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Author: Brooke Schultz

  • Chester County draws in business, but people struggle to afford to live there, an analysis finds

    Chester County draws in business, but people struggle to afford to live there, an analysis finds

    Standing in front of Chester County business and corporate leaders, financial expert Patti Brennan asked them to rank how they were feeling about the economy.

    “If you’re feeling a little worried, you’re uneasy, welcome to America, you’re not alone. This is the way Americans are generally feeling right now; the consumer sentiment is low,” she told them. She pointed to the instability that dominated the country last year: tariffs, the longest government shutdown in history, international unrest.

    There are signs of stress: people are not paying their bills on time, delaying payments on car loans, credit card bills, and student loans.

    But it’s not all bad news. Brennan and financial expert Dianne P. Manges, senior investment adviser with Truist Foundations & Endowments Practice, advised the business community not to act based on chaos.

    The analysis was part of the Chester County Economic Development Council’s 22nd annual economic outlook, which offers assessments of the local, national, and global economic landscape.

    Here are some of the takeaways from the conversation.

    Tax refunds will be a big driver

    An expected $517 billion nationally will come to consumers through tax refunds this year — a 44% increase from last year, Manges said. It’s a bigger boost than the second round of stimulus checks issued in December 2020, she said.

    “Two things to remember about all of us here as consumers: No. 1, we are about 68% of the economy,” in terms of gross domestic product, she said. “And No. 2, we’re Americans. When we have extra money in our wallets, we spend it.”

    It’s important to be mindful of whether those positive themes are applicable to everyone, she said, noting that people with lower incomes are struggling. A majority of people making a lower income will still benefit from those tax return refunds, she said.

    “People will be feeling warm and fuzzy when they get those tax returns,” Brennan said.

    Pennsylvania has had job growth — with one particular sector leading

    Pennsylvania is the only state in the Northeast showing expansion, said Michael Grigalonis, president of the economic development council. Nationally, the commonwealth was second behind Texas in job growth in the year between November 2024 and November 2025, with roughly 97,000 jobs created during that period.

    Half of the jobs were created in one industry: healthcare, Grigalonis said. “We’re one of the oldest states; we have one of the most aging populations,” he said.

    Broadly, Manges and Brennan said that companies aren’t hiring, but they aren’t firing large-scale, either.

    In Chester County, the unemployment rate is below the federal level, Brennan said.

    Even with one of the highest GDPs in the state, affordability is an issue in the county

    Chester County is a place people want to live, work, and raise families. But it’s tough to afford it.

    Chester County has the fourth-largest GDP in the commonwealth, Grigalonis said. (It rang in at $57.3 billion in 2023, behind Philadelphia, Allegheny, and Montgomery Counties) and it boasts the highest median income in the state, with 43% of households in the county earning more than $150,000 annually, Brennan said.

    But even with that, housing is an issue — both cost and availability, she said. The average cost of a home in Chester County is $500,000, above the state average of roughly $300,000.

    “It is not affordable, and we all know that,” Brennan said. “It’s a challenge for so many people. … Inventory is increasing, but it’s really limited overall.”

    Chester County saw the second-highest population growth

    The county saw the some of highest population growth in the state between 2020 and 2024.

    “This population growth comes with its own set of challenges, but I will take these challenges to many of our colleagues throughout the commonwealth, [who] are struggling to get people to move into their communities, to provide a talented workforce that can help companies grow,” Grigalonis said.

    Still, more people are living outside of Chester County and commuting in, Brennan said — mostly because they can’t afford to live within the county boundaries.

  • An artsy new restaurant and cocktail bar is coming to Kennett Square

    An artsy new restaurant and cocktail bar is coming to Kennett Square

    Birch Street will get a new restaurant and cocktail lounge this summer as its makeover in Kennett Square continues.

    Opus, a New American upscale restaurant with a second-floor cocktail lounge, will open at 201 Birch St., adjoined to Artelo, a 14-room boutique hotel. Opus is a new initiative for Square Roots Collective, an organization that builds businesses and uses the profits to support nonprofits in southern Chester County.

    Opus will boast 125 seats in its 6,000 square-foot building, with outdoor dining and a two-story terrace. During the day, the cocktail bar will serve breakfast to the public and guests of Artelo.

    The restaurant, which will be adorned by curated art pieces and a hand-painted ceiling mural, is an extension of Artelo, which Square Roots Collective opened in 2024. The hotel, which replaced the former Birch Inn, offers an immersive art experience, with each room painted by a local or regional artist, creating a living piece of art.

