Category Archives: rantings of a suburban housewife

is freedom of speech subjective if you are a republican in pa and chester county or just in honey brook township?

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So we all know it’s a hot race in Honey Brook because the thug politics cabal is terrified of a normal Republican or anyone NOT from their inner circle running against their chosen bobblehead. And yes, I can have that opinion. So yeah, hope y’all tuned in or listen later online or now online. https://953wche.com/

So I went to rewatch Valerie Shultz’s video. It gave up this message:

Naturally, I went nosing around because it was available over the weekend. So I don’t know if this is a tall tale but apparently the thug political cabal was so upset that they did their usual round of emails, phone calls, etc and so predictable right? Are they also still doing drive-bys like no one sees that truck or trucks? I guess politics is harassable in Honey Brook Township?

So is it true that the went to the PA State GOP and Chester County GOP put pressure on the individual who merely recorded it because that is part of what he does in Honey Brook for the residents NOT as a committeeperson? As in this wasn’t official anything, was it? It was shooting a video. So this begs the question of what did OTHER supervisors in Honey Brook Township know? Are current elected officials there trying to add the pressure of undue political pressure? Is that even ok?

In my humble opinion this but a pyrrhic victory. In case you are unfamiliar with the term a pyrrhic victory is defined as:

a triumph achieved at such a tremendous cost that it is tantamount to a defeat, leaving the victor in a worse state than they were before. 

And guess what? I have the verbiage of the empty hoodie/chair debate. Yes, yes I do. Here you go:

Debate dialogueDownload

And yes, yes I have the video. I took a screen grab of the publicly recorded empty chair debate. Also note this was advertised for weeks, so nothing was done leading up to this event to stop it. It’s not the first video you see next, it’s at the bottom.

Listen to this video at end of this post. There is nothing wrong with it, except that Valerie Shultz is a Republican running on Democrat ticket because Democrats in Honey Brook Township want representation. These individuals CHOSE to do this because as they noted in a public meeting (in above video), they did not feel they essentially had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting a Democrat elected which means they did their own self-chosen groundswell of support and wrote Valerie in. They chose to do this. See video grab above, for the Democrat who spoke up.

Now my opinion is the Republican Party of Chester County and PA made a critical error. Also my opinion is if the Democrats in Chester County had a collective brain, they would capitalize on this because is this not attempting to deprive someone of their First Amendment rights? Honey Brook Township is sunshine unfriendly in my opinion and they are scared of having, well, what we used to know as a normal Republican on the board and she is respected enough that Democrats wrote her in to get her on the ballot and what does that say?

The residents of Honey Brook do not have to settle for less. And no one decides whom to vote for except for the individual in the voting booth. If Honey Brook wants to start to improve, it starts here.

And I will note that NO one is saying Honey Brook Township is a horrible place (like the talking hoodie yes man bobble head always says), what IS being said that the politics are creating issues in a community as in the thug politics of those currently in office and how is that so difficult a concept to grasp? Honey Brook Township is not the thug politics cabal’s fiefdom or personal sandbox. What has happened with the empty chair debate video in my opinion is a CLEAR example of why residents need to NOT vote for the candidate that the current board wants, right? I mean do you want representative government or not? Or do you want a guy who runs his entire campaign off of Facebook, sort of at the recent supervisors meeting, or from a lawn chair in a random driveway?

Here is the video. Hope all watch and learn and hope regional media wakes up to what is going on. This is at the end of the day a glaring example on a more local level of what is wrong in politics today.

things we should be talking about: daycare nightmares like in oaks in july

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Photo of Catalina Baldwin from Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office July 2025

Press_20Release_Teacher_20Arrested_20For_20Aggravated_20Assault_20of_20Two_20Infants_5B46_5D.pdfDownload

Yeah so this blew up the news recently. A 37 year old woman named Catalina Baldwin from Phoenixville who was an employee of Oaks Early Learning Center in Oaks on Egypt Road.

The Oaks Early Learning Center used to have social media, it seems to have disappeared? Same owners as some place called Hopwood School and Camp (https://montco.today/2021/06/hopwood-school-and-camp-lansdale-sold-lower-merion-school-district/) Yes I verified it on the state website.

Here is some of what I saw on Compass, a PA website which has gotten rather cartoonish:

This is horrible. Parents want answers. Human beings in general want answers. Who hurt babies?

In early July, baby was taken to hospital from the daycare in what media reports tell us were dire circumstances. As this was unfolding, we all learned that something else happened to another baby in May.

WHPO DOES THIS?

https://www.fox29.com/news/montgomery-county-child-care-teacher-charged-assaulting-infants

https://patch.com/pennsylvania/lowerprovidence/new-details-emerge-montco-teacher-who-brutally-abused-2-babies-da

Montco teacher charged with aggravated assault of two babies at childcare facility

This woman who I am not sure is in or out of jail at this point was a teacher in the infant room. So parents who have to put kids in daycare, who are they entrusting their kids to here? Also concerning? If there was some other sort of incident in MAY why was she still there in JULY? Is she still employed?

