are we good good good evening everyone we're going to call tonight's meeting to order I ask that we all rise for pledge to the flag pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice Mr Miller please call the role Mr Callahan present Miss gry Smith present Miss quac present M lard present Leon M wilham present and Mr CL present thank you Mr Miller before we continue on attorney Stewart the city council solicitor is uh away U on a professional trip so our one of our partners attorney good zian uh couldn't be here in person tonight but he is available on the goto that we see over here uh in case we need have a questions for the solicitor this evening we have a few citations tonight for recent City retirees I believe Mr stefanel is here if I'm not mistaken so Mr stanel if you'll mind coming to the lecture I'm going to read what we have and whereas the residents of the city of Bethlehem have been served by a dedicated diligent and talented member of the Bethlehem fire department for 20 years and whereas Jeffrey a sanella who started with the fire department in 2004 and retired in 2024 has during the course of his employment provided the utmost and reliable and outstanding service to the fire department and the residents of the city of Bethlehem now therefore be it resolved by the count of the city of Bethlehem that Lieutenant Jeffrey Ace the finel be extended the Gratitude of the city of Bethlehem which has benefited from his two decades of service and the special contributions he has made to promote Public Safety and to protect the lives and property of Bethlehem residents be it further resolved now that Jeffrey is retired he can relax and enjoy all that life has to offer him and be it further resolve that Jeffrey be extended every good wish for a long and satisfying retirement from from all of us the members of city council thank you thank [Applause] you spech welcome thank you thank you congrats congratulations and then we have a few other citations I don't believe they're inhouse uh this evening but for Michael Zukowski John Palmer and Doug noin so we will make sure that they all get their citations VIA mail moving on to the approval minutes for the May 7 2024 city council meeting any feedback or notes on the minutes for May 7 Minutes stand approved moving on to public comment I remind everyone of the five minute time limit which I ask everyone to continue to observe as we've been for the last few meetings we'll start with any not being voted on this evening and I'll go around the room to our YouTube audience I remind you if you want to watch the meeting live feel free to scroll ahead to the most current portion of the meeting we have seven individuals signed up tonight starting with Mary Joe MC and I ask everyone please state your name for the record so Mr Miller can record it Mary Mary J mle 449 grandv Boulevard there are six branches of the military the Coast Guard the space force the Navy the Marines the Air Force and the Army if there are any veterans here tonight I would like you to stand I now ask those in the audience wait oh where's I want to do do a short [Music] presentation the United States Coast Guard [Music] United States baseb [Music] United States Airport [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] United States Navy [Music] all [Music] United States Marine [Music] United States Army [Music] [Music] [Music] I just want to thank anyone who served to protect our nation I had four members of my family serve in World War II all thankfully came home safe and sound I've had members of my family in the Air Force in the Navy and I just truly appreciate their the fact that they defended our nation and I would like to just honor one council member with little thank you miss m and in just a little context if anyone missed it may is military appreciation month thank you our next speaker tonight is Mr markw Weber uh Mar we 66 West Elizabeth Avenue here for the drip uh it's a hard act to follow but I'll see what I can do here um I I mentioned the last time I was in that um Gan mcneel has a house bill House Bill 9005 Jean's uh State Rep over in Lehigh County and uh the bill concerns a red flag usage in other words uh people to get blindsided by these Mega bills would in theory if Jean's bill was past uh get worn a month uh into it instead of three months so in theory uh it would still be a little pain but not uh as much pain um so um a pretty good thing I think and uh I think it's interesting because a lot of the other local reps have now uh co-sponsored Jean's Bill uh such as Bob Freeman from Easton and Steve Samuelson from Bethlehem and a bunch of Lehigh uh County guys Peter Scher Mike slosberg and Josh seagull uh and and actually she has uh I think more than a dozen uh co-sponsors of this bill and I think they're lined up behind it because they can see the righteousness of it they can see uh how their constituents have been hurt by the way that things currently are and that this could make a difference it's uh it's uh a very small thing but would be something um it would be a small win for the uh the good guys and we are the good guys by the way uh uh as opposed to the bureaucrats that are making big money at the top being sewer and water Zars um so anyway what we're doing at the drip and we're over 330 members at this point uh back at Thanksgiving we had about 20 members so we're getting bigger and we came out last month and supported Bob Freeman uh in his election uh he he won by quite a number of votes so I don't think he necessarily needed our support but I know we got him a couple dozen votes down in uh East and Freemansburg and places where people weren't going to vote we said hey we got to vote for this guy because he's uh supporting us on these water issues so had he only won by a dozen votes I think he would have been thankful for that I've known Bob for 20 years he's a great guy but I I don't think I would have backed him if he hadn't been supporting Jean's bill so we're going to do a lot more of that uh as we go forward and hopefully by this time next year we'll have closer to a thousand members so we're going to have a little more clout a little more say in these things and we're going to support um uh people uh State reps and anybody else who is supporting our side of uh the water thing okay and it won't be a big loss for the city it'll be it'll be kind of like the king tipping the banquet scraps over the castle wall for the peasantry but we'll we'll get a little something out of it so I mean to put it down in brass tax um my situation where I lost I don't know 500 and something dollars would have probably been closer to 200 had I had this early warning system and they can do it if they want to do it if they have the will to do it and uh I would say if they don't do it then you'll know that basically they don't want to part with their their little side Revenue uh because it would be the right thing to do you're going to save water going to save a lot of uh uh money for the the little guy and you're going to save a lot of emotional stress on the on the uh people that get hit with this uh I uh I got to meet a bunch of these other state refs from other places when I spoke at the uh at the meeting last April uh and they're they're they're interesting set of guys there's a guy down in uh Montgomery County Joe sessi and uh I said Joe you know as a State Rep what got you interested in this water thing and he said well Mark he said uh uh the problem is uh I got a call from one of my retirees and her sewer and water Billet doubled and he said and she was uh using her backyard to go to the bathroom so uh that's what happens when there's no supervision of these people now in his case it's a a private uh for profit water company and they're far worse than uh any of the municipal water companies so if you if you guys ever get approached by a private uh for-profit water company run the other way and uh do your citizens a favor because they're really bad uh I'm not a big fan of the people here but uh I'll pay him a backhanded compliment and say uh the for-profit Water companies are far worse thank you thank you our next speaker this evening Miss Sally wber Sally wever 66 West Elizabeth Avenue thank you again for allowing us to speak we'd also like to thank the media for keeping our issue revent revent um since our whole situation with water I've become much more aware of social media and much more connected to it so I I currently belong to some groups the drip of course uh friends of Bethlehem complainers of Bethlehem MCH Chunk Road neighbors and um several times in the last month there have been complaints about the Bethlehem water department and one of the main complaints has been how the installation of the new meters are going um many people think the scheduling is not convenient and puts them in a situation where they have to take work off or have to be there um one woman complained that after her new meter was installed um she had over $2,000 of damage in her basement because of a leak that was caused by the installation she contacted the water department and said they were arrogant indifferent and claimed it was not their responsibility even though they're the ones who turned the water off put the meter in and turned it back on she was hoping her home insurance was going to pay for it because she didn't have the money to cover it I honestly understand how this could happen because there appears to be a wide range of competence in the department we were very lucky to have a veteran Rick come out to do our first meter change he wasn't un comfortable turning our water off in the basement due to the age of our pipes and the turnoff valve so he made the decision to turn the water off at the curb that's how it was discovered that our outside turnoff had disintegrated and was not functional due to its age when the meter was changed we had a younger technician who arrived and wanted to turn the water off in the basement I insisted he turn it off outside and he was not happy about that at all and argued with me if we had not had that water turned off outside at the curb we could have been in the same situation because who knows what would happen if that old valve had been closed and then reopened another complaint con consistently is about the rising bills one woman I found this very interesting one woman said that she had a crazy Bill and called Department she had a plumber come in and it was discovered that she did have a loose flapper which is what the department says all the time you have a running toilet you have a loose flapper she had it repaired and when she went into the water department with confirmation she said she was so pleasantly surprised and said they were very easy to talk to and upon her confirmation their confirmation of her bill and repair they reversed the charge and she was charged for her average consumption I have to say I was shocked I thought wow maybe they're finally willing to give the customer a break during our back and forth I mentioned the Bethlehem water department and she immediately responded she's like oh oh no this wasn't the Bethlehem water department I live in Easton this was the Easton water department so that explained why she got the treatment she did why is it that the eastn and the Northampton water departments have no problem helping their customers and it isn't even in the realm of possibility for the Bethlehem Department to even think of it so please create this committee to oversee this department if other local water departments can show compassion and a willingness to work with their their residents why is it that Beyond reach in Bethlehem thank you thank you next speaker is Bill shy Bill sh to 1898 now two unrelated topics um I'm inspired by military appreciation month to re relate a a letter that I read in the morning call recently from an amateur historian about the b29 which you know was recently parked at um the airport as a matter of fact it's there again today and it'll be there tomorrow morning um thousands of them were built in World War II and it had a u range of thousands of miles which was a requirement for using it in the Pacific and it's big it's not by today's standers but a awful lot bigger than the B17 which is sometimes strikes me as an overgrown fighter plane but anyway the letter from an amateur historian uh some of you may find interesting it seems that the b29 in its trial period had a number of problems and Pilots were uh anxious about actually flying it and so uh what they did according to this gentleman they got two women to learn how to fly the plane and they taught the men how to fly the b29 um the other thing I want to mention is another thing in the morning call about the annual survey of the census department and the population of Bethlehem is estimated to have increased by 600 people and from 2022 to 2023 so that strikes me as somewhere between 300 and 400 apartments which seems about right and at that rate we will hit 80,000 in three years thank you you Mr shy next speaker is Arty cerola hi I'm Marty CA 8133 laer Street Bethlehem Pennsylvania I wasn't going to say anything about this but since they brought it up at the betham water department uh a little while back I had a situation where they had to come out to turn the water off and they couldn't get the valve off so they had to use some special tools and the special tools with the vibration and everything cracked my concrete it still broke to this day and it's about two years uh they still haven't done nothing with it uh with replacing it but that's one the one problem the other problem is uh I like to make a public comment I washed my hands over in the betham public library and I had all these great rings that I had for about 35 years I set them up there I get I guess I forgot to take my gingle Bela that's morning uh I left the Rings there and however the following day I realized I didn't have my rings so however if anybody's listening about that if you got those rings that you found in the library basement return them I'll give you way more money that you would get on the streets for selling those rings I promise and the pinky ring that's a diamond you can keep that because I that was doesn't have sentimental value I found that in Atlantic City by a pwn shop I guess somebody lost a lot of money in Atlantic City and they thought hey take my ring too so I waited around and nobody claimed a ring for about an hour but but thing is that ring doesn't have any it's it's it's it's worth about ,000 doll but here you have it on here with the city I will not press charges for you for not returning that ring just give me the other other rings and I'll give you money on top of it I just like to get my six rings that I had from people that were special to me uh throughout the course of the years and they're no longer part of this Earth so if possible whoever hears this and it gets to the right person that picked up those Rings return them and I'll make it well worth your while and you can keep the pinky ring the other thing is Arts Quest I would think twice about investing in arts Quests for since last year been trying actually longer than that been trying to get things resolved they have me barred from from doing anything with Arts Quest entertaining wise I do standup comedy and I'm a musician and there was a little problem where the person who runs a comedy section I gave I'm not going to mention his name don't get uptight about that uh but however the thing is I gave him his start when I started started the all girl comedy shows back in 1986 first guy to book girl girl girl comics and I had it coined with with the phrase that I coined back way back in the day call girls night out he would come into my shows and asked to do some time I said it's only for girls he said well put