    That same principle will follow in Opus, said Luke Zubrod, chief of staff for Square Roots Collective.

    “It’s kind of the anchor to Birch Street,” he said. “It’s really kind of setting the tone for the street as a whole — and the tone it’ll set is really an artistic tone. This is a street kind of filled with beauty, and I think that that theme will be more evident over time.”

    It’s part of a larger effort to revitalize Birch Street, which has in recent years seen more development, including Square Roots Collective’s beer garden The Creamery, and streetscaping. In the coming years, the street will be resurfaced, and the borough plans to add a trail on one side and sidewalk on the other, along with new streetlights and crosswalks. Square Roots Collective worked with the borough to secure funds for that investment, leaning on grant dollars from the state and county, Zubrod said.

    “In addition to the Opus itself, there’s a lot to look forward to,” Zubrod said. “This street is really receiving some public investment that will make it a really vibrant and beautiful place.”

    Along with Artelo and The Creamery, 100% of Opus’ funds will go to the organization’s nonprofit, focused on community improvement, he said.

    “I think in addition to just being a really exciting restaurant concept, it’s also one people can feel really good about in terms of helping to make the community better,” he said.

    Another boutique hotel coming

    The Francis, a boutique hotel in central Kennett Square, is slated to open this year. The eight-room hotel will reimagine an 18th century home, and pay homage to the region’s history.

    Meanwhile, also coming this year, the collective will open another boutique hotel, at 205 S. Union St. The Francis, an ode to Francis Smith who named Kennett Square for his home back in England, will have eight rooms, each dedicated to the history of the town.

    The hotel will reimagine an 18th-century home, and offer single rooms and loft suites with kitchenettes, plus balcony or courtyard access.

    One room — “The Watchmaker” — will honor a former resident and watchmaker, Thomas Milhous. Another room, “The Gardener,” will pay homage to the region’s first big harvest: flowers. Others nod to battlegrounds, four generations of a local family, education, plus the region’s history with the Underground Railroad, the Lenni-Lenape tribe and its “rich immigrant history.”

    The collective plans on luscious landscaping, with a courtyard serving as “a little bit of an oasis,” said Zubrod.

    “There is an appetite to have kind of quaint boutique hotels in the area to meet the needs of people who are coming for Longwood [Gardens] especially,” he said.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • ‘Seeking Experienced Witch’: A woman asked for help hexing her ex. She’s part of a long cathartic tradition.

    ‘Seeking Experienced Witch’: A woman asked for help hexing her ex. She’s part of a long cathartic tradition.

    Driving to visit a friend, a Philadelphia woman had time to mull her recent breakup. She thought about all the things her ex hated: spiders, moth-bitten sweaters, overly soft avocados. She typed them on her phone, as curses.

    It became a flier: “Seeking: Experienced Witch to Curse My Ex.” She set up an email — for serious inquiries only.

    You may have seen her handiwork. The fliers dot telephone poles, originating in downtown Phoenixville, around where our witch-seeker was visiting family for the holidays. They now paper neighborhoods across Philadelphia — hung with a staple gun on New Year’s Eve while barhopping. (The 29-year-old asked to remain nameless for this story, so as to not affect future job prospects. It also, in a way, protects her ex.)

    And though it might seem a bit out of the ordinary, it’s part of a great tradition of cursing your ex that goes back to antiquity. Plus, it’s a way to regain a sense of power, experts say.

    So, it’s no surprise that the fliers have seeped online, circulating neighborhood groups and on socials, striking a chord. When the fliers appeared in Chester County, a Phoenixville community group sounded off: “I hope she gets him. Good for her,” one commenter wrote under a Facebook post about it. “I think I know the ex,” said another. “It’s a great idea,” writes another. (The witch-seeker also has her detractors: “That man dodged a bullet!” one commenter wrote.)

    The flier lays out her desired curses: his hair thinning, house plants withering, his bus seats feeling damp, his Wi-Fi buffering during video games, shoe pebbles remaining unshakeable — and the aforementioned too-ripe avocados, copious spiders, and hole-y sweaters (among other ill wishes).

    But, the flier requests no hexes on his well-being or romantic life.

    Across relationship research, one of the most consistent findings is that breakups produce a “profound sense of powerlessness,” said Jenn Pollitt, a professor of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies at Temple University.

    But how do you get from a list on your phone to asking witches to please curse your ex-boyfriend?