Also interesting? She has a Bill Cosby lawyer, doesn’t she? But then again he is one of the best.

docket 2Download

I had shared story links to this when it first happened and then I randomly saw a comment today that made me wonder:

It was not the she is still employed comment as that has popped up here and there already, it was about the parents of kids there. Are they really and truly being shall we say discouraged from discussing this? So the owners don’t want kerfuffles in their Main Line existence? OK totally get this is their business in an uncertain time, but umm who are they hiring and wouldn’t they WANT their families to be able to talk about this an also to allay the fears of parents with kids there?

Truly I hope that is a misperception, misunderstanding, don’t you?

Also, this woman who was charged seemingly left a review of the daycare on Google? What kind of hot mess situation is that and why haven’t the owners contacted Google to have it removed?

So reading this you have to ask is this Catalina Baldwin who was charged a MOM? If so, where is her child right now?

I do not and never will understand people who hurt children. I was discussing this topic with a friend today. And we are old enough that we come from the dark ages of being a kid where stuff just wasn’t discussed or acted on a lot of the time.

Why aren’t we doing better today?

I just can’t with this and would be interested to see real reports of this daycare. But I don’t know any of us will get that because this is a criminal investigation now. So I guess that means no one will hear from daycare owners either, right?

Home

This is just horrible all the way around.

from squirrel time to secret squirrel in west goshen

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Ahhh West Goshen Township, the I Spy Municipality.

Always it’s a secret something. Now it’s once again, their residents can’t know what their taxpayer dollars are for.

About a year ago in the land of jolly squirrel time, they meaning West Goshen hired a consultant for HR, Roseann McGrath. It was a name I knew well, because she was the HR Goddess at Lower Merion Township. (Ahh yes the good old days when her hubs was also the police superintendent.)

I always liked Roseann McGrath. Very nice lady, but it always was somewhat of a conundrum for me how she wasn’t a nepo wifey when her hubs became police superintendent? I actually couldn’t figure it all along but it was just one of those great mysteries of Lower Merion Township who still uses their classification of First Class Township to mean other than it should. After all, Caln is also a First Class Township, although I don’t find much first class about it in general, but I digress.

Anywhoooo, Roseann came to try to unsnarl I am sure a giant squirrel time mess in West Goshen. (She also was a consultant in East Whiteland at one time.) Here is what is on West Goshen’s website about her consultancy:

mcgrath west goshenDownload

So, she charges $125 an hour, billed in 15 minute increments?

Anyway, the study is apparently complete yet although it is paid for by tax dollars, it’s a top secret thingymaboo. It’s a pay study. Employee current pay by categories. Only the public can’t see it.

Why can’t residents see this study? Why is West Goshen so secretive about salaries in general? Are salary dollars earned subjective? Do men make more than woman? Are there pay disparities residents and employees are unaware of? I hear that even employees don’t know what is in this magical study contains and wouldn’t you think employees should know? There are no unions in West Goshen except for police department so why not show their math work like you used to have to in math class?

West Goshen Sunshine asked about study results being available at a couple of meetings. It kind was treated as “NEXT.” And then she submitted a right to know. This is what came back:

redacted west goshenDownload

Essentially everything was redacted like a classified CIA or FBI document…but they included Mrs. McGrath’s bill…but you can’t see anything else. J. Edgar Hoover where you at? (Kidding as he was a Washington DC horror show long ago.)

I am curious to know what they are hiding and so do residents and employees, right? If there is nothing bad, why can’t anyone see? My hypothesis is they are hiding stuff and what exactly? My hypothesis is squirrel time etc over the years may have been expensive yet there were pay disparities based upon who you were, your sex, etc., etc??? I mean if they aren’t that township any longer why are they still that township?

I mean Ghislaine Maxwell never visited so what’s the problem?

This website has lots of free info : https://govsalaries.com/state/PA However if you look up West Goshen they have not done much updating there since 2017 and why is that? What. Are. They. Hiding??? And why not use the tools PSATS offers municipalities? (https://www.psats.org/get-customizable-salary-insights-now-with-the-psats-salary-survey/)

West Goshen has not liked (I am sure) that they are on the Hello West Chester radar (it’s $24 a year to subscribe and ever edition is chock full of interesting.) And hell they have never like being on my radar ever since the days of residents should be werry werry qwiet.

West Goshen also had an issue this year with wanting to ditch meeting recordings, remember? That didn’t work out in their favor did it? Traditional media should do a deep dive into West Goshen and this salary study of it all in my opinion. And more residents should be submitting right to know requests. And going en masse to meetings demanding answers (politely.)

Taxpayer money paid for the consultant and the study. Taxpayers deserve answers. It’s pretty much that simple.

ego and ignorance in local politics seems out of control in honey brook township?

