By Uncle Irvin

The Chester County Press recently reported on an event sponsored by S.A.V.E. (Safety, Agriculture, Village, and Environment). The group really means no development -- commercial or residential -- and no roads that can handle existing traffic.

S.A.V.E. is an organization originally set up to thwart any improvements on Route 41, a major road between New Castle County and Lancaster. Unfortunately, they have been successful, leading to more car and truck accidents and deaths on Route 41.

At this recent conclave, S.A.V.E. brought in two urban planners to give presentations. The problem is that the Route 41 corridor is not urban, it's rural!

These consultants, who are from North Carolina and Florida, advocated roundabouts as the solution to the Route 41 safety and congestion problem. Roundabouts will do nothing  but further snarl this undersized road, where every other vehicle is a tractor trailer. Can you imagine a roundabout in the borough of Avondale?

More than 20 years ago, Congressman Joe Pitts obtained $6 million in federal dollars as seed money to fix Route 41 with a bypass around Avondale. S.A.V.E. has seen to it that none of this money was spent, and the road is ten times more hazardous today.

S.A.V.E. represents wealthy landowners who pay virtually no property taxes due to Act 319. The members are only intent on protecting their land from much-needed progress that will help ameliorate the confiscatory property taxes that everyone but S.A.V.E. members pay.