Tag Archives: East Whiteland

octorara and east whiteland are not generally two places you find in a sentence together…yet here we are….sadly

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Sadly it’s about the email trail. I wrote about this awkward topic in June:

when politics gives me pause

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?

299-2-ExhibitsDownload

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.

That’s all.

314-Miller-response-to-our-312Download
313-Ryan-response-to-Miller-309Download
313-1-Ryan-Exhibit-Miller-emailsDownload

we knew this billboard was coming and can it be seen from space ?

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This looks terrible and is it actually dangerous ? This was taken last evening 10:30 PM or there abouts.

A friend asked if PENNDot was going to add strobes to the regular lights like they have on Route 100 so people pay attention to the traffic signals not the billboards? People are afraid of distracted driving accidents and adverse neurological reactions and perhaps that is indeed more than a little justified?

But hey, I never hold out hope on PENNDot. They can’t even add a four way stop on Providence Road and Warren Avenue in Willistown, and God knows the accidents justify it.

These billboards are bullshit. And another thing allowed thanks in part to the Municipalities Planning Code not providing protection for Pennsylvania communities, only developers.

East Whiteland could have gone balls to the wall and said no to billboards, but I don’t think they really could afford to sadly.

But East Whiteland? Time to deal with how this looks and the problems that will occur if not dealt with.

I am amused by all the people who are so oblivious to what goes on where they live that they were surprised this billboard was going up. I am also amused by all the people who said they would fight this particular billboard and then essentially vanished from the issue, like happens with so many issues around. Now I know people will take umbrage at my comments but sometimes residents actually have to actively participate where they live.

Billboards are not about improving communities, only destroying them. They are a monument to ugliness.

landfilla estates?

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So here we go again…sort of. This article showed up on a random news app:

Smart News: Philadelphia Business Journal

Toll Brothers pays $33M for Malvern land, plans 280-home development

August 16, 2023
BY
PAUL SCHWEDELSON

This is also in Vista Today.

OK they’re always Trendy Wendy so they are enticing people to live on top of an old landfill with pickleball. That makes me laugh because in Tredyffrin Township they were Pickleball courts that had open on Valley Forge Military Academy, and College land that I’ve just been shut down for noise and other zoning things according to Savvy Main Line:

So pickleball is not a slam dunk. I also think that I remember the plans done by Jason Dempsey/DP Partners, the last developer on that site, that the plans they had approved were slab on grade no basements? Or am I incorrect?

Just so we are clear information wise, this is the former Knickerbocker landfill owned for quite a long time by the Rubino family.

Next a reader of mine chimed in when I initially posted online and shared the article:

I’ve assisted in the redevelopment of many former hazardous waste sites of different kinds, but never for building homes on a full-blown landfill that received hazardous wastes — and this one also has an 8-inch oil pipeline through the middle of it. It’s common to install a cap (permeable geotextile topped with 2 ft of clean soil) over historical fill and then build on it, I’ve helped with that all over Philly, Camden, and Wilmington — but that fill was emplaced when the cities were built, not in our lifetimes. And it wasn’t hazardous waste, either.

This screenshot is from the 2021 plan, and at that time they still needed an environmental investigation via soil borings throughout the area to be developed. I’m curious whether that was done and what they found.

I also wonder what the geophysics are like on an old landfill like that and how thick the trash is where they’re going to build. There’s a clay cap over the entire surface, so they’re going to have to bring in soil to put over top of that (probably over geotexile), but I wouldn’t feel good about pouring concrete slabs for houses on top of a landfill and hoping they don’t eventually sink and/or crack. Ugh.

Older Knickerbocker stuff:

https://www.mindat.org//feature-7270226.html?mibextid=Zxz2cZ

https://www.eastwhiteland.org/376/Knickerbocker-Tract

Some Knickerbocker history
Re: East Whiteland meeting.

Well…sigh…

Apparently this new Toll Brothers project represents the entire project that Jason Dempsey/ DP Partners was developing .. .The early plans did include an additional 102 building units on the driving range but the entire supervisors board voted that plan down, didn’t they?