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Let’s talk about ego and ignorance in local politics. Is it out of control in Honey Brook Township? I think so. It started because quite frankly, Valerie Shultz didn’t roll over like an obedient dog and be a good little girl. She has had the temerity, the audacity if you will, to want better for her community than the status quo. She is on the ballot as a second Republican running because the Democrats wrote her in. That simple fact speaks volumes, and signals she would be a community unifier except where the current political cabal is concerned. But nothing except world domination, or in their case, fishbowl domination matters, does it?

Valerie does not come to mind when you dish ego and ignorance in local politics. She is doing this because she cares. It’s not about literal or even perceived personal gain. She does not have to keep saying she is a good person, because people know she is. She has a moral compass and is bright and hard working. We have come to know each other through mutual friends. Do I support her? Yes, I believe in what she is trying to accomplish and I haven’t seen such a crazy municipality since the late Andy Lewis and others rolled up their sleeves to disinfect Haverford Township and if you aren’t familiar it was a doozy of a time over there.

Here is what I am talking about from quite a few years ago now:

Haverford commissioner indicted; fallout begins with township manager’s resignation
Moran guilty of extortion in Haverford State dealings
BREAKING NEWS: Haverford official indicted

https://law.justia.com/cases/pennsylvania/supreme-court/2014/39-map-2011.html

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1684638.html

https://www.poconorecord.com/story/opinion/editorials/2007/12/01/thumbs-up-thumbs-down/52723944007


Let’s talk about what is actually bullying by politicians, one elected and one a poor sad politician puppet of the elected politician, shall we? This is happening in an area which falls into the Pennsyltucky category at times for political behavior JUST like this. Yep, Honey Brook Township…again.


When you say they are practicing thug politics and bullying people and basically in a passive aggressive and not so passive aggressive way, trying to intimidate people, they subsequently project that if you are saying they do any of these things you must be the ones who are actually doing it, and really?


Most of us know that’s not the case, but if you are a woman who speaks out about ANY of this garbage chucking in Honey Brook Township, they want to pummel you into the ground. And this is the Internet so they also want to cancel you on social media. They want you to be afraid. It’s also gaslighting and attempted intimidation, isn’t it?


So I ask all of you out there isn’t that the true clear hallmark of bad thug politics? Doesn’t that show quite clearly that they have such little respect for women?


You have to wonder how do they treat women who have been assaulted or are victims of other crimes?


As women are we all supposed to be hung up with Scarlet letters because we don’t toe the line the way we are told? Are we all supposed to be bullied ends justifies the means because we don’t see them as a solution to anything?


Go ahead, you read these comments shared below (just a couple examples of many questionable things on their part in my humble opinion) and you tell me if women are being harassed and bullied here? Are women safe in this world we are living in if this is considered normal behavior towards women?


And most despicable of all in my mind as a breast cancer survivor is this is how you treat another breast cancer survivor? These men need to check themselves at the door.
Chester County Republicans and others? It’s time to get your Honey Brook Township House in order because they are also embarrassing all of you behaving like this.


Conduct unbecoming.

Writing about this leaves me at sixes and sevens, but I don’t think what they are doing is right. Have they attacked me as well for talking about the Honey Brook Township of it all? Kind of, yes, including nasty comments from a supervisor’s wife thinking she is witty. (Sorry her comments are well…just basic and I can have that opinion.)

Isn’t it true that there are certain lines politicians and elected officials can’t cross? Wouldn’t this behavior count? Isn’t it true supervisors are expected to protect confidential information and not use it for personal gain? So where is one getting his information? And how? Supervisors are also supposed to treat all individuals with respect and courtesy, is this behavior that? Supervisors must exercise their powers responsibly and avoid abusing their authority, correct?

So can we just ask WHY Honey Brook Township Supervisor Salvatore DiGiacomo is constantly on the attack? Is he running for office? I thought that was politician and Upper Uwchlan Police Department member, Steven Jones?

Now speaking o Upper Uwchlan Township, they do indeed have a social media policy so is their officer who is also a politician and political candidate in Honey Brook Township adhering to it? https://upperuwchlan-pa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1417/Social-Media-Policy

Upper Uwchlan employees from what I can glean from their policy should be respectful in their online interactions, avoiding personal attacks, offensive language, and discriminatory remarks, so is this happening? Like many other municipalities, this policy which is not something thought of years ago, extends beyond the official township social media profiles, doesn’t it? Also is it not in there that their policy addresses confidentiality, privacy, and intellectual property, ensuring employees understand responsibilities regarding sensitive information, right? The policy seems to not smile upon personal attacks against other commenters, Township staff, or elected officials, so this extends to things done personally, right?

SocialMediaPolicyFINALDownload

I think it’s time for the dirty politics in Honey Brook Township to end. Residents need to be brave because these unpleasant folks only have the power you allow them to have. I fully expect more nastiness because I am expressing my opinion. They refer to me as Val’s babbler, etc, etc. Yawn.

