##VIDEO ID:AO_TJzcvLuA## Mr Callahan present M grmy Smith present Miss quch pres M lard present Leon present Miss Wilhelm presid and Mr cologne president cologne uh is held up at work he'll be here momentarily you two reminder if you start this meeting after 6 pm. make sure to scroll ahead so that the YouTube stream is current rather than a recording of an earlier portion of this meeting the following proposed 2025 budgets will be reviewed tonight community and Economic Development Department Community Development block grant fund Police Department fire department after the appropriate Administration represent Representative makes their presentation for each item I will recognize the applicable Community chair and members and other members of council for questions for real there will be a public comment after the last of the first two items related to community and economic development and then after each of the police and fire budgets there will be a five minute time limit comments will be limited to the specific topics covered in tonight's meeting community and economic development department I will recognize Laura Collins director of the community and economic development department to review the proposed 2025 community and economic development department budget hi good evening uh thank you for the opportunity to present tonight on the Department of community and economic development proposed budget for 2025 um I'm joined by the dced leadership team um which I have to say has some of the best professionals anywhere in the Lehigh Valley so I feel very fortunate um you not only to work with these smart and passionate people but also uh to have the opportunity tonight to highlight uh their incredible work so uh as you know the Department of community and economic development is made up of seven bureaus Each of which plays a unique role in contributing to the high quality of life in Bethlehem we perform a very broad range of function and I'm just going to start by introducing the team in a little bit of an overview of what everyone does um we have dcd's two Deputy directors Sarah culo um and Sean Ziller if you want to just say hello I'm sure everyone knows you already um we have our health director Kristen wenrich whose Department promotes public health and healthy communities our chief building inspector Mike Simonson who oversees both code en enforcement and the housing inspections Bureau those are responsible for ensuring that we have safe and code Cent buildings and residential units um we have Housing and Community Development administrator Robert voni joining us momentarily um he works with Miss satula to support a variety of projects that invest in uh people and neighborhoods and housing he also specifically directs our annual annual federal federal entitlements um that run through HUD those are the Community Development block grant program and the home investment partnership program we have our recycling director Mike help Forster uh who runs the recycling center and the yard waste facility um and the curbside recycling program all that supports uh uh environmental sustainability in Bethlehem Sean Ziller oversees our Economic Development Bureau that works to attract private investment and cultivate a thriving business Community uh a new face here is Lori gilo if you want to introduce yourself uh raise your hand she is our new grants coordinator who manages the community Recovery Fund program and also applies for administers and manages um a variety of our applications for federal state and local grants um across the across the department and and really the city um and then finally we have Tiffany Wismer in the front row here who oversees the finances of the department as our business uh manager so as you can see we really do cover a broad range uh of of topics and uh issue areas here in the Department of Community Economic Development So the plan for tonight I'm going to present uh an overview the department uh budget and highlight accomplishment and major projects for 2024 and 2025 uh we'll also briefly cover the line items in the separate Civic expense account for housing homelessness and the community Recovery Fund uh my goal is to speak for about 35 maybe 40 minutes um and then open up for questions for members of the city council um I might direct some of those to my colleagues just to have an opportunity to hear from them as well about about their great work so um you know because the scope of d CD is so vast and I know that you're going to have a long night with police and fire as well I did reach out in advance just to determine what areas you might want me to focus on maybe as opposed to others I will spend a little more time on the things that were requested in response um to that email and perhaps maybe less on topics that we've uh you know covered in great depth in other settings like for housing for example um you know but we can of course answer you know any questions here tonight or be available as always for discussions with anyone on city council about our work um so I will start with a snapshot of the dced budget uh you'll see that our total Department budget is about $17.5 million of which about five and a half is Personnel costs and close to 12 million is purchase Services uh the overall budget is actually about $2 million less than last year I think what's perhaps the most important to note here is that our overall Department budget is fairly dramatically altered each year by the um grants that we're receiving and then the associated projects so you'll see that the largest expenditures are in Health Community Development and and recycling um health and Community Development are are particularly heavy on grant funding um the health Bureau as we will discuss is actually nearly fully funded by federal state and local grants uh the budget for the health Bureau actually quadrupled from 2020 to 2021 as a result of the um many pandemic recovery funds that were