Meeting live stream effort deserves Rose

Kudos to the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board for taking measures to live stream every board meeting.

ROSES to members of the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board for taking measures to live stream every board meeting. School board meetings, work sessions, and even special meeting are live streamed via a You Tube channel. They are recorded and anyone can watch their school board representatives in action. Not only does this ensure transparency, but it allow people who are unable to attend the meeting to have access. With this technology in place, we wonder why other municipal officials and school officials don’t take a similar measure..

ROSES to members of Oxford’s Union Fire Company for their rescue of Zeus the dog in East Nottingham on Jan. 29. The puppy got his head struck in an old dryer vent, and the team had to cut through a heavy wall to get him out. He was not injured.

ROSES to the West Vincent Township supervisors for unanimously agreeing to change the number of members on the Park and Recreation Commission from seven to nine following a request by the commission members. The supervisors appointed two more members on Monday to help with ideas and to plan township activities. Supervisors’ Chairman John Jacobs said he was correcting a mistake when the supervisors did not reappoint one of the commissioners during the supervisors’ reorganization meeting as recommended by the commissioners. At that time, two members were replaced by two new-comers.

ROSES to the West Vincent Township road crew members for their efforts this winter. West Vincent Police Chief Michael Swininger thanked them during the township supervisors’ meeting on Monday for how they handled the recent weather events. “I would like to thank our road crew for a good job dealing with the snow yesterday, the ice early this morning and the minor flooding this afternoon,” Swininger said. “The (Owen J. Roberts) school district is very appreciative of their work.”

THORNS to Martin W. Kennedy, a health technician at the Coatesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center who was arrested for allegedly preparing fraudulent tax refunds totaling more than $600,000 over a period of three years. According to an indictment filed against Kennedy, he charged his coworkers and other individuals a fee for preparing their tax returns, and he allegedly stole a portion of the refunds that he generated for his clients by having a portion of the tax refunds deposited into his personal bank account. If convicted of all counts, Kennedy faces a substantial period of incarceration, a possible fine, restitution to the IRS, a period of supervised release, and a $1,400 special assessment.

THORNS to Mark Haynes, a former parochial vicar at Ss. Simon and Jude Parish in Westtown who was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 years in prison for child sexual abuse and exploitation. Haynes pleaded guilty on June 8, 2015 to using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct, transfer of obscene material to a minor, distribution of child pornography, possession of child pornography, and destruction or concealment of evidence. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick ordered 10 years of supervised release, a fine of $15,000, and a $700 special assessment. Haynes posed as a 15-year old Instagram, and would meet young teenage girls online, engage in sexual chats, and send them child pornography photos and videos in an attempt to entice them to take and send sexually explicit pictures of themselves. Haynes is also charged with distributing other images and videos of children being sexually assaulted over the Internet in 2014.

ROSES to the United Steelworkers (USW) Amalgamated Local 1165 chapter for holding a meeting to discuss the recently-signed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. The TPP is a free trade agreement between the United States and 11 other nations in the Pacific Rim. The USW says it’s a bad deal for American workers, and it will harm the economy by making it easier for corporations to outsource jobs for cheap labor in foreign countries. Critics of the TPP say the negotiations for the deal have lacked transparency. Regardless of one’s feelings on free trade, it’s an important issue that should be discussed in the public sphere.