalucia is now an angry lame duck politician, so she won’t care these next few months and Raj Kumbhardare is more pro-development and pro-data centers etc than I am comfortable with. He is not a bad person, however my opinion is at times he just doesn’t get it, and I have watched all of them, and he can dig in his heels and not for the benefit of all. He’s in the data kind of business for example given his career, so he doesn’t see the pitfalls, does he? Or doesn’t want to?
So I find this section of West Whiteland far, far away from not only the West Whiteland Township Building but also where two of the supervisors in West Whiteland live at risk. There are also multiple pipelines running around here including Williams which was mentioned somewhere when the whole data center hydrogen plant came up, right?
While we are on the topic of West Whiteland and data centers, allow me to share an update Ginny Kerslake sent out:
Good news from the data center / power plant zoning ordinance discussion at last night’s Planning Commission meeting in West Whiteland Township!
Over 20 residents attended to listen to the discussion and provide input on the public’s strong, universal opposition to allowing this use near our treasured Exton Park in the Office/Laboratory District. As a result, allowing this use in the O/L District appears to be off the table as far as the WWT Planning Commission is concerned. They are continuing the discussion next month. From there it goes to the Board of Supervisors and a public hearing. It’s important that we stay engaged as this proceeds.
Meanwhile, a proposed southeastern PA “hydrogen hub” called MACH2 would mean the construction of more fossil fuel infrastructure right here in Chester County including power plants, and dangerous, unregulated, CO2 pipelines in existing pipeline easements, including Mariner East and others. And it’s reasonable to assume that the proposed hydrogen power plant near Exton in Park was/is part of MACH2.
The time is now to do what we can to stop MACH2 from being awarded federal and state subsidies which it would require in order to advance.
I hope you can joinme and other community members protecting Exton Park this Sunday, April 23 from 3 to 5 PM at Stolen Sun in Exton for some food and drink (provided) to learn what next step you can take to stop this hydrogen hub …. and also celebrate our community’s recent victory in stopping the hydrogen power plant near Exton Park from progressing! RSVP here
A proposed southeastern PA “hydrogen hub” called MACH2 would mean the construction of more fossil fuel infrastructure, subsidized by taxpayers, including power plants, and dangerous, unregulated, CO2 pipelines in existing pipeline easements. And guess who’s a key player in MACH2 – Energy Transfer (Mariner East)
West Whiteland and East Whiteland residents need to pay attention here. Big time. We are all at risk from things like data centers because of PA’s tax credits for data centers. And certain political factions are pushing for these things so their besties can get contracts and jobs. And no ones really tales into consideration that a lot of the jobs are much like the jobs for Mariner East / Sunoco / Energy Transfer – out of state workers, not local. And yeah, sadly there are certain Democrats in Chester County push push pushing these things when they should be paying attention to their county row jobs, because what happens if audits on their county row job or a right to know is filed on their hours there happen? What will they show? Of course county row jobs in Chester County are a conversation for another day. Suffice it to say more than a couple should actually be spending more time earning their keep along county row and if they think even Democrats, let alone Republicans are not paying attention? Well that equals sadly mistaken, yes? Quit shilling for law firms, solicitors, and your union buddies from OUT of the area. Be present, be local, be for the residents you serve, not higher ambitions.
I am including photos of the streetscape so people have an idea. Why can’t that be bought and just left open space? A trail park?
Well, think about it people, because a buyer will come, and then potentially this is a fair bit of acreage in play if Weston wakes up again, this is oh hell no again, right?
It is never over in Chester County. And a lot of this is due to….wait for it…the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which has not been comprehensively updated since 1969. It requires an act of the state constitution which means State Reps and State Senators and they never seem to want to deal with this, do they? It would be nice if they did. It would be nice if residents were protected better and had more of a say as to the way they want their communities to look like.
The Johnson Matthey Land and Weston land if improperly developed could drastically impact our eco system in that area and the environment. And then let’s look at traffic and infrastructure. And more.
Devereux has a campus on Boot Road in West Whiteland Township. 390 E Boot Road, West Chester, PA 19380 to be precise. If you live in the area you know kids seem to get out, and a lot of the time the same kids, correct? No one wants to talk about this, but it is true, correct? Ask the neighbors around there, right? And then there is a house on Ship Road that is Devereux too, correct? And another one on Boot Road?