Stop the madness. It’s time. We should all want better from our communities. We all don’t have to agree, but how these politicians seem to approach everything leaves a lot to be desired.

It’s a long way to election day. It’s been a long hot summer. Why is Valerie Shultz such a threat? I ask because we all know this is what this is about. That’s why a certain supervisor and his pal are in such a lather isn’t it?

Carry on.

worth noting: trying to find traffic solutions in bryn mawr and haverford in haverford township.

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Before I moved to Chester County many years ago now, I lived in Lower Merion Township. I was in the Haverford neighborhood sandwiched between Montgomery and Lancaster Avenues near the Haverford School, which was across Lancaster Avenue as a matter of fact, it had a nickname called “the island.”

This wasn’t the north side (as in other side of Montgomery Avenue or the Merion Cricket Club side) of Haverford neighborhood I grew up in that had then, and still has today insanely soaring real estate prices. This was just a pretty transitional neighborhood close to the Haverford train station, where you could easily walk to both Ardmore and Bryn Mawr.

The neighborhoods across Lancaster Ave from me were actually in Haverford Township. That used to confuse people to think Haverford Township came to there, but it did and it still does. It’s a county and municipal line, and five points in Bryn Mawr is also two counties, but three municipalities.

One of the best things about my then neighborhood was you could walk a relatively short distance to get access to the Haverford Nature Trail. It was awesome. I used to walk myself and my dogs over there once, if not twice a day. When I first moved into the neighborhood, you had to move quickly but you could safely cross Lancaster Avenue via North Buck Lane (Lower Merion) on my side and Buck Lane (Haverford) on the other side. By 2007, it really wasn’t safe to do that. Traffic was bad but unwanted development was starting to march through, which would ultimately increase traffic in my opinion.

Rugby Road: Another Main Line neighborhood at risk

In 2007, we watched as lovely houses were torn down for McMansion-ish dwellings on Rugby Road in the Haverford Township side of Bryn Mawr. It was when many of us started talking about the need for the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of PA (MPC) to be comprehensively overhauled to help protect suburbs and exurbs.

Rugby Road plan clears another hurdle in Haverford
Our neighborhood doesn’t need to be developed
Neighbors ‘furious’ about proposed development

The day after Christmas in 2008, or Boxing Day, my neighborhood watched as a developer tore down houses, including one of which was technically historical. It was initially for a condo building. Eventually it became “carriage homes” / townhouses. I will note that even today, the structures don’t truly fit into the neighborhood and in my opinion still complement nothing much. Oh, and they still overlook Classic Auto Body. I still can’t imagine paying Main Line prices to overlook a couple of body shops as there is still one I think across Lancaster Avenue from Classic Auto Body.

Haverford neighbors fear a demolition for Christmas

In 2007, the then editor of Main Line Media News who before his death was editor of The Daily Local penned an editorial that still resonates today about development:

Moratorium on development needed on the Main Line

Neighbors of these developments came together, organized, and attended so many meetings during the early to mid 2000s. In some ways it helped, but in other ways it was soul crushing to see development that had little to do with the area itself taking over and not necessarily being harmonious with the neighborhood invaded. In late 2007, I wrote an editorial for Main Line Media News celebrating these neighbors groups:

It was the year of the neighborhood group

In case you missed it, this is why I get upset about a lot of the truly wanton development in Chester County. I lived it, in part, before. This is in part why I know in my heart Malvern Borough has made a mistake with that absurdly named Duffryn Mawr across King from the Flying Pig.

But I digress.

Why am I revisiting this? Because in my opinion, traffic issues we saw before the development projects I have mentioned in Bryn Mawr and Haverford even happened, have now morphed into a need for Haverford Township to rethink the configuration of what will always be small streets to protect the community and pedestrians.

I don’t pay close attention to Main Line and just off of the Main Line stuff like I used to, but this newsletter from 5th Ward Commissioner of Haverford Township Laura Cavendish:

https://mailchi.mp/havtwp/july122025?e=f434c78b67

Allow me to share the excerpt that caught my eye:

July 13, 2025

Dear Neighbors,

The Board of Commissioners will hold its monthly public meeting on Monday, July 14. In the meantime, I wanted to share a few updates and reminders from around the Township.

Safe Streets Demonstration Project on Buck Lane

Within the next few weeks, Haverford Township will begin a Traffic Safety Demonstration Project on the 800 block of Buck Lane (between Railroad Avenue and Panmure Road), as part of the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program. 

Key features include:

  • Converting Buck Lane to one-way northbound travel (Railroad to Panmure) to reduce southbound cut-through traffic and improve pedestrian and bike safety.
  • Reconfiguring the roadway for one lane of traffic, a buffer, and a protected multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists.
  • Temporarily eliminating on-street parking on the block during the project.

