Tag Archives: #chestercountydeservesbetter

where’s karen barsoum, chester county?

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This photo is from a Google search and it’s just a screenshot

Well, it’s no secret that election day was a total study in incompetence, gross incompetence, on the part of the Chester County Director of Voter Services Karen Barsoum. I am starting this post reminding the knee jerk reaction chorus in the rear of the attention span auditorium that I am not an election conspiracy theorist. I am not a voting conspiracy theorist I am not saying there was malicious intent, what I am saying is there was gross incompetence.

karen barsoum needs to go: chester county has made independents invisible on election day.

I am really, quite honestly tired of the people defending this woman. She’s been here long enough and worked in another voter services department in Berks County prior to this that she should not have screwed things up this election or the spring primary where she actually left an entire row office race off of the ballot.

This is something procedurally that it remains the same. There’s one procedure in the spring, there’s another procedure in the fall. Epic fail, pure and simple.

I have mentioned before the crazy amount of turnover in that office. That’s because people don’t want work with her, in my opinion. People need jobs, so if they aren’t taking jobs in that department or constantly leaving, there’s a reason.

Basically, we have heard from everyone, except Karen Barsoum. Her socials are suddenly quite quiet and seem scrubbed as well.

She should’ve been front and center at the county commissioners meeting yesterday, even if just to make a brief statement and leave the room. Everyone has been apologizing for this situation except her. And to be honest given how much she loves the sound bite going back to Berks County, I find that odd.

Obviously to stand up and own is not as fun as being on 60 Minutes or quoted in USA Today or whatever, but you have to have a accountability for the good and the bad and she doesn’t ever seem to have accountability and it’s time for her to be accountable. Then it’s time for her to go.

https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2025/11/chester-county-pennsylvania-pollbook-error-provisional-ballots-elections/

She needs to show her face to apologize to all of us residents in Chester County, and then she should go.

#firekarenbarsoum

From Barsoum’s time in Berks County
From her socials when she was crowing about being on 60 minutes



Snippet from Info Wars

for christmas can pennsylvania please address “suicide bridge” aka the trestle bridge in downingtown, pa?

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I have written about this bridge before over the past few years. At the bottom of the post are the three posts I have written.

We all talk about this bridge, it’s incredibly historic and incredibly dangerous. See this video that is about a year old I just found:

I just can’t even with this. And I will tell you why. I know if people are set on ending their lives, they will find a way. But it seems to me there should be some way to secure this a little better?

I also found a video of kids climbing it:

Here’s a drone video:

There are actually a lot of videos about this bridge. It has undisputable history, and it is also a jumper location. Not being crass, but there is good reason why it is called suicide bridge.

I was told a couple of days ago that there have been TWO suicides, as in two new suicides here in the past couple of weeks or so. Please NOTE these aren’t all teenagers. That is incredibly sad.

This backs up what I was told in part:

Someone I was speaking with the other day said there have been at least 10 suicides in the last 7 years. I do know that only 2, yes 2 have been reported. No one wants to talk about suicide or mental health resources being in short supply, but how many suicides off of just this bridge alone before we have this conversation. I understand that Senator Carolyn Commita is rumored to be meeting with people about this from somewhere local supposedly this week, but is this something she will stick her neck out for?

And Governor Josh Shapiro seems to like grabbing headlines, so Governor Shapiro, how about grabbing a headline for good? After all I have also been told this abandoned/orphaned bridge is no longer under the not so watchful eyes of Norfolk Southern, but instead PennDOT so that brings responsibility all IN state, so hey how about it Governor Shapiro? Because I know how SLOW PennDOT is on orphaned bridges because I used to write about one that it took PennDOT over a decade to take care of. That is the Pennswood Bridge in Bryn Mawr. And this Trestle Bridge would be an actual emergency situation so if Governor Shapiro can waive a magic wand for I-95 bridges, why not here as a mitzvah for the holidays?

Below along with links of former posts on this bridge are screenshots I have taken of videos of this bridge. This bridge is dangerously decrepit up top, and it really doesn’t seem like there is anything much preventing people from getting up there.

Surely something can be done to remove the horrible reputation of this historic bridge?

What can YOU do? Contact politicians, Chester County officials, random PennDOT people and sign the petition isn’t a bad idea is it? Note that there are all sorts of PennDOT bridge etc. projects in the area and they all have project managers. Throw enough spaghetti against a wall and things stick right? We can hope it is the same with PennDOT… all we can do is try….public officials won’t care unless we show them WE care.

https://www.change.org/p/do-something-about-downingtown-s-trestle-bridge

Contact Governor Josh Shapiro https://www.governor.pa.gov/contact/

PennDOT Chester County Maintenance is right in Coatesville: Phone: 484-340-3200

PennDOT Engineering District 6 is in King of Prussia Phone: 610-205-6700

PennDOT Municipal Services Supervisor: Louis Calvanese, louicalvan@pa.gov, 610-205-6541

PennDOT Press Release Person/Media: Robyn Briggs, robbriggs@pa.gov (Her husband is State Rep Tim Briggs FWIW)

PennDOT Boot Rd Bridge Project Manager, Justin Gattorno Phone: 610-205-6693Email: jgattorno@pa.gov

PennDOT Doe Run Bridge Project Manager, Nathan Parris Email: c-nparrish@pa.gov

PennDOT Ship Road over Valley Creek Bridge Project Manager, Nicholas Macelko Email: nimacelko@pa.go Phone: 610-205-6529