me on beforehand so I put him on beforehand one time he was losing the crowd three the third table was about to leave and I cut him off after 10 minutes and he was insulted he said one day you'll get back at me he did I performed at the bankle cinema for a stand Standing G vasion for pack packed house just a few seats that were vacant nobody left through in my comedy performance he wound up calling me a racist well I've been called worse I've been called anti-semitic but the thing is he's been called he called made an ant racist and I performed Mexican restaurants for all over the place for five years going on the Mexico Lindo the second Saturday of every month I'm there the thing is I'm an I'm a racist because I wound up saying pardon some of the empty seats my Mexican girlfriend couldn't be here tonight with 43 of her friends and family members because the minivan broke down now that was considered racist and especially to where I W up saying you know like you got to excuse things to because like uh us Italians uh we're like Puerto Ricans with good credit that was racist however he said I'll never perform Arts quests again they not only per stop me from performing at the comedy section but also for the music where does that tie in and seven years Grace tried to organize things and get things together with the head of Arts Quest and she was ducking her for over a year finally she gave her a few minutes and she said well we're going to let time see what happens if time goes on and give it a little time seven years how much time you want I'm old and gray now what the hell you know I'm pardon I didn't mean to say that but what the heck okay but the thing is the thing is like really Arts Quest a nonprofit organization and they will exploit people and take your money thank you Mr Cara thank you God bless our next speaker is Valerie Nunan hi uh you'll have to forgive if I'm a bit off the Cup today um I'm here pinching on this topic and I actually didn't expect intend to speak today but after the last meeting several of my friends and fellow organizers agreed that we disagreed strongly with the characterization of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr at the last meeting by councilman Calhan and by members of the public and we wanted to set the record straight as this is last minute I'll be relying heavily on the words of MLK himself I read a little bit from the letter from Birmingham Jail last time I feel the need to revisit it today I feel like this really needs to be said um I'd like to first point out the activists in this community have had MLK weaponized against us used to criticize us the letter from Birmingham Jail was written as a response to criticism he starts by saying while confined here in the Birmingham city jail I came across your recent statement calling my president my present activities unwise and untimely seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas if I sought to answer all the criticisms that crossed my desk my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day and I would have no time for constructive work so that is our short answer criticism I would say I think we can take quite a bit of response to criticism from this letter it's just as relevant now as it was in 1963 and jumping ahead a little to where I read from last week you may well ask why direct action why sens Marchin and so forth isn't negotiation a better path you are quite right in calling for negotiation indeed this is the very purpose of direct action nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and Foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue it seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored by citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the vi nonviolent resistor may sound rather shocking but I must conent confess that I'm not afraid of the word tension I've earnestly opposed violent tension but there is a type of constructive non-violent tension which is necessary for growth just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal so must we see the need for non-violent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark deaths of pre Prejudice and racism to The Majestic Heights of understanding and Brotherhood this last part I'm going to quote is one of the most famous parts of the letter and one I think applies the most to this Council it is appalling to see how badly Martin Luther King Jr's Legacy has been co-opted by moderates some of you in this room would have hated him honestly some of you in this room would have hated him that is what we saw at the last meeting this co-option let's hear what he has to say about the white moderate I must confess that over the past few years I've been Gravely disappointed with the white moderate I've almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the new girl's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens counselor or the klex clanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to Justice who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive piece which is the presence of Justice who constantly says I agree with you in the goal you seek but cannot agree with your methods of direct action who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's Freedom who lives by mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a more convenient season and I want to emphasize this last part shallow understanding from people of Goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection truly like Martin Luther King Jr I could never have written anything that expressed it the way he did but just to see his legacy co-opted in a way that is the opposite of what he believed in just it grinds my gears and this is representing a whole group of people that felt the same way thank you thank you next speaker is Harry Faber hary Faber um so on Saturday May 18th at around 8: a.m. I was rushed to St Luke's Hospital in an ambulance my mom found me passed out on the floor unresponsive in our bathroom it took roughly five minutes for me to wake up and I mean roughly my stepdad was straight smacking me up you know um before I knew what was going on or what really happened the paramedics uh were there and I was on the gurnie and on route to the hospital and as I'm in the ambulance slowly but surely uh regaining my wits as the cold saline solution filled my veins I began to cry not because of the horrified look on my mom's face not because of the worry about my own health concerned not knowing what happened I cried because I didn't know how I was going to be able to afford this Not only was I missing a shift a double for both of my jobs as I was going to work at Double that day but I was also acre God knows how much medical debt and I didn't know what happened or what was wrong with me but I did know that 65% of bankruptcies come from medical debt and and that ambulances are ridiculously expensive this is like a systemic issue this is a system issue it's not and I'm not here coming because I want you know my days labor that I missed out from passing out oh by the way I'm fine now I was dehydrated I worked three doubles in a row uh didn't drink didn't really eat um two 12h hour shifts in a 14 hour uh and I just wasn't eating wasn't drinking I was dehydrated I'm good now but uh these are systemic issues a direct result of our economic system the profit motive has been integrated into every aspect of Our Lives as um I'm not sure what your name is uh drip there that's not okay but that profit motive is in every aspect of Our Lives you know whether it comes to health care whether it comes to food whether it comes to housing I went to the public housing meeting the opening doors and I didn't want to there was already people complaining about issues that I didn't really care about my biggest problem with that meeting was um the focus on adus when we look at adus what is it really okay so we're taking a property owner and we're subsidizing a develop or a a unit a uh residential unit being built onto the uh premises onto the property when you really take a step back and yeah there's 20 years or maybe it's a hundred year thing that's really if you think about it just a shortcut for property owners for homeowners into becoming landlords into extracting working people's money for for something they didn't do they're not building the houses they're not building these units but they're profiting off of it and I know I believe most of the value is going to go um from the rent into you know the city or whatever it was but when you look at how the profit motive is integrated in every aspect why we have to ask ourselves why why is every second of Our Lives being extracted why are we selling all I like this isn't normal why is why was my first instinct in that ambulance how am I gonna afford this is that what we want we have to ask ourselves that is that what we want for Society for somebody who works two jobs full-time now the problem with my position is I work part-time at a warehouse and my other job is I run a bread route now I'm an independent contractor I don't have Private health insurance I don't get paid days off that's a problem I can't if I don't work I didn't work that day I missed out on $2300 that's that's so much money it might not be a lot of money to you guys but that is so much money especially people who are just getting by and that's not just my personal experience that is my personal experience but so many other people um the one lady behind me was talking about how that increase in the water bill she couldn't afford it people are living paycheck to paycheck that's what we need to be talking yes our tax dollars are going to fund a genocide that is what's going on that is literally what's happening and you're not directly doing that but we need to look at these issues of where our money is going we're not investing in the people we're not investing in infrastructure the workload hasn't gone down we produced more than ever we're past the age of the Industrial Revolution we produce more than ever and yet people are still scraping by and we're wasting more than ever so we need to take a broader look at our system acknowledge that this system is flawed you don't have to be a communist but Jesus Christ communism is still newer than capitalism capitalism is what three 400 years old communism is like almost 200 you don't have to be a communist but Jesus Christ don't be a DieHard capitalist look at the system and how inherently the people at the top continue to build and build their wealth while siphoning it from the working people at the bottom I sell all my time all of my labor and I reap none of the rewards I have a saying what I consume I don't I don't fetishize any Commodities I barely buy anything I barely consume at all I spend most of my money on food and I'm still struggling leaving paycheck to paycheck now the beauty of democracy is the ugliness we don't have to agree we don't have to like each other hell you can literally hate me despise me but at the end of the day democracy is about coming together and working towards a betterment of society at the end of the day as long as we all have the same goal being the betterment of Society not a particular group or cast in the long run we'll figure it out thank you Mr fa and I'm glad you're making a a recovery that exhaust our list of those who had signed up before the meeting I'll go around the room starting to the left and work my way to my right was there anyone to the left who wants make comment on anything not being voted on in the back row and then I'll move to the front um Drew Swedberg I've been an adun professor at Moravian um paying taxes in in Bethlehem um I mentioned this last meeting I just want to put it back on the attention largely because I'm not going to be here for the meeting in two weeks and I do think that uh we all deserve an answer now not in a way that's like telling or asking the solicitor to rush this answer but I do think we do uh need an answer to this so I'm just going to read the email that I sent uh again this is in no way a response I know the solicit is not here um I also sent this email to the wrong email and followed up today with the right email so this may take a little bit of time but I do want to keep this in circulation so in the March 5th meeting the solicitor read section 709 pretty much verbatim which I and this is from my email which I understand to be about B agenda items and notice you then read section 72.1 this is this Lister but from the recording I confirmed that exceptions as provided in subsection b c d and e which preced the language you read in the official text of the sunshine act were not referenced a most interested in subsection D which reads um and this is you know 72.1 Sunshine Act is saying you know what are the things that you can do in relationship to putting something on the agenda or having something that's not on the agenda and there are these exceptions for things that are not on the agenda so in reference to this meeting there was a ceasefire resolution that was not put on the agenda we proposed that it was put on that agenda that night we were then read 72.1 and my question again for the solicitor um just to keep this in circulation is subsection D reads uh exactly and I'll quote it business arising during meeting if during the conduct of a meeting a resident or taxpayer brings a matter of agency business that is not listed on the meeting agenda to the attention of the agency the agency may take official action to refer the matter to staff if applicable for the purpose of research the matter for inclusion on the agenda of a future meeting or if the matter is dominous in nature and does not involve the expenditure of funds or entering into a contract or agreement the agency may take official action on the matter and again I'm going to read from my email while may feel feudal to look back at the past I am curious if what we were initially asking in that moment one for Council to motion and second the action to put the resolution we drafted on the agenda two to then vote on that motion three to then discuss and amend as needed and then four to vote would fall within subsection D of sun Sunshine act section 72.1 my understanding is that this was quote a matter of agency business affirmed by the majority of our council members the meeting before and with plenty of time to research as well as hearing an additional 278 minutes of public comment that also is quote dimin di Minimus in nature and does not involve the expenditure of funds or entering into a contract or agreement this is all true I am honestly confused as to how the council was not able able to take official action on the matter and how this was framed as not possible at the moment of discussion by Council which then cascaded into everything that we've experienced the last month or so um again I'm only here to put this keep this in circulation knowing I won't be here in two weeks to keep this in circulation I will be watching the uh city council meeting on the YouTube stream and I really would love a response like an official response to this because I am deeply concerned that this was a violation of the sunshine act or you know at its worst or maybe at its best just something that should have been read that night um thank you I appreciate it thank you and I'll follow up with attorney Stewart who I believe you said you emailed today understood and then I would just ask anyone if every email whether it's our Council solicitor uh all of our emails mine included are on the city website always feel free to copy whether it's Mr Miller city clerk the clerk's office or myself uh on anything like that the clerk can always for anything to councel yes Mr Rodriguez yes oh [Music] boy Eddie Rodriguez 13th Avenue Bethlehem good evening everybody I