So we shall see.

I found stuff on East Whiteland’s website about Knickerbocker:

https://www.eastwhiteland.org/376/Knickerbocker-Tract

https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/CurSites/srchsites.cfm

https://eastwhiteland.org/DocumentCenter/View/1637/Applicant-Petition-to-Amend-Zoning-Map-and-Comp-Plan?bidId=

I wrote about Knickerbocker two years ago:

what to do about knickerbocker? even chester county planning commission has hit pause with new letter.

Here’s a post about Knickerbocker and history around the area:

in the shadow of paoli hospital

So Chester County and East Whiteland will be dancing with Toll over Knickerbocker I am sure. A friend came up with the catchiest name for the project:

LANDFILLA ESTATES

Perfect name. Ciao for now.

Toll Brothers Upper Uwchlan- hideous

well hello opdenaker, would you like to dance?

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One month ago, I wrote about A J Blosenski which was sold to Waste Connections. My email went all the way up the corporate ladder. I spoke with some really nice people at Waste Connections, whom I thought had straightened out my neighborhood’s trash dilemma but apparently NOT.

Once again AJ Blosenski just arbitrarily skipped recycling in my neighborhood. I don’t do trash left on the street in the summer. I don’t do trash left on the street at any time when you’re paying for a service so I’m actually pissed now.

I was mildly annoyed before but then my husband looked in our account and although Waste Connections said we were going to get credited for the three weeks of missed service we experienced before, we never got a credit and they were happy happy happy to take money today for the next month yet they skipped recycling and didn’t call didn’t email didn’t text. And our service has been reduced to one pick up a week, which is really no big deal, except there was no reduction in cost. There was a vague promises of an extra trash bin, but that never materialized and then there’s the issue of the three weeks of missed prior service we were supposed to get credit for and we never got credit for.

Fool me once shame on you. For me twice shame on me. That being said, Opdenaker, would you care to dance? Yes I am calling them tomorrow. I had checked y’all out before because you offer rather good recycling. Like all other refuse and recycling companies you also have mixed reviews. But you aren’t Whitetail Disposal whom I found incredibly offensive with the hard sell door to door ignore the no soliciting signs during COVID.

I have been pretty good trying to give Waste Connections/ AJ Blosenski a chance to improve after I wrote my last post.

aj blosenski…it’s summer…trash can’t sit

And when you tell customers that you will credit them for services not rendered, that kind of makes you less likely to stay with a company as well.

I am not in the mood for trash issues again.

original 1989 scout report on ebenezer and an update

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Dan Baker photo 1989

In 1989, Dan Baker lived in East Whiteland Township and was an Eagle Scout. He adopted Ebenezer, AME and her ruins on Bacton Hill Road for his Eagle Scout project.

Recently, Dan shared via Bertha Jackson, (who is an AME church historian) additional thoughts and a few photos from his project. Both his original project report, and this update are embedded in this post.

In addition, there was a very recent presentation given by my friend Tia Manon at East Whiteland Township. This was part of the presentation. Tia has ancestors buried in the cemetery at the ruin of Ebenezer AME. She still searches for another ancestor named Perry Ringgold/James Williams. He has two names because he was a slave who gained his freedom on the underground railroad. So he started as Perry and ended up as James. Apparently he may have shown up in Mount Pleasant. I said I think the Mount Pleasant section of Wayne in an 1880 census but he’s listed as white so we’re not sure if he was trying to pass or it’s not him.

From July, 2016 (I placed the article):

https://www.poconorecord.com/story/news/state/2016/07/17/community-wants-to-save-historic/27489162007/ (click to read)

I can’t even explain to you how it makes my heart happy that other people have taken up the mantle of Ebenezer. Of course, back when I started researching the AME church didn’t really admit that they owned it still, and then research led to the old deed, which apparently has never been changed in Chester County. So the AME church does now seem to acknowledge that they still own this amazing historic resource, which is good. I just wish their national church would maybe recognize this site a little more and help out with local efforts.

