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Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 150, No. 22
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Flying with History
60 Cents
Avon Grove School Board set to approve final budget on June 9 A vote on full-day kindergarten could also take place that night By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer
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From June 9-12, the New Garden Flying Field and EAA Chapter 240 will host “Fly Into History,” which will give visitors the opportunity to take a ride on the historic Ford Tri-Motor airplane. For the complete story, see Page 1B.
The Avon Grove School Board will adopt the final budget for the 2016-2017 school year at its next meeting on Thursday, June 9. The school board previously approved a proposed final budget of $87.8 million. Projected expenditures have dipped slightly, to approximately $87.7 million. A tax increase of 3.1
percent will be necessary to balance the budget if it is approved as is. The millage rate would increase from 28.1570 mills to 29.0400 mills. School board vice president Brian Gaerity said during his Finance Committee report at the May 26 school board meeting that the 2016-2017 budget is still a work-inprogress as officials work to finalize the budget.
Finance Committee meetings are slated for Tuesday, May 31 and Tuesday, June 7. Both meetings will begin at 6 p.m. In the Avon Grove Intermediate School audion. The June 7 meeting is tentative. Bonnie Wolff, the school board president, said that they expect to adopt the final budget on June 9. There is also a possibility, Wolff said, that the school Continued on Page 3A
The Felony Lane Gang reaches Chester County
Residents warned to play it safe in presence of new gang By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer During a recent board of supervisors meeting at a local township, a man stood up in the back of the room and told the story of his wife, a teacher at a local school, whose vehicle had its windows smashed in. Her purse, which contained all of her most valuable personal information, had been stolen. He had come to the township meeting searching for answers, assistance, or maybe just to articulate to township leaders the feeling of violation that he and his wife had been living with since the incident.
He told the board that he had heard speculation from some colleagues that the robbery was done in the fashion that is traced to The Felony Lane Gang, an organization of cons and criminals whose thefts have gained notoriety along the East Coast. Based in Florida, the gang has been in operation for the past several years, and during that time have been responsible for stealing -and cashing in -- tens of millions of dollars, resulting from criminal activity. Traveling in rented vehicles, gang members pinpoint areas generally frequented by women -gyms, sporting events,
parks, shopping malls and day care centers. Specifically, they look for purses and wallets in the vehicles, which often contain identification such as driver licenses, checks, debit cards and other financial data. Gang members then recruit females -- prostitutes and/or drug addicts -- to assume the identities of the theft victims in order to cash stolen checks belonging to other victims, and are often fitted with wigs so that they create appearances similar to the photographs of the victims. Rather than make transactions in the bank itself, fraudulent check cashers
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The Felony Lane Gang Task Force has established a website for the purpose of sharing information that can lead to the arrests of those committing crimes.
use the farthest lane from the bank building – generally referred to as “the felony lane.” While the township’s police chief, present at the meeting, told the man that while the robbery was still under investigation, it would be speculative
Battling back from a stroke, one note at a time
By John Chambless Staff Writer
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Don Mann and Lewis Lott perform a small concert for a stroke survivors group on May 20.
As a self-described typeA person with a long career of giving 100 percent to everything he’s done, Don Mann is learning to slow down and focus his energy on smaller tasks after a stroke last year stopped him in his tracks. Mann, 68, has lived in Landenberg since 1996. His resume is remarkably diverse, including stints in the Air Force, as a research scientist for the Army, as a munitions designer for the Army, as a sales manager, and as the head of a purchasing consulting group with MBNA Bank, where Continued on Page 2A
to draw a direct line to the actions of The Felony Lane Gang. The man’s story, however, had already written the line in the sand, a line that has been drawn in stories just like his, throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania. Continued on Page 4A
Seller beware! By Uncle Irvin New Garden Township’s plan to sell its sewer system has fallen short, with two of three bidders dropping out. Only Aqua Pennsylvania Wastewater Inc. remains interested. Aqua recently purContinued on Page 4A
© 2007 The Chester County Press