went to Cherokee Street and I went around pawy Street Cherokee Street I didn't go up sen uh senica at all but I took a bird's eye view of was what was happening in reference to the garbage and particularly that and the garbage containers I went on Sunday and if anybody knows who I am with reference to my first coming to City Council meetings that was one of my topics it was important for me to keep the city clean so that's why I did it because it was a complaint about where I used to live years ago that was part of my growing up Pony Street and that has changed over the years but I didn't see I I what I saw was garbage containers practically at every house in the front neatly stacked two and three sometimes I did see on a rare occasion well let me just State this the garbage cans practically all were empty I guess the garbage uh sanitation department came and took care of that matter before Sunday so maybe I went on the wrong day but I would like to go back and you know I'm not the police but if you're going to complain about something something like that make sure you have the story right the other thing was speeding I didn't see any anything about speeding at the time when I used to live there yes I believe it still goes on yes I did see sporty Vehicles there yes and part of what happens there are those type of vehicles but again I'm not blaming anybody for that enough of that uh conso does not have absolutely nothing to do with what happens in Gaza no genocide the president of Israel or prime minister has kept on bombing Gaza yes people are suffering and dying for that I also don't want it to happen but what can counil do absolutely nothing they can recommend but by the time that they get notice to be on the president's desk God knows that if it already gets there because so much male gets there by the bags tons and tons of mail I don't expect Council to do anything about that they can recommend send a letter out if that's what you want fine but don't BL blame them for what's happening in Gaza uh ccil didn't do anything to those people the bombing goes on people are suffering but again it's nobody here in the United States that's doing that there are protests and it keeps on going it's getting worse but again people are in peace on this side the United States by example we should all follow that but we fear and we don't want anything to happen to those folks but it is happening we all feel sorry for the Palestinian people I do personally myself some people here when they come to a council meeting they have a at the time not as much now there's been a calm here and for that I'm grateful I'm sure everybody else is there's been a clicking of fingers and bringing food into Council Hall this is not allowed it's a disturbance but conso has been patient about this they haven't said anything about this they were asking but they haven't said anything foul language has been used towards council members and and it's a disrespect towards everyone that attends especially those that are we should be looking out for our own children that come here with their parents I strongly suggest that muscle type shirts be not used here at Council meetings I don't think it's proper if you want to attend then dress properly I got just two more if you don't I'll make is I'm going to give you 10 seconds to wrap it up fine I'll wrap it up being allowed to be recognized by your peers doesn't solve anything council members should respond to should not respond to questions by speakers that's it thank you Mr rodri was there anyone else to the left who want to make comment who hasn't had a chance to speak I turn to the wide Center is there anyone in the center who would to make comment who has not had a chance to speak up in the very back yes sir excuse me yeah um sorry uh today's topic is a little bit different than the last feeding um I'm actually here about excuse me um more less based on I I guess I'll keep on the topic of water um um I for some of you who don't know I'm disabled so um I don't drive and I get everywhere on foot I've been I've been all around on foot for years now and um um the one thing I've noticed I've been struggling with recently because it's getting hotter is places to drink water like like like I heard from my mother that down in Arizona it's illegal to deny a person a cup of water if they come into a business looking for water and um out here I've noticed sometimes that happens I would go into a place and ask for water and get Chun out immediately even if I just want water like I understand you have to pay when you're in a business and all that but if you got to pay for something that has flavor in it you it might as well just be something with flavor it shouldn't have to be water water is something that all our bodies need to survive we're like 75% water we can go weeks without food but you can't really go so long without water you could start feeling the effect of dehydration in about like an hour of walking outside or at least for me and um I noticed you have water fountains here you have one on Rose Garden you got one in the uh the grassland The Greenway area but a lot of them all of what I see they don't work and um it's kind of hard to be walking places where I got to go and be really really thirsty and see a water fountain get excited to drink from it only to have it not work and then I'm hot there again so now I have to go even further hoping that there's a store or something that'll be nice enough to you know give me some water like I and you know yes people have money yes I I do occasionally have money and I would go in there but I shouldn't have to like use my money if I just want some hydration I can understand you know wanting you know some a soda or something yeah I'll buy that I'll actually buy that but if I just want something to drink you know to like get me moving throughout the day perk up my energy there should be nothing wrong with stepping in and just asking for I mean I'm guessing I'm what I'm trying to say is I just want you know maybe if you can get the water fountains back working and like maybe um it would be less of a hassle I w't have to worry about needing certain things to be able to get water from businesses like the businesses here and I occasionally go in them all the time and I buy stuff from them and they're really cool they really nice to me but I'm just saying people should be maybe a little more lightened up on the water situation it might be a just a me thing but I don't know um that's pretty much all I had thank you and it's definitely something we could bring up when we move through our agenda this evening thank you was there anyone else in the center who would to make comment on anything not being voted on tonight look to my right was there anyone to the right who would to make comment on anything not being voted on this evening all right thank you everyone pardon so we're going to move on to our second public comment second public comment is reserved for any agenda items any ordinances or resolutions we didn't have anyone sign up in advance so again I'll go around the room this is comment for anything that council's voting on tonight is there anyone to the left who want to make comment on anything being voted on tonight is there anyone in the wide Center who want to make comment on anything that we're voting on tonight and was there anyone to the right who want to make comment on anything that we're voting on tonight right all right that concludes our public comment thank you everyone moving on to Old business excuse me any old business for members of council any new business for members of council Council women Le own I since we're talking about water access I did want to um give a little bit of of background to what we have been working on we have been working on uh access to water in Parks um we've talked about quite a lot with uh with Public Works um there's there's an incredible amount of infrastructure that might have to be later relooked at or uh rebuilt up but water access um I know I've talked to other people on Council water access for me is just a basic right and we continue to push for water access at least in our Parks as as a bare minimum and we continue to work with uh with Mr Alcon Public Works um to to accomplish that it's very important to us too thank you Council Le own any other new business for members of council Mr Callahan Mike do we know how many um water fountains we we have around in the city 19 19 and how many of them [Music] working yeah that's correct about 19 but we have throughout the city between parks and other facilities are are the 19 working or or some of them aren't working many unfortunately are currently not working of the 19 that I think it's five or six work and the rest over time U they fell into disrepair we're talking back you know as far back as 15 20 years ago yeah combination of that and um at least in the past what I'm told is there's not much demand for them and the combination of that and then falling in this disrepair some significant where there was water line leaks and what have you and they weren't fixed uh and then they just weren't uh upkept and and maintain relooking at is it is it the piping under the ground or is it I mean that'd be a major fix but or is it underground pip issues is eventually and that why they were somewhat unofficially abandoned and were just not being paid any attention and then you know with Co it just it it it's it's been H it's happened over a long period of time where the the common attitude was they're just not in demand and they're not needed they're not worth maintaining and now like I said we've been revisiting that and uh for example at Fairview we installed a installed one there we put a meter on it again to just to see how utilized it is um to help guide um our approach of what we're going to do but if it may obviously lead to I'm I'm told it was very difficult to maintain all the you know they were vandalized often uh and they were and they needed attention uh repeatedly that combined with the at least the perception of not being in demand is why we have the situation that we have all right thank you Mr Callen I would just add to that is I mean obviously it's something that's come up before in an ideal situation we want to be able to do it as we said Fairview Park last year I think something in Friendship Park I think it's a completely legitimate thing for us to take a look at and look at those costs as as Mike had said some of those costs probably are you know thousands and thousands of dollars because you're looking at Old piping and things like that but it is probably a it's probably a systemic question that is is deserving of an answer but when we're doing new parks and new buildings it's something or new park builds like we said Fairview at Fourth and Market it was something that was obviously a lot cheaper to put in then to retrofit something old in there but it's something we can talk about and try to get Council just kind of a systemic answer to could I mean I I obviously know that if it's if it's the underground piping it's going to be extensively uh inexpensive can we find out if the the ones that aren't working how many of those are just like a quick fix and maybe it's a new water we did we already we went around and we took an inventory of all of them that's why I could tell you these numbers off of my head because I before we you know they weren't being paid attention to uh best about all the ones that are not working have extensive problems with them both leaky pipes leading to the fountain The Fountains obviously old and you'd have to replace them completely obviously so I would say at minimum each location is thousands of dollars to bring back into service and if they're that's why we're also looking at the demand because if they're needed even if the demand isn't that much but if the consensus is we need to provide that amenity then we'll have to do do that and we'll have to incur the cost and and do it but we want to have the fact before we go ahead and commit how how many parks do we have in the city seven um small and large 27 something like 27 plus or minus yeah thank you and I just want to comment and then I'll I'll turn it over to Mayor Reynolds further comment on that uh I I appreciate that this isn't something I really honestly gave a ton of thought to recently other than my own personal experience now with the uh my toddler that my wife and I try to take out to our city parks and as we just the new Norm we we get away from as a community using the single-use plastic water bottles and I look up here at the table we have a couple bottles I was uh not too long ago at a national park hiking you couldn't even buy a bottle of water everyone was expected to bring their own bottle of water to be able to fill so as we all use our parks and I understand there's a a cost benefit not to we don't want to deny people water that's not what I mean but I also understand like with any infrastructure project to the point that brought up there's the there's a price tag uh set to that so I appreciate the update and as mayor Reynolds alluded to some of the other parks and Mr alol you alluded to uh fair viiew and as we look at Friendship Park and looking at where it's feasible to incorporate maybe the bringing these water lines these water fountains in service as there's other projects and Investments going on there uh maybe a wiser use of time and dollars than all these individual projects but um and I heard you referen this is decades this isn't something that they all didn't go out of service last summer or since covid this is sort of something that just wasn't prioritized so I do appreciate from what I gather from councilwoman Leon and mayor Reynolds Mr alcohol this isn't something that just came up tonight this is something that's been discussed so we we appreciate it and uh I think it's something that moving forward down at an appropriate time down the road just keeping us informed on what that's looking like mayor Reynolds yeah I just want to add a couple things one is I I think it goes without saying I if the gentleman still here is that if you stop by City Hall we're never going to turn you away from any water um this is a place that someone's going to walk in and I would hope I think all of us at our house wherever we're living if somebody came by and they were looking for a glass of water I think you know nine times out of 10 we're all going to be like absolutely and I would hope and I would second his General spirit that I would hope that if somebody stopped by that most places obviously there's a line as with everything that most places would be like this person is hot and looking for a glass of water and we could give it to them I would just think is think that's an even easier solution is that we all would be kind to do that like I said if somebody ever stopped by city hall and that happens sometimes that this would be a place it is tied to our conversation that we've had sometimes about public bathrooms as well in different places um we've obviously dealt with some vandalism things like that obviously there's Faucets in there people are able to get water um being able to and like I said it's not exactly the same situation but it's a related it's a related conversation that some of our parks where there are public bathrooms that have been vandalized or damaged for thousands of dollars and trying to find a way to necessarily do it we're doing the same conversation downtown because public bathrooms keep coming up um but I think it's a very it's a very worthy one um but I would just tell I would very very much second the gentleman's thought is I would hope most people if they saw someone that was thirsty would be like let's give this person you know a glass of water but we can