Red pencil

A longtime reader (and a former editor herself!) writes:

"I LOVE the Grammar Police part of your column, badge included. My son has a theory: grammar, like all things, is evolving, and very soon phrases that were previously considered bad grammar will be acceptable. Example: Me and my mom disagree about the evolution of sentence structure. “Me and ….” is one of my pet grammar peeves, and you hear it so often."

She's right. But there are occasional bright spots. The other day my gym teacher issued the following command: "Now extend the leg toward which you are twisting." Knowing my penchant for correct English, she looked directly at me, and I praised her lavishly (well, as lavishly as I could while doing crunches) for structuring her sentence so that it didn't end with a preposition.

Two of us

I was just out for an evening stroll along one of our beautiful back roads when I spotted a mountain biker pedaling up the hill toward me. He was as surprised as I was to see another human on the road, because usually we're all alone with the gurgling stream, the chirping birds and the squirrels, groundhogs, deer and mosquitoes. (And a little further on, the chickens and the cows.)
I congratulated him for making it up such a steep hill, and he agreed that it was a good one. He must have turned around and come back down, because maybe a half-mile further along he zoomed past me, waving.
Another treat during the walk was seeing five hot-air balloons floating over the trees to the east, I'm guessing from the balloon festival in Embreeville.

How to Lower Your Taxes

Yes, it sounds like one of those "shocking!" pop-up ads: "Why the School Board in [Your Town Here] Hates This Woman!"
A Unionville friend of mine decided that she was paying too darn much in property taxes. So she sat down and did some in-depth research about how exactly the taxes are calculated. She talked to an informative civil servant in Harrisburg, learning all about things like the "common level ratio" (currently 0.56; it's the relationship between your house's assessed value and its market value). She paid for an appraisal of her house and hopes her argument is bolstered by the fact that a neighbor's house, on a bigger lot than hers, sold recently at a bargain-basement price.
She will present her case at a tax assessment hearing in mid-July, and the decision will be made by October.

She said several of her neighbors have already succeeded in lowering their assessments, and others have submitted their intention to appeal.

The wireless

I've gotten pretty blase about the marvels of the Internet, but I was close to amazed when I just got this Facebook update from an adventurous pal: "Blowing 20 knots on the nose. I'm not ready to call the coast guard, but It looks to be a long bumpy ride to Vancouver."
Here's a guy who is tooling around on his boat in the Pacific Northwest. He uploads his status to Facebook near the remote island of Lasqueti, British Columbia, using his nifty satellite device. And it pops up on my smartphone in Unionville, on the other side of the continent, seconds later.
 

Sick report

My gosh, the ailments that local people have been suffering! In the past few weeks I've heard frightful stories of diverticulitis, kidney stones, and chest infections that have landed otherwise hardy men and women in the hospital for days on end. (The diverticulitis sufferer, for instance, also has two broken ribs just as background noise.) Another friend had her knee arthritis upgraded to "severe." And I've heard reports of kids coming down with virulent tummy bugs in the final days of the school year.
I certainly hope that health is restored soon at my sick friends' homes.
And as far as the kidney stones go: I've always been told that one way to prevent them is to drink lots and lots of water, especially in the summertime, when it's easy to get dehydrated without realizing it.

Literacy

I think I've mentioned before that when I have a paper-and-pencil editing project to do, I head to the Jennersville Starbucks (I'd know too many people at the Kennett one), claim a table, spread out, plug in my earphones and camp out for a few hours.
The other afternoon I did just that, and a few minutes after I arrived I realized I'd crashed the weekly toddler story-time. A woman from the Avon Grove Library was there to read to the kids, and then they did a craft.
Afterward the library lady came up to me and apologized for the disruption. I told her it didn't bother me a bit -- I was listening to music anyway, and I love seeing kids getting excited about books. Best of all, she gave me a piece of Starbucks cinnamon pastry and a mini-cup of coffee! I'm still enough of a college kid to love getting free food.

Get Smart

Have you seen those tiny Smart cars?
There's certainly a lot to recommend them -- fuel efficiency, ease of parking -- and my friend George owns one and is urging me to consider getting one, too.
The thing is, George lives in England, in an apartment with no garden, and goes to the grocery store a few times a week. I can't imagine relying on one as your sole vehicle if you buy more than two bags of groceries at a time (I don't think you'll see many Smart cars in the BJ's parking lot) or if you make any purchases at the garden center or the feed store. Or if you need to carry more than one passenger at a time, for that matter.
I'm not sure how well they would fare out here in the country. "It would be run over by farm equipment," commented one observer. And I was behind one on Route 82 the other day and it was doing 10 miles under the speed limit.

