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FeedAll Talk?
Chester County 2020 hopes its “Community Conversations” can inspire change.
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Chester County 2020 has been busy these days. This fall, its offices moved from West Chester to Kennett Square while emerging from under the umbrella of the Chester County Community Foundation as its own nonprofit. Its monthly meetings now run without a hitch. Executive director Nancy Mohr arrives with scones those Thursday mornings, and Coatesville City Hall provides the coffee. That’s a modest partnership when compared to the shared commitment Chester County 2020 is inspiring throughout the region.
All over Chester County there are tangible byproducts of its communities working together. And CC2020’s direct involvement speaks to real accomplishments and change. A commitment to multi-municipal cooperation and planning in the boroughs of South Coatesville and Modena has led to the scheduled removal of blighted buildings and plans for a town center. Open discussion between Coatesville and Valley Township has paved the way for the long-anticipated Brandywine Riverwalk Trail. And six neighboring municipalities along the Route 1 corridor are addressing transportation and land planning issues in advance of the expected traffic congestion.
Meanwhile, in Kennett Square, “Community Conversations” were held in September and October to solicit ideas from the community for the borough’s library expansion. And with CC2020’s input, citizen groups in East Fallowfield, Pennsbury and West Bradford townships have developed websites and e-mail services to augment the sharing of accurate information and spur increased attendance at municipal meetings.
Elsewhere, last month marked the first of three classes in a program designed to educate municipal volunteers and residents alike in planning regulation and code. The instruction comes in partnership with the Chester County Planning Commission, West Chester University and the Chester County Association of Township Officials. And on Feb. 21, “Keep Farming First,” CC2020’s annual farm and conservation conference, comes to Octorara Area High School off Route 41, in the middle of Chester County’s agricultural preservation district. The event has sparked an increasing interest in the “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” movement at the heart of the continued economic viability of the local farm industry.
CC2020’s proposed budget for next year is $354,000. The money comes from donations, state community and economic development grants, foundations, and annual corporate sponsors. Yet Mohr freely admits that the group is better at “friend raising” than fund-raising. Last October, they held a circus benefit and convinced Suzanne Roberts, star of CNN’s Seeking Solutions with Suzanne, to dress up as a clown. Former Eagles coach Dick Vermeil and his wife, Carol, are enormous catalysts for—and contributors to—CC2020.
“With the corporate sponsors, if they buy in, they’ll stay with us,” Mohr says. “This is all for their benefit and the benefit of their employees who have come to Chester County for its quality of life.”
And they’re coming in droves. The county has witnessed an influx of 50,000 new residents since 2000. This, in large part, has triggered the “Community Conversations,” where simplification is the guideword; no one studies maps, uses complex terminology or calls anything a task. Residents who didn’t even know they were neighbors sit side-by-side with officials to express their concerns, hopes and fears, reinventing democracy session by session as each community works to solve its own issues. One evening’s efforts hardly exhaust anyone’s schedule, and boxed suppers ensure no one leaves hungry.