absolutely continue to talk about it and get you some more answers any other new business for members of council Council KY Smith yeah just on on that topic I'm just wondering um and this is a reach but I'm wondering if maybe we can look like for any grants or something because I'm thinking it's it's so related to so many things it's related to climate change we had our hottest summer last year God knows this summer may be just as hot if not hotter so that's an issue um it's a conservation issue it's a climate change issue issue I'm wondering like through DC um and R or EPA or if if you know we can look through our grant writer just see you know it's a reach but maybe there's some grants out there that can help us to um to get some of these water fountains up and running thanks thank you any other new business for members of council councilwoman quch I've been told because there was no um agenda item 7c that I am to read this during new business the Community Development Committee met this evening at 6 PM in town hall the committee discussed one agenda item the 2024 Fair hearing report the committee held the annual Financial accountability incentive reporting or Fair hearing required by article 349 and reviewed Economic Development incentive reports submitted by the administration the meeting was for informational purposes only and no actions were taken Hillary G quch chairperson Community Development Committee thank you councilwoman moving on from new business Communications Mr Miller Communications 6A May 8th 2024 memorandum with a proposed resolution from director of water and sewer resources Edward boscola Mr basca recommends a contract with Michael at franka and Sons Incorporated of Bethlehem to include two change orders to use up all remaining unencumbered funds in pvest account to replace as many lead service water lines as possible change order will increase the number of lines being replaced from 200 to 413 two change orders equal $286,400 44 and will bring the total project cost to 2, 873,000 $778 44 contract shall run from the notice to proceed until May 30th 2024 there are no renewals and resolution 10A is on the agenda tonight communication 6B May 14th 2024 memorandum and proposed resolution from Laura Collins director of Economic and Community Development Miss Collins requests a resolution of support in applying to the state for a grant through the Redevelopment assistance Capital program the application seeks more than a million dollars to provide second floor expansion at the national museum of industrial history City serves as a pass through agent and no matches required and resolution 10B is on the agenda communication 6C May 14th 2024 memorandum and proposed resolution from Laura Collins director of Economic and Community Development Miss Collins requests a resolution of support in applying for a Pennsylvania Department of community and economic development Grant the grant seeks $250,000 to assist in development of the greenway Trail Gap following the acquisition of property and resolution 10c is on the agenda this evening 6D the May 21st 2024 memorandum with an attached resolution from fire chief Michael Reich Chief Reich recommends the council adopt a resolution updating the city of bethlehem's Emergency Operations plan for a declared disaster to be filed with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management agency most of the changes are minor plan and phone contact updates and resolution 10d is on the agenda communication 6E May 14th 2024 memorandum from solicitor John fburg Jr with an attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is juneth Lehigh Valley and the sub permit is Arts quest to hold the 2024 juneth Lehi Valley Music Festival the event date is June 15 2024 from 11:00 a.m. to 7 p.m. duration of the permit is from 8:00 a.m. until 10 p.m. on June 15th speci IFI premises is First Street from PK Street to the Eastern Terminus and Founders way between the first and second streets and resolution 10 is on the agenda 6f May 14th 2024 memorandum from solicitor John MBK Jr with an attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is the Portuguese American Club of Bethlehem and the event is the 2024 Portuguese Heritage Day Festival event times are 5: to 10 p.m. on June 7th and 11:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. on June 8th duration is 1: to 10 p.m. on June 7th and 8:00 a.m. to 10: p.m. on June 8th specified premises is rink street from Broadhead Avenue to the end of Portuguese American Club parking lot as shown on an attached exhibit resolution 10f is on the agenda 6G May 5 uh correction May 14th 2024 Mor memorandum from solicitor johnb Jr with an attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is Christmas City spirits LLC and the sub permittee is the Redevelopment authority of the city of Bethlehem the event is the Vintage Market the event times are 11:00 a.m. to 400 P p.m. on June 1st and July 6th the dur duration is 9:00 amm until 5:00 p.m. on June 1st and July 6th specified premises are located adjacent to the sun in Courtyard is specified in an attached exhibit and resolution 10g is on the agenda 6h am May 14th 2024 memorandum from solicitor John FB Jr with an attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is Holy infancy Roman Catholic church and the event is the 2024 holy infancy cultural celebration event times are 5: to 10 p.m. on June 14th and noon to 10 p.m. on June 15th duration varies from 8:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. June 10th through June 18th specified premises or law for Streets between Pierce and Buchanan streets and Pier Street between East Packer Avenue and East Fifth Street and resolution 10 each is on the agenda 6i May 15th 2024 memorandum with a proposed resolution from dced business manager Tiffany Wismer Miss Wismer recommends a contract with HDR engineering corporated Bethlehem which will use a research form to provide regulatory database search as well as other research methods to determine whether envir EnV enironmental contamination is present on desired site involving the greenway and surrounding properties cost is $7,500 work is to be done by June 30th 2024 there are no renewals and that resolution is 10m on the agenda this evening moving on to reports continuing the talk about the uh Curative Amendment Council will continue a Curative Amendment hearing at 6 pm on Tuesday June 11 here in Town Hall that date is now confirmed I mentioned it at the last council meeting this hearing was requested by bhx LLC which is the Equitable owner of property proposed for development as the Handover Apartments the Curative Amendment requests removing any building length limitation from the CL zoning District the first night of this hearing was held on April 30th and again this is a continuance of that I don't have anything else to report this evening Mr Mayor thank you I have several um topics to talk about then a couple administrative orders but I didn't want to start by allowing uh Chief cot um to um obviously we had um uh the situation that we had read about in the newspaper yesterday and I wanted to allow uh Chief cot the opportunity to speak and then if any council member had any type of question that she's able to answer I wanted to just start out the mayor's report that way um so Chief cot maybe you want to make some opening opening remarks so last week we announced the arrest of Kasa celestus a former Bethlehem police officer following allegations that he had inappropriate contact with a minor CA celestus was assigned as a school resource officer at East Hills Middle School in the betham area school district upon receiving the report from the betham area school district alleging misconduct the betham police department immediately initiated both a criminal and internal investigation as a result of the criminal investigation sufficient evidence was gathered to Warrant the arrest of Mr Alesis as a result of the internal investigation Mr alus was terminated and is no longer employed by the city of Bethlehem police department I want to reiterate that the betham police department takes allegations of professional Mis professional conduct and public trust violations very seriously we are fully committed to upholding the higher standards of integrity and accountability within our ranks any behavior that undermines public trust or violates the law will be swiftly and decisively addressed I would also like to take a moment to reemphasize that the actions of one individual do not reflect the values or professionalism of our department the betham police department remains dedicated to upholding our mission of serving and protecting the community with honor and integrity thank you Chief cot and just two quick things to add to that is uh first of all um you know we're going to continue to uh take a look internally within the police department and uh work with the school district with Mr brada who has been extraordinarily helpful um during the situation um to take a look at our internal procedures to take take a look at all of the different things um that we're able to do to obviously make sure something like this does not happen again um that will be an ongoing conversation um and I do want to thank Mr broad as well who's been extra extraordinarily helpful uh who has been working closely with the chief and with our department and with us as we over the past couple of weeks um but I also do want to say is you know I've had an opportunity over the past week or so to uh both visit um you know to pay a visit to uh our dep Department during roll call and talk to a lot of officers and as you can imagine there is a very very very high degree of anger within our Police Department I think a lot of us know many of these police officers for a number of years and they appreciate the fact that our police department has a different um history and a different relationship with our citizens than you see in a lot of other cities that's because of the quality of our officers um so there has been a a very noticeable level of anger obviously um with uh you know what this individual um is accused of what was laid out and what he was charged with um but at the same time this is obviously a situation um that as I said last week um you know what he's charged with are just it's just terrific um and you know we are going to continue to take a look at our internal procedures and work with the police department and talk to the school district and work with uh the District Attorney's office um on any potential type of changes uh that need to be need to be made going forward I will we typically don't open up to questions during the mayor's report but I will give in the circumstances I'm just going to start with we do recognize there's still ongoing investigations there's still a potential criminal trial that that's going to be pending in the future so uh understanding the sensitivities to those circumstances I do appreciate Chief cot your report report and what's been made public and just the the swiftness with which this happened and the collaboration between the the school district the District Attorney's office and the police department for for a an arrest and intervention to to happen as soon as possible given all these circumstances um I think there's more conversation to be had in the future as as the investigation continues to play out and decisions are made regarding what what things look like policy-wise procedure wise and and how things continue to take shape but I will turn it to my colleagues see if anyone else wanted to make uh any comment relative to Chief cot's uh report regarding the the arrest we read about Mr Callahan I just want to thank the uh Chief cot uh the uh school district and uh uh our Administration for the transparency and all of it obviously disgusting thing that happened alleged happened um it's a very tough thing to probably talk about on all ends and uh I appreciate the uh the openness and uh the coming forward of this and um everybody was as transparent as possible so thank you very much on a very difficult uh s you know situation so thank you any other comments from members of council Miss L and then I'll go uh two questions um one is has a resource officer been reassigned to the school to fill that Gap or is there a pause on that um position right now how how is that being handled so that position hasn't been refilled yet that is something that we're we're looking to do over the summer is to get someone trained up to to pick the right Personnel to go into the school okay and um I don't know how this works in terms of where um Duty Falls uh for offering support to the the school Community um you know the not not even just the direct victim but the broader School Community the kids who have had their uh trust shaken um is there any Outreach currently happening from the city or do you know of what the school district is offering uh to the school community so we've been in constant contact with Dr Silva and as someone who uh is not only a law enforcement officer but a a proud parent of two betham Area School District children uh we are in constant contact and he has assured me that the school district is offering every and any support that they can um to the students to The Faculty to anyone that may have been affected by this despicable um incident these the actions of this individual and I I believe they had counselors um available and they're going to continue to have counselors available and I also believe the school district scheduled something as far as um talking to parents about how to talk and talk to their students about this um but I I do know as as Chief said that Dr Silva has pledged as long as it needs to happen or ongoing and things like that and you really hit at it as far as the trust is concerned and you know when situations like this happen it affects anybody that's in a position of authority um as far as whether or not it's a a parent a teacher a guidance counselor you know police officers I mean their whole job there is to build trust with these with the young people and you know that has been that has been hurt and I think everybody acknowledges that um and is doing everything they can in the short term but also very open to conversations about what those long-term what those long-term things look like to improve improve that situation thank you councilwoman KY Smith thank you um thank you this is um definitely a difficult topic and I just want to say that um my heart goes out in support to um the victim and the families and all the students and all those in the district and also to our police officers because I'm sure they're really Shattered by um the trust and the confidence that was um you know shattered you know by this by this officer um I'm in a unique position because as a counselor I sit on the side of counseling students who are victims of these horrific acts but I also have been really fortunate to sit with many police officers and have them really tremendously help my students and I've been fortunate there's just some great offices that I've worked with in our schools together um and I guess I just want to say publicly that there and I'm sure hopefully everybody knows this that there are many many many more wonderful police officers who are compassionate and caring um than these very few who just are um for whatever reason very very ill and and commit such horrific acts but um you have all my support thank you any other new well any other questions for chief cot or mayor Reynolds relative to this Mr Callahan I just want to add I um is it is it Sergeant Elias now it's uh yes Sergeant Elias I I would just ask I mean I don't know what your your process is and trying to find a replacement there I I I was a teacher over freedom school for 25 years I probably probably