    It’s not that far a leap.

    “Witchcraft has become a more socially legible way to express rage,” Pollitt said. “If you’ve got someone who wants to curse their ex, really what they want to be able to say is, ‘I was harmed. I’m allowed to be angry about this, and my anger deserves to be acknowledged.’ The public posting of this is really like a deep desire and craving to have that person’s hurt and heartbreak be born witness to.”

    The witch-seeker said she needed a place to put her pent-up anger and frustration.

    It’s not all maliciousness to her ex, she said. It’s mostly catharsis: She thinks of her ex as a lovely person in a lot of ways. But she said when she expressed her emotional needs, he’d withhold affection, he’d disappear for a few days or block her number. Then he would return, with words of affirmation and promises of marriage. It became cyclical over the two-year relationship. She swallowed up her frustrations. But several months ago, they parted ways. And despite the turbulence, it was pretty amicable, she recalls.

    She grieved. She went to therapy. She journaled. She meditated.

    And then she logged on to social media, and saw he was in a new serious relationship that had started within weeks of them breaking up.

    “It felt like a slap in the face, and that was my impetus for doing this,” she said. “I couldn’t yell at him, and I didn’t want to yell at him, but I had to yell at someone.”

    She’s not alone. For millennia, people have pursued love magic, said Kristine Rabberman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who teaches about witchcraft and sexuality. Roughly 600 Latin curse tablets have survived from the Roman empire, with both men and women calling on various deities to curse their close relations, she said.

    These mystical beliefs served social functions, too, she said, addressing people’s lack of agency and control. They channel deep wells of emotion: anger, longing, frustration, hatred.

    “Having recourse to love magic could be one approach somebody could take to try to both find expression for those feelings and to also have a sense of agency and being able to act on them,” she said.

    Dating culture has changed rapidly, Pollitt added. There’s now a digital component: blocked numbers, social media handles unfollowed. A breakup by a thousand cuts, she noted.

    “Breakups often can be intensely private and deeply isolating. Any public display, even this — which is a little bit out of the ordinary — function as a way to reinsert personal pain into a shared social space,” Pollitt said.

    The community came fast. As the witch-seeker hung the fliers in Phoenixville, several people high-fived her, she said. Then the emails rolled in: A Caribbean witch who offered a hex. A bruja. A kitchen witch who practices herbalism and herbal manifestations. A helper who sent along a few shops and books, so she could do the curse herself (so it carries the appropriate “oomph”).

    But to her surprise, beyond the witches, there were others: People who wanted to know how the story would end. Someone boldly asking her out on a date. And the women who simply could relate.

    They wished her a happy new year, they told her they’d also had messy breakups, they told her they supported her.

    She did not expect the outpouring of support, or the attention. As a writer and a creative person, it was mostly a way to tap into that, in a way that felt a little more empowering.

    “It has made me feel so much better,” she said.

    She is thankful for the witches who offered their services, though she feels conflicted about going through with a hex. She won’t be papering the city with more witch requests, either, she said.

    The process has let her accept some of her bad, not totally socially acceptable feelings — and create something positive with it, by connecting with others, she said — as people reeling from heartbreak have done for centuries before her.

  • ‘It is a promise’: Newly elected Chester County officials and judges take their oaths of office

    ‘It is a promise’: Newly elected Chester County officials and judges take their oaths of office

    A new slate of Chester County elected officials are taking office after they were officially sworn in at a ceremony over the weekend surrounded by friends and family.

    Four officials in the county’s row offices — clerk of courts, controller, coroner, prothonotary — and three magisterial district justices took their oath of office Saturday at the Chester County Justice Center.

    “I’ve found, in this line of work, when you’re finding people to run for office, it’s quite difficult to get the good people to do it,” county commissioner Josh Maxwell told the incoming officials. “It sometimes attracts maybe the wrong people. I’m so excited to be here today because we have a lot of good people who rose their hands — maybe a higher bar than we typically have in the county.”

    Sophia Garcia-Jackson (facing camera) hugs the Honorable Alita Rovito after being sworn in as the coroner during the ceremonial administration of oaths, for elected officials and magisterial district judges, at the Chester County Justice Center on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026.

    Taking office was an entirely Democratic slate of officials, upholding the political shift in the county that began in 2019, when Maxwell and Commissioner Marian Moskowitz were the first Democrats in history elected to their seats. Democrats saw wins again in 2023, with Maxwell and Moskowitz winning re-election.