During peak times, 65–75 vehicles per hour will be rerouted, but traffic studies suggest minimal impact on surrounding roads. The Township is coordinating with local schools to adjust transportation routes.

A community feedback survey will be shared about three months after the project begins. You can find the Brynford Safe Streets Study here. For questions about this demonstration project, contact Jaime Jilozian at jjilozian@havtwp.org or 610-446-1000.

Here is the link to what she referred to on Haverford Township’s website:

Click to access FINAL_Brynford_Bicycle_and_Pedestrian_Safety_Study_91423.pdf

It’s so weird to think that part of Buck Lane will be one way, but I applaud Haverford Township for seeking solutions. When we tried to get traffic calming in our Lower Merion neighborhood back in the late 90s to early 2000s before the development projects I have discussed here were begun, we only got so far and we got a municipal smack back.

The impetus was a hit and run of a neighborhood dog back then, and subsequent realization of how many little kids we had as well as pedestrians. We pushed for a traffic study and I believe that my then small street had a crazy number of something like over 1200 vehicle trips per day clocked.

Our neighborhood back then was a big cut through between Lancaster and Montgomery Avenues, and probably still is. We had neighborhood meetings called parlor meetings with township officials including the police in our living rooms. I remember this well, because I hosted the first meeting at that time in my own living room.

We looked at surrounding areas, and were particularly interested in something Radnor Township was doing back then: speed humps. As opposed to speed bumps. This was before 2006, but I don’t remember the exact date. It was before the current 10th Ward Lower Merion Commissioner in Lower Merion was elected. (He’s still there)

I remember speaking with traffic safety folks in Radnor to get speed hump information. They even gave me PennDOT information at that time.

But Lower Merion was having none of it. It got to the point where the Lower Merion Commissioners then introduced an ordinance to prohibit speed humps. They seemingly erased all evidence of this today because more recently they have selectively introduced speed humps in the township since that time. But I personally know that this happened as during the course of this all those years ago, I received a letter in the mail basically warning me off from asking for speed humps in my then neighborhood.

So because of all of this, I am glad Haverford Township is trying new traffic calming measures. But, this remains a cautionary tale in my opinion, of what happens when too much development comes to an area over time.

Take a look at what Haverford Township is trying to do here and I welcome comments from neighbors in the area if they read this post to learn their thoughts.

in radnor, environmentally friendly turf fields and other fairy tales? neat!

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So if you want to visit the 2025 Time Machine for the Main Line, you will remember back towards the winter into the early spring there was a lot of chatter about the much lauded Agnes Irwin School in Radnor Township right? Nasty glare bomb lights? A dog and pony show at a Radnor Township meeting by the school and a former member of the police force now Agnes Irwin security living in a house the school owns that used to belong to someone’s parents I went to school with many moons ago? (Ahh yes I remember it well….or so the line from an old show tune goes….)

much ado about the main line: glare bomb lights and a private school’s slightly lacking “community relations.”

I don’t think very much happened with regard to the lights. And I don’t think Radnor Township backed up the neighbors much at all?

Anyway, around that time, it also came out that they were proposing turf fields. I should say proposing turf fields again, because Agnes Irwin has run into issues before having to do with turf fields haven’t they? All you have to do is go do an archive search of Main Line Media News…. or ask people who remember.

So if you are a neighbor of Agnes Irwin, are they treating you the neighbors with respect? I mean it’s been bad enough the past couple/few years as parking everywhere seems to have become normal rather than occasional, correct?

I do not recall that the lights seemed particularly better now? I mean you would hope by now they would’ve at least changed the kind of bulbs so it was less glare bomb right? All should be shaded down too, right?

So with the lights, etc. that’s one giant demerit for them in the environmentally, friendly aspect isn’t it? Isn’t it well documented what lights do to the flight paths of migrating birds and nature? And interrupting human sleep cycles?

So now everything is all torn up because they’re putting in turf fields. I also seemed to recall that the turf field they are creating on the playing fields that run alongside the one side of those residential streets off of Conestoga they abut goes to the creek, doesn’t it? We all know what it takes to “recycle” turf fields, correct? Isn’t it like places where they just dump the old rolls of turf they don’t like really recycle them per se do they?

Artificial turf can contain PFAS right? It also breaks down over time, releasing microplastic particles into the environment. Irwins has been saying that their turf is carbon neutral? OK so that might mean they’re using recycled plastic maybe? It still doesn’t negate all the other potential issues, does it? Sorry not sorry I don’t believe the carbon neutral turf actually helps the environment or mitigates climate change. My opinion is that this is the Emperor’s New Sporty Clothes. But you can bet that it’s really really expensive, right?

It’s ridiculously hard to recycle artificial turf. That is the reality. It ends up in landfills, doesn’t it? If you Google, you can see pictures of like fields or piles of it in landfills.

Something else is it contributes to something they call “heat island effects.” So it’s not real, it’s fake so as opposed to grass, it absorbs and retains more heat. Which means that Agnes Irwin is going to possibly heat up residential neighbors as well isn’t it?