had four or five different uh uh resource officers over at freedom and I was in uh Northeast for five and I can tell you without any uh doubt officer allias was probably the best resource officer I that I had I had observed in 30 years and so I don't know what your interviewing processes but I I would if you feel comfortable with I would highly recommend that someone like him who has a lot of experience in it and knows the temperament and the um you know just the uh the the line between professionalism and because our our our our police officers do an unbelievable job I think with our citizens and and acting like a a concerned citizen themselves I think that's why our police officer have such a great uh rapport with our citizens and um I think that when you're a schore resource officer you are trying to have that same rapport with students but without crossing a friendship line at all and I think he he has that that mixture dead on perfect I mean he's he knows how to talk to kids that are upset about things but he also knows how to uh you know do what's right on a professional manner so you I don't know if you could add him into the interviewing process but I think I think he'd be an asset so thank you thank you anything else from members of council thank you Chief thank you mayor thank you um and just uh transitioning then to the report um last Friday uh we uh um unveiled our new uh Health fan uh Madison Park we had a big uh Park event over there uh and that's a big deal it took a um it took a process for us to get it but that Health fan is obviously G to be mobile as far as doing um preventative care different Health screenings vaccinations a lot of different things that are going to help out our health Bureau um did last uh Wednesday have our um second uh you know quarterly opening doors meeting I know several people on Council were there um where we had reviewed uh our progress with Choice neighborhoods Gateway and fourth the eviction prevention um we did talk about that pilot project with the adus a lot of the questions have from the audience came about that that wasn't necessarily part of the presentation um I actually think we had talked about a lot of the other stuff as much but that did seem to be people had questions about the Adu pilot project uh much more so than some of the conversation there but I do want to thank Miss tulo and Miss Collins and everyone that had worked there including our partners for those of you that were there uh we've talked often about how when we are looking at housing or looking at any real thing it's about what coalitions we can put together and who we can work with um so we had um you know representatives of North Pan legal services and Miss Smith was there from uh cadv um so it was a uh it was it was another good night um last Thursday we had our uh bike to work um event here at the city which went particularly well uh a lot of excitement about our focus on biking and walking um uh over the weekend we also had brought back uh first time I want to thank everybody in the recreation Bureau uh brought back our basketball 3 and3 Tournament down St Island which had been a number of years in the making um so we were happy about that we had to we had to delay it one day because of the rain from Saturday Sunday but we had a very good turnout we had a lot of help from the Liberty Freedom basketball coaches so I just wanted to um uh say that and then my last update before I turn to our ministrative orders is the also the Memorial Day Parade uh is on Monday at 9:00 amm uh so if you're able to uh if you're able to make it it's a short one starts right outside there in front of Liberty High School goes up to Memorial Cemetery um so that will be a usually a usually that's one of those days when everybody appreciates living in the city of Bethlehem um and you know the service of our of our veterans and everyone that served our country um so then with that being said I will move on to our two administrative orders the first one is sitting right next to me here um and that is our new uh fire chief uh Michael Reich um and before I ask him to make some comments that uh uh you know preclude his appointment I do want to just first thank Chief AI over 30 years in the fire department he's a Marine um so I want to thank him for his service to the city um and then also I want to just introduce uh Mr Reich here um who has a level of service who has been involved in uh fire fighting for I think what 36 years is that correct 36 years 24 with the city of Bethlehem um and just a man of um Integrity a passion of service to the city um I think that he is going to make a fantastic team with our Deputy um uh Chief beay and I just you know couldn't be more excited to uh be welcoming Mr Reich to the seat I think one thing you're going to find as you know we require of everybody around here is that the ansers never that's what because that's the way I want to do it uh Mr Reich is organized he is thorough he is uh responsive as far as like this is the rationale this is the reasoning this is where we're coming from and things like that um and even just in the last you know 10 days uh since uh the chiaki retired uh I've been uh above and beyond impressed with h Mr reich's professionalism and his uh excitement for the job and you know I always think you can tell somebody you know you can tell their commitment to the work when you ask like how it's going and it's it's not it's not he hasn't started with I'm really excited to get to he says that but then he's like there's a lot of work to do and there's a lot running through my mind and that always I think his his his level of service is matching um what he thinks are the opportunities um both with our firefighters and with our paramedics going forward um and with that being said before I read the administrative order I did want to allow uh you know Captain Reich for a few more seconds um to the opportunity to make a few comments and introduce himself Michael Reich like the mayor said I've been a firefighter for 36 years 24 years with the city of Bethlehem I'm a husband with an amazing supportive wife we have a blended family with five children and three grandchildren so I'm a dad a a papy I've been a a firefighter I'm a Hazmat technician I'm an EMT I've been an inspector I've been a captain and currently the chief fire inspector I do plan reviews for the city and one thing that I've never been and I've never thought of being is the title of Chief [Music] and that to me is is a point that we're at in the department where someone needs to step up and lead and I have done that met with the mayor and I look forward to Leading this department from the front by working with our firefighters working with our Union working with our paramedics and providing the best service for the city they we have wonderful trained staff that do an amazing job and I want to help them do the job that they can do thank you thank you Chief um so I hearby app Point Captain Michael Reich uh 314 Keystone Street bethle pi 18020 to the position of fire chief this appointment is effective as of May 21st 2024 administrative order 20 24 24 recommending Michael C Reich as fire chief resolution sponsored by miss quch and miss leam discussion on the appointment start with Mr Callan uh Mr Reich Chief Reich soon um you come highly recommended I had numerous people from all levels of the fire department uh Union all level of unions um really speak highly of you so I welcome you to your you know your new post and I wish you luck with it appreciate that thank you councilwoman KY Smith I'll second that I want to say congratulations and thank you for being willing to uh stand up and and take on the leadership row um I think it's obvious that there's been some concerns within the department over the last you know year or two or three and um I it's really refreshing to know that um everyone within the department is really looking very positively toward you taking the lead and I'm really looking forward to you moving the department forward so thank you any other discussion from members of council councilwoman Leon I know we spoke already this week but um very excited to have you the weight of 78,000 people and their safety is is on your shoulders definitely not uh an easy burden to carry but your stepping into a great role new equipment cool teams um so really excited to see the direction that you're going to take the department councilwoman wilh i' just like to join my colleagues in thanking and welcoming you uh you have a very impressive list of accomplishments and titles papy included um and uh we're very fortunate to have you thank you welcome any other councilwoman lar I will join everyone else uh you you have come highly recommended um I've talked to a few different firefighters that I I know and uh have reviewed your resme and um appreciate you taking the initiative to step forward I guess I'll make it unanimous and say we're delighted to um that you're taking this next step and uh thank you for stepping up to take the lead I did have a question um in the the note about the emergency operation plan um the title for fire chief Reich also includes Emergency Management coordinator is that being blended into one role again yeah and it's going to be an ongoing conversation and um it is a title that Chief Reich has which is consistent with other third class cities um it's the same role that the fire chief plays in a lot of other cities um exactly what that looks like um we also wanted to uh give uh Chief Reich the opportunity to build down because that role obviously has changed a lot over the last seven eight years since Mr nadik had it uh we obviously had it you know and he was doing one thing when we were going through the transition of 911 of the county and then he was doing something else obviously during the pandemic and then post pandemic it took on a different kind of various roles so we have thought about where best to necessarily fit those roles and some of that has been decided um but some of that also I want to defer to Mr Reich in a conversation with Mr Reich and our Police Department about who's going to do what going forward thanks keep us surprised I just want to also um Echo the mayor's words about thanking Chief AI the outgoing chief for for his years and decades serving the city of Bethlehem in the last number as the chief and and also I'll be supporting Mr reich's appointment tonight I really I don't know if Chief was ever in your career plan but I sure am glad that you you stepped up as was already said by many your your experience within the department and and being a leader in the department Department up until this point speaks for itself and and I thank you for um answering that internal call to to move on to the chief of this department so thank you any other discussion for members of council we'll call the RO Miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi M grmy Smith hi M quch hi and Mr colog I congratulations right thank you and even though your vote is the thing that confirms it we are swearing them in tomorrow at 10: a.m. uh if anybody is free to come down uh for uh for that swearing and ceremony um and then my other uh administrative order is I hereby appoint Thomas Arizone 1110 West Market Street bethle PA 1808 to the Fine Arts commission and this appointment is effective through December 20126 administrative order 202 24-23 recommending Thomas AR as fire as correction fin orts commission resolution is sponsored by miss quch and miss leam any discussion on the appointment we'll call the rooll Miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan I M grmc Smith I miss quch I and Mr colum I pass 70 that concludes my report thank you mayor Reynolds moving on to ordinances for final passage we have one Mr Miller please read bill 16 2024 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the 2024 capital budget for non- utilities bill number 16 2024 is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion Mr Callahan uh I will be recusing myself I uh I've known aronas for decades and U um Mr C I want me to interrupt you but I think you're referencing resolution 10A were on ordinance 8A I'm sorry my yes my apologies it happens to all us I had it crossed off on my sheet any other discussion Mr Miller please call the role m l hi Miss Leon i m wilham i Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith i m quch i and Mr colom I pass to 70 we have no new ordinances tonight resolutions olution 10A be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Endor such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor hereby authorized to execute all documents and agreements with Michael AF franka and Sons Incorporated to replace additional lead service water lines resolution is sponsored by miss quch and miss leam Mr Callan thank you I apologize for that um I will be recused myself from voting I had uh the they've been long time friends of mine and uh although there are different uh two different sides of the family uh I did receive a $500 uh campaign contribution from um Mike Le franka and Sons that this side uh probably about 14 months ago so I wasn't on Council when it had passed so I appreciate you uh notifying me that because I I wasn't on Council when that got passed otherwise I would not have known so I appreciate it and I will be recusing myself thank you understood any other discussion for members of council Mr Miller call the rle M L hi M Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan I recuse M grmy Smith I miss quak I and Mr col I passes 60 with one recusal 10B be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller are authorized and directed to execute all application forms necessary for the 1.5 million racp Grant on behalf of the national museum of industrial history and that the mayor and controller are authorized to execute such other agreements and documents as are deemed necessary and were related to there too resolution is sponsored by miss quch and miss leam discussion I just had a couple uh quick questions relative to the and Miss Collins or mayor Reynold whomever this is simply the application correct we have to wait for an award uh actually with our cap we have traditionally passed the resolution after we see we received the grant agreement from the state so this uh from the Commonwealth has already um awarded the grant great so my my next point was going to be I know this was something that has been discussed for a while uh I know I and others have had the opportunity to tour over there at the Museum I know they definitely have a need for more space and to incorporate their programming and other activities so I'm very happy I know it took time like a lot of things as it relates to the application and the process and things like that so it's very encouraging to see um significant State dollars continuing to come through City Hall and going out to our community and I know this is a project that's been talked about for some time now so thank you everyone in your department Miss Collins that that worked on this and congratulations to the museum any other discussion from members of council we'll call the role Miss lard hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi M grmy Smith I miss quac I and Mr colom I pass to 70 10 C be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the official with the title of Mayor is authorized and directed to execute all agreements and documents necessary for the $250,000 Grant through the Pennsylvania Department of community and economic development Grant is for the purposes of development of Greenway Trail Gap following acquisition of the property resolution is sponsored by miss quch and miss leam discussion Miss Le just a comment um we've had a few things come up uh to vote on um regarding the Gap uh The