SAVVY MAINLINE

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GUNS! Students walk out, Parents gather & Stoga teacher speaks out nationally; Devon’s new Lumbrada; Ardmore’s new Living Room; Pro athletes talk mental health; Village Wellness & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

They called B.S.

Fed up because they don’t feel safe in school, thousands of Main Line students walked off the job Wednesday.

For 17 minutes or more, classrooms became ghost towns, the halls were mostly quiet.

There would be no repercussions. Lower Merion, Radnor and T/E Schools were of one voice: students would not be penalized for commemorating Florida’s fallen 17 and demanding #NeverAgain.

As a precaution, parents were cordially not invited to attend – forbidden, in fact, from entering schools that became “closed campuses” from 10 to 11 a.m. Local police stood at the ready, their services, thankfully, not needed.

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Democrats win big in T/E & beyond; Longtime Main Line ob-gyn arrested; Stoga, Devon Yard, Ardmore Target & Aronimink updates; Dine local; Shop w/ purpose & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Local Democrats are still pinching themselves – perhaps nowhere more so than in Tredyffrin, where the party’s candidates went 12 for 12 last Tuesday.

A sweep.

Three Democrats ran for township supervisor seats: incumbent Murph Wysocki plus Matt Holt and Kevin O’Nell. ­

All three won.

Four Democrats ran for T/E school board: incumbent Scott Dorsey plus Kyle Boyer, Tina Whitlow and Heather Ward.

All four won. (Whitlow and Ward ousted current board president Doug Carlson and Virginia Lastner.)

So, for the first time in township history, three of seven supes and seven of nine school board directors will be Democrats.

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Summer ’17 Catch-up: Life Time KOP’s sinkhole; remembering Radnor’s N. Mora; Skinny Pizza (?!); Nova’s new Inn; Crime news; Fall Classic; Mt. Joy & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

/>By all accounts, things were going swimmingly at the area’s fanciest new fitness “resort,” Life Time Athletic in KOP.

Until they weren’t.

On Saturday, Aug. 5, staff noticed the water level in the indoor pool had suddenly dropped a few feet and the decking in one corner had collapsed.

Uh-oh.

The club promptly closed the pool, drained the water and demolished it.

The culprit? A sinkhole – although management’s e-mails to members never used the “s” word, referring only to the pool’s “inadvertent” closure and “required repairs.”

Not the sort of splash Life Time envisioned when opened for its first summer season in June.

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Movie theatre to Tredyffrin (?!); Devon pot dispensary’s surprising CEO; New frat suit; True Food Kitchen & new Wayne BYOB; Pun’s to Ardmore; Devon Yard & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Dim the lights and pass the popcorn: The Main Line might get its first luxury movie house.

The owner of the Swedesford Plaza Shopping Center in Tredyffrin is in serious talks with an upscale theater company to turn the dowdy old Pathmark into a state-of-the-art cinema experience.

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New sexual abuse suit vs. Conestoga – most damaging of all? Plus, Tredici debuts, two Nova bars close in Bryn Mawr; Catholic ed back in Berwyn & much more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

The Tredyffrin/Easttown School District is absorbing yet another fusillade – this one, an utterly explosive federal lawsuit that, in effect, blames Conestoga, its culture and staff for the months-long sexual abuse of a 15-year-old female student by 67-year-old TV studio aide Arthur Phillips.

Revolting.

To bolster its case, the suit details T/E’s “recent history of sex-related scandals”:

  • School aide/coach Christine Towers’ affair with a 15-year-old male student. Arrested exactly one year to the day before Phillips, Towers is in jail for her crimes.
  • The “No Gay Thursday” locker room hazing allegations that officials attributed to lax supervision.
  • The middle school sexting/cyberbullying charges.

The suit says the three scandals show a “pattern of deliberate and reckless indifference to signs of ongoing sexual harassment and sexual abuse” in the district.

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Bryn Mawr’s new BYOB & wine school; Dogs to horse around at Devon; Ardmore (& Target?) rising; Moms’ gifts & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

The Conestoga High School hazing scandal was a big fat, tragic mess. But look at what Penn State and one of its fraternity presidents – a young man from Malvern – are dealing with.

Brendan Young, 21, an avid golfer whom you may have seen play at Chester Valley Golf Club or working at Golf Galaxy in Berwyn, is one of 18 Beta Theta Pi brothers facing criminal charges after a pledge died in their frat house in February.

In all 200 charges were lodged against the Penn State junior.

Another local defendant, Nick Kubera, who graduated from Downingtown H.S. last year, is facing 43.

While all 18 are in hot water, the charges are scalding for Young and some of his frat brothers: involuntary manslaughter and stuff like felony aggravated assault, tampering with evidence, and hazing.

Horrific.

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Local beer boom; Stunning news @ aging skin; Academy Ball Ever After; Gucci crimes; Bridal tidings; Saluting newsman Tom Murray & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Suddenly, the Main Line is soaking in suds.

Sure, we have locally-owned brewpub faves like Ardmore’s Tired Hands, McKenzie Brewhouses in Berwyn and Malvern, newbie La Cabra Brewing and, slithering soon to Bryn Mawr, Tin Lizard.

And yes, we’ve got a few, but not nearly enough, cozy gastro-pubs like The Goat’s Beard and Teresa’s Next Door in Wayne.

And of course, restaurants far and nigh (Biga, Savona et. al.) have been beefing up their beer lists.

No, the BIG news in brews is this: a brand-new law permits PA peeps to take home beer by the bottle.

Holy Heineken!

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Luxurious Life Time Athletic, DryBar coming to Ardmore; White Manor Country Club sold; local ‘FADD’ to fight ODs; a Broadway good-bye & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

The elite health & fitness company likes the Main Line so much, it’s putting not ONE, but TWO of its mega clubs here.

Our first Life Time – a scratch-built, 140,000 sq. ft. whopper with a “resort-like” outdoor pool and waterslides – will debut in June on Swedesford Rd. in Tredyffrin. (Life Time’s calling it King of Prussia, but the map says it’s Wayne, if only by a hair.)

And just announced: our second Life Time will be in Ardmore – an exclusive “diamond” level club (a notch above KOP’s “onyx premier”) in the former Macy’s building, one of two Grand Dames of Suburban Square. (The tall Times building is the other.)

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Election aftershocks, T/E drug use/mental health update, Wayne’s new BYOB, Firepoint in N. Square & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

No matter how you voted, you have to feel sickened by the reported assault of a black female student by a group of white male students on Villanova’s campus last week.

Here’s what reportedly went down: The young woman was walking through the SEPTA tunnel around 9 pm Thursday when a group of guys en route to an off-campus formal approached and knocked her down, shouting “Trump! Trump! Trump!” The student’s face and head hit concrete. According to her friend, she was badly shaken, suffered nausea, vomiting and dizziness and was reluctant to report the attack at first.

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T/E teacher/coach LeRoi Leviston (Stoga ’06) finds his voice as Roi Lush. Plus, hot news around town

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

If anyone’s story can blot out all the bad press that came out of T/E schools last year, surely LeRoi Leviston’s can.

His journey from starting Stoga quarterback to Mr. Lev, Valley Forge Middle School teacher, to Roi Lush, full-time rapper, is as improbable as it is inspiring.

The odds against LeRoi, 28, were stacked from the start.

He was born on Long Island to parents who “were very into hardcore drugs,” LeRoi tells SAVVY.

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