    The row offices oversee essential government services residents regularly interface with — from maintaining criminal and civil court records, to monitoring the county’s financial contracts, to investigating the circumstances of sudden deaths — and operate under four-year terms. Magisterial district judges handle traffic cases, and minor criminal and civil cases, for six-year terms.

    The slate of row officials includes:

    • Clerk of Courts: Caroline Bradley
    • Controller: Nick Cherubino
    • Coroner: Sophia Garcia-Jackson
    • Prothonotary: Alex Christy

    And the county’s new magisterial judges are:

    • Anthony diFrancesca
    • Joe Heffern
    • James C. Kovaleski
    James C. Kovalski’s family helps him don the judges robe after he was sworn in as a magisterial district judge during the ceremonial administration of oaths, for elected officials and magisterial district judges, at the Chester County Justice Center on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026.

    “Those of you taking the oaths … are amongst the people who will help Chester County continue to be a place where so many want to live, work, and raise their family,” Moskowitz told the officials.

    During the ceremony, the judges donned their robes and the row officers took their oaths with their partners, parents, and children nearby. Dozens of supporters lined the benches in the courtroom, and elected officials received a standing ovation when all the oaths had been administered. (Those supporters got a nod, too, with Maxwell noting that public service comes with long hours, personal sacrifice, and difficult decisions. “No one serves alone,” he said.)

    The oaths of office were administered by Commonwealth Court Judge Stella Tsai, Court of Common Pleas Judge Alita Rovito, and Magisterial District Judge Nancy Gill.

    Caroline Bradley (right) has just been sworn in as clerk of courts by the Honorable Stella Tsai (left) during the ceremonial administration of oaths, for elected officials and magisterial district judges, at the Chester County Justice Center on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026.

    “The oath you have taken is more than a formality, it is a promise to the people of Chester County, a promise to uphold the law, to treat every resident with fairness and dignity, and to carry out your duties with independence, integrity and care,” Maxwell said. “Those values matter deeply, especially at the local level, where government has its most direct impact on all our lives.”

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • A Chesco town lowered taxes. That’s pretty unusual — but may not be something others can copy.

    A Chesco town lowered taxes. That’s pretty unusual — but may not be something others can copy.

    It was something of a lucky confluence of factors in West Bradford Township that led to residents seeing a reduction in their property taxes going into the new year, as other communities in the state see hikes.

    A number of loans that were refinanced during record-low interest rates at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, plus long-term lease agreements that brought the municipality more money, eventually equaled “substantial savings,” said Justin Yaich, town manager.

    Savings in hand, the township decided they’d give it back to residents, he said, rather than funding “another pet project or another program.”

    In the budget, passed last month by the town’s board of supervisors, West Bradford set its property tax millage for a 0.25 mill — a 50% reduction in the tax for residents. For a home worth roughly $300,000, residents will now pay $75 a year, down from $150.

    It comes as Philadelphia’s collar counties and municipalities have faced tightening budgets and have had to hike taxes after years of stagnation.

    It’s unusual, John Brenner, executive director of the Pennsylvania Municipal League, said of West Bradford’s reduction.

    “There have been increases, and I’ve seen a number of them from municipal leaders throughout the Commonwealth — cities, boroughs, townships,“ Brenner said. ”You’re seeing counties raise taxes that haven’t in a long, long time. So that tells you the environment we’re in.”

    Local governments are fairly limited in how they can levy taxes under state law, with the biggest portion of revenue coming from “the beleaguered property tax,” Brenner said. Schools and the county take from that same source, with local municipalities usually taking far less.

    “Local government is not a business,” Brenner said. “It’s a provider of services, and those services cost money, and somebody has to pay for it.”

    But in West Bradford, it was years of planning and a flurry of factors, Yaich said. It started in 2019, when the town purchased the former Embreeville State School and Hospital, an abandoned 900,000-square-foot psychiatric hospital that had been deteriorating for more than two decades. A developer had sought to transform the property into a high-density residential complex, which saw community pushback and years of litigation.

    To purchase the site for roughly $23 million to turn it into 200 acres of open space, the township — for the first time — levied a real estate tax. (Residents already paid property tax to Downingtown Area School District and the county but previously did not pay the town.)

    But early in 2020, West Bradford refinanced its outstanding debts, renegotiated some lease terms, and began to hold other costs consistent. Over the years, it culminated in the township being able to reduce the real estate tax, Yaich said.