Greenway Gap and I'm just really happy to see that moving forward um hopefully uh it's been a long time in the works to be able to start here and end up way far away so uh thank you for all your work on this Miss Leo I just want to Echo that the greenway has been an economic Powerhouse for the Southside and has really been an incredible asset to us and closing that Gap is going to continue to allow access and and getting all the way down to S Park so it's really great to see these things coming in any other discussion we'll call the RO Miss lard hi Miss leam hi Miss Wilhelm hi Callahan I M grmy Smith i m quak i and Mr colum I pass 70 10d be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor is hereby authorized to adopt the city of Bethlehem Emergency Operations plan dated May 21st 2024 resolution is sponsored by miss quch and miss Leon discussion we'll call the rooll Miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I mson Smith I Miss quch I and Mr colum I pass 70 moving on to 10 e Miss Lair uh can I make a motion please to um approve to uh vote on the 10e through 10h as a group The approved use permits so to repeat that your motion Miss LED we've done this I think at the last meeting would be to consider uh all the use permit agreement so that would be agenda items 10 e through 10h as one group am I restating that correctly yes second all right motion by Miss L second by Mr Callahan any discussion on the motion Mr Miller please call the role on the motion to consider them as a group M L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith I miss quch I and Mr colum I motion passes 70 please read the four perent agreements resolutions 10e through 10h are all sponsored by miss quch and miss Leon resolution 10e be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor were hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with juneth Lehigh Valley for the 2024 juneth Lehigh Valley Music Festival resolution 10f be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with the Portuguese American Club of Bethlehem for the 2024 Portuguese Heritage Day Festival resolution 10g be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with Christmas City spirits l c for the Vintage Market and resolution 10h be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute use permit agreement with hly infancy Roman Catholic church for the 2024 holy infancy C uh cultural celebration any discussion on the group of use permit agreements this is an sorry yeah go m group of events I love Festival season in Bethlehem I'm sure we'll have more on a future agenda also for some reason any other discussion we'll call the role Miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan hi grmy Smith hi Miss quch hi and Mr colom I the group passes 70 I'll accept another motion and then a second to consider resolutions 10 I through 10 L as a group so moved second okay motion by councilwoman Leon second by councilwoman Wilhelm any discussion on the motion to consider the certificates of appropriateness as a group Mr Miller please call the roll on the motion Miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M gry Smith i m quch i and Mr colum I the motion pass 70 please read the coas certificates of appropriateness under the provisions of the act of Pennsylvania legislature Bethlehem resolution are hereby granted four 422 hecka welder place to repair and place masonry joints as necessary Place roof roofing materials and repaint all surfaces 424 Main Street to replace slate shingle roofing 450 High Street to tie existing backyard fencing into new fencing at the rear of the house fence will be aluminum and color that matches the house and for 505 and 507 Main Street to replace the sign above the front window resolutions are sponsored by miss quch and miss leam any discussion on the group r m l i m Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I miss gry Smith i m quch i and Mr col I pass 70 and our last resolution 10m resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and the controller and or such other City officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with HDR engineering Incorporated to perform research on the environmental history of the property resolution sponsored by miss quak and miss Leon discussion we'll call the RO Miss lard I miss Leon i m Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith I miss quch I and Mr colum I passes 7 Z that wraps up tonight's agenda get home safe everyone and have a safe Memorial Day is a j [Music] --------- Rachel you good got two minutes can't start I'll wait in one minute [Music] here I don't want to so efficient I I just heaven forbid you know stoping the gas tank on a whole number I will call to order the community development committee meeting I'm Hillary quch chair of the Community Development Committee the other committee members present are Grace kmy Smith and Kira Wilhelm other council members present this evening R Rachel Leon the clerk will please call the role Miss CRC Smith present Miss wilh home present and Miss quch present YouTube stream reminder if you start this meeting after 6 PM please make sure to scroll ahead so that the YouTube stream is current rather than a recording of an earlier portion of the meeting there is one agenda item on tonight's agenda the fin annual Financial accountability gosh the annual Financial accountability incentive reporting Fair here ing this matter is for informational purposes only public comment I will now recognize the public for comment is there anyone who would like to make public comment with a five minute time limit okay seeing none I will now Rec recognize a representative of the administration thank you chairwoman quch um thank you for holding this community development committee meeting this evening I will be presenting alongside Asher uh Shone who's our Economic Development coordinator um but before we start I also wanted to take the opportunity to introduce you to our new deputy director of Economic Development Sean Ziller who is here with us tonight we're really excited to have him on board um he joins us from the city of Easton where he had a similar um role and moving forward I'm sure you'll have many opportunities to work with Shan and I'm excited for you as well to get to know him uh as we move forward Economic Development projects in the city um but tonight we are here for as count chairwoman quch mentioned the annual Financial accountability incentive reporting hearing um as you all likely know the fair program was established by ordinance in 2018 uh to help city council better understand and have transparency into the economic development tools that we utilize um here in the city so you should have received the annual Fair report in advance of the hearing and you know what we'll do tonight is really just walk through that report uh it's a look back at the year 2023 um so we'll be looking at how the economic development incentives both tax incentives and non-tax incentives have worked during the course of that year so if you just turn to the table of contents you'll see that the report itself includes an inventory of the incentives incentive program summaries evaluation reports for each of the programs uh impact statements from beneficiaries of the programs and then at the end tax expenditure spreadsheets and reports um so the incentive in vories on page one and two list the five tax and non-t tax incentives that are included in the report that we'll go over tonight those are the Lura The Local Economic revital revitalization tax assistance program Cris the city revitalization and Improvement Zone uh and then for the three non-t tax incentives we have the Enterprise Zone Loan program cdbg loan programs and the business infrastructure development or the bid program Loan Fund um the program summaries then begin on page three uh those largely have not changed from prior years and uh really the real Crux of the report is those program evaluations and those begin on page 13 so as we've done in previous years uh we're we're just going to jump right ahead to the evaluation reports and I can provide a brief refresher on the on the programs themselves but really dive right into the 2023 evaluations um and just for your background you know to prepare these program beneficiaries receive a request annually from our office seeking information um about such things as you know where they are with their project how many employees they have um what the program means to them and we use that along with the information that we have in their applications um for this report um information that we gather is aggregated and presented for each incentive program we don't report or um we've actually you know told the beneficiaries that that we won't be repor reporting on specific Financial or employment data on any of the projects um individually but we'll talk about the the um incentive programs and um their uh output uh in the aggregate so I I think what we'll do which we did in in Prior years is just go through each of the um five incentive programs and then stop after each section and we can take questions um before we move on to the next um so we'll just go ahead and start and let's there's any questions with Lura if that's all right um so Lura evaluation summaries those start on page 14 so the Local Economic revitalization tax assistance program I believe as you know is created by state act it's been a very heavy utilized Economic Development tool in the city um in different areas and in different iterations for uh I would say over 30 years um so in this section we include the uh existing luras and also the Lura like program progr the IDPA uh that's the Improvement of deteriorating real property or areas program it's uh functions like alerta we consider it a Lura but it is a different authorizing legislation um but in general Lura was created to incentivize um property investment Redevelopment of difficult undesired properties uh it's a tax abatement on the increase on the real estate property tax uh on new construction and property Rehabilitation so that's really the Crux of it there has to be um a development on the property that increases the tax assessment of that property and then um the owners are you know incentivized by the um tax abatement that they receive on that increased assessment that changes um you know Lura to Lura is determined by city council but traditionally the luras have um had a graduated uh increase in in their um you know tax payments so in the first year of alerta typically 100% of the um High increased assessment is deated and then 90% 80% and that goes on for uh the 10 years of the program um the IDPA was a little bit different that one has just a flat 10% abatement um from the city um and also you know each of these programs uh has also a a county and um School District tax component and they have their own um abatement schedules as well so um you know Lura has been you know one of our most successful programs um it's really well before before any of us joined the team it really helped transform the betham steel land into productive and job creating and and now a taxable area um the way Lura is used today is much more targeted it's aimed at tackling a few remaining vacant Parcels on the former Tiff geography at betham steel site as well as challenging INF infill and other commercial um and Industrial Development on the South Side uh as you know two lurus currently exist in South Bethlehem for these purposes that's the affordable housing Lura that was passed in 2021 and the Southside Lura 2 that went into effect in January of last year then also in 2023 we had the Northside Lura which is the IDPA program that I mentioned um and that overlays predominantly the north side alive geography uh that program did expire at the end end of 2023 so we will go over you know we will include the numbers um from that Lura in this uh report and then you'll see in future reports that that will be removed um from the report um you know the the north side lorda I I believe there are four projects of the total that we represent uh in the report that are in the north side area those are I believe all commercial residential developments which is you not the smaller res presidential projects um for home owners to increase value of the properties that we had really envisioned with that North Side Lura um you know we're happy about the projects that we do have but we did evaluate the program as it was coming to an end um and we chose as you can obviously tell not to bring it back to council School District or County to to reauthorize it um you know it doesn't mean that we don't have interest in the North Sat alive area or in housing or in um improving property conditions but you know the norat alive program has other uh ways in which we're able to incentivize um people investing in their individual properties um including through rehab programs and facade programs that we have found success with um so um you know for those reasons and others we are not um continuing the north side Lura moving forward um but I'm going to turn it over to Asher um Asher did a lot of work preparing uh the Lura portion of the report specifically and Gathering the numbers from the beneficiary so I'm going to turn over to him to just walk through um an evaluation of the of the program and the numbers thank you Miss Collins for teeing it up um and good evening everyone uh so I do want to start on page 14 of everyone's packet uh we mentioned the north side Alura affordable housing alerta Southside Lura 2 based on the nature of the Lura the incentive being for 10 years a lot of these projects that we are going to be talking about were in the preceding Southside Lura that came before the Southside Lura too that expired in 2022 um going to page 15 I'm just going to jump right into the numbers um unless there's any questions but 33 taxpayers uh in 2023 that were receiving benefit through Lura and So based on the nature of the program again this could be a project that's in the first year of alera where they're receiving 100% abatement on any increased property uh assessment or taxes or they could be in year 10 where they're only being ated 10% by the city um so this number uh you can compare it to 32 was the number that we gave you last year and as miss Colin said there are four projects that are in the the north side Lura I know one of the questions last year was what do we have in the pipeline uh as far as applications that were submitted but projects that were not reassessed by the county and therefore not in the active Lura window um so those applications that we've received that aren't in Lura we consider them in the pipeline um so since 2022 we have 16 applications um that are sort of in que um and they haven't been put into the lerta schedule yet because it could be a number of factors construction is still ongoing um the county maybe hasn't reassessed the property yet because they haven't got a CO so those are some of the things that might cause a a property not to be you know part of that 33 number that we mentioned uh jumping down there's one one point six let me get this right million dollars if you want to look at it it's lert of savings uh for these projects that that are uh completed uh this is compared to 1.9 million it's a number that we gave you last year and we get this right from the tax assessment office these numbers um and this is worth noting that this is the first year that we've been um since we've been presenting in 2018 that this number has gone down and that's not a bad thing um you know typically when you see numbers go down you think oh well that's that's bad uh but in our case that means that the city is getting more of the real estate taxes back that means the school district the county you're getting more real estate