Artificial turf also contributes to loss of habitat for nature and wildlife. Turf doesn’t need to be watered per se, but again what happens when water even rains runs off turf? Pollutants, right?

https://gba.org/blog/artificial-turf-fields-health-and-environmental-concerns/

So Agnes Irwin is trying to build its legacy to itself. In my humble opinion, they’re desperately trying to compete with the other private schools in the vicinity. Can they compete? I don’t know. My opinion remains that their obsession over the years with turf fields says to me they are concerned with the wrong things. Athletics are great, but is there a true balance with academics?

And if you notice in one of the pictures that were taken from a public road with no trespassing, you will notice there’s a split rail fence between the school and the public streets and neighbors, right?

I think that the school needs to put up a more permanent kind of fence which cuts down on cut throughs. You know like a 6 foot wrought iron looking fence and screening landscaping that is properly and consistently maintained? The reality is them putting in fields like this means they’re going to have to make them pay because they are that expensive.

Other schools with fields like this will often rent their fields, I think they should spare the neighbors by putting up a more permanent fence so the neighbors don’t have any more unintended consequences to deal with and they do already having a private school as a neighbor.

So a good fence might make for good neighbors right? (And it would cut down on those pesky cut through and parking all over neighborhood streets, wouldn’t it?)

Agnes Irwin has its turf fields being built, so now it’s time for them to stop being selfish jerks to the neighbors and do better, don’t you agree?

As for Radnor Township, people are complaining that they changed the route of the Garrett Hill 4th of July parade when hello perspective? This is kind of the stuff that matters in the bigger picture, isn’t it? I mean to me the whole thing with these turf fields / glare bomb lights and Radnor Township kind of reminds me of all they haven’t done in North /West Wayne about stormwater management over the years , doesn’t it?

And no matter what you think, these fields are not environmentally friendly, and shame on those involved. And at the end of the day, turf fields also aren’t particularly easy on human joints are they?

Just another rather predictable and to a contentious issue in Radnor. It makes you wonder when residents will actually matter again or should I say all residents?

is a barn again happening in east whiteland?

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Reader photo 6/19/25

When I first moved to Chester county, the cool old barn at the foot of Phoenixville Pike and route 30 by the Home Depot was the Stevens Antique Barn. The address is 627 Lancaster Ave. Frazer. Of course now they’re saying Malvern but it’s really Frazer.

Stevens Antiques always had lovely things. I think once upon a time many years ago, my mother actually sold the owner chairs she wasn’t using any longer. What I remember of the dealer from that store is how frosty she was at the Chester County Antiques Show. I just couldn’t ever understand how someone who sold such beautiful antiques could be so standoffish. But then again, I was just a regular person going through her booth not a checkbook toting serious collector.

Eventually, the business closed, and the property was for sale seemingly forever. Then it’s sold to a high-end contracting and renovation business. They were putting their offices there.

so over the last, I don’t know 23 years. There’s been a lot of cleaning up of the property itself and removal of debris and stabilizing the bank and now it seems like another barn has been discovered underneath the barn we knew?

This is definitely like an archaeological restoration when you drive-by. I don’t know what’s happening. I’m hoping someone goes and talks to the property owners because that’s definitely not a teardown and that seems really exciting.

If you know what’s going on here, please drop me a line!

Reader submitted photo 6/19/25

willistown is being ruined by the nutbag brigade.

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In Willistown, the nutbag brigade is ruining this township. Even if this was a place that had a lot of media coverage, they literally wouldn’t have enough reporters to cover the nutbag brigade in Willistown.

If they’re not trying to shut down flower farms, they are seeking out conspiracy theories in haystacks.

Now let me set the stage here.

People criticize me and say that I’m hiding because I’m called Chester County Ramblings, even though every post here is signed with my name. But the biggest problem is on Facebook because my blog’s Facebook page is “Chester County Ramblings”. Hello village idiot collective? That’s the name of my blog. Duh.

Some of the biggest complainers are the nutbag brigade from Willistown. They know exactly who I am, and then they literally run around and are among the people that will contact anyone possible to say what a horrible terrible person I am. This does make me laugh because every once in a while somebody will say to me (paraphrasing here) “You know people think you’re a bully and thought you would want to know.”

To them it’s a smile and the reply, thank you for telling me because I do appreciate that somebody cares enough to tell me that. But most don’t see the root of it. The root of it are these people that I don’t agree with or wish to interact with wherever they are, a lot of the time I choose just block them because I simply don’t feel like listening to them…which ironically and honestly they are in fact trying to bully me, malign me, defame me. But I can’t control their behavior. I can only control mine, remove myself from their crap, and look in the mirror every day. And back to the point of this post is the fact that some of the biggest offenders are from Willistown. Yes, beautiful, bucolic Willistown with the rotten underbelly of so many nasty residents. (Incidentally, I have many friends in Willistown who agree with me on this. )

These unpleasant people in Willistown literally live in one of the most beautiful municipalities in the entire county. But they can’t realize their good fortune, and they have to literally pick everything apart every day, 365 days a year. A lot of the people who do this are failed politicians, similar malcontents, or those who simply don’t have the balls to actually stand up and participate in their community. They view their “participation“ as this nonsense.