So I hear today someone plowed into their fence there today? (That is just a related aside, but doesn’t Devereux act like good fences make good neighbors?)
And the kids who get out of 390 E. Boot Road are sometimes a problem? They are minors so this is hid from publicly available court items but occasionally we see emergency alert things like:
Same kid went missing November, 2022
Do not approach and use caution if seen? That is the one who seems to get out a lot doesn’t he? And has reported to have been destructive with private property too? And West Whiteland Police is aware of these issues and doing their best, but what is Devereux doing?
That is the question, what is Devereux doing?WHY do the kids get out and want to get out? Is it that bad there that they want to escape? Doesn’t the public deserve to know what is going on?
Simple Googling can find kids bolting from there since 2016 that I found. Devereux is not a good neighbor if you talk to neighbors around this location, and is it possible there is something wrong at this location that this is why the kids run away? Or is it they aren’t paying attention to their kids?
West Whiteland, isn’t it time to talk about the problems publicly? Or at least what you CAN talk about? The general public is not properly trained to deal with these kids when they run away, and why is it they run away and how do they keep getting out? Maybe a community meeting? Or are we all just supposed to continue to pretend it doesn’t seem to have repeated issues?
Devereux really needs to address this elephant in the neighborhood, i.e. them, don’t they? No one wants to be unfair here, but so much dancing and not a lot of answers?
Same kid went missing November, 2021
Various (but not all) media as it relates to Chester County Devereux problems:
An employee has been charged with multiple attacks on students inside a Chester County behavioral health center, authorities said, including an assault that left a 16-year-old girl with a broken arm.
Christina Borden, of Yeadon, allegedly threw the unidentified student at Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health’s Leo Kanner Learning Center in West Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania, to the ground, then struck the girl multiple times with her knee on Sept. 30, West Whiteland Township police said Wednesday.
The school serves children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The victim managed to get to her feet, but Borden, 27, then allegedly struck again, investigators said.
Two other school employees, Monique Scott, 25, of Pomeroy, and Solgie Barbar, 38, of Upper Darby, have been charged with failure to report the incident, police said.
A former employee at Devereux’s Brandywine Campus in Glenmoore was found guilty on Monday by a jury of simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child, announced Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan.
Alexis Boaz, age 35, was found guilty in a Chester County court of punching and kicking a 14-year-old Devereux resident in the head, face, and body on November 4, 2019.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, the attack continued until the victim was unconscious and another employee walked in. The victim was taken to Brandywine Hospital for head injuries and marks and lacerations on the head, face, neck, and body.
A jury found 29-year-old Major Yancy of Upper Darby, Delaware County, Pennsylvania guilty this week of neglect of a care-dependent person for physically assaulting an 18-year-old non-verbal client at Devereux in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, in November 2020. Judge Patrick Carmody, who presided over the trial, also found the defendant guilty of harassment. The defendant will be sentenced later…
According to documents, on November 5, 2020, West Whiteland Township Police investigated a Childline report of child abuse at the Devereux Kanner campus located in West Whiteland Township. The report indicated that a witness saw a staff member, identified as Major Yancy, throw an 18-year-old non-verbal resident onto a toilet and punch him in the abdomen.
Investigators interviewed the witness about the incident, which occurred on November 4. The witness said the defendant was helping residents get showered for the night when the victim “flopped” onto the floor, refusing to get into the shower. The witness said she observed the defendant “bear hug” the defendant, lift him into the air and throw him onto a toilet.
When a 16-year-old with severe autism ran naked into the living room of his residential facility at Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health’s campus in West Chester one early evening in September, a staffer turned off the lights and advanced on the boy.
Four times the man punched the teenager — in his head, his ribs, his groin. The boy, who is nonverbal, put up his hands to try to block the blows.
After the teen broke free and fled, the staffer, Olasoji Satimehin, turned the lights back on, looked up at a surveillance camera, then calmly sat down, according to a criminal complaint. Police say he did not know the camera was equipped with night vision.
Satimehin’s October arrest was the most recent in a string of criminal cases at Devereux.