taxes back and a big part of that was as Miss Collins said with the betham seal site you can imagine over the past 10 years there's been a lot of development on that site and so as these projects get further along in the Lura schedule they begin paying more of their share of real estate taxes back to the city um which is the whole point of the program jumping down uh these are self-reported numbers at the beginning of every year we reach out to these 33 entities that uh received uh Lura tax abatement and they report on the number of investment the number of jobs the impact of the Lura program so uh there's $892 million of investment for these 33 projects uh and that's up $20,000 from the number we yeah 20,000 $20 million uh from the number that we gave you last year jumping to page 16 we have an analysis of pre- lerta um project assessments versus post alerter project assessments so as was was mentioned the pre-alert assessments are typically your your land assessment uh since again most of these projects are on the former betham steel land um obviously there's some that are rehab and renovation but but in general most of uh the $19 million that's listed there is your land tax and then the post Alura project assessments are what the assessments are going to be for these 33 projects once they fully graduate from the the Lura program um and we're realizing the full tax benefit uh back to the city and then you can see there we just we subtract it and you get your increase uh lar a project assessment as I mentioned another self-reported number uh close to 6,000 current employees of these uh 33 projects and uh you could see they're the full-time jobs that represent uh 97% of those of that total figure that I gave you uh impact statements uh there's five pages of them so we didn't include them under this section but they're all lumped together uh at the end of the evaluation report so I don't know how we're handling questions but I'm going to stop stop here um do you uh want to do questions like stop between the different types is that yeah I think make sense okay so I will accept questions from Miss kmy Smith Miss wih we go alphabetical question okay well thank you I have some questions um I like the Lura because of the affordable housing component and because of the money it brings back to the city and you know the money that it puts into our economy and creates jobs and all that good stuff so it seems like it's it's a win-win um for those that are using it for development or whatnot and it's also a win-win for the city um they said a couple questions you said there's like 16 applications in the pipeline and can I don't know if you can tell us about some of them or even with all the Lura what would you say like can you give us an idea on percentages most of it like um you know Warehouse or is it retail or is it housing like what are we using Mo what are most of the lur what it being used for as far as development well out of those 16 projects that we mentioned that are in the pipeline eight are in the Southside six are in the north side and two are affordable housing projects I'm sorry two are what affordable housing oh okay y um so as far as you know some of those projects again we'd have to dive into um what they are individually and some of them are um you know larger buildings looking for a tenant so we don't necessarily know yet you know what exactly that use is going to be and the others I would say just generally looking at the list and the the property addresses I'd say I mean around 75% are probably like commercial um like uh commercial residential like infield type development and then there's just a few um remaining that are in the industrial area okay and certainly that's changed over time I think you know originally it was much more um industrial heavy but you know with the new Southside Lura 2 in particular we had a long conversation about how we were really focusing on the most challenging Parcels that remain a lot of those are are infi development um so you're more likely to see like a mixed use commercial and residential development yeah in those properties okay thank you and with the remaining po shows um do you have an idea of how much how many acres are we looking at that are still remaining that are not even within the 16 or there any others that are not even in the application pipeline yet as far as land availability or so what I what I do recall I mean the the bethleem steel site I think was 1,600 Acres total I I believe the Southside Lura 2 that uh the council approved um in 2023 I want to say that was around about 30 acres and don't quote me on that but that's just what's coming coming to mind as we're sitting here today so it sounds like there's still a significant number of Acres that could still be available for Lura then is that correct so I'm speaking about those that have already been designated for Lura right as between the the Southside Lura 2 which I as I said I think was around 30 and I think the affordable housing Lura is about the same size same number Parcels but I don't I could certainly if if after the meeting if you'd want like a a number of parcels or a total AGD I'm happy to do that yeah I just I just be curious because I'll be honest like I really think that um it looks like it's a win-win it is successful and I I see it as one mechanism that can be used um you know not only for any kind of development like commercial retail B especially for the housing and if it's you know if the um those that are the taxpayers the developers are seeing it as a win-win and we're you know seeing it as a win when then why not you know continue to to use it especially for the housing um see what else I had I had a question um because I know you know it's incremental that it's like 100% tax abatement the first year all the way down to 10 you know to 10 um the the the ninth year the last year but I I read somewhere about and I was a little confused if you can clarify let me see where this is at I think it was on page 16 um under D where it talks about like for example Southside 2 City collects 100% of the base property tax and then um is that minus and then 50 of the new property tax increment over the 10-year period I was just a little confused by that could you explain that yeah that's you're right it's it goes 100% down to 90 down to 80 it's it's just giving generally over 10 years it's it's about 50 per. okay all right because that's what would confused me because I thought is you know are we not going to 10 you know 190 yeah it's just the nor the north side was set up 10% with the city 50% with the school district 50% with the county and that was flat but but you're right the Southside Lura 2 and the affordable housing it's it's graduated over 10 years graduated okay all right um see if I have any more questions about that so I know now we're looking at like the Southside 2 is going to expire in three years and then the affordable housing in two years and I know you know we don't have a crystal ball but do you think generally speaking we're looking at you know reauthorizing and continue to use this as a mechanism I think we do the same evaluation that we did when we proposed the suide lerta 2 would be to look at you know over the over the lifespan of the existing Lura um you know how many how many Parcels were um um developed how many remain and you know for those remaining Parcels do we continue to think that Lura is a tool that could potentially incentivize development on those Parcels um so I you know I think it would really remain to be seen um but you know I think we'd use the same kind of criteria that we've described previously to to think through that okay okay I think that's all I have thank you is wellam yes thank you for the information um looking again at page 16 sort of the three different luras and the the sort of parameters for each one I just does the city determine those parameters and how how is that determined how is each lta's um you know how much we'll collect over how much time so the authorizing legislation from the Commonwealth does not prescribe uh one specific abatement schedule but sometimes it'll provide you know different options that we can then choose from and when I say we I mean we can present that as an Administration and then city council would ultimately vote on that so when we propose you know for example with the Southside Lura 2 when we proposed the graduated abatement schedule it's one of the things that this authorizing legislation allows um but if Council decided you know we'd like to use a different schedule you know council could um you know propose and vote on that at that time okay so it's sort of a menu of options you're choosing from just based on what you think will be the most successful what most you know residents or businesses would respond to in each lerta yeah I think there are a couple of factors and and you know part of it as well is what city council has an appetite for in terms of you know what might be in the public interest to Abate and you know give up in property taxes as compared to you know what the benefit could possibly provide um or if you want to think about north side as an example when we um set that schedule at 10% I think we were also thinking about the other Investments we're making in that area so that's the the nura neighborhood the neighborhood revitalization strategy area that's the HUD designated area and so while the county and the school district um did a 50% abatement we had a conversation with the county I was not around at the time but my understanding is you know we committed I think $50,000 a year in the city budget for um investments into the neighborhood separate from the Lura as sort of our like um uh additional investment so we just did the 10% abatement of the taxes through the Alura but we did 50 $50,000 a year that you know could go to Road improvements or other physical infrastructure that also helped like um you know enhance the the area generally okay and forgive me if you said this or if we've discussed this in years past but I I don't recall what are the limitations in terms of what can enable alerta designation are there very strict requirements is that flexible as well in terms of like where it's placed in the city so the authorizing legislation sets out the definition of um deteriorated area right so the legislation is targeted at improving deteriorated areas promoting you know Redevelopment there's a fairly broad definition it does change um sort of Lura to lerta right there's the regular alerta there's the IDPA there's the affordable housing alerta um that we haven't utilized here they all have slight different definitions I think of what is a deteriorated area but ultimately either um uh the city council would have to determine that an area is deteriorated under the language of the legislation You' usually get a recommendation from either the Redevelopment Authority or the Planning Commission um affirming that as well okay um and then you could you can apply the Lura um to an area that has that deteriorated area designation I think we you know in other cities um municipalities across the state some have done Citywide luras I know that came up I think as a topic in Prior Fair Hearings um I want to say maybe Harrisburg you know just lted their entire city um I don't know that we could meet that definition in the city of Bethlehem but um you know it it would be something to you know to discuss okay and so yeah I think I I do recall that and that would mean that the entire city was designated as a deteriorated area based on percentage of properties were yeah it does seem I don't remember the exact language in the authorizing legislation off the top of my head but um yeah something like that fact and and yeah I think I I believe the authorizing legislation also includes like areas adjacent to deteriorated so there's some wiggle room in that respect I see okay um and then lastly just hearing you talk about the north side alive neighborhood and and that fewer um residents took advantage of that opportunity was that originally the goal that it would be more residentially focused um not that you don't consider it a success if that didn't happen but am I remembering that that's that was sort of the goal yeah my at the time that we did the Northside 2027 plan so in 2017 it was the 10e plan um I think Lura was looked at as a tool to assist with like the housing component of that plan and so IDPA is a type of Lura that is more specifically tailored it opens up that opportunity for smaller uh you know like three unit or less um properties but you know nonetheless what's required is that you you do the type of um construction or addition or you know whatever the case may be that does result in increased property assessment so you know that's what makes it different from a a regular housing rehab like sprucing up uh a h a home that perhaps had like a lack of Maintenance right you'd actually need to add an addition or you know do something that according to the county would increase the the assessment which is um you we just haven't really seen a lot of opportunity for that in the North side or or a lot of people take advantage of it as compared to as I mentioned the housing rehab and the facade programs I was sort of curious to know if you have a sense as to why people didn't take advantage of just lack of awareness I you know I I I do think that we uh advertised it pretty well I think Asher is it correct we had it on all of our building permit applications yes so anybody that came in um for a building permit you know would have you know it would note if you were in that area that you're eligible for this um incentive and you know we have used our Norths side alive um neighborhood committees and um our coordinator to promote different Housing Programs um but you know the Lura wasn't one that just didn't catch was utilized by by homeowners okay um yeah thank you is Leon do you have any questions I do um actually most of my questions were already asked but I did notice that the luras are also in areas that are like low to moderate income and I was wondering if there were other areas in the city like would the the pemrick area because of the the I know choice neighborhoods is going to do its thing over there regardless but there is a certain level of blight in that area that might benefit from alerta has that area been considered for alerta or are we just like Choice neighborhoods is going to happen here so the putting alerta there wouldn't be beneficial or does the component of public housing kind of make that beyond what we can do um I don't think public housing is dispositive particularly if you're looking at like the entire neighborhood even around um marvine Penbrook and the the betham Housing Authority property to be honest we haven't you know done a full assessment of whether alerta in that area makes sense but I think you know through the two-year choice planning process you know there is we're still getting into the housing and neighborhood planning components so perhaps it's something that we can think about as we're doing a market assessment there and thinking about different tools moving forward all the fingers crossed that you get all the choice neighborhoods grant funding so this isn't a conversation but if if we don't get that money maybe alerta over there might be helpful with with surround like the light surrounding Penbrook itself just just a thought I had thank you so I just have one quick question and then we can move on to the next section um am I understanding that uh the affordable housing lerta at this time we don't have that in that 33 there none of that is the affordable housing lerta there's some in the pipeline is that correct it's correct okay thank you very much um okay so let's move on