​U.S. 322 (West Chester Bypass) Ida Slope Restoration Project Manager, Kalpesh Parikh Email: c-kparikh@pa.gov Phone: 610-205-6621

Call PA Senator Carolyn Comitta’s District Office 610692211                                  https://www.facebook.com/SenatorComitta  https://www.instagram.com/senatorcomitta/  https://twitter.com/SenatorComitta            
   Email her Chief of Staff Michael Hartman  michael.hartman@pasenate.com                                                              

Call Chester County Planning Commission 6103446285                   https://www.instagram.com/chescoplanning/?hl=en                    https://www.facebook.com/ccplanning/                                   

Email: ccplanning@chesco.org                                 

PennDOT (NEW owners of bridge) https://customercare.penndot.gov/eCCC/eCCC.nsf/m_Start.xsp

here we are again, what can we do?
norfolk southern needs to realize there are things we can change to make things better. (petition link attached)
norfolk southern please do something

thoughts on the future of development and chester county

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Random thought I had today…

There are so many people upset by pending development on properties including but not limited to Earles Lake (Newtown Twp Delaware County)  Crebilly (Westtown Township, Chester County), Woodlawn (Concord Twp Delaware County), and Don Guanella (Marple Twp. Delaware County). I applaud those amazing residents fighting the good fight in their respective communities!

But ask anyone in land protection about just how hard it is to turn things around once land is under agreement of sale with a developer. There is very little the township or land trust or individuals, or groups, or anyone can do at that point.

But…. if residents could take some of that good energy and fight to protect vulnerable parcels that are NOT yet under agreement of sale, then they might just make some progress and have a chance to save community open space, arable farmland, and viewsheds.

And as you ponder, please think outside the box when investigating property that’s vulnerable.

For example I am told, and many people are shocked to learn, that places like Tyler Arboretum (650 acres) and Newlin Grist Mill are not actually completely protected land and all or pieces of those properties could be sold if their boards decided they wanted to. (Or if they were desperate for money.)

This is often the challenge for public gardens and arboreta…An example would be a conservation easement  that was put on on the Schuylkill Center a few years ago, and if memory serves it took forever to negotiate but that board was concerned with their own history of selling off chunks of the property over the years when times were lean.

What got me to thinking about this is the upcoming Crebilly Planning Commission Meeting where Toll is presenting. Westtown Township Planning Commission that has been scheduled this first  public meeting with Toll Brothers is reportedly Wednesday, November 16th at 6:30 PM and will be held at Stetson Middle School. (It is not on the Westtown website yet so I do not know if it is set in stone or not.)

I received the following from concerned Chester County resident Mindy Rhodes the following:

It is imperative that the community attend this meeting. It is imperative that you speak at this meeting. Your testimonies need to be on record. It doesn’t matter what township you are from- please show up!

In this meeting, Toll will present their plans and there will be much time for public comments. I have not seen the plans, but my understanding is this:

Toll has submitted 3 different plans:


1) Code Compliant Plan (approx. 320 units)
2) Single Waiver Plan (approx. 320 units) *Toll is requesting a waiver for the standard 60′ requirement in between buildings to 30′ instead
3) Maximum Bonus Density (approx. 400 units) *Toll will need to make their case to the Township to justify this by means of ‘improvements’


Other details:
*Development will be closer to the center of Crebilly leaving ‘open space’ around the exterior
*1 access will be on 202 south of Westminster Church
*2 access roads on West Pleasant Grove Road to align with Dunvegan and Hidden Pond Way
*1 access on 926 near Bridalwood
*No plans to access South New Street

 

This is how far we are.  And Westtown will be limited on what they can do.  Why? Because at the end of the day, municipalities are indeed limited by the Commonwealth’s bible that defines planning and zoning – The MPC or Municipalities Planning Code of Pennsylvania.

I have been saying it for years: quite simply put the MPC needs an overhaul. We need to re-define suburbs and exurbs. We need to better define and set up protections for historic preservation and land preservation, and so much more. We need to stop the death march of development across Chester County and Pennsylvania.

People have been contacting state and federally elected officials about plans like what we are about to see formerly unfold for Crebilly. Those officials like to say “we are so sorry, we can’t get involved in local issues.”

The hell they can’t.  Maybe they can’t change zoning, but they sure as hell can use their political stature to bring opposing sides to the table to perhaps explore other ideas.  That is part of why we elect them.  And when it comes to State Representatives and State Senators, if they can’t adopt our issues as theirs, time to vote for someone else AND they are the ones who can get the Municipalities Planning Code overhauled and updated…it’s in their job description!

We have a major election day coming up one week from today.  Reach out to candidates and ask them what they have done for us lately.  Like with issues over DEVELOPMENT (or pipelines through Chester County). They all can’t be about campaign donations.

We also need to get out message out CLEARLY to the Chester County Planning Commission.  To me it would also help if the person who headed it up actually LIVED in Chester County. A pro-development leader from Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County is not appropriate because HE DOESN’T LIVE HERE. Landscapes3 needs to actually reflect US not what someone else thinks is us.

Also to be considered is better knowing our history.  I learned something new about Crebilly the other day:

historical

Look, we have to do better.  We have to figure it out together. After all, Chester County deserves better.

Thanks for stopping by.