Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 158, No. 4
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
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Township has recuperated 82 percent of the more than $3.2 million stolen
Kennett Township halts its recovery of stolen funds from former manager By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer Kennett Township Manager Eden Ratliff announced at the Jan. 17 Board of Supervisors meeting that the township is shutting down its efforts to recover additional money that was stolen by former Manager Lisa Moore over a nearly eight-year period that led to her conviction of embezzlement and formal sentencing in October 2021.
INSIDE
In a statement released on Jan. 17, the township “has exhausted its efforts” to recover the remainder of the $3,249,452 that Moore stole but has recuperated $2,665,095 – 82 percent – of the stolen funds over the past four-and-a-half years. Recovery efforts of this type usually yield an average return of 6 percent, the release stated. “Further recovery efforts by the township at this time would incur additional fees
that cannot be justified given the probability of further success,” the statement read, referring to the $1,356,892 it has spent with attorneys and forensic accountants to recuperate the stolen money. The remaining 18 percent -- $584,357 – that is still unaccounted for from Moore will come through her restitution payments as a condition of her guilty plea and coordinated by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Parole Office.
Lisa Moore released from prison By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
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Lisa Moore, the former Kennett Township manager who absconded Oxford Educational with more than $3.2 milFoundation highlights lion from the township’s financial accounts over a mentors...4A nearly eight-year period, was released from the State Correctional Institute (SCI) in Cambridge Springs, Pa. on Jan. 4. Moore’s release followed a 27-month incarceration period that began soon after she was formally sentenced on Oct. 4, 2021 to a minimum of three years and maximum of ten years on five counts stemming from her embezzlement of $3,249,452 from the townJennings appointed to ship that began in 2013 and TMACC board...5A ended in 2019. According to data provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
Ratliff said that restitution payments will be made directly to the township. Ratliff said that Moore is responsible for paying the total amount that was
stolen from the criminal complaint as a condition of Pennsylvania’s Made Whole Doctrine, a legal principle that requires that fully insured entities
in the commonwealth be fully compensated for their losses. The township underwent the recovery process with the Continued on Page 2A
FROM OUR LENS The Continuity of Creativity
Courtesy photo
Lisa Moore
(DOC), Moore entered the state’s prison system on Dec. 2, 2021 at the State Correctional Institute at Muncy and was transferred to SCI Cambridge Springs on March 16, 2022. As part of her sentencing, she was given a Recidivism Risk Reduction Incentive -- generally given to less serious offenders who have not committed a personal injury crime, a sex crime, a crime
Photo courtesy of the Brandywine Museum of Art
The Brandywine Museum of Art will present Karl J. Kuerner: The Continuity of Creativity, a special exhibition on view starting Jan. 27. The exhibition features Karl J. Kuerner’s artistic commitment to the inspirational farm property through 19 paintings, including his 1998 watercolor on paper called “Below Zero.” Please see Page 1B for the story.
Continued on Page 3A
Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board approves a $106.7 million preliminary budget By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer The Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board voted 7-0 to approve a $106.7 million preliminary budget for the 2024-2025 school year at the meeting on Jan. 16. District officials will spend the next few months fine-tuning the spending plan before a final budget is adopted and the new real estate tax rate is established. The school board is expect-
ed to adopt the final budget on June 17. Overall, the school district’s expenditures are projected to be increasing by approximately 5.79 percent. School board member Brian Schartz, the chair of the district’s Finance Committee, emphasized that the preliminary budget is just the first look at a spending plan, and it includes all spending levels that would be necessary to continue the current education and sup-
port programs based on the information available at this time. In the coming months, some of the estimates will be replaced by actual numbers. For example, a major piece of the budgetary puzzle is the funding from the state. Unionville-Chadds Ford kept state revenues in the 2024-2025 preliminary budget at the same level that they are at for the current school year. When Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro unveils
his state budget early next month, it will likely include some increases in state funding, as well as funding for targeted initiatives. The school district might also see some of the projected expenses come in under budget. There will be retirements that will result in projected savings, too. As it stands now, in order for the school district to balance the preliminary budget, the proposed millage rate for Chester County residents
would be 33.17 mills and the proposed millage rate for Delaware County residents would be 18.89 mills. That represents increases of 3.82 percent for Chester County and 12.98 percent for Delaware County, with a weighted average increase of 5.77 percent. District officials emphasized that these are worst-case-scenario numbers, and Schartz said that they will continue to refine Continued on Page 3A
New Garden to pursue several grant opportunities in 2024 By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
© 2007 The Chester County Press
Embezzlement recovery efforts by Kennett Township Amount stolen by Lisa Moore $3,249,452 Net funds recuperated by Kennett Township $2,665,095 Remaining funds to be recuperated $584,357 Percent recuperated 82%
If 2023 was any indication of what was to come, 2024 promises to be another very busy year for New Garden Township, as it will continue to navigate several large initiatives that include ongoing cultivation and planning for New Garden Hills, the Village of Toughkenamon and the
105-acre Smedley Preserve. As part of a presentation by grants coordinator Linda Rivera at the Jan. 22 Board of Supervisors’ meeting, the township will also be doing some digging of another kind this year – in the form of pursuing grant opportunities intended to pay for several projects in the future. Among the grant opportunities the township plans to pursue are:
• VPP Grant, available to all county municipalities in Pennsylvania who want to improve their planning and zoning; • Local Share Account Statewide Grant, available to municipalities throughout Pennsylvania to develop projects that improve the quality of life in the community; • The Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources (DCNR) Community and Watershed Forestry Grant, that provides financial assistance to locations needing forest buffers, lawn conversion and community tree planting; • Watershed Restoration and Protection Program, that provides grants to municipalities seeking to restore and maintain streams and watersheds;
• SS4A-FY24 Safe Streets and Roads Grant, that supports the development of safety action programs that identify a municipality’s most significant roadway safety concerns; • Multimodal Transportation Fund Grant, that provides funds to help ensure safe and reliable modes of transportation in a municipality; Continued on Page 2A