to the next section you you asked if there are any in the pipeline or just there there are mentioned that there were a couple in the pipeline but it sounded like um there weren't any in the current 33 and I just wanted to confirm that got it thank you all right um well then we can move on to Chris so the evaluation report for Chris the city of revitalization and Improvement Zone uh that starts on page 18 um Chris was authorized for Bethlehem by the Commonwealth in 201 13 um it's a program that is managed locally by the Bethlehem revitalization and Improvement Zone Authority or Bria um the the authority has its own members um those are appointed by the mayor um and then our Department of Community Economic Development and um you know City staff play a role in managing that program um just a brief overview of the program um you know it was established similarly to Spur new growth in cities that that have struggled to attract development um it is an area of up to 130 Acres comprised of parcels designated for economic development and then within that zone um certain state and local taxes qualified tax revenue that's collected in the zone um that exceeds the preis tax Baseline so that's new um tax dollars that are generated um those can be used to repay Debt Service on bonds or loans that are issued U by The Authority so um you know effectively if you've got a a project that comes online in a a Cris Zone any new taxes um at the at the local level we're just talking about um not property taxes we are talking about um uh uh business privilege tax Amusement tax local service tax um those new taxes uh come back to the authority and then are distributed to the property owners to pay down cret uh debt that has been um approved by Bria um to be paid down by the Chris increment and we also then Reserve um you know up to 5% for the Authority for administration and then we also do put some dollars back um of that increment into like public projects that are nearby or Associated um with the the Cris Zone um so the evaluation report this one's a little bit funky it actually covers taxes that were paid in to the city and the Commonwealth and 2022 rather than uh 2023 so it's taxes that were paid in in 2022 and then returned to the authority in 2023 we get those every year um around about October or November that's when the Commonwealth um sort of certifies exactly what tax revenue comes back to the authority um so in 2022 we had five projects in the Cris and the total dollar value of the tax incentive received by uh Chris beneficiaries was uh close to $2 million $1,982 594 um that's if you recall a large increase from the prior year so the Chris program has really slowly started to gain traction and momentum and the most recent projects that are coming online are really increasing the total increment that is um generated in the zone so that nearly $2 million reflects as I mentioned the eligible state and local taxes generated uh that have come back to the authority and are are distributed either to pay down debt for Authority Administration or for public projects and public projects include um we put money into the new Street streetscape for example um or the pul street parking garage so the benefits do you know stretch Beyond just the private sector of this program um so the you'll then see there that the private sector investment in the Cris um on Chris projects reached in 2023 229 .5 million so that's the the private investment that has gone into the projects that have been developed in the chis area uh and that private investment supports a total of $35.1 million in Chris debt that will be paid back with eligible um state and local tax generated over the the term of their um their loan or or debt instrument so then turning the page you'll also note that property tax tax assessments prior to chis were about 1.6 million uh we're now at nearly $6.5 million um so no property taxes are Abad through this program or loss through the program uh we just are noting that you know as a result of these projects that are coming online there's an additional nearly $5 million that just go straight um to the city and I think these are just the city property taxes as opposed to county or School District um so finally you'll also note that there are 555 employees in the Cris Zone um 475 of whom are full-time and those figures don't include the construction jobs associated with the five projects that uh are in the Cris so are there any questions about Chris is well home did you have any questions no Miss kmy Smith no I think I'm Miss Leon I think we can move on all right all right it's an impressive by the way that's an impressive jump in the in the um property taxes that's really significant yeah it's uh it's a a very powerful program um so that that covers the two tax programs so then the the three that remaining are the non- tax incentive programs there's um you know for all three of them there's much less activity than in the tax um incentives the Enterprise Zone and the um business infrastructure development program are both Legacy programs but so starting with the Enterprise Zone Loan program that's on page 22 um we an Enterprise Zone City uh that means we you know so we renew that every 10 years um it is another um you know Pennsylvania Commonwealth um uh Economic Development designation um and being an Enterprise Z city gives us um you know sort of two uh benefits one is a grants to Loan program which is reflected in this report and then the other is um for companies that are in the Enterprise Zone area um there are Enterprise Zone tax credits available to them so those are applied for directly to the Commonwealth so they don't come through the city um they're not reported as part of fair as a result but it is another component of the Enterprise Zone Program um but the Loan program is really uh Legacy dollars that we received many many years ago um I you know believe it both the Enterprise Zone Program and the the business infrastructure development program were associated with um the the early Tech projects um down by like iqe and orasore in that area area um you know those loan dollars have uh not um necessarily been attractive to um businesses recently you know in in in years past we talked about the interest rate climate um being uh adequate in the private sector such that you know this program wasn't really attractive I think that has changed so we're certainly evaluating are there ways that you know we can sort of revive this these these two programs specifically um and and either um you know Market it or you know Target specific projects that might be good um uses of these these loan funds but we haven't identified anything at this time and we didn't have any activity in 2023 there any questions about that program any questions from anyone you I think you kind of answered my question which was why you know why haven't there been loans um so but the so this is a revolving fund that's been decades that it's just correct I think began in the 90s I want to say okay no I think we can move on then all right um so then we'll turn to the cdbg bethleem small business loan fund um that evaluation report starts on page 25 um so this is a loan program that's administered by the city um Department of Community Economic Development and also the rising tide Community Loan Fund um so small small business owners with businesses in the city of Bethlehem are eligible for this Loan Fund and um we had previously not had very much activity at all um we did in 2023 have one loan come through this program um so you'll see that reflected then on page 26 uh there's one loan totaling $290,000 and that um you know that total incentive dollar amount uh is part of a $700,000 um project and that project uh is is now open and uh as of March of this year so it's um it's nice to see this project sort of um or this this cdbg um Loan program being used um we do also have a you know at least one project that I can think of that is that is looking for a loan for 2024 so there's there continues to be activity in this program questions any questions um how much is in this fund does it vary so rise so Rising tide really is the the main administrator and Rising tide has a number of different buckets of funds the city's cdbg dollars are one bucket even for this project for example in 2023 there's also funds that come in I think uh Lehi I believe it was Lehi small Business Development Center may have may may have had a bucket and there's other funds as well um I don't know off the top of my head how you know what the total dollar amount of the cdbg dollars is and I you probably also don't know this off the top of your head but um what is the term of this loan like is it 10 years is it I do not know I do not know that's fine it's okay all right move on all right all right and then the last program as I mentioned is the business infrastructure develop um program or the bid program Loan Fund I sort of talked about that at the same time that I talked about the Enterprise Zone um so I I really don't have much more to add and there's there was not any activity in this program in 2023 okay well that I think concludes our report um if there are any other questions we're happy to take them or else any questions summing up questions Miss KY Smith was there anything else that you no I don't think so I have a silly question because this isn't like a tax related thing but looking into these things I stumbled across the Keystone Innovation zone so are those things that the city tracks to like businesses that are in there I know that it's not loan dollars or tax incentives or anything like that but are we tracking the businesses that exist within those other zones that are are for like Business Development and how that affects their business in the city so well the first thing I'll say is Keystone Innovation zone is a program that's run through bedco which is why it's not part of this report um so it's the betham Economic Development Corporation but we do um provide City staff support to the program and and actually um Asher really runs that program so I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about you what what it what it is and how we how we evaluate it sure and did you have a specific question the I stumbled across this and I was like okay so we track all of these these larger things but these smaller things that might not be City funded but have a city component to it do we track those and how do we track if it's something that's really beneficial we do definitely track it it's it's a little less formalized in this just because it is a bedco program and not a city but yeah I mean we have how many businesses we've helped we have how much an investment we we have in these companies whether it's Grant dollars or whether it's uh tax credits that come from the state to these companies yeah we we do have those numbers that's just not something as formalized as as this awesome right that's I was just curious thank you yeah it's a cool program I want to thank you I'm sorry I just I did think of two we if that's okay since we have some time um just for like the programs for the one you said the IPA um is that a certain area within the city or is that anywhere within the city like where can that be used the the IDPA is uh what we I guess colloquially colloquially call the north side lerta so we do call it a lerta but it's as I said it's lerta like it's actually a different authorizing legislation um but that that's the one that is actually the IDPA so it's so it's only for the north side okay yeah and I guess it would be like for that and also the um the Lura just to try to get a handle on how how the path Works um is it a two-way street where maybe someone um a taxpayer wants to do wants to you know develop or whatever that they can uh seek alerta also that the city May determine that one area one one development may be suitable for alerta is it like a two-way street or is it you know oneway Street how does that work well really ultimately it is up to city council to pass an ordinance um you know I think what we our philosophy really has been that you know we do want to drive the train and we want to provide a recommendation to City Council of what incentive or what you know bucket of incentive is most appropriate for either a specific project or an area of the city we don't really like to be beholden to a developer for example saying this is what I need for the project we want to be proactively um you know looking at what areas do we have in the city for redevelopment how can we target these incentives are they needed um you've probably heard Miss carner talk previously about really a but for test like you know we're we're trying to determine but for this incentive and um you know really um um I don't want to say sacrifice but you know there there is a a a a giving up of tax dollars for a certain period of time so you know but for that sacrifice would this project happen and what is the project that we're incentivizing does it align with our overall planning goals does it um create jobs um uh you know it is it is it a project that brings vibrancy is it is it something that we really want to suggest to city council that if we use this incentive it's really going to be in the public interest and for the public benefit so um certainly during that process we also want to be talking with potential you know developers or Property Owners about whether or not that incentive would help um move a project forward but but we really want to be leading that conversation as opposed to just being reactive to um a property owner or a developer saying oh I really can't do this unless you know you you give me this big tax break um so that's really sort of the philosophy that we've tried to employ um when we're thinking generally about what incentives um belong where and I think you'll see that play out moving forward as well you know there is certainly still more to do um on the former betham steel land and you know there is Cris down there there's Lura down there but I think you know as we continue to think about how we are moving development down there forward you know we really want to be like you know driving that train and also having conversations with you know Wind Creek and and other property owners in the area okay thanks yeah because I just feel like um you know there may be um you know both on the side of you know the city is it going to be the return on the invest on investment going to be worth it and also then if uh with the issue with affordable housing if there are some developers that are willing um you know how can we sort of work with them together to say okay this could one incentive because it is something in our toolbox I mean certainly we want to have the upper hand but yet I think we also since it's a program that seems to really be doing well um for the city as well um you know for the city and the the tax money coming in as well as for the residents as far as um and the economy I think I just would like to see it really be um you know put in there as a partnership more so so especially because of the affordable housing component of the one Lura y ABS that's why I asked okay thank you thank you very much for um the the report was very helpful I want to say that in the narrative in the in the impact statements you really do see the butt for part um where you really see the developers talking about New Jersey and other other places where they might have gone um and uh to see that uh that the number that's going down which means you know the the the actual money coming in for us is going up it seems like um the way this is being administered is is having the right kinds of impact on our on the city so thank you very much for your time thank you thank you this meeting is adjourned than you