Lately their nonsense has formed into a bitch fest collective, and a new Facebook page. I find it amusing that their page is anonymous. I mean, it’s not really anonymous. You know who’s behind it and I have a pretty good idea who runs the profile that is not actually a page per se, and I don’t really care if they want to give themselves a cute little name like “Team Willistown.” It is of course their right to operate that way, but the hysterical irony is they’re doing worse than what they criticize me for doing.

So their latest target when they’re not submitting 10 million right to know requests (and do they do it now under “Team Willistown”?) is they are attacking Willistown and the way they have decided to get the public works building rebuilt or updated in a crazy economic environment. The whole process was transparent. It was discussed at multiple meetings and now they have decided it’s no bid and bad. Very, very bad.

So once again, they’re starting on one of their letter, writing campaigns and voluminous and constant Facebook posts, including polluting a community group which until them was pretty nice. Of course, if you disagree with them, then you are evil.

These people are consistently rude to township staff and supervisors. They have quite the elitist attitude towards all. and again the great irony here is, they don’t really know what living in a bad municipality is about. But then again they don’t get out much, they stay behind their keyboards most of the time. Oh, and let us not forget that the crap they pull constantly? This costs the taxpayers in the end. It doesn’t just cause serious turnover and turmoil of township staff.

If not some letter writing, lawn sign toting campaign, they drive up and down the roads of Willistown in their Teslas or similar complaining that some roads have the nerve to be old-fashioned unpaved roads. And some of the roads, paved or not, are in rough shape because there are stormwater issues. Some of the stormwater issues could perhaps be alleviated if some property owners were more cooperative with the township and why not do that?

And then I love when they start about sidewalks. And I’m not saying sidewalks aren’t important, but what I am still saying is not all roads will do well with sidewalks. Add the questions they can never ever answer when they rant on about sidewalks and it’s who will pay for what. Because everybody knows when sidewalks go in the property owner is responsible, even if the property owner didn’t want a sidewalk.

Let’s talk about some of the property owners that don’t want sidewalks. First and foremost, they know that some places are completely dangerous and it’s bad shit crazy to put sidewalks in those places.

Then there are the people who own and raise expensive horse flesh or cattle and so on, and that’s a HUGE liability for them. Are these big mouths who want sidewalks going to provide these land owners with the kind of coverage they would need and pay for it?

And then there are the people with properties that would need to be seriously graded in order to put in a sidewalk so how much land would be taken?

These people want to run everything, but at the end of the day do they really want to do anything besides bitch to Willistown about Willistown? You don’t see them moving though do you? It’s a horrible terrible place to live and why don’t they go where they’re happy?

Now look, do I think Willistown could see improvement? Let’s be honest, what municipality wouldn’t benefit from a little improvement? But it’s what these people are about that is the issue with me. They’re just offensive. And whatever good ideas they might have on occasion is lost in their unending barrage of brain farting verbal diarrhea.

Team Willistown is an individual profile on Facebook- it’s one person. But it’s the same old people attached to this person. Plus a couple of new additions who do not know about the Willistown dog who carries the bone and insecure enough to always spill the tea. So eventually everyone will figure it out. It’s literally the sewer rats with a couple of others, isn’t it?

Politics make strange bedfellows, and they come from both sides of the aisle in Willistown…and elsewhere. They are pretty much using the Republican candidate running. He’s young, a Trumper, and perhaps a patsy. And then she of peek-a-boo blouses and photo posing with John Fetterman? Rumor mill has it she’s going to perhaps try to run for supervisor again in a couple of years?

And it’s pretty obvious that they have as their next objective to get rid of Supervisor Bill Shoemaker. Now I will say the guy running as a Democrat this coming November is actually a good guy.

But the sewer rats by any other name? Are they motivated by anything other than revenge?

You don’t have to like my opinions, but I am entitled to them. And the reality is in cases like this if they didn’t put so much BS out there, there would be nothing for anyone to opine upon.

And the funny thing is, I’d actually rather listen to a rooster than listen to any of these people. I bet you never thought you’d hear me say that did you?

Rant over.

need we say more? valerie shultz is on the ballot in november in honey brook township!

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good night, and good luck is not vintage, it’s timely…and some other thoughts.

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Edward R. Murrow was a pioneering television broadcaster who died way too young. He died of lung cancer in 1965 at age 57. Good Night, and Good Luck was a movie about a period in his life that came out in 2005. He is really the guy that shaped the television news. He worked for CBS. he started out in radio and covered things about World War II from London. He was head of the network’s then “European bureau.”

