Chester County Press 11-10-2021 Edition

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Chester CountyPRESS

www.chestercounty.com

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

Volume 155, No. 45

INSIDE

Breakfast planned veterans...1B

for

Unionville advances in playoffs...1B

U.S. Senator headlines Chester County event...5A

INDEX Opinion.......................5A Obituaries.............2B-3B Classifieds..................4B

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Republican to join Democrats Leff and Stevens in January

Gamble defeats Hoffman in race for Kennett Township supervisor seat By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer In a finish to one of the most contentious campaigns in recent southern Chester County memory, Republican challenger Geoffrey Gamble defeated Democrat Whitney Hoffman on Nov. 2 in the race for the third seat on the Kennett Township Board of

Supervisors, according to unofficial Chester County election results first posted on Nov. 3 at 8:58 a.m. The results said that Gamble earned 54 percent of the 2,509 total votes tallied up in the municipality’s four precincts, garnering 1,358 votes to Hoffman’s 1,148 – a margin of just 210 votes. On Nov. 4, a tally of an additional 238 votes nar-

A mother and her adult son were found dead in a home in the 300 block of Ashmun Avenue in Lower Oxford Township on Nov. 3. Police believe they were shot dead and that the person responsible for the shooting later fatally shot himself after he caused not one, but two, car accidents on roads in southern Chester County. The suspect in the double homicide has been identified by law enforcement offi-

cials as 41-year-old Timothy Harris. The Chester County District Attorney’s office released a report late last week detailing the shocking incidents that results in three deaths. According to the report, the Pennsylvania State Police was called to a residence on Ashmun Avenue early on the morning of Nov. 3 where they found two people—identified by police as Kimberly Harris and Jordan

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Township supervisor.

Foster—in cardiac arrest. A 22-year-old man and his girlfriend had arrived at the home and found the man’s mother and his twin brother dying of apparent gunshot wounds. First responders attempted to help the mother and the adult son, but it was too late. Shell casings from a .380 handgun were found at the scene. Hours earlier, during the evening of Nov. 2, the

Kennett Township Police were called to the scene of a car accident on Route 1 and Red Barn Lane in Kennett Township, where witnesses reported seeing the driver of a vehicle involved in the accident retrieve a handgun from the car and shoot himself in the head. That person was identified as Timothy Harris. Police retrieved a .380 semi-automatic handgun from the scene. Harris was transported to Chester

County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Investigators learned that before Timothy Harris was involved in the accident in Kennett Township, he was also involved in a hit-andrun accident earlier at Route 1 and Bayard Road in East Marlborough Township. Anyone with information about these incidents are asked to call the Pennsylvania State Police in Avondale at 610-268-2022.

In Oxford, Chamber speakers discuss new Borough paths forward to recovery Manager attends first meeting and renewal Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce celebrates 92 years

speakers at the Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce’s (SCCCC) If there was a common annual fall luncheon on theme in each of the short Nov. 4 at the Mendenhall addresses given by the key Inn, it was how the road

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rowed Gamble’s lead slightly over Hoffman – 1,454 votes to 1,289 votes – but still gave the challenger a commanding six-point lead. Gamble’s victory will make him the newest supervisor and lone Republican on the township board, where he will serve with Courtesy photo Democrat and board chair- Republican Geoffrey Gamble defeated Democrat man Richard Leff and Whitney Hoffman in a Nov. 2 election for Kennett

Three dead after double homicide and suicide

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer

© 2007 The Chester County Press

$1.00

to an economic recovery in the continuing presence of COVID-19 is being achieved through partnerships and initiatives

By Betsy Brewer Brantner Contributing Writer

Pauline Garcia-Allen marked her sixth day on the job as the new borough manager at the Nov. 1 meeting of Oxford Borough Council. “I thank everyone for their support,” GarciaAllen said. “I have met with many of you and hope to meet with many more in the coming weeks. It has been a wonderful learning process already.” Council member Mary Higgins was also given a gift and thanked for her dedication and hard work as chair of the committee tasked with finding a new borough manager. Council President Peggy Russell thanked Photos by Richard L. Gaw Ann Panelists at the luncheon included, from left to right, Rep. John Lawrence, Rep. Higgins saying, “We all Craig Williams, Sen. John Kane, Sen. Carolyn Comitta and Rep. Christina Sappey. read 150 applications. Continued on page 2A

Our HR consultant did 60 phone interviews. The council met with four applicants and that took a lot. Mary tracked it, pulled it all together, and wrote every email. We couldn’t have gotten to the place of having Pauline without the work of Mary Higgins.” Council member Richard Winchester talked to borough council and the audience about Tower Health and the future of Jennersville Hospital, saying, “At our last meeting, I reported on the Montgomery County decision regarding Tower Health and then on Tuesday morning, I read the Inquirer and the Chester County Court disagreed with the Montgomery County Court. The issue was whether Tower Health was legitimately a nonprofit organization. The Continued on page 4A

United Way of Southern Chester County is a backbone of support for those serving on the front lines The COVID-19 pandemic has functioned like an X-ray of resilience, as unprecedented and unremitting challenges strain the capacity of southern Chester County’s human support agencies. “The leaders and staff of nonprofits like Kennett Area Community Service, LCH, Oxford Neighborhood Services, the Garage, Tick Tock Learning Center, and

many others are the hands and feet of our community, administering critical aid to our most vulnerable residents,” said Carrie Freeman, CEO of the United Way of Southern Chester County (UWSCC). “They’re our heroes in every sense of the word.” The community depends on these nonprofits to be there in times of need. But the breadth, depth,

and prolonged duration of COVID’s impact have stretched these organizations, and their staff, to the limit. “This horrible pandemic only exacerbated the needs of anyone who was vulnerable in any way before the pandemic hit, and our nonprofits immediately found themselves overwhelmed by requests to help provide food and shelter, basic supplies,

healthcare, and so much else,” Freeman explained. While Southern Chester County has enviable emergency services and resources, responding to an unexpected emergency is one thing—and sustaining crisis-level response for months on end is quite another. Where can a nonprofit turn when their resources have been depleted by

these kinds of ongoing and urgent needs among the people they serve? What many people don’t know, Freeman said, is that UWSCC is “the nonprofit’s nonprofit”—an organization whose mission is to support and nurture local nonprofits and their leaders. “Our nonprofits went into the pandemic strong Continued on page 3A


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