    The board’s philosophy is to do its core responsibilities — taking care of roads and infrastructure, caring for the open spaces and parks, running trash and recycling programs — and make sure there’s enough leftover for new programs or capital improvements, Yaich said. But anything beyond that, return it to the taxpayers, rather than figure out how to spend it, he said.

    It is easier to spend money than it is to trim, Yaich added, noting that the township faces rising costs and shrinking revenue sources: Cable providers, who once were paying $300,000 to the township in a year to put their lines in, are dwindling as people turn to streaming services. With more electric vehicles, fewer people are filling up at the pumps, meaning less liquid fuels money for the township, too. It’s rare, and unlikely to be replicated in a few years, to cut costs for residents like this, he acknowledged.

    As other town managers call and ask Yaich how to emulate him, he tries to dispel the magic.

    “We’re in a unique situation that we were able to do it,” Yaich said. “There’s no magic sauce or magic potion that we’re doing here that other places aren’t doing. It’s just that we were set up at the right time in the right place, and we acted when things were favorable to us and we were fortunate.”

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Art makes this Chesco 15-year-old happy. So she launched a nonprofit to teach younger kids.

    Art makes this Chesco 15-year-old happy. So she launched a nonprofit to teach younger kids.

    Something about the phrase “Do what makes you happy” struck Faridah Ismaila. It became the title of, and inspiration behind, one of her art pieces. It’s printed onto the back of her T-shirt. It’s something the 15-year-old artist lives her life by.

    “When I do art, it’s because it makes me happy, and when I can give my art to other people or spread the joy of art, it’s making them happy,” she said.

    Following that guiding light of happiness, Ismaila, a digital artist and a sophomore at Great Valley High School, recently launched her nonprofit, A Paint-full of Promise, which offers free monthly art classes for kids in her school district in kindergarten through grade six.

    Working with educators in the district, Ismaila devises themed art projects and provides supplies and classroom time to teach young artists how to express themselves. The first club is slated for mid-January, with a winter wonderland theme. Children will make snowflakes and paint winter-themed coasters.

    Ismaila has been recognized for her art nationally: She was the state winner and a national finalist in the 2022 Doodle for Google competition, where young artists compete for their work to be featured as the Google homepage design. That recognition helped give her the confidence to pursue big dreams, like her nonprofit and club.

    “It makes me feel I can still do this. Because sometimes I’ll doubt myself. … I can’t be having all these big dreams,” she said. “But if people want to vote for me and I am recognized nationally, I feel on top of the world. I can do anything.”

    The first brushes of the nonprofit — which she hopes one day will grow to multiple sessions a month — started years ago, when Ismaila began making YouTube videos, teaching the fundamentals of art. She showed viewers how to make a gradient, how to depict a sunrise. She circulated the videos around her Malvern neighborhood, and she thought: Why not hold a class for younger kids?

    Faridah Ismaila, 15, poses for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Malvern. Ismaila started a kids art nonprofit called A Paint-full of Promise. She also sells her art online.

    Over a summer, in her garage, she set up two art projects — painting and colored pencils — and led about eight kids through a lesson. She called it Faridah’s Art Crafty Corner.

    Holding the class made her happy. So she did it again, but bigger, turning it into a summer camp, under the new name: A Paint-full of Promise.

    “Then I decided, why not actually make this a club, so not only my community can get this, my entire district can?” she said.

    And now, the teenager has a nonprofit under her belt. She officially launched the organization last month at an event in Malvern, where she raised money by auctioning off prints of her work and selling T-shirts with her designs.

    Anne Dale, an art teacher at Great Valley High School who is an adviser for the club, said she was impressed with Ismaila’s ability to get other high school students involved in running the club.

    “A lot of students have big ideas for clubs, but there’s not always follow-through. With her, it’s definitely different, and I knew that when she approached me with it,” Dale said.

    Giving kids the tools and opportunity to create artwork was essential to Ismaila, who gravitates to art to process her emotions.

    “It’s just the best thing ever,” she said. “Once you start doing art as a kid, it’s just a great way to get your feelings out there and express yourself, even if you can’t use words to describe it.”

    One of her pieces, Beauty Within, depicts a skeletal hand holding a white mask, a tear running down its cheek. Behind the mask, flowers bloom. It came from a feeling of constantly analyzing herself, the feeling that what you show people is not necessarily what’s on the inside.

    Another piece, made when she was “seriously sleep-deprived,” shows a face with an assortment of pixels, pizza, stick figures, and paint pouring out.