Dan Baker photo 1989

Once again baby steps forward. I know some people don’t understand why I love this abandoned site so much. I just do. I still remember the day that I discovered the ruined wasn’t an abandoned farmhouse, but a church and when I saw my Civil War soldier, Joshua.

Then I found recently online drone footage over Ebenezer :

It goes with a project from an archeology student at the University of Pennsylvania. Her name is Sarah Caminito. I am not sure if she graduated or not.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/f02c06d9edf84fbcb423f7e8f1b98258
(click to view)

Ebenezer AME also has her own page on Find A Grave.

So hopefully Ebenezer will regain her proper place in history and forever preservation will occur. I want to hope, sometimes I am afraid to hope.

My friend Tia will be writing about it and when she does I hope to share her thoughts.

Thanks for stopping by.

Dan Baker photo 1989

the kaplans go to court…in july for arraignment….

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They are all moved out of East Whiteland Township, and their store on Lancaster Avenue in Frazer. But they are finally going to court. Don’t get too excited. It only looks like the arraignment.

But will it be orange is the new black? Time will tell.

Looks like arraignment date is July 13, 2023 unless it changes.

back to trash….

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OK a trash update. I was asked about this yesterday when I spoke to one of the Waste Connections managers and they asked me how I felt about moving to one day of the week trash pick up. AJ Blosenski currently picks up regular trash on Mondays and Thursdays and recycling is only Mondays. So if I’m reading this letter correctly, they are going to one day a week. The day is to be determined starting at a point in July.

To be honest, I am ambivalent about one or two days of trash, because when we had Republic Services it was only one day a week.

However, if we are going to one day a week, there should be an appropriate reduction in everyone’s bill because we were paying before for two days a week for regular trash.

So that’s the update everyone and I know that they are working with East Whiteland Township to clear the backlog of missed pick ups and other than that I have no new trash news to report today has been all about roosters 🤣

trash talking

dear developer, try harder in east whiteland

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Remember, I wrote a post recently about a developer buying the Clews and Strawbridge site and wanting to plunk down yet more god damn apartments on Route 30 and in East Whiteland?

wtf development proposed AGAIN in east whiteland…

So that screenshot you see above is the letter that the developer is dropping by the businesses on Route 30 in East Whiteland seeking support. Well, I shouldn’t say the developer personally because then you would see him and his vanity plate on his car… nope he’s sending minions.

I just love developer minions, don’t you?

This means that we need to keep writing East Whiteland Township and keep voicing our opinion, and going to meetings. Because if they thought getting their rezoning and everything was a done deal, they wouldn’t be sending minions would they?

Thank you developer minions for amusing me.

when politics gives me pause

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Octorara School District. It’s way out there in Chester County. And something I am struggling with is one of the candidates there and it’s not because of them per se or that I know them personally as I do not, it’s because of what their day job is and I don’t see how you can be a politician and a police officer.

And truthfully, I never would’ve paid attention, except their candidates page seems to be using the day job as a marketing tool for the political campaign, and I’m just not sure how that sits with me.

I’ve had family in law-enforcement over the years. I’ve had many friends in law-enforcement. Many of them had businesses on the side and side gigs but none of those side gigs involved being an elected official and a school board member is an elected official. A school board member is a politician.

And this one seems tied up with that contrarian person and their litigation if not formerly but by association? And then it seems like somebody sending weird letters to the contrarian person and I guess the police/ school board guy and why would somebody do that? That is WRONG no matter what you think of their politics. Doesn’t whomever get those things are always found out? And then you wonder, is it a political tactic that those letters are happening or is it somebody really doing something bad? Either way, it’s horrible and it’s wrong. These people have families.

I guess what I’m also asking is this anonymous letter thing is psycho by design? I’ve actually been the victim of things like this in the past and I remember when the postal inspectors came to pick up the questionable mail back then. What was sent to me went through all sorts of tests at I believe, a federal lab. It was no joke. These things are taken quite seriously and investigated thoroughly.

I am not now, and never have been anti-police, but it gives me pause in this situation when I stop to wonder how does their belief system affect their work potentially? I’m sorry if anyone thinks I think too much, but how do you not think about this?

