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GAZETTE a Quarterly Newsletter to the Citizens of Westtown Township - Spring Issue #25

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GAZETTE a Quarterly Newsletter to the Citizens of Westtown Township - Spring Issue #25 WESTTOWN GAZETTE A Quarterly Newsletter to the Citizens of Westtown Township - Spring Issue #25 In like a lion... ...out like a lamb. GREETINGS WESTTOWN FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS, AND HAPPY SPRING! Soon after the spring daffodils and The most significant deficiency with My final words are about spring crocuses bloom, the township will the existing garage is size. It has three cleaning. Westtown is a wonderful break ground on a new Public Works vehicle bays, but they are not wide community where residents take great facility at the intersection of E. Pleasant or deep enough to accommodate a pride in keeping their property and Grove Road and Wilmington Pike. The loaded 40’ X 11’ truck with snowplow. neighborhoods clean. Nevertheless, Public Works Department consists During a snow storm, repairs must every spring we receive comments of six highly skilled employees who be made outside in extremely harsh and complaints about trash that has are responsible for operating and conditions. The new garage will have accumulated over the winter along maintaining Westtown’s sewage four 70‘ X 14‘ bays, so trucks can the sides of township and state roads. treatment facilities, roads, bridges, be brought inside a heated space Please accept this as a respectful plea stormwater management facilities, to thaw and be worked on quickly to pick up roadside trash, particularly municipal buildings, parks and open and safely, and also stored securely. on properties that front major roads space. The department is managed Offices, locker rooms, break room, (Street Road, S. Chester Road, Wilmington Pike, West Chester Pike, by director, Mark Gross, who has and a separate wash bay for steam Oakbourne Road, Westtown Road, and worked for the township since 2000. cleaning salt-covered trucks have also S. Concord Road). Working together, The new garage will supplement the been incorporated into the design. we can make Westtown the best-town existing structure built in 1996, which The existing garage will be repurposed and cleanest town too! the department has outgrown due to primarily as a workshop and storage for the increasing maintenance needs of smaller trucks and equipment. The new As always, I invite you to stop by the new residential developments, the Public Works facility will help extend township building for a visit. I welcome township’s aging infrastructure, the the life of Westtown’s significant the opportunity to meet you, hear your transition to in-house maintenance of investment in vehicles and equipment, concerns, and answer any questions 350 acres of township-owned parks and provide a safe workplace for about Westtown Township. and open space, and in-house snow our most important investment, our Best Regards, plowing of 55 miles of township roads. employees. Construction is expected to The existing building simply no longer be completed in November. Rob Pingar meets the needs of the department. Rob Pingar, Township Manager IN THIS ISSUE: Contact Information & Bulletin Board................................................2 WEGO News .............................................................................................8 Parks & Recreation Events .....................................................................3 Code Corner and Neighborhood University.....................................9 Historical Commission: Passmore Williamson ...............................4/5 Meetings & Events/Stormwater Management ..............................10 Friends of Oakbourne News .................................................................6/7 Trash and Recycling Information ........................................................11 Westtown Township, County of Chester Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Board of Supervisors: Carol De Wolf, Scott Yaw, Mike Di Domenico Street Address: 1039 Wilmington Pike • West Chester, Pennsylvania 19382 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 79 • Westtown, PA 19395-0079 Phone: 610-692-1930 • Fax: 610-692-9651 • www.westtownpa.org CHESTER COUNTY USEFUL CONTACTS & PHONE NUMBERS Chester County Government Services Center: BULLETIN BOARD 601 Westtown Road, West Chester, PA 19382 Information: 610-344-6000 Routine On-Lot Inspections Children, Youth & Families: 610-344-5800 Routine inspections and pumping are due every Department of Emergency Services: 610-344-5000 three years after your previous inspection or Health Department: 610-344-6225 waiver, by October 31 of that year. Additional • Septic Systems: 610-344-6126 information on the SMP is provided on the • Recycling/Hazardous Waste: 610-344-6692 township website at westtownpa.org/onlot. License Bureau (Dog, Fishing, Hunting): 610-344-6370 Marriage