NEWLIN: Sewage in the Brandywine?

Janie Baird, who chairs the Newlin Township Board of Supervisors, gave me a heads-up about an important hearing that the state Department of Environmental Protection will be holding about the fate of the old Embreeville sewage treatment plant on Strasburg Road.
At the hearing, which will run from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 17, at the Marshallton United Methodist Church, 1282 W. Strasburg Rd., the DEP will "take testimony concerning the Department's intent to renew NPDES Permit No. PA0029912 to Embreeville Redevelopment GP, LLC for the discharge of treated sewage from Embreeville Complex STP to West Branch Brandywine Creek located in Newlin Township, Chester County."
According to Janie, "The old plant is a stream discharge system discharging treated sewage into the west branch of Brandywine Creek just past the canoe launch at ChesLen Preserve."
She said that "Newlin residents and environmental organizations petitioned DEP for a hearing regarding the renewal of the STP’s permit for another 5 years.  Obviously, no one wants it to discharge into the Brandywine."
As I'm sure readers know, Embreeville Redevelopment is the group that bought the former Embreeville Hospital property and proposed a housing development and strip mall for the 200-acre site. After years of hearings, controversy,  and protests from residents, West Bradford Township rejected the plan earlier this year.
Janie provided some key background: "The plant is in Newlin Township but was never owned or used by Newlin. It was part of the old Embreeville Hospital grounds.  After the hospital was closed, it was used by the State Police barracks and the PennDOT garage until about 4 or so years ago when these folks joined in with W. Bradford’s modern lagoon/spray irrigation sewage plant just down the road from this old (1930-1940 era) sewage treatment plant located in Newlin. . . . Part of the developer’s plan was to open up the old sewage plant and use that for the development. There is no way the developer could bring the plant up to modern standards like what is available about 1/2 mile down Rt 162 in West Bradford."  

 

WORK: Separated by a common language

My most recent project is right up my alley: I'm translating a "British English" book about undergraduate research skills into "American English." It's not just a matter of changing "analyse" to "analyze" and "behaviour" to "behavior." I also have to be on the lookout for "flatmates," "tutor," "straightaway," and "tick" (in the sense of a check mark). British English also uses single quote marks where we would use two, and they put commas and periods ("full stops") outside of the quote marks rather than the reverse. So far the authors have been pretty good about avoiding "one" and "oneself," as the text is supposed to be written in a colloquial style.

KENNETT: Anson B. Nixon concerts

The iffy weather kept a lot of people away from the second concert in the Anson B. Nixon Park summer series, which is too bad: the predicted rain did not manifest itself and the high-energy Carlos Santana tribute band, The Inca Band, was very enjoyable. They ended their show with two of Santana's biggest hits, "Evil Ways" and "Oye Como Va."
At these shows we always enjoy watching the energetic kids who run around on the steps leading up to the stage and dance in the gravel area in front of the bandstand. At one point a band member gave one boy a pair of drumsticks, and the little guy drummed along with them on the steps the rest of the show. If he becomes a superstar rock percussionist, he's got a great anecdote about how he got his start.
At the season opener (with Minnesota singer/songwriter Jake Armerding and his band) we ate sandwiches from Kennett Brewing Company, and at the Inca Band show we brought chicken pot pies from Nomadic Pies in downtown Kennett.
At this year's shows so far I've noticed that some of the smokers in the crowd have started using e-cigarettes, which produce only water vapor instead of smoke. Those of us who dislike cigarette (and especially cigar) smoke are most grateful!
The free concerts continue every Wednesday evening from 7 to 9 p.m.

REUNION TIME: Good stories and good food

Last weekend we traveled to Lafayette Hill, near Conshohocken, for a family reunion, one of two we attend each summer. After four years of these get-togethers, I'm finally starting to remember a few names and hobbies, although tracing family relationships with any degree of accuracy remains far beyond me.
As part of this reunion every family member shares what's been going on in his or her world since the prior summer. I was amused to hear that one youth who had some disciplinary problems in high school has found his niche as a whiz kid with a cybersecurity firm. It reminded me of a high-school friend who became a hugely successful boarding school teacher because he knew all the tricks the boys could get up to; he'd done them all, plus some.
Two men reported that they had undergone the same type of knee surgery: one was out of work for a leisurely six weeks, the other was expected to be back at work in three days. The man with the shorter recovery time remarked wryly that he guessed it all depends who you work for. His boss, sitting next to him, made a point of ostentatiously pretending not to notice the comment.
I always enjoy talking to one regular attendee about her garden pests. Last year she was battling groundhogs; this year it's chipmunks. She is both serious and ruthless about protecting her vegetables: Let's just say that the population of those cute little critters in the Wagontown vicinity has been seriously diminished.

UHS: The class of 1958

What an honor it was for me to attend the 60th reunion of the Unionville High School class of 1958 at Hood's BBQ on June 20.
Bill Heyburn gave a heartfelt speech after dinner, saying how wonderful it was to see everyone, even if  they were all walking a little more slowly, and reminiscing fondly about his and his classmates' youthful hijinks. He spoke about how fate's twists and turns have made him appreciate life more these days. 
Among the guests were Sue Smith Dreisbach and George Dreisbach Sr. (high-school sweethearts who have been married for 59 years), Roland Riggins and wife Velma; Janet Darlington Haldeman and John Paul Haldeman; Janet Hassett Kane; Charles "Chuck" Lawrence and wife Arlene; Victor "Vick" Brinton and wife Nancy; Joan Madron; Judy Reed Harvey; Shirley Lyng Annand (who went on to serve on the school board); and Susie Washburn Spackman. (I apologize if I didn't get everybody's names.)
I heard lots of conversations about kids, grandkids and the drastic changes that have taken place in the school and the once-rural area. Several people brought their yearbooks. Bill mentioned Skip DeHart, a classmate who did all the artwork in the yearbook but suffered serious burns in an accident his senior year and never got to graduate. Someone suggested that as he still lives locally, perhaps the school board could issue him a belated diploma.
Thank you, class of '58, for your kind welcome! 
Coincidentally, a few members of the class of 1963 (among them Helen Martin and Lou Mandich) met at Hood's for lunch on June 19 to plan their upcoming 55th reunion.

The UHS Class of 1958 yearbook.

ENGLISH: A few pet peeves

It would make Tilda very happy if people would stop saying and writing "brutal murder" or "brutal assault." Murders and assaults are by their nature brutal. It's redundant.
Another thing that drives Tilda crazy is the increasingly common use of "around," as in "a discussion around immigration." Who started this usage anyway? When you talk "around" something, you avoid the topic. Why not just say, "a discussion about immigration"?

AVONDALE: The bridge is open!

Jubilation reigned across southern Chester County as motorists realized that the State Street bridge in Avondale has been reopened after nearly a year.
I was invited to an impromptu celebration at the bridge at 6 p.m. June 21, just minutes after the barriers came down, and drivers were honking their horns, whooping and pumping their fists in delight.
The bridge is a tiny one but is on a key road leading to schools and new developments, so during the reconstruction drivers had to take lengthy detours and traffic backed up in unexpected "downstream" places like downtown West Grove and even Jennersville. Everyone seems to have a story of how the closure inconvenienced them, from dealing with an onslaught of cars on their normally quiet road to allotting more time for daily errands.