I just don’t see how you can be both a politician and an officer of the law. I just don’t. I would also note what else gives me pause is this is someone who is also endorsed by Klanned Karenhood.

Anyone endorsed by that Stepford Wives for Totalitarianism you have to look twice at no matter what your politics are because the only way we’re going to get anything done in this area, in this county, in this country, in our individual municipalities and school districts is if we find a way to meet in the middle and those people aren’t about meeting in the middle. And the largest objection I have for them is they are based out of Florida they are NOT a group that is from Pennsylvania, these are people from outside our state, wanting to mess with where we call home and I think that’s wrong. They are an extremism group by their very nature aren’t they?

So there now to all of these candidates who wonder why I have such a problem with these endorsements understand why, even though they should be intelligent enough to already know why.

Anyway, if anyone has thoughts on the topic, I’d be willing to hear them. If anyone attacks me for posting this, I will file a police report.

I am asking legitimate questions I am not slamming anyone. But at the end of the day my feeling remains the same: police officer by day, and politician by night doesn’t work. Also, how do we know night job doesn’t bleed into day job?

Sign me pondering. Thanks for stopping by.

this is why municipalities need ordinances that correct wrongs

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219 Namar Avenue, Exton, PA

Namar Avenue in Exton/West Whiteland is one of those little neighborhoods of post-war (as in World War II) housing and earlier. There was a housing boom in Chester County before and following World War II which is how places like General Warren Village in East Whiteland came to be for example, and parts of Northeast Philadelphia too. This house is in Whiteland Crest I believe the name of this little area in Exton. And that area started coming into existence I think in the 1930s and most building was done up to the 1950s at some point.

Sadly this cute area is home to a rather derelict house.

Can you imagine living with this derelict house next door to you? It was sold most recently in 2021. It is the first photo in this post and the two just above.

But if you just Google the address, that house has had a lot going on for years:

I think there is probably a rather sad story here PRIOR to 2021 but the new owners have continued to let it rot since 2021, so what gives?

My point of this post is not all negative. My point actually is there is hope for dealing with properties like this at least in West Whiteland since is West Whiteland is a municipality that approved a property maintenance ordinance in March. Now if that ordinance had been in effect before the property changed hands in 2021, the township would have perhaps been able to help the homeowner find a non-profit group to help them clean up. But since this property changed hands in the fall of 2021 it has continued to dangerously deteriorate, so now this code will also be of help to the neighbors who deserve better than this.

I remember when I first moved to Chester County, in East Whiteland there was a derelict house on Morstein Road. The police had to babysit it because kids kept going in etc. Eventually the family sold it for a two lot subdivision. But if there had been more of a maintenance ordinance then in that township, maybe it would have been different? I also think this West Whiteland ordinance will also address people building structures without permits that require permits. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Along with ordinance like this there should be rental ordinances. Not just life and safety and inspections required when a property changes hands. The developers have introduced so many apartment complexes and developments that are loaded with rentals that it is desperately needed.

And student rental ordinances. East Whiteland is home to Immaculata, as an example. And there is no rental ordinance or student rental ordinance is there?

What made me think about those kinds of ordinances again in particular were comments on NextDoor about Frazer Crossing Apartments which used to be known as William Henry. But I thought about rental ordinances when the whole human trafficking thing happened in East Whiteland. It just made me wonder if there were rental inspection ordinances, would there have been rentals with human trafficking going on? Or would that bad row of houses just past the Wawa at 30 and Planebrook Road exist if there were actual rental ordinances in place?

It’s a shame that we no longer live in a world where people will do the right things, but if people don’t know what the rules are will they do the right thing today? My thoughts on ordinances like this are nothing new. I wrote about the need for rental property ordinances in April.

I see West Whiteland as taking proactive steps in ordinances surrounding property maintenance and rental properties. It’s a good thing, it will create a level and safe playing field. Here’s hoping some of her neighbors follow suit.

Thanks for stopping by.

why townships need rules on rental properties