License Bureau: 610-344-6335 Stay Informed Office of the Aging: 610-344-6009 To receive information about meetings, special Passports: 610-344-6050 events, and public service announcements via Recorder of Deeds: 610-344-6330 email, please go to the Township website and click Tax Assessment: 610-344-6105 on the blue “Get Email Alerts” button at the top Tax Claim/Lien Bureau: 610-344-6360 of any page. Voters Services: 610-344-6410 Ready Chesco Chester County Court House: To sign up for Chester County’s electronic 313 W. Market Street, West Chester Borough, PA 19380 notification system for emergency information District Justice for Westtown: go to readychesco.org. William Kraut (District Court 15-2-03): 610-436-5757 Pay Sewer and Trash Bills Online Chester County Conservation District: Westtown residents can use Visa, Master Card, 610-696-5126 and Discover to pay their utility bills online at West Chester Area School District: westtownpa.org. There is no fee for this service. 782 Springdale Drive, Exton, PA 19341 Main Number: 484-266-1000 / School Tax: 484-266-1035 Save paper! State Senate - 9th District: If you would like to receive the Westtown Gazette Tom Killion: Local: 610-436-3320 / State: 717-787-4712 electronically, send an email to [email protected] www.SenatorKillion.com and request to be put on the electronic delivery list. State House – 156th District: Carolyn Comitta: Local: 610-696-4990 / State: 717-705-2075 www.pahouse.com/Comitta U. S. Senators: Pat Toomey: Local: 215-241-1090 / Federal 202-224-4254 For Police, Fire, & Medical EMERGENCIES, DIAL 911. www.toomey.senate.gov For NON-EMERGENCIES, dial 610-692-5100. Robert Casey: Local: 215-405-9660 / Federal: 202-224-6324 www.casey.senate.gov Congress – 6th District: Ryan Costello: Local: 610-696-2982 / Federal: 202-225-4315 www.costello.house.gov For Police, Fire, & Medical Emergencies, DIAL 911. For Non-Emergencies: 610-692-5100 2 Spring Issue #25 | Westtown Gazette 2018 Spring Issue #25 | Westtown Gazette 2018 3 Passmore Williamson, Westtown’s Crusading Abolitionist by David Walter, Westtown Township Historical Commission As the Moyamensing Prison cell door slammed shut on A young man of strong convictions, at age 20, Passmore Passmore Williamson on July 27, 1855, he surely realized joined the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS). At he was a long way from the leafy campus in Westtown the time, abolitionism was not a popular stand, even where he was born and lived as a young Quaker lad. in Northern states where slavery was being gradually abolished (according to the 1840 U.S. Census, there With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, were still 64 slaves in Pennsylvania.) Northern Abolitionists were challenged to continue their efforts to free human beings – African-Americans held Despite the fact that the state had few slaves, outrage in slavery – while defying the laws of the land. Passmore against abolitionists was rife: the Pennsylvania Anti- Williamson stood in the forefront of that effort. Slavery Society’s hall in Philadelphia had been burnt to the ground on May 18, 1838, just four days after He was born Feb. 23, 1822 to Thomas and Elizabeth it opened. PAS stood for gradual abolition, and was PyleWilliamson, in a house on Westtown School’s an “all white” group. Lucretia Mott, and more radical campus, where Thomas was employed as the abolitionists, in the integrated Anti-Slavery Society, Bookkeeper/Librarian. When he was five years old, his called for the immediate end of slavery. Many of them father resigned from Westtown School. By 1839, the participated in the Underground Railroad assisting those family was in Philadelphia, having transferred to worship who had escaped slavery. Passmore joined the radicals at the Friends Meeting of Philadelphia. Thomas and and was disowned by the Society of Friends in 1848. Passmore were engaged as “conveyancers;” that is, they drew up legal papers, such as deeds, to transfer real Yet victories were being won in Pennsylvania. In 1847, estate properties. Pennsylvania passed a law that repealed the privilege of slaveholders from traveling through the state with slave property. In effect, any slaves they brought voluntarily into Pennsylvania were free the moment they set foot in the state. Other northern states followed with such “personal liberty” laws. However, the federal government, through the political power of the Democratic Party and the slaveholding states, passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which vastly expanded the power of the federal government to hunt and return alleged fugitive slaves in every state of the Union. For all practical purposes, this Act nationalized slavery. It was against this background that Passmore Williamson was drawn into notoriety in July 1855. He was working closely with a free black man, William Still, on abolitionist matters. Williamson and Still approached an in-transit slaveholder, Col. John
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