Chester County

PHILADELPHIA - Open land isn't the only thing that's scarce in the Philadelphia suburbs. Try finding someone who wants to be a county planner. And if you do, call Bill Fulton. For nearly a year, Fulton, director of the Chester County Planning Commission, has been looking for candidates to fill four vacancies in a staff of 10. He has gone begging at planners' conventions, on college campuses and on the Internet, and he is getting desperate. "I guess I could wait outside with a blanket," he said from his West Chester office, "and throw it over people's heads."

On Saturday, November 8, 2003, DR. CHARLES E. SWOPE peacefully passed away at his home with his family by his side following a lengthy illness. He was President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of The First National Bank of Chester County for over 30 years. Additionally, he was a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps. Born in West Chester, he was the son of the late Dr. and Mrs. Charles S. Swope. His father served as president of West Chester State College for 25 years. Dr. Charles E. Swope graduated from West Chester High, Bucknell University, and The School of Law at Washington and Lee University.

A 6-year-old girl was killed during a domestic dispute yesterday in Cecil County when a man shot a woman and the slug passed through the woman's body and hit the child in the head, police said.When state police arrived at the home in the 200 block of Hopewell Road in Rising Sun at 12:55 p.m., they found Kimberly Michelle Rice dead and Karen Poe, 27, wounded in the stomach, state police spokesman Mike McKelvin said.Mrs. Poe was flown to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore where she was in serious condition last night, a hospital spokeswoman said.

PHILADELPHIA -- Joe Ragsdale remembers the heat, the still air, the old men gathered on weathered porches more than a half-century ago trading stories about sharecropping, soldiers, masters and slaves. Ragsdale's Uncle Bub -- an ancient black man who helped the Union cause in the Civil War -- recalled hiding in the woods as armies from North and South swept the Carolina Piedmont. The boy listened, mesmerized, as Uncle Bub described Union troops foraging, killing pigs and chickens, and stealing food not far from that very porch where they sat in Rock Hill, S.C. Fearsome saviors, the boy thought.

On Saturday, November 8, 2003, DR. CHARLES E. SWOPE peacefully passed away at his home with his family by his side following a lengthy illness. He was President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of The First National Bank of Chester County for over 30 years. Additionally, he was a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps. Born in West Chester, he was the son of the late Dr. and Mrs. Charles S. Swope. His father served as president of West Chester State College for 25 years. Dr. Charles E. Swope graduated from West Chester High, Bucknell University, and The School of Law at Washington and Lee University.

OXFORD, Penn. -- In the cool, damp darkness, the green villain lurks.Amid the snowy-white abundance of Jamie Ciarrocchi's mushroom houses, the many green-tinged patches of barren soil mark the enemy's turf.Green defines life on a sunlit field, but it signals dark days for the windowless world of mushroom cultivation.The dreaded Trichoderma harzianum, commonly known as green mold, is ravaging another crop."It is very aggressive," said Ciarrocchi, 37, a third-generation southeastern Pennsylvania mushroom farmer.

If you're interested in sewing your own creations reminiscent of centuries ago, there is plenty of help available in your local library. Kathi Reynolds, who owns Creative Clothes and makes custom reproductions, suggests you start with one of the following:* "Printed Textiles: English and American Cottons and Linens 1700-1850," by Florence M. Montgomery. (Viking Press, New York, 1970).* "Chester County, Pennsylvania Inventories 1684-1850," by Margaret B. Schiffer. (Shiffer Publishing, Exton, Pa., 1974.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- A couple charged with abandoning their 10-year-old disabled son have been ordered by a Family Court judge to undergo psychological evaluation. As social workers continue to look for a temporary home for the child, Richard and Dawn Kelso of Exton, Pa., told the court Tuesday that they would not immediately try to regain custody of their son, Steven, from the Delaware Department of Family Services. "We will retain custody," said department spokeswoman Trish Hearn. "It was an uncontested position."

SADSBURY TOWNSHIP, Pa. - For three centuries, little Sadsbury Township in western Chester County near Philadelphia has never been far from its past.Its eight square miles are a quilt of forest and farmland, some of it held by the same families since the early 1700s. Log homes, built when Sadsburyville was an overnight stop for Conestoga wagons trundling to Philadelphia, still stand along the old Lancaster Turnpike. There is only one traffic light, shared with a neighboring township, and not so much as a whiff of fast food.

