Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 155, No. 10
INSIDE
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Group shares East Marlborough results of Kennett Township officials Greenway survey, discuss Chester County resident input Balloon Festival By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
Recent citizen surveys to gauge priorities in the continuing development of the Kennett Greenway showed that local residents would like to see the circuitous trail system maintain its natural beauty, provide access to open spaces, connect neighborhoods and continue to provide a broad range of activities for individuals and families. The results of these surveys – as well as input from two public meetings held in late February – were shared in a presentation given at the Kennett Township Board of Chadds Ford Elementary Supervisors’ online meeting presents 72nd annual Art on March 3. Show Auction...1B The presentation, chaired by Christina Norland, executive director of the Kennett Trails Alliance, introduced consultants Jennifer Dowdell, a landscape ecological planner with Baltimore-based Biohabitats and Claire Agre, Spring forward! Daylight Savings Time begins on Sunday, March 14
Longwood Fire Company promotes Eick to EMS assistant chief…4A
INDEX Opinion.......................7A Obituaries..............2B-3B Classifieds.................6B
the principal and co-founder of Unknown Studio, a landscape architectural firm, also in Baltimore. Together, they led a discussion that measured the survey results, provided a timeline of past and current projects and examined the township’s role in the future of what is projected to become a 14-mile continuous trail in southern Chester County. The bilingual 2021 Greenway Survey, issued online in January, drew 820 responses, 39 percent of whom live in Kennett Township and 17 percent of whom live in Kennett Square Borough, with 69 percent of respondents falling in the 18-64 age group. Asked what kind of space they would wish to connect to using the Kennett Greenway, one-third of respondents answered access to “natural areas, preserves and parks,” while 27 percent said they would
By Monica Thompson Fragale Contributing Writer
Festival organizers are seeking to hold the event in September of this year, but details need to be worked out
Continued on page 6A
Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board makes a big decision about in-person instruction The Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board voted unanimously Monday to invite all students back for in-person instruction beginning March 15. The district will also
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begin distributing 271 Johnson & Johnson vaccines to staff in a Phase 1 distribution starting March 12, which includes special education teachers, many of the elementary school staff members, bus drivers, food workers, “and those who support our elementary school programming,”
Photo by Richard Gaw
Organizers of the 14th annual Chester County Balloon Festival will return to the East Marlborough supervisors next month to seek approval to hold the festival in September.
By Monica Thompson Fragale Contributing Writer
to the East Marlborough supervisors next month to seek approval to hold the festival there this coming September. Organizers of the 14th The festival’s executive annual Chester County director, Debbie Harding, Balloon Festival will return and event organizer Rick according to Leah Reider, the district’s director of special education. The board voted at its work session to change the UCFSD Health and Safety Plan to, among other things,
invite all elementary school students back to full-day in-person instruction four days a week and a half-day of in-person instruction on Wednesdays, and middle and high school students to
Schimpf appeared at the township supervisors’ online meeting March 1. But the board had a number of questions about things like fire and EMS Continued on page 4A
return in-person on March 15 using their current schedule. A return to regular schedules for all schools would be decided at a later date, Continued on page 4A
Avon Grove High School graduate April Hansen pursues life and work in New York City, even as she battles through Cystic Fibrosis and her search to find a kidney donor
Strength, resilience and Coca-Cola By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer Before the reader of this article is introduced to its subject and her story, it is necessary to understand the condition that she has lived with all of her life, one that has come to take on the presence of a constant and immovable companion that can only be stilled by medication, daily rituals and hope. Cystic Fibrosis, commonly Courtesy photo known as CF, is an inherApril Hansen is a 2016 gradited, genetic disorder that uate of Meredith College.
causes severe damage to the lungs, digestive system and other organs in the body, such as the kidneys and the liver. It affects the cells that produce mucus, sweat and digestive juices. Long-term issues include difficulty breathing and coughing up mucus as a result of frequent lung infections. Other signs and symptoms may include sinus infections, poor growth, fatty stool, clubbing of the fingers and toes, and infertility in most males. The Irving Medical
Center at Columbia University, where 28-yearold April Hansen visits for her frequent check-ups, is located at 168th Street in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, three blocks from the apartment she shares with her longtime friend and roommate, Martha. First diagnosed with CF when she was six weeks old by doctors in her native North Carolina, the course of Hansen’s life has been a sidetrack of interruptions that have navigated the full
spectrum of medical offices, testing laboratories, men and women in lab coats and operating rooms. For Hansen – who moved with her mother Nina and father Eric to New London in 2001 and graduated from Avon Grove High School in 2011 – the mornings she spends in her Manhattan apartment begin with a cocktail of three enzymes that allow her to digest her breakfast, followed by the consumption of ten additional pills, a sinus rinse Continued on page 5A
Penn Township plans Red Rose Rent Day The open house will give the public a first opportunity to see the work that has been done at the historic Red Rose Inn since the property was acquired by the township and extensively restored By Marcella Peyre-Ferry Contributing Writer
© 2007 The Chester County Press
The Penn Township Historic Committee is planning an open house and re-creation of “Red Rose Rent” Day for Sept. 25 and 26, pending COVID-19 restrictions.
The open house will give the public a first opportunity to see the work that has been done at the historic Red Rose Inn since the property was acquired by the township and restored to its original form. The building itself is an interesting piece of history, and include
a number of displays of historic memorabilia related to Penn Township The history of Red Rose Rent Day goes back to 1731 and is memorialized on an historic marker on the property. The tradition of Red Rose Rent Day was revived from 1938 to 1985 by the
Conard Pyle Company. The last official commemoration was held in the late 1990s. The new revival of the tradition will have a representative from Conard Pyle present a rose to a descendant of William Penn. More information on the history of the Red Rose Rent
Day can be found in the latest edition of the Penn Township newsletter, which was mailed to residents the first week of March. Copies are also available at the township office. Also available at the office and on the township website Continued on page 4A