Since July 2018, prosecutors have charged 20 staffers in connection with alleged physical abuse of 18 different children at Devereux’s three residential campuses in Chester County: Leo Kanner in West Chester, Brandywine in Glenmoore, and Mapleton in Malvern, according to an Inquirer review of court records…..
Devereux leaders would not answer questions about specific incidents, citing litigation concerns and privacy laws. In a statement, they said: “These incidents are heartbreaking and unacceptable, and we must always ensure we’ve learned from the past and are constantly driving change in our organization and industry. Every provider in the field must deal with the issue of employees who, despite thorough training, support, and supervision, do the wrong thing in complicated situations.
“At Devereux, we hold ourselves to the highest standards — we know there is still important work to be done and we are committed to protecting those in our care.”
Devereux senior vice president and chief strategy officer Leah Yaw acknowledged that more of its staffers have been arrested for abuse than those at other providers. She attributed that to “our really excellent use of video and reporting and catching incidents and being able to provide evidence so that when people need to be prosecuted, they are successfully prosecuted.”…
Devereux senior vice president and chief strategy officer Leah Yaw acknowledged that more of its staffers have been arrested for abuse than those at other providers. She attributed that to “our really excellent use of video and reporting and catching incidents and being able to provide evidence so that when people need to be prosecuted, they are successfully prosecuted.”…DHS said it has received 254 reports of suspected child abuse and neglect on Devereux’s three Chester County campuses from Jan. 1, 2018, to Nov. 16, 2020, through ChildLine, the state’s 24-hour hotline to report child abuse. DHS officials said they cannot reveal how many children are involved or how many of the reports were founded because the state’s Child Protective Services Law bars them from releasing that information.
It was just after dinner, on a cloudy evening in February, when a 16-year-old boy named Edward decided he couldn’t take it anymore: He left the cafeteria and walked quickly through campus, searching for someone to help him at Devereux Brandywine.
Behind him, Edward’s abuser followed in a van. The boy began to run.
Headquartered 15 miles outside Philadelphia, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health has specialized in treating children with intellectual disabilities, mental disorders, and trauma for more than a century. Operating 15 residential campuses that serve 5,000 children every year across nine states, Devereux is the nation’s leading nonprofit health organization of its kind.
Its motto: “Unlocking human potential.”
A shy 16-year-old from Clifton Heights, Edward had come to Devereux Brandywine, a campus in Glenmoore, four months earlier. Diagnosed with autism and developmental delays, Edward — his middle name — had spent his childhood in physical and occupational therapy appointments, learning to grip buttons and zippers, to plant his feet on the ground as he walked….
At least 41 children as young as 12, and with IQs as low as 50, have been raped or sexually assaulted by Devereux staff members in the last 25 years, an Inquirer investigation has found.
Of those, 10 said they were assaulted at Devereux’s three campuses in the Philadelphia suburbs, while the others were abused at facilities in New Jersey, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Connecticut, New York, and Arizona.
Devereux leaders, noting that a sexual assault can happen in almost any care setting, said that in the last two years they have increased safety and reduced risk by adopting a host of safeguards to prevent such abuse and hold staffers accountable.
Yet, between October 2018 and March 2019, three girls at a Devereux campus in Arizona were sexually abused by a male staffer in their bedrooms and the facility’s laundry room, they told police.
In December, at a facility in Texas, a Devereux staffer was charged with allegedly sexually abusing four children, including a 16-year-old girl who said he threatened to have her beaten up, and a 12-year-old who said he molested her several times.
And on that cloudy 2018 evening at Devereux Brandywine, Edward revealed to Wilson that a male staffer had been sexually assaulting him on campus for months. The teenager would later tell law enforcement that he was afraid to speak up, but knew he had to: The man had started abusing Edward’s 14-year-old “little brother” too.
A federal class action lawsuit was filed against Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health this week, claiming the nonprofit was negligent and did not protect at least six children from being abused by staffers.
According to the lawsuit, the six children, who ranged in age from 8 to 17 at the time, allegedly were abused between 2003 and 2019 at a Devereux campus — three in Chester County, two in Florida, and one in California. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, does not name individual staffers alleged to be responsible for physical, sexual, and verbal abuse.