coming into the city and specifically the carac dollars um we can talk in a little more depth about that I'll just wait make sure you get that so then in a addition to health just moving down at Community Development um the Community Development has some large grants that are impacting that budget I missed oh and Darlene heler is here from PL sing um uh commun development has uh one of the largest expenditures in purchase service is actually a a pass through Grant we uh received congressionally directed spunding funding or a um Community Project funding as it's often called for the Bethlehem food co-op uh there's about $2.3 million remaining in that Grant which we are passing through um or administering that grant for the food co-op and then another 1.2 million of this budget is a combination of a few grants um many of which we've already talked about that's the $500,000 from fair that was awarded to Lehi which we've talked at length about um there's about $300,000 remaining uh for uh the HUD Choice neighborhoods Grant which we were awarded last year um also in that line is uh the over $400,000 that uh is in the Lura affordable housing fund um so that really makes makes up a a very large chunk of the overall um purchase Services budget there in in Community Development um and then the other largest uh expenditure largest budget that we have is the recycling Bureau about 80% of that budget is um third-party uh contracts that would be for our curbside recycling and then also our processing and transportation with cougal um but as you know we do charge fee for those Services um and so uh quite a large majority of that budget is in fact covered by uh revenues that that we are generating so overall if you're looking at the Department of community and economic development budget uh I will note that of the $17.5 million budget $ 111 million of that is uh attributable to Grants um in addition the department is projected to generate roughly $5.7 million in Revenue uh that predominantly comes from recycling as I mentioned as well as the code and Housing bureau so that's an overview of dced and as I said you know and the mayor mentioned during his presentation I will touch briefly on the Civic expense budget line items again those are not in the DCd budget they are in the Civic expenses account um but you'll recall that city council allocated 5 million 2 million and three million respectively to housing homelessness and the community Recovery Fund um the spending plans that we've discussed are on track for each of those um starting with housing uh the affordable housing line uh the fiveyear spending plan that we presented last year remains largely the same um some costs that we presented have been covered more recently by uh newly acquired Grant funds and we also continue to seek grant funding to expand the reach of the strategies overall um just as a reminder we did present the budget with the final opening doors presentation in October of last year we also sent a budget specific memo to Council in November of last year and then for progress on the strategies and the five-year implementation plan we've held quarterly meetings of the steering committee that are open to the public and very well attended we had three of those so far in January May and September of this year and then the next is uh scheduled for January of 2025 um you'll hopefully recall that we presented an overall budget of about $8 million that included the $5 million from city council some cdbg and home funding as well as uh the Lura affordable housing fund projections um the spending plan is on track we've expended funds on four of the five strategy areas and have committed or leveraged much of the budget that is showing as unspent um for the projects laid out in the in the plan uh we will talk later about a number of our longstanding housing programs that we run and uh that we continue to support uh that we've run over the past few years those are not included in this budget here but those are programs that uh for example support home ownership like the cdbg funded housing rehab program that completed 43 cases in 2024 uh the cdbg funded uh firsttime home buyer assistance program which allowed 413 people to attend home buyer counseling programs run by Community Action and provided funding to facilitate seven closings since 2021 um supported Again by the the beap program um also we have the health bureau's and healthy home program which completed 35 cases in 2024 but here though we're quickly highlighting the additional projects that are underway that are coming out of the Slate of strategies in the opening doors plan uh expenditures to date have been on the following strategies strategy one which is the Adu zoning update and the senior planner strategy two is commitments made and leveraged for the Gateway on Fourth affordable housing project and the housing policy lead strategy three is the choice neighborhoods Grant leverage and commitments made and leveraged for implementation of that program strategy four is direct grants to the Community Action development Bethlehem uh tenant Advocate position and as well to New Bethany for direct rental assistance program um the reason we're spending on four of the five strategies is because there's no cost associated with the fifth strategy which you might remember is um advocacy and uh Regional planning around housing um we're really spending there just human capacity and time um it's worth mentioning though because it's it's a large part of what we do um advocating locally and regionally and the state level for housing policy um we do know that we can't crawl out of the housing uh crisis with our strategies Alone um you know we are honing in with our work here on opportunities for incremental impact moving the needle a little bit um but a huge part of our work is really defining the problem as affecting um the entir Le High Valley um we're unfort we are very fortunate to not only have