Defining "logging"

A West Marlborough resident was within his rights to fell about a dozen tulip poplars on his property -- but he does need a permit for his chicken coop.
At the May 6 township meeting, township zoning officer Al Giannantonio said that he checked into a report of "a logging operation" on Willem Ebersöhn's property at 947 North Chatham Road (Route 841). Mr. Giannantonio learned that before felling the trees, Mr. Ebersöhn had gotten advice from a Longwood Gardens arborist that they were unhealthy, and he was having a sawyer come in to cut up the trees, which he planned to use for building purposes. Because he wasn't removing the trees from the property or selling the lumber, Mr. Giannantonio concluded that the activity didn't fall under the township's definition of "logging" and wouldn't need a permit.
The chicken coop that Mr. Ebersöhn installed does, however, need a permit.
Mr. Giannantonio also reported that he is looking into a farm lane that Richard Hayne has built across from The Whip tavern on his Doe Run Farm. He said Mr. Hayne did not get township permission to do so.
He also reported that two building permits were issued in April: one for repairing the stone mill at Blow Horn corner, which was damaged by a truck, and one for reroofing the tenant house at Rokeby Hollow.
In other business, township resident Don Silknitter praised township secretary-treasurer Shirley Walton for her hard work, saying that when he was in the township office recently he saw her simultaneously cleaning the bathroom and answering the phone.
"You'll get no argument from us," agreed Bill Wylie, who chairs the board of supervisors.
Only two supervisors, Mr. Wylie and Josh Taylor, were present at the monthly meeting. The third supervisor, Hugh Lofting and his son, Hugh Lofting Jr., who is in charge of the township's road crew, were in Wilkes-Barre attending a program about maintaining dirt and gravel roads, which are dear to the hearts of many of us who  live in this rural township.

Quaker architecture

On Saturday, June 14, architectural historian Seth Hinshaw will be discussing the architecture of Quaker meetinghouses in our area. The talk will be at 7:30 p.m. at one of those historic meetinghouses, London Grove, as part of its 300th anniversary celebration.
Last year I saw Mr. Hinshaw speak about the old barns of Kennett Township (it was a standing-room-only audience) and found him to be very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. He is an historic preservation planner with Wise Preservation Planning of Chester Springs.
(Thanks to Sandy Reber and Anna Myers for passing along this information.)

At age 57!

Proud mother Baz Powell of West Marlborough reports that her daughter, Flere Powell Bomba (UHS class of 1974), ran in the Boston Marathon and "had a ball." Her ankles started bothering her at Mile 18, so after that she ran a bit and then walked a bit, completing the 26-mile race in 4 hours and 42 minutes. "The family was very proud," said her mother.
Baz says that although Flere will still complete in shorter races, it's her last marathon because "really, where are you going to run after Boston?" Flere, a mother of two, lives in eastern Lebanon County.

Change of date

Astute West Marlborough neighbor and "Unionville in the News" reader Tom H. notes that the actual year George Washington was born was 1732; another contributor to this column stated last week that our first president was born in 1729, the same year as the Steelville Mill in West Fallowfield Township was built.
Writes Tom, "Why do I know this mindless piece of trivia? Well I am a math geek and the square root of 3 is 1.732.....Washington's year of birth."
According to the website of the National Archives, "George Washington was born in Virginia on February 11, 1731, according to the then-used Julian calendar. In 1752, however, Britain and all its colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar which moved Washington's birthday a year and 11 days to February 22, 1732."

Plant Sale this Saturday

"Unionville in the News" reader Chris Manning was kind enough to share this photo as a reminder of the annual London Grove Friends Plant Sale, which is coming up on Saturday, May 10. Chris placed the sign "smack in the middle of my daffodil display" at Schoff and Steelville Rd. in West Fallowfield Township, near the Lancaster County border. "In the background is the Steelville Mill, built in 1729, the year George Washington was born!"

FishCastle

FishCastle--the folk duo Catherine Braik Selin and Cyril Everett Caster--gave a 90-minute family concert on a cloudy Sunday afternoon at West Grove Meeting House that kept both adults and kids entertained. The performers played guitars, a ukulele ("my snack-size guitar," Catherine quipped), a banjo, a trumpet, and a recorder and brought along a "treasure chest" full of instruments -- chimes, drums, a squeezebox and such -- so the kids could join in as they liked throughout the show. During one maritime-themed song we all waved scarves to simulate swaying seaweed, and one man shimmied around doing a truly inspired fish imitation.
The songs included old favorites like Peter, Paul & Mary's "Puff the Magic Dragon" and Pete Seeger's "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream," plus Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire" and a beautiful Stephen Foster song, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (BTW did you know that Stephen Foster also wrote "My Old Kentucky Home"? I didn't.)
FishCastle seems to perform a fair amount around our area, including at supermarkets; they said their next show is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 10, at the Darlington Arts Center in Garnet Valley.

A treasure here on Earth

I found this barely legible old street sign still standing in Chatham and had to admire its tenacity.

Today the block-long street is known as Church Alley rather than Church Road. According to U.S. Census Date, "Church" is the 27th most common street name in the United States, with 4,031 instances. In case you're interested, the ten most common street names are Second, Third, First, Fourth, Park, Fifth, Main, Sixth, Oak and Seventh.

A stone's throw

A few weeks ago I wrote that Kyoto, the sushi restaurant in the strip mall behind Applebee's, was closing. The new tenant, as of June 1, will be the dry cleaner that's currently located between Sears Hardware and Pet Valu. It won't be a very long move for them!