    Faridah Ismaila, 15, talks about some of her early works at her home on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Malvern. Ismaila started a kids art nonprofit called A Paint-full of Promise. She also sells her art online.

    A piece she is working on now shows herself, in vibrant colors, pointing to her reflection. She wanted to capture the feeling of two versions of the self — one confident, the other fragile.

    Sometimes, her mother Nofisat Ismaila said, her parents feel as if they are holding her back.

    “I don’t know how I’m gonna keep keeping up with this girl, because she’s just taking us to places, keeping us busy, keeping us on our toes,” she said. “She’s turning out to be a really young, determined adult.”

    Faridah Ismaila, 15, poses for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Malvern. Ismaila started a kids art nonprofit called A Paint-full of Promise. She also sells her art online.

    But to Faridah Ismaila, it’s about finding happiness, and giving it to others, too.

    “I really hope the kids just do what makes them happy. … It’s also just not being afraid to get out there, because when I was a kid-kid, I wasn’t afraid of anything,” she said. “I think middle school really kicks some kids in the butt, and getting up out of that — at least for me, art was a way to do that. I just want to give that to kids.”

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • A person was injured by a coyote in Chester County

    A person was injured by a coyote in Chester County

    A person was injured by a coyote this week in Chester County, and officials are trying to locate the animal, health officials said.

    The Chester County Health Department said in a social media post that the injured person was seeking medical care. The incident happened Sunday on Warwick Furnace Road in Warwick Township.

    The injury, which broke skin, occurred on a trail during daylight hours, a spokesperson for the county said in an email Wednesday. No one else was involved, and there have been no further reports of contact with a coyote in that area, he said.

    The department does not know if the coyote was rabid.

    The last incident with a coyote was reported to the health department in late October, in the southern part of the county, the spokesperson said. Several people were injured, and the coyote was rabid, the health department said at the time. Everyone injured was identified and was provided medical guidance in that incident, the department said.

    The state game commission was involved with locating the coyote, officials said.

    Coyotes are not necessarily rare in Pennsylvania, and their numbers are growing. They have been spotted near Philadelphia, and can thrive in suburban and urban areas, according to Chester County’s parks department.

    In Chester County, they are usually spotted near heavy, brushy cover and around woods, fields, and agricultural areas where their prey (mice, voles, rabbits, woodchucks, and birds) live. Sightings and signs have been reported in all county parks, the county said previously.

    They rarely attack humans, but they will engage with pets. (Health officials advised residents to remain aware of their pets following this week’s incident in Warwick Township.)

    Residents who come in contact with a coyote were asked to call the Chester County health department at 610-344-6225 for further information and guidance.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Local pro athletes bring Christmas surprise to Chester County family

    Local pro athletes bring Christmas surprise to Chester County family

    They almost didn’t put up a Christmas tree this year.

    R.C. Wilson Sr. knew things were going to be tight for his family this holiday, with him starting a new job and “life just being hard,” he said. It was a week before Christmas when he reached out to Justin Brown, who leads an organization that connects athletes with community initiatives and had arranged several holiday donation drives this season, asking if Brown knew of any agencies that might donate some gifts to Wilson’s six kids.

    Brown reached out to the Chester County community, and he got an outpouring of support. He asked NFL tight end Kenny Yeboah, a former Temple player who later joined the New York Jets and Detroit Lions, and former Phillies pitcher Tommy Greene to be part of a surprise. He told Wilson to put up the Christmas tree.

    And on their quiet Coatesville street a few days before the holiday, the community showed up at Wilson’s doorstep with bags upon bags of gifts — essentials like clothing and shoes and food, plus toys and more than $500 in gift cards.

    “We always try to do what we can for [the kids] to give them the best, but they also understand life gets hard for everybody. We went from, I feel like, being up top to rock bottom,” Wilson said Tuesday. “It’s amazing to get to see in person. Seeing it in person, especially when I needed the help, was a blessing from the community and for my family.”

    Nevaeh Miller-Wilson, 8, organizes presents after a Christmas surprise from former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Tommy Greene and New York Jets tight end Kenny Yeboah at her home in Coatesville, Pa. Greene and Yeboah surprised the family, which includes six children, with a full Christmas celebration, providing gifts and holiday essentials.

    The gifts were stacked under the Christmas tree and through the living room. It was overwhelming, said his wife, Chelsea Miller.

