Chester County Press 01-15-2020 Edition

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Chester CountyPRESS

Volume 154, No. 2

Kennett Chocolate Lovers Festival...6A

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Applications from potential replacements are now being accepted; the vacancy is expected to be filled at the Feb. 10 school board meeting By Chris Barber Contributing Writer Paola Rosas-Weed, who represented the region that includes New Garden Township, has resigned from the Kennett School Board. The resignation was officially accepted by the school board on Monday night. Rosas-Weed was elected to the school board in 2017. She recently moved to Kennett Township, and by law she is no longer eligible to represent a region that

she doesn’t live in. In these cases, the school board is required to select a replacement to fill the unexpired term until the next school board elections are held. The vacancy will be advertised, and applications will be accepted from New Garden adult residents until noon on Jan. 27. Interviews with the applicants will then be held at a public meeting at 6 p.m. on Feb. 3. The successful candidate will be appointed at the regular meeting on Feb. 10, if

all goes according to the school board’s plan. Superintendent Dr. Barry Tomasetti praised RosasWeed and said that he had enjoyed working with her. “You have stepped up in our community in so many ways. I’m sure the board is not happy that you are leaving,” he said. “It makes me sad – family stuff. I’ll still be around. Thank you for your support. I’ve learned so much,” Rosas-Weed said. The school board got a look at the preliminary

On Nov. 17, 2019, Kelly and Dan Pin of Kennett Square discovered that their two-and-a-half-year-old son Benjamin had a high fever and severe abdominal pains, and took him to the emergency room at the A.I. Children’s Hospital in Wilmington, where their son was admitted the following day. After extensive blood work and a bone marrow biopsy, Benjamin, known as “Benny,” was diagnosed with B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia on Nov. 21. Commonly known as B-Cell ALL, it is an aggressive

type of leukemia that occurs when too many B-cell immature white blood cells are found in the bone marrow and blood. While the overall prognosis for Benny is very good -- about 98 percent of children with B-Cell ALL go into remission within weeks after starting treatment and 90 percent of them can be cured – Kelly approaches her son’s treatment not with a long-range view, but with a day-to-day approach. “If it happens to be a good day, we have to take it in because we don’t know what tomorrow holds,” she said. “The side effects of chemo are pretty intense, and

Obituaries............2B & 5B Classifieds................4B

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Photo by Steven Hoffman

Kennett Square Borough has now extended the contract of Police Chief William Holdsworth for five years.

Kennett Square Borough extends police chief’s contract By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer

Courtesy photos

ANCHOR life + fitness in Kennett Square is sponsoring a weight lifting challenge on Feb. 8 to raise funds for the Pin family, whose son Benjamin, right, is being treated for B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Also pictured is his mother, Kelly, his father, Dan and his sister, Amelia.

The new year is only two weeks old and Kennett Square Borough Council already has a significant task completed. Kennett Square Borough Council unanimously approved a new contract with police chief William Holdsworth at its meeting on Jan. 6. The new contract is for five years. Holdsworth has served as the police chief in Kennett Square since April of 2017, Continued on Page 2A

Connors selected as chairman of London Grove Township Board of Supervisors

The municipal reorganization meeting at London Grove Township on Jan.. 6 saw a change in board leadership and the welcoming of two new members. Veteran supervisors David Connors and Steve Zurl were unanimously elected as chairman and vice chairIndians take on the Blue man, respectively. Demons in basketball...3B Additionally, new supervisors Kevin Runey and Photo by Chris Barber Christine Allison and new District Justice Matt Seavey, second from left, stands Jerome Fix, a new member of the Board of Auditors, Board of Auditor member and supervisors Christine Allison and Kevin Runey. Jerome Fix were sworn in

Opinion.......................7A

budget for the 2020-2021 school year that was presented by board member Michael Finnegan. This was their first look at the numbers, and they were advised that through public input, discussions and allocations from the state, there would likely be changes before a final budget is adopted in June. The preliminary budget totals $89.8 million in revenue and expenses with the major income source being local real estate taxes. The

Benny Strong: ANCHOR life + fitness rallies in support of local family

By Chris Barber Contributing Writer

INDEX

$1.00

Kennett School Board member resigns

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer

Winter Education Guide

www.chestercounty.com

Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas

by District Justice Matt Seavey, who handled his judicial tasks by visiting not just London Grove, but several other municipalities. Runey and Allison replaced former supervisors Richard Scott Harper and Thomas Szakas. At the reorganization meeting, even though it was not an action item on the agenda, the supervisors addressed the subject of financial safeguards management. This topic has been heavily discussed among residents of southern Chester County and

beyond following a scandal in Kennett Township that saw former township manager Lisa Moore arrested and charged with embezzling more than $3 million from the municipality. Board members assured their audience there that London Grove finances are well guarded with safety mechanisms in place to keep the money safe. Without reciting all the safeguards, several board members spoke up to describe some of them. Connors said he stops by Continued on Page 5A

East Marlborough Township officials discuss protecting the township’s finances It’s a topic that a lot of township leaders in southern Chester County are talking about because of the unfolding drama in Kennett Township By Monica Fragale Contributing Writer

© 2007 The Chester County Press

The East Marlborough Township supervisors began the new year by being proactive about protecting the township’s finances. “We are very concerned

about what happened in Kennett Township,” said supervisor Robert McKinstry, who was selected as chairman of the board of Supervisors at the Jan. 6 reorganization meeting. He was referring to a monthslong investigation into and

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charges against former Kennett Township Manager Lisa Moore for allegedly embezzling more than $3 million from Kennett Township’s finances. According to McKinstry, supervisors met in executive session prior to the meeting

with the township auditing firm, Barbacane, Thornton & Co. LLP, which is also the independent auditor for Kennett Township. “We wanted to know what was missed,” McKinstry said, adding that the supervisors asked the auditors for

changes they could make to better protect the township from a situation like Kennett’s. While East Marlborough interim township manager Hannah Christopher was appointed both the secretary Continued on Page 3A

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