Gemcraft Homes has been named the 19th-fastest- growing builder in the country, up from No. 24 last year in the National Association of Home Builders' September issue of Builder magazine. The survey, in its second year, ranked the 90 fastest-growing builders in the country. Fueling the Fallston-based company's rise in the rankings is its performance over the past three years: It closed on 293 units in 1999 compared with 78 units in 1997, and more than tripled its revenue from $14 million to $48 million during that same period.

PHILADELPHIA - A half-century ago, Elizabeth Harrington was newly wed and living in a little brick house in East Brandywine, Chester County. In other words, the far side of nowhere. Twenty feet from her porch was Horseshoe Pike, a lazy country road traveled by farm carts and bulbous sedans ambling past at 20 mph. Harrington never moved. But the rest of the world did. Today, when she reminisces about the good times, the 71-year-old widow must raise her voice over the thunder of traffic from the road out front.

PHILADELPHIA - Open land isn't the only thing that's scarce in the Philadelphia suburbs. Try finding someone who wants to be a county planner. And if you do, call Bill Fulton. For nearly a year, Fulton, director of the Chester County Planning Commission, has been looking for candidates to fill four vacancies in a staff of 10. He has gone begging at planners' conventions, on college campuses and on the Internet, and he is getting desperate. "I guess I could wait outside with a blanket," he said from his West Chester office, "and throw it over people's heads."

Gemcraft Homes has been named the 19th-fastest- growing builder in the country, up from No. 24 last year in the National Association of Home Builders' September issue of Builder magazine. The survey, in its second year, ranked the 90 fastest-growing builders in the country. Fueling the Fallston-based company's rise in the rankings is its performance over the past three years: It closed on 293 units in 1999 compared with 78 units in 1997, and more than tripled its revenue from $14 million to $48 million during that same period.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- A couple charged with abandoning their 10-year-old disabled son have been ordered by a Family Court judge to undergo psychological evaluation. As social workers continue to look for a temporary home for the child, Richard and Dawn Kelso of Exton, Pa., told the court Tuesday that they would not immediately try to regain custody of their son, Steven, from the Delaware Department of Family Services. "We will retain custody," said department spokeswoman Trish Hearn. "It was an uncontested position."

PHILADELPHIA -- Gaunt and scraggly, packing a pocketful of quarters but no weapon, fugitive killer Norman Johnston emerged from a stand of trees early yesterday into a yard where three state troopers were interviewing a homeowner."

SADSBURY TOWNSHIP, Pa. - For three centuries, little Sadsbury Township in western Chester County near Philadelphia has never been far from its past.Its eight square miles are a quilt of forest and farmland, some of it held by the same families since the early 1700s. Log homes, built when Sadsburyville was an overnight stop for Conestoga wagons trundling to Philadelphia, still stand along the old Lancaster Turnpike. There is only one traffic light, shared with a neighboring township, and not so much as a whiff of fast food.

PHILADELPHIA -- Gaunt and scraggly, packing a pocketful of quarters but no weapon, fugitive killer Norman Johnston emerged from a stand of trees early yesterday into a yard where three state troopers were interviewing a homeowner."

Michael and Sherree Brown spent months tracking their man. They waited outside of family homes on Thanksgiving and Christmas and sleuthedin courtrooms and tax offices.They donned binoculars, hanging out incognito across a parking lot from the post office in Exton, Pa., where their quarry had rented a box.After more than a week of bleary-eyed, 12-hour shifts outside thepost office, they spotted their target -- Sherree's ex-husband. Theydialed the West Goshen Township Police Department on their car phone, gave chase and had him arrested.

OXFORD, Penn. -- In the cool, damp darkness, the green villain lurks.Amid the snowy-white abundance of Jamie Ciarrocchi's mushroom houses, the many green-tinged patches of barren soil mark the enemy's turf.Green defines life on a sunlit field, but it signals dark days for the windowless world of mushroom cultivation.The dreaded Trichoderma harzianum, commonly known as green mold, is ravaging another crop."It is very aggressive," said Ciarrocchi, 37, a third-generation southeastern Pennsylvania mushroom farmer.

A 6-year-old girl was killed during a domestic dispute yesterday in Cecil County when a man shot a woman and the slug passed through the woman's body and hit the child in the head, police said.When state police arrived at the home in the 200 block of Hopewell Road in Rising Sun at 12:55 p.m., they found Kimberly Michelle Rice dead and Karen Poe, 27, wounded in the stomach, state police spokesman Mike McKelvin said.Mrs. Poe was flown to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore where she was in serious condition last night, a hospital spokeswoman said.