Uptown

Have you noticed the lovely planters in downtown Kennett? They were designed by JoAnn Donlick, who was in charge of the project, and planted by the members of the Spade and Trowel, Four Seasons and Seedlings garden clubs.
Speaking of downtown Kennett, it was positively hopping on Tuesday night despite the dreary weather (though I am most certainly not complaining, as the rain settled my plants in nicely). Two friends and I had an early dinner at Lily's Asian Cuisine -- wonderful seaweed salad and sushi! -- and by the time we left there was a line waiting to get in. When I pulled out of my State Street parking spot another driver snagged it immediately.

Black oak down

A few minutes ago I got an email notifying me that there was "a huge tree" down on Route 842 near Byrd Road. Well! Of course I had to drop my work right then and there -- sorry, clients -- and head out to investigate.
Turns out that in Tuesday night's heavy rain a branch of a black oak came crashing down east of Byrd Road, and 842 was shut between Newark Road and Unionville. The tree guys from Asplundh were there sawing it up on Wednesday morning. The branch itself was big enough that it would have made a respectable tree.
The tree guys cautioned me to stay off the grass because the tree had taken down some electric wires, so I couldn't get close enough to take a decent photo for you. Sorry: I may drive around a "Road Closed" sign now and then, but I do avoid live wires.

$50 for every $10,000 you earn

I've put off writing about this because it is such an depressing and aggravating prospect: the West Marlborough Township supervisors are seriously considering instituting a half-percent earned income tax.
As I've reported before, the township is in dire fiscal shape because of a series of unexpected zoning hearings, for which it has had to fork out upwards of $70,000 in legal and engineering fees (most of the challenges were brought by the small group of Springdell residents -- "the Springdell 8" -- who contend that the Whip Tavern mars their quality of life).
Worsening the situation is a "huge dropoff" in income from the real-estate transfer tax, Supervisor Bill Wylie explained at the June 5 meeting.
Although previously the supervisors had considered instituting the tax so that the township could take back control of some roads now owned by the state, the fiscal situation has worsened to the point that supervisors have had to borrow from other accounts, like the equipment fund, just to keep township checks from bouncing. The new tax would be expected to raise $110,000 to $120,000 a year.
At the township meeting, Gus Brown (one of the "Springdell 8") asked why the township needed the additional money. Where would the revenues be going?
 "It's a question of paying the bills," responded Mr. Wylie. "If expenses drop, we can tailor the amount of the tax."
Who would pay the tax? People who live and work in West Marlborough (your blogger included) or who live in West Marlborough and work in a community that doesn't have an earned income tax. Many residents already pay the tax at their workplace, and if the tax were enacted, those residents wouldn't see a tax increase; rather, the money they already pay would come back to West Marlborough Township rather than staying in the municipality where they work.
Mr. Wylie said instituting the tax is "a complicated process," and the supervisors agreed to more forward with the procedure. Under state law a public hearing would have to be held before any action is taken.
Rest assured, I will keep you posted.

For comparison, here are the real-estate and the earned income tax rates in neighboring townships:

                                       Real Estate (mills)            Earned Income Tax (%)
East Fallowfield                      0                                    0.50
Highland                               2.3                                   1.00
Londonderry                         0                                     0.75
London Grove                     1.24                                 0.75
New Garden                        0.75                                 0.625
Kennett Twp.                       0.40                                 0.75
East Marlborough                1.43                                  0.0
Newlin                                 0.75                                 0.50
West Marlborough               1.70                                  0.0

I got the horse right here

There was much celebration around these parts on Saturday after local favorite Union Rags won the Belmont Stakes. "Ragsy" beat Paynter, who had led the entire race, by "a short neck" at the wire in a thrilling finish.
 I missed seeing the race on TV -- I was playing tennis -- but my pals who watched it on the big screen said it was hugely exciting.
"We were jumping up and down like schoolkids!" they reported.
They said they spotted Phyllis Wyeth of Chadds Ford Stables (the owner), Jamie Wyeth, Unionville's own Michael Matz (the horse's trainer) and his wife D.D., and Russell Jones.
Union Rags, has his own Facebook page. On Saturday he "wrote": "I hope to provide all of you with thrills, chills, and winning ways, this Saturday afternoon at Belmont Park! I will look forward to seeing you then!"
That he certainly did.