Pocopson Circus

The detour around the forthcoming "roundabout" (a kinder, gentler traffic circle) on Route 52 in Pocopson is wreaking havoc with some residents' driving habits. Fortunately my favorite co-pilot grew up in the township and is thoroughly familiar with all the back roads and shortcuts, but other motorists are frustrated and confused by the detour.
One loyal reader writes:

"We returned from a trip over the weekend and found ... that we had to take sightseeing tours of our township and the 2 neighboring ones just to go 2 miles to Baily's Farm for ice cream and the other great things they have - 20 minutes to go maybe 5.  Can you believe gridlock and traffic jams have reached Pocopson where there is only one traffic light in the entire township? Every back road is a raceway, and at the light[s] at the Elementary school and 926 & 52 there are long lines and lost souls. That's why I an calling the situation and new roundabout "Pocopson Circus" from the English vernacular : "A public scene of frenetic and intrusive activity" & "as a place name a roundabout open space where several streets converge: Piccadilly Circus."
On Saturday morning I saw a friend who lives very close to the detour and asked how it has affected her. She said she too has seen a lot of lost-looking motorists looking for detour signs and a distinct increase in traffic on her little street and narrow Parkersville Road.

 

School board

Plenty of Unionville-Chadds Ford residents grumble about school taxes and teachers' and administrators' salaries -- and then boast about living in such a high-rated school district and reap the benefits of its salutary impact on property values. Have you ever thought of getting involved and joining the school board? Due to a resignation, the Unionville-Chadds Ford school board has a vacancy for someone living in Newlin, Pocopson, or Birmingham Township. See the district's website for more information. From what I've seen, true dedication to quality education, a tolerance for long agendas, ambassador-level diplomacy and tact, and a thick skin are prerequisites.

The aftermath

I heard miserable stories of protracted, frustrating commutes the morning after the rain storm, when the Brandywine Creek had flooded major roads. One family member who never, ever misses a day of work (it's genetic) detoured south into Delaware and then northeast to his job in Delco. Another friend, headed from West Grove to Berwyn, found either flooding or impossibly snarled traffic at Routes 1, 926, 52, 162, and 842. He finally ended up going all the way up to Coatesville and taking the Route 30 bypass  -- which, as luck would have it, was at a crawl due to a crash.
The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District, being divided by the Brandywine, was forced to close for the day, pushing the last day of school even farther back -- to Monday, June 16.
Some horse owners whose pastures abut the normally bucolic Brandywine faced difficulties as well. Some fences were swept away by the water, or if they were still there they were festooned with mounds of debris. You could tell how high the water had risen by observing the collection of branches and junk that was left behind.
At least it was warm and sunny most of the day after the storm: at one farm I saw perhaps a dozen sodden horse blankets draped over fences, drying in the sun.

After the deluge

I took a drive around the area to see the flood's aftermath on Thursday, May 1, and found an especially dramatic scene on Laurel Road, south of Strasburg Road, in Newlin Township.
The raging waters of the Brandywine Creek had undermined some large beech and sycamore trees, and they toppled over, their root systems bringing a considerable amount of pavement down with them. A good portion of the road was washed down the steep slope to the  creek, and at one point the roadside guardrail is just hanging there in mid-air.

Township supervisor Rob Pearson was on the scene assessing the road damage with a township road-crew member and two engineers with clipboards.

I told him how amazed I was at the extent of the damage.
"This is what water can do," he explained. He said there was also some storm damage a little farther south at Harvey's Bridge.

Saturated

The evening of the rain storm, I was in the locker room of the Jennersville Y, and a fellow athlete, about to shower, was vexed to discover that she had left her bath towel at home.
"Why bother to dry off?" said another woman. "You'll get just soaked again as soon as you go outside."
Indeed. A few minutes later, I was southbound on Guernsey Road in West Grove when I saw a man walking north along the side of the road, with what at first I thought was a large white bandage on his head. As I got close I realized he was wearing a full horse-head mask. In the teeming rain. In the dark. In West Grove.
Of course, as soon as I got home I looked this up online and discovered that a whole subculture has sprung up around the wearing of these masks. It was certainly news to me.

The Deluge

I was talking on the phone to a friend the afternoon of the heavy rain storm, and she idly speculated about how high the Brandywine Creek was getting. We are both former reporters, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the next thing you know we were in her huge pickup driving through Unionville, Brandywine Creek Road, Mortonville, Harvey's Bridge and Embreeville. We gawked in amazement at how high the water was, how fast it was going and how much debris it was carrying -- mostly tree trunks, but at one point I spotted someone's backyard BBQ zipping by.
All the usual spots were flooded out by the end of the day -- including of course Springdell and the bridges over the Brandywine at Pocopson and Route 1 -- plus some unexpected ones: I've never seen Apple Grove Road flooded before, but it was across the road near the Laurels. I saw some baffled-looking motorists driving very hesitantly on some of our gravel roads; they'd been detoured off Route 841 in Springdell. People have told me that their commutes home were the worst ever because of all the road closures.
All over social media, emergency services, police stations and municipalities were urging residents to avoid driving through standing water -- to no avail for some. Emergency personnel had to go out all over the place for "water rescues," including one at Harvey's Bridge in Newlin just minutes after we crossed it. Residents who live near the Embreeville bridge on Route 162 reported that foolhardy motorists persisted in trying to drive through the high water. Predictably, their cars stalled out.
Because the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District spans the Brandywine, schools were closed on Thursday, May 1, pushing the last school day back to June 16.