Senator Dinniman Proposes a Real Estate Tax on Natural Gas Pipelines

On June 18, state Senator Andy Dinniman introduced Senate Bill 905 which would allow local municipalities and school districts to tax natural gas pipelines. The legislation calls for the amendment of Title 53 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes to allow local governments and school districts to impose a real estate tax on natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines which are currently exempt from local taxation.

In addition, Dinniman, and state Senator John Rafferty Jr., co-sponsored Senate Bill 557, which calls for the introduction of an impact fee calculated based on the acreage of linear feet plus right-of way width of a pipeline using the county average land value in each affected area.

“Pipelines crisscross nearly every municipality in Chester County and more are on the way,” Dinniman said. “As a result, our communities continue to experience potential threats to public safety, as well as environmental and quality-of-life impacts.”

Residents Worried about Pipeline Safety

With all of the activity going on around the proposed new pipelines, an educational meeting was held by The Chester County Association of Township Officials on June 17 to ease people’s worries. Residents have expressed concerns about the lack of an entity to regulate the placement of pipeline routes in Pennsylvania.

The meeting took place in East Goshen Township building and it consisted of three-member panel which included representatives from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

One of the audience members summed up the main issue “There is a perception by our residents, in all of our communities, that the townships have some way to prevent pipelines from going certain places,” the resident said. “The answer that I have heard is that we do not”.

Junior Firefighters to Compete in Fire Camp Olympics

The Fire Services Division of the Chester County Department of Emergency Services is organizing the Junior Fire Camp Olympics on June 25, starting at 1:30 p.m. The Olympics will take place at the Chester County Public Safety Training Campus Tactical Village, located on 137 Modena Road, South Coatesville, PA.

It will take the skills that students have been learning at the camp during the previous week and test them out in emulated real life, practical scenarios. Partially sponsored by the Brandywine Health Foundation, the camp runs for five days to prepare the 26 students aged 14 to 17 to become junior firefighters before they get a chance to show off their new skills.

Book Drive Opens New Locations for Preschool Level Donations

For this year’s drive several new locations have been opened for drop-offs, including Exton Square Mall by Learning Express, Mall Management Office and Books A Million, and St. Paul’s Baptist Church in West Chester.

The book drive, that started on June 15 and will run until June 29, is designed to allow families unable to purchase books, to be able to read with their children over the summer. In addition to increasing these underprivileged children’s exposure to reading opportunities, the book drive also includes a pre-school recommended reading list to help give these kids the best possible chance to succeed in their learning.

The United Way of Chester County Summer Book Drive is collecting the books to be distributed to local Little Free Libraries located at the Born Learning Trails that have been placed at community libraries and other summer program sites throughout Chester County.

New Financial Advisor Joins OneSource

OneSource Retirement Advisors, the Malvern, PA, based independent fee-based advisor with $250 million in assets under

management has announced that Robert Falcon is joining the firm as a financial advisor.

With his Big 4 managerial tax experience, 15 years of corporate finance and marketing experience, a CPA and an MBA, Mr. Falcon strengthens the company’s strategy of providing a multi-faceted solution to retirement transition for high net worth individuals.

OneSource President, John O’Brien, said regarding the new hire “Today’s emerging affluent clients require more and more creativity in their planning, we are excited to have an advisor of Bob’s caliber, with his expansive background, join our team“.

The Founder of Collegium School Retires

Bill Winters officially retired from his position as a CEO of Collegium Charter School in Exton, PA, after completing his final official function, the Class of 2015’s graduation ceremony, held on June 18.

Under his guidance, the school has grown from its initial 39 students in 1999, to 2,800 students for the 2015-16 academic year. Starting from scratch with his cofounders and only a year to prepare, Winters had to go through many trials and tribulations in order to build the teaching staff, order books and materials, furnish the classrooms and create a curriculum.

“It is hard to believe it has grown this much,” Winters said, “We will have about 300,000 square feet of space next year. It has really gotten very, very large.”