Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 154, No. 38
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
$1.00
INSIDE Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board votes to
bring elementary students back to classrooms A vote on whether to bring students in grades six through 12 back for hybrid instruction isn’t expected until next month By Monica Thompson Fragale Contributing Writer
The Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board voted Monday to bring elementary students back to the Mushroom industry leg- physical classrooms in end remembered...5B October as part of a hybrid return, and also voted to adopt the academic and athletic health and safety
plans. A vote on whether to bring students in grades six through 12 back for hybrid instruction isn’t expected until next month. At the meeting -- before which a group of parents and students held a rally in support of reopening -the board members voted unanimously to start hybrid instruction for children in
kindergarten through fifth grades on Oct. 12, assuming the incidence of COVID19 per 100,000 and the PCR percent positivity rate remain “comparable” to current levels. “From a K-5 perspective, we know that these students are at a much lower risk of spread,” said Superintendent John Sanville. “A phased reopening also allows us to
use our time and energy to open elementary school and do it well. “Once we open K-5 … it will give our community and our staff confidence we can do the same at the secondary level.” The COVID-19 numbers had improved since the school board’s Sept. 14 work session, at which time Salwa Sulieman, an infec-
tious disease doctor with A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children, had warned that the numbers didn’t appear stable enough to warrant a return for hybrid instruction. Sanville said Monday that he and Steve Simonson had met again with Sulieman about the most recent numbers, and that “the numbers we all saw were better than Continued on Page 3A
Lawrence, CWA A spike in COVID-19 cases chair tell lawmakers doesn’t bode well for to save Chester in-person return to schools Water Authority
New contract for Lincoln U president...4A
Photo by Chris Barber
The Kennett High School reconstruction and replacement of the football field and the track are complete. The tennis courts have been replaced as well.
By Chris Barber Contributing Writer For parents of children in the Kennett Consolidated School District hoping for a return to in-person instruction, the news was not good at the Sept. 14 school board meeting that was live-streamed. Superintendent Dr. Opinion.......................7A Dusty Blakey said reports Obituaries............2B & 4B from the Chester County Department of Health indiClassifieds.................6B cated that the percentage of positivity of COVID-19 infection countywide had been trending around 2.5 for two weeks prior, but Local author publishes new book...1B
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then took a spike upward above 5 in the most recent week. This is higher than the three-week consecutive reduction level recommended for return to school for students. Blakey said following the issue of that metric that the department issued a new graphic advising actions schools should take related to a sliding scale of incidence. Specific tor the Kennett Consolidated School District, that incidence of infection shown is 40.77 per 100,000 population. “We are trending in the
high or very high level which puts us in the hybrid or virtual category. That gives us good pause to continue with the virtual model,” Blakey said. He added that he and other superintendents in the area would continue to meet with each other and the Department of Health on a weekly basis, and would also take the safety of the instructional team into account. Blakey also reported that the district is working with various institutions, including Willowdale Continued on Page 2A
At a committee hearing in the State Capitol last week, State Rep. John Lawrence, Chester Water Authority Board Chair Cynthia Letizell, and Penn Township Director of Operations Karen Versuk spoke with passion in favor of the continued independence of Chester Water Authority (CWA), and in support of House Bill 2597, which would block any sale of CWA without ratepayer approval. “I wrote and introduced HB 2597 to give people a voice,” said Lawrence. “HB 2597 would require any sale of a public water or sewer authority to be approved by the ratepayers of that utility. The people who are most affected in this situation deserve the opportunity to speak and be heard.” Formed in 1939, CWA provides quality drinking water at reasonable rates to over 200,000 people across Chester County, Delaware County, and the City of Chester. After rejecting an
unsolicited takeover offer from a for-profit operator in 2017, CWA has been embroiled in 16 separate lawsuits related to the matter. Recent actions by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development have heightened concerns that the state might attempt to force a sale of CWA to bail out the financially troubled city of Chester. “House Bill 2597 will give ratepayers the right to retain control over their water, Authority governance, and the Authority’s future” said CWA Board Chair Letizell. “Rep. Lawrence’s bill is needed because a state agency and the recently appointed Act 47 Receiver for Chester City are trying to force a sale of the Authority’s customers and assets to a for-profit water company and give the sales proceeds to the Chester City government.” Letizell went on to highlight Chester Water’s efforts to keep rates reasonable, Continued on Page 3A
Report: Economic impact of new library projected to redirect millions to Kennett By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer Throughout the year, the Historic Kennett Square Economic Development Council invites stakeholders to its meetings who play – or are about to play – a major role in the economy of Kennett Square and its neighboring towns and municipalities. Usually, the welcome seat at the Council’s table comes
in the form of an individual or group who introduces a new initiative, program or interest designed to stimulate economic growth and provide opportunities for local business owners. At the Council’s Sept. 18 online meeting, however, that visiting stakeholder was an 11,000 square-foot building on State Street that by the end of 2022 will expand to more than 30,000 square feet.
During the meeting, the library was introduced as a potentially major economic driver for the Kennett Square community. As part of his update on the construction of the new Kennett Square Library – scheduled to begin construction in July 2021 and be completed in December 2022 – Board President Jeff Yetter told the Council that the new library will lead to a doubling of annual library
visitations from those who live within the eight municipalities the library serves, and from those who live outside the service area. That’s a lot of people, he said, who will not only help define the new Kennett Library and Resource Center when it opens, but spend money at local restaurants, retail stores and other businesses in the Kennett Square Borough and beyond.
‘Feet on the Street’ “I served for eight years on the Historic Kennett Square Board of Directors, and the one phrase I remember hearing over and over was ‘Feet on the Street,’ in order to answer the question, ‘How are we going to get more people to our businesses?’” Yetter said. “We anticipate the new library will go from 120,000 Continued on Page 6A
In a new book, a local mother shares her grief over the loss of daughter, in the hope of teaching others
Jessie, the girl in the photographs By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer “When Jessie was born, I lost my heart to her, as any mom does for their babies, and I fell in love. Jessie made me a better person because she challenged me. Jessie brought me great joy and she was color in my life, always so vibrant and strong.” Joann Pfeifer, Kennett Square The photographs, hundreds of them now culminated on a social media
page dedicated to her memory, tell the pictorial life of Jessica Leigh Pfeifer. The photographs want to become videos. They want to burst from their frames, because they depict a child and then a young woman actively courting the business of movement, vitality, activity and happiness. She climbs a mountain with her two younger brothers. She discusses strategy with her soccer coach during a game. She is in a karate pose. She poses for selfies with her BFFs from Unionville High
School. She is building a trap to catch leprechauns. She is engaged in the silliness of play with her many friends and in nearly every photograph, the camera has captured the person everyone called “Jess” in the middle of her conversation she had with the world. No one – not her parents, her siblings, her coaches, her teammates nor her friends – ever got the pleasure to hear that continuing conversation. During the early morning of April 19, 2012, three weeks before
she was about to graduate from The College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry in Syracuse, N.Y., Jessie called home. Her mother Joann Pfeifer, missed her call and when she called Jessie back, Jessie said that she was going to die today, that she had taken a lot of pills. Immediately, her mother made frantic phone calls to her daughter, to campus Photo courtesy of police and security, and to Joann Pfeifer the emergency services cen- Jessica was a 2008 gradter in Syracuse. She gave uate of Unionville High Continued on Page 3A
School.