    Yeboah, a new resident of Downingtown, and Greene signed footballs, baseballs, and the backs of T-shirts and posed for photos with the family.

    It was cool to see, said Aadan Miller-Wilson, 15.

    “I’ve never met an athlete, and I play two of the sports they play, too,” he said.

    Yeboah, out with an injury, offered to coach the kids while he recovered. He had wanted to give back to the community he was now part of, and was connected with Brown.

    New York Jets tight end Kenny Yeboah interacts with members of a family of six children, from left, Nevaeh, Robert, Bryden, Jacob, David and Aadan, during a Christmas gift surprise at their home in Coatesville, Pa.

    “To come here and see all these people help out and give back to the community that they’re in, it’s just an amazing feeling,” Yeboah said. “It’s really, really cool to see that everyone’s here just to help out.”

    Greene credited his “better half,” Wendy, for quickly becoming involved with the surprise. When you help each other out, you help everyone out, Greene said.

    “When you get a chance to make a difference, you do,” he said.

    Wilson, who kept the surprise a secret from his family until the community showed up at their door, also found the support overwhelming.

    “It’s a blessing,” he said.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Chesco has seen ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ this year, with more new businesses to start 2026

    Chesco has seen ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ this year, with more new businesses to start 2026

    As major retailers made Chester County home in 2025, start-ups were the fastest-growing group that the Chester County Economic Development Council found itself providing support for this year.

    The region saw interest in expansions from big manufacturers — think chemical tech company Johnson Matthey, or coffee manufacturer Lavazza — and major retailers, like a Trader Joe’s in Berwyn and Exton, or even a Sheetz deep in Wawa country in Downingtown.

    But in a continued trend from the pandemic, which saw a surge in “entrepreneurial spirit,” the county has seen a continuation of new, small businesses taking shape, said Mike Grigalonis, president and COO for the county’s economic development council.

    “That’s our biggest area of growth, services that we’re providing to start-up businesses and entrepreneurs,” Grigalonis said. “That ranges from a salon, or a cafe, or a retail shop — any of those Main Street mom-and-pop businesses that you might think of — all the way to very kind of cutting-edge high tech, emerging tech — whether that be a new med device, a new drug, a new app, and everything in between.”

    The county’s wide-ranging restaurant scene saw a number of businesses planning new locations.

    Here’s a look around the county at some of the comings and goings in the final stretch of 2025.

    New local spots

    Expansions are on the menu. Stubborn Goat Brewing — which boasts craft beers, food, and a live music lineup — opened its doors this year in West Grove, and is planning an expansion into Kennett Square in 2026.

    Our Deli & Cafe, which has enjoyed four decades in Paoli, opened a second location in Phoenixville this month at 498 Nutt Road.

    The borough also recently welcomed The Local, a breakfast and lunch restaurant at 324 Bridge St.

    In West Chester, Olive & Meadow, a business focused on charcuterie boards and grazing tables, opened its brick-and-mortar location at 1388 Old Wilmington Pike this month.

    The business, which began in 2020 when Ariel LeVasseur dropped off charcuterie boards for her friends to enjoy while they chatted from afar on Zoom, grew from custom orders prepared in a commercial kitchen to a spot where customers can seek grab-and-go board items.

    “I love Chester County. I’m from Delco, but I think Chester County is so historic and beautiful,” she said. “I feel like everybody is very welcoming, and I know that a lot of people like supporting small businesses.”

    The new shop near the former Dilworthtown Inn offers all that, and everything else LeVasseur hopes will make hosting a breeze. Coming next year, she hopes to partner with local wineries and host workshops.

    “I just want them to feel like they stepped into my home, and grab some gourmet cheeses and meats and like, share the love of charcuterie that I have,” she said.

    Others close their doors

    As new businesses enter the scene, the community is also losing some favorites: Bookstore Bakery, a bookstore that offers gourmet pastries at 145 W. Gay St., will be closing its doors by the end of the year after having opened in 2024.

    LaCava Coffee, a neighbor on Gay Street, is also winding down its brick-and-mortar, but will continue selling its coffee beans online.

    “I always wanted to create something that connects my roots and that I can be connected to my home country,” said its owner, Jose Oliva, who is from Honduras. “I started the dream of creating a brand, and by 2022 we were able to accomplish a dream, and by personal efforts, we opened a very beautiful store that we ran and operated into November 2025.”

