{"id":11370,"date":"2014-03-21T11:35:49","date_gmt":"2014-03-21T15:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=11370"},"modified":"2014-03-21T10:44:18","modified_gmt":"2014-03-21T14:44:18","slug":"kennett-firearm-ordinance-shot-down-by-courts-can-it-be-fixed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=11370","title":{"rendered":"Kennett firearm ordinance shot down by courts, can it be fixed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drivers may think twice about aggressive driving in Kennett Twp.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

By Rick Marts, <\/b>Staff Writer, The Times<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"McCarthy\"<\/a>

Kennett Township Police Chief McCarthy discussing his soon-to-be greater focus on aggressive driving in Kennett Township. Sara Meadows, Kennett Township Clerk, is shown filling in for Township Manager Lisa Moore at the meeting.<\/p><\/div>\n

The public comment period at the end of an otherwise docile meeting of Kennett Township\u2019s Board of Supervisors on Wednesday evening brought the township\u2019s new firearm ordinance back into the spotlight and raised a question about its viability.<\/p>\n

Bill McLachlan, chairman of the township\u2019s Communication Committee, asked the Board of Supervisors about the implications of a dismissed criminal case brought to court under the new gun ordinance. This dismissal was ordered by Magisterial District Judge Daniel J. Maisano on March 10, 2014. As the The Times<\/i> reported on that date, the lawyer for one of the alleged offenders argued that the new law is unconstitutional because state law preempts the township from establishing contrary legislation.<\/p>\n

Answering McLachlan, Supervisor Stevens said, \u201cJudge Maisano dismissed the case, possibly meaning that the ordinance is unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Stevens does not believe that the issue is fully resolved. He said, \u201cWe have already started reviewing the new law and proposing changes to the ordinance for the purpose of satisfying Judge Maisano\u2019s concerns, which seem to be legal in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other business Wednesday night, Police Chief Albert McCarthy presented his summary of Police Department activity during February. He noted that the Chester County Communications System recorded 234 incidents in Kennett Township during the month, with 147 handled by Chief McCarthy and Patrol Officer Nolt and 87 by State Police.<\/p>\n

Although the 234 incidents are recorded under 44 categories, 52 percent of them fall in only five categories:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Accident with property damage (14)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Alarms of all types (40)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Traffic hazards (31)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Phone assignments (19)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Emergency medical services involving a sick person (17)<\/p>\n

McCarthy also issued a warning to drivers in the township. In relation to his department\u2019s announcement a few days ago that it will be participating in a state-wide aggressive diving enforcement program, he added that \u201cChester County recently approved new funds for the Police Department\u2019s use to set up DUI check points.\u201d He also said that with these efforts perhaps Kennett Township will become a place that drivers think twice about before driving carelessly.<\/p>\n

The meeting also featured a demonstration by Bill McLachlan of the township\u2019s new website (www.kennett.pa.us<\/a>). McLachlan said, \u201cThe website is a work-in-progress but that residents should still visit the site to become familiar with it.\u201d The demo showed that not all of the site\u2019s pages and features are available yet because the developer is still installing them.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Stevens asked when most of the website would be intact and available. McLachlan said the developer was expecting to be finished by Monday of next week.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Stevens announced two special public meetings: one on April 7 at 7:00 p.m. to discuss discharge of firearms and one on April 16 at 5:30 p.m. to discuss Ways Lane. Both meetings will be held in the township building at 801 Burrows Run Road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drivers may think twice about aggressive driving in Kennett Twp. By Rick Marts, Staff Writer, The Times The public comment period at the end of an otherwise docile meeting of Kennett Township\u2019s Board of Supervisors on Wednesday evening brought the township\u2019s new firearm ordinance back into the spotlight and raised a question about its viability. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[4276,183,4275,36],"class_list":["post-11370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-aggressive-driving","tag-board-of-supervisors","tag-gun-ordinance","tag-kennett-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}