Eventually, his career took him to television news, then in its early days. He was a force for free and uncensored media ergo free speech in the era where he really changed our television news during the nationwide hysteria of the communist hunting McCarthy era the early 1950s. He literally took on the establishment and won.

The movie centers around Edward R. Murrow and essentially the pissing match between him and whom he referred to as the junior senator from Wisconsin, or Joseph McCarthy.

This movie has been translated into a stage play with a limited run on Broadway and tonight, CNN and Max broadcast it live from a Broadway theater called the Winter Garden Theater in New York City.

George Clooney has the starring role of Edward R Murrow, and from the movie to the current stage version this has been his baby and what I saw tonight was nothing short of freaking fabulous.

You’re watching a play set in the 1950s about what happened then, yet it’s a version what we’re experiencing today as in right now in this country. It’s almost eerie.

Also important, this is the first time a Broadway play has been broadcast live on television. I really think CNN was sending this country a message by doing this. George Clooney certainly is and I applaud him for the courage of his convictions.

Clooney showed us the new McCarthyism loud and clear. Will it be a catalyst of popular culture to enact positive change? I don’t have the answer for that question.

What I do know is the show has shown us the importance of free and fair journalism and the First Amendment. This show showed us the importance of why we can’t just allow this country to evolve into a fake monarchy or an unpleasant oligarchy meets a political circus, more accurately.

Now I’ll get to what this post was originally about, so read on.

I saw a gentleman on Lancaster Avenue or Route 30 in Malvern/Frazer on Friday. This is not the scene you expect to see out here. You don’t expect to see an unhoused man with his life in a grocery cart out here. A friend of mine told me they saw him in Thorndale Thursday, so that’s quite a journey on foot if he was passing through Malvern/Frazer Friday.

This kind of visual is something you expect from a more urban setting. Although you don’t expect such a sight out here I am told there are plenty of homeless that you don’t see and a lot of them are probably hiding in plain sight.

What is being done for these people now I’ve heard of tent cities or settlements in Pottstown (Chester County and Montgomery County) and further west along the river.

There was a bigger tent city in Norristown (Montgomery County) that was broken up by their borough council and I don’t know where those people ever went.

We don’t seem to have anything that can help these homeless, many of whom have serious mental issues. We have lousy mental health system in this country. There are too few solidly good practitioners, and there are sorts of levels of other kinds people who call themselves mental health professionals, only they’re not.

We have a healthcare system that is so frustrating that there are no words for most people some days if they even have health insurance. And then there’s just the general economy. It’s supposed to be so fabulous now, so where’s the fabulous? Has fabulous been subjected to a tariff, by chance?

There are people out out of work and there are people can’t afford to have safe and decent places to live. There are people can’t afford groceries or medicine. There are many who are white collar slaves at work.

And most of us are just trying to get through each day, each hour of each day, and each week with our heads down and pray for something better. Do prayers work come? Sometimes I wonder.

To see that man Friday in front of Planet Fitness pushing a shopping cart with his life in it really gave me pause. The simple truth is that could be any of us, you just don’t know. There are people I know who struggle, yeah, most of us ourselves are just getting by. It’s like when you see somebody going through cancer or who has lost a loved one, that also could be any one of us on any given day.

We have elected officials of every level of government who have forgotten why they are in office, or they never really cared in the first place, and we were deceived.

Then we have the good eggs, kind of like the proverbial white hats who bang their head on the wall just trying to do their best to help their constituencies.

And while the fat cats seem to get fatter, our media coverage seems to decrease day by day. Local papers have become eviscerated by soulless, nameless, faceless, hedge fund owners.

Regional newspapers, suffer similar issues and every week another voice who represented us retires or leaves or moves on. Some of the young and new reporters that you find don’t really have the institutional knowledge to get some of what they’re covering, and some of them I wonder if they actually have the intellectual curiosity. And I’m not trying to be unfair, because there are also some who are new and tremendously talented and very good. Only you don’t hear their voice often enough.

And then you go to television news. First of all, I want to know who is instructing half of the women what to wear on air, especially when there broadcasting from the studio. And the men aren’t much better and maybe I’m just showing my age, but it really bothers me when I see male newscasters on air wearing sneakers or similarly walk the dog or go to the farmers market type shoes. Can we also talk about how they don’t know how to correctly pronounce the names of the people they’re interviewing or discussing or the streets or the towns?

Next onto what’s covered. And it’s like a game of bingo to try to get a local issue covered. It’s just as hard as it is to connect with your local TV station as it is to get a live person when your Internet goes down and you can’t and you want to talk to somebody from Verizon or Comcast.

And then you wonder when a local story does get placed that affects so many no matter where they live, do people actually care?

These are all my meandering thoughts for the day. You can like them or not like them, it’s entirely up to you. And if you don’t like what I or any other blogger writes about, you are free to start your own blog and see if you can do it better.

Ciao for now.