TE's Top Stories of 2011

Weather: Mother Nature's Power

The year began with a brutal winter. A wet spring gave way to a scorching July, followed by the wettest August on record, an earthquake and Hurricane Irene (which ultimately hit the Upper Main Line as a tropical storm), and an unusual and costly snow storm on Halloween weekend. The results were expensive storm/snow clean ups, extensive property damage and depleted township budgets.

Politics: The Earned Income Tax

Although it ultimately went down in defeat, the proposed EIT played a central role in the T/E School Board political campaigns and the races for township supervisors, especially in Tredyffrin. Republicans claimed the issue early in the campaign, plastering the streets with political signs opposing the tax. Democrats cried foul and responded with more signs that looked similar in design but read "Lower home values, vote republican" Tredyffrin Republican candidates swept the supervisor races and will hold a 7-0 lock on the new Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors which will take office on Tuesday. 

Crime: Tredyffrin Barber Shop at Center of Massive Regional Drug Bust

Police two brothers operated a massive drug distribution operation out of the Heads Up Barber Shop in the Mount Pleasant Section of Tredyffrin Township. Their arrests were the culmination of a years-long investigation involving local, county, state and federal law enforcement from Chester, Montgomery, Delaware, Bucks and Philadelphia Counties.

Labor: Unions Roared but Were Largely Ignored

Big labor tried to make a big splash over the summer, but came up with two big zeros as the economy limped along and national unemployment levels remained stuck above nine percent for most of the summer.

Verizon workers hit the picket lines, refusing to budge on a company proposal that would have workers pay a fraction of their health and insurance benefits. After two weeks off the job, Verizon's unions agreed to go back to work and keep talking. Workers gained nothing, lost two weeks pay in the summer and went back to work under a contract extension.

Leaders of Philadelphia area trade unions set up informational pickets in front of the new Euro Motorcars Mercedes Showroom site on Lancaster Avenue in Devon. Vowing to be there every Wednesday through the summer to demand that contractors hire local union workers, labor leaders set up an inflatable "fat cat" holding a hard-hatted worker by the neck. The informational picket lines quickly disappeared.  The new showroom was completed and opened without incident in December.

•What's Ahead for Unions in TE in 2012

Members of the T/E School District's Teacher's union agreed to a wage freeze in early 2011. The School Board is now grappling with how to pay for a delayed wage increase while entering into contract negotiations that will almost certainly include a school district restructuring of how and when teacher wages are calculated. Look for the term "salary matrix" to come up as often in the first six months of 2012 as Earned Income Tax or EIT came up in 2011.

In Easttown, the new township manager and the township supervisors are in negotiations to eliminate three public works positions and contract snow removal to outside contractors. There could be some tough sledding ahead as the township looks for ways to reduce costs by reducing its workforce.

To learn more or read stories from TE Patch's 2011 news archives, look to the right on the page and click on the stories listed under "Read More on Patch."