    Oliva said the increased cost of coffee, a lack of substantive foot traffic, and the initial difficulty in opening the location, which sapped his capital, ultimately led to the decision. He is eyeing a relocation to Virginia.

    “In a business if you don’t have a working capital for innovation, for development, for marketing, it is very difficult. Even so, we did it for almost two years and a few months,” he said. “We did it very successfully and with a lot of pride and we always maintain our customer service at its fullest.”

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Plans to develop Pennhurst into a data center move forward as township scraps ordinance

    Plans to develop Pennhurst into a data center move forward as township scraps ordinance

    A data center planned for the Pennhurst State School and Hospital site will move forward in a monthslong, multistep process, after East Vincent Township’s board of supervisors scrapped a draft ordinance seeking to impose restrictions on data-center construction.

    At a crowded meeting Wednesday night — which at one point had residents yelling and prompted officials to call for a break — the board declined to move forward with the draft ordinance it had been penning for months that would govern data center development in the township. The draft ordinance came after the owner of the 125-acre historic Pennhurst site, which currently serves as a popular Halloween attraction, submitted a sketch to develop the land as a data center complex.

    The application will now move forward, coming before the township’s planning commission over the next several months, before it eventually returns to the board of supervisors for a conditional-use hearing, which is slated for March.

    “I understand it’s a very emotional issue,” the board’s chairman, Craig Damon, told residents. “I have to keep an open mind through all of this, so I don’t stand on one side or another, because I have to keep an open mind to this.”

    Data centers are buildings or campuses that handle cloud-storage and computing needs of massive corporations, like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, or Meta. They require large-scale ways of cooling computing equipment and are often dependent on water to do that.

    The potential data center in East Vincent would add to the more than 150 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration has encouraged data centers to locate in the state and has developed a “fast track” program for permitting. Recently, the governor’s office announced Amazon would spend $20 billion to develop data centers and other artificial intelligence campuses across the state.

    But data centers face a cooler reception from residents, with 42% of Pennsylvania residents saying they would oppose the centers being built in their area, according to a new survey.

    East Vincent officials had sought to impose restrictions on data centers by limiting building heights, mandating buffers, requiring lighting, and limiting the number of trees that could be cut down, among other rules. No one representing landowner Pennhurst Holdings LLC spoke Wednesday, but at a Dec. 3 meeting, an attorney for Pennhurst Holdings told officials the proposed ordinance had conditions that “appear reasonable and necessary on their face, but the struggle we have is when you put all of those together, they ultimately act as prohibitive to the development of the Pennhurst property as currently drafted.”

    On Wednesday, the officials declined to move forward with the ordinance, after the township’s solicitor warned it could lead to a challenge.

    Even with the ordinance shelved, residents in East Vincent and neighboring municipalities decried the prospective data center.

    The sketch plan totals more than 1.3 million square feet, with five two-story data center buildings, a sixth building, an electrical substation, and a solar field. Pennhurst State School and Hospital — known as Pennhurst Asylum in its Halloween capacity — opened in 1908 for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It closed in 1987, after legal challenges to its abusive and neglectful treatment of those who lived there, and was turned into a Halloween attraction in 2008.

    The property is situated near the Schuylkill and borders Spring City, which sits to the south. It is close to the Southeastern Veterans Center.

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    “These centers, as they’ve been built, have been nothing but trouble for the neighborhood,” said Tim Thorton, a Spring City resident who was handing out “No Pennhurst Data Center” yard signs to attendees. “They make noise, they use water. This thing would have to have its own generator.”

    Residents pressed their concerns about noise, pollution, and exhausting resources like electricity and water. Veterans worried what the data center would do to their health and their quality of life in what is supposed to be a quiet, peaceful center.

    “Would you want a data center in your neighborhood? Would you want a data center 500 feet from where you live?” one veteran, John J. Coyle, pressed the board.

    Jason Cary, a union representative for local electricians, said members were scared to speak publicly in support of the center.

    “While I think your township is beautiful, to stop a project like this stops high-paying construction jobs coming to the area,” he said, drawing an immediate negative response from the crowd, with people yelling at him to “go away” and “get out.”

    The township’s planning commission will now weigh the application and will make its recommendation to the board of supervisors. Conditional-use hearings will be slated for early next year, an attorney for the township said.

    In nearby East Coventry, the planning commission last week rejected a bid to amend the zoning code to build a data center on Route 724, sending it to the township’s board of supervisors for review, the Mercury reported last week. The planning commission said it could tee up a legal challenge.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.