By Gabbie Burton
Contributing Writer

The Chester County Press held its very first “Conversation with the Candidates” in collaboration with the Kennett Library that drew a full audience at the library’s auditorium on Oct. 23 and over 700 online viewers. They saw an hour-long interview with current Kennett Square Mayor Matt Fetick and long-time Mayor Leon Spencer, who are both vying to become the borough’s next mayor in an election that will be held on Nov. 4.

“In these current times, it’s very easy to get lost in the federal, worldwide news and elections,” said Press Publisher Avery Lieberman. “We must not forget, though, how important local leadership, community and involvement is and how important it is to stay locally informed. Tonight, I hope you take away Matt and Leon’s answers and use them to make an informed decision in this election. I hope the residents of this remarkable town continue to stay engaged, use our voices and see the meaningful impact that we can make as a community.”

Richard L. Gaw, associate editor of the Chester County Press, served as moderator of the event and began the town hall on a positive note by asking each candidate to pay a compliment to the other. Each candidate shared their mutual respect for each other, and then shared their reasons for running for reelection.

“There’s a few important projects to me that are not yet finished that I think really are important to our community, that I want to see over the finish line,” Fetick said.

Projects he shared that are top of mind are the development of the NVF site, curbing the phorid fly infestation and focusing on developing more affordable housing in the borough. For Spencer, his reasons for running focused on his love for the Kennett Square community and eliminating divisiveness.

“Number one is an overarching love of people,” Spencer said. “Number two is the love of this community, and the third answer is that I have an affinity for unity. I sense divisiveness that, unfortunately, is driven from the federal level. There’s no time for that. I have a drive within me, and always have, to bring people together. That has a lot to do with why I’m doing this.”

Housing affordability in the borough

Gaw then turned the questions towards overdevelopment in the borough and concerns of housing affordability.

“What I hear from people often, and from a lot of people, is they’re challenged by the fact that any residential projects, any developmental projects that have taken place here in the last three or four years, have all carried a label of luxury,” Spencer said. “Any future development, including

the property that I know we’re going to talk about, has to be for affordable living, and not so much for luxury.”

Fetick said that in future residential development in the borough, he will not support any projects there that do not have an affordable component. Additionally, he provided insight into the density of development in the borough and the difficulty of guaranteeing affordable housing development.

“We certainly can look at the way we do density and how that works, but keep in mind for a developer, for them to offer affordable components, they have to have a trade off,” he said. “They have to make money somewhere because it costs them this amount of money so you give them the trade off by giving them density and allowing to build maybe 15 percent more so that they can afford to offer affordable homes.”

After a question on the cleanup and safety of the NVF site from Gaw, Fetick gave a quick explanation that the site is at about 85 percent cleaned up and is so far passing safety tests in the monitoring wells tracking the groundwater infiltration of the PCBs. 

‘I do not support warrantless arrests’

Gaw then brought attention to ICE activity in the borough and asked the candidates for their opinions.

“In February of this year, Immigration and Customs performed a raid on Chavos tires, a business less than a mile from where we now sit,” Gaw said. “In late January, ICE conducted a series of operations in other parts of Chester County that resulted in the arrest of 44 undocumented individuals. Half of the population of this borough continues to live in constant fear that they too will be deported.”

“I do not support the immigration enforcement that we’re currently experiencing,” Fetick said. “I do not support warrantless arrests. I do not support racial profiling. I do not support ICE officers standing in our shopping centers and on our streets and stopping people based on the color of their skin and requiring them to provide ID. I do not support those in any way, shape or form.”

Fetick noted that in his role as mayor he has been able to build a network with other local and state representatives and officials to help aid community members in need during ICE arrests and safety concerns such as finding lost or missing community members.

Spencer responded, saying, “I think that this small town that depends upon the concentration of immigrant people needs to band together and say, ‘Hey, look here, if you want to get reelected, this is what you're going to do.’ You’re going to make sure that people who want to live in the United States of America, who work already have their green card and do all the things that they have to do… you will respond to them. If the Feds aren’t going to do it then we, as a community that is so dependent upon immigrants, have to form together and force the issue. 

“That’s what I believe. I’m not much of a rebel, but sometimes you have to be.”

‘I love that this happened’

After about 45 minutes of discussion, the questions were turned over to the audience and included inquiries about the remaining debt service from construction of the Genesis parking garage, truck traffic concerns, overdevelopment, ICE and police regionalization.

After the event, community members shared their reasonings for coming to the town hall.

“There were quite a few people, and they’ve been talking about one candidate negatively and the other candidate more positively, but when it comes to their reasons, they don’t really understand why,” said borough resident Sean Reigel. “I love that this happened because I think when it comes to voting for people in anything, it turns out to be a case of, ‘Oh, you’re voting for them? Sure, I’ll vote for them too,’ and they don’t really understand what they’re voting for. Whereas I think now, when you sit in here and you listen to this forum, you now have a real clear idea of who you want to vote for and why.”

Borough residents will have a chance to vote for either Fetick or Spencer in the upcoming election on Nov. 4.

To contact Contributing Writer Gabbie Burton, email [email protected].