a well-versed mayor who who is excellent at at um advocating for these policies at the regional level um but also to have you know in-house people like Sarah culo is now wide widely regarded as one of the leaders in housing in the region so at the regional level I'll just note that the lehab valley Planning Commission uh is working on a regional housing plan and we're actively engaged on that as well so finally here then in the housing and homelessness lines um you know the homelessness initiatives line is really the line for Bethlehem emergency Sheltering our spending has been limited there to Professional Services for cost estimation and design for the facility um we're working with bees on that uh initiative to uh convert the facility to a uh year round shelter and the remaining unspent funds in that uh line are are um intended to be directed to that project uh as you know we're also working on another facility to create 11 family Sheltering units to be operated by the Lehi Conference of churches and a small amount of spending from the Civic expense account has gone as well the the cost estimation and design work for that project but the capital costs are expected to be covered by our home ARP allocation and then another home ARP grant that is um we've we've applied for with the Commonwealth and that application is currently pending so moving on to the community Recovery Fund um this program is in its second year um when May came up with this idea um it grew out of our webuild Bethlehem initiative with the goal of making sustainable investments in areas that contribute to many of the of the challenges that we talk about regularly so we're investing in areas like child care and education and literacy food access youth mentoring um and then after we initiated the program really a a dozen or so people who are here played a role in building that program up from scratch when we started it um you know the grants ators myself others like Mr Boni who also already have experienced administering Grant programs um helped us craft craft the application in the rubric uh the law Bureau as well as the controller's office who helped us put together agreements and uh review processes so I have here a snapshot of the impact of the 2023 program Awards uh in that first round you might remember we had received 56 applications from nonprofits and Community organizations for a total of 2.4 million we awarded 28 of those uh for close to $800,000 total in Awards um those are reimbursable grants so we started reimbursing at the beginning of this year and to date we've dispersed $426,000 people um in the city of Bethlehem so I do have just a few photos here from uh some of the recipients um that they submitted to us with the first six months of reporting um you know as I mentioned this is it's really a long-term strategy to invest in organizations in Bethlehem um we'll continue to report on the progress um Lori is currently working on a really great um you know succinct handout that we're going to try and promote in a variety of different areas to really highlight the impact of of the program the organizations that are being funded you know the the the um programs that they're running and also you know how this money has really impacted their organization and and helped them do the work that uh we think is so critically important um these organizations are obviously really happy about it and we do look forward to making announcements for the 2024 Awards um in the coming weeks uh so moving on then I'm going to focus back on the dced budget and go through 2024 highlights and look ahead to 2025 I'm going to go through each Bureau in the budget um our budget starts on page 51 I do want to start with one theme that you'll probably hear throughout the presentation which is related to the money that we've been able to bring into Bethlehem to do great projects um you know there are many many programs at the state and federal level that are um created to help cities invest in community projects there has been you know in the past four years at least um significant resources put behind kind initiatives to make streets safer and uh create better Green Space and outdoor recreation activities um redevelop properties and and work on economic development opportunities just to name a few we've been very very fortunate to have um state and federal elected officials who have supported our applications and we've really taken advantage by going after a lot of funding uh and we've been very successful obviously um we have here this is just a snapshot of federal grants that we've received received in the past uh two years uh it's totaling $15 million um we're really realizing that you know bethleem is really a little bit punching above its weight I would say in terms of the amount of federal dollars that we're able to bring in um usually I I think traditionally we've seen Investments like these in in these large dollar mounts in places like Philadelphia or Pittsburgh but we've been very successful at pulling some of those federal dollars that are available for cities and pulling them into Bethlehem um you know I think one of the things that's important is you know how we've been able to do that I I I really think in addition to the support from our elected officials you know we do have many solid plans in place we're able to demonstrate community support for many of our projects um you know we have uh a history of advancing good projects and we're also able to demonstrate that we have the internal capacity and people who are able to competently carry out these these projects which can be complicated when you're dealing with federal grants in particular um so you know I will emphasize that having implementation plans ready to go has been really critical in getting a lot of these funds um you know we need to give thanks to Darlene heler who has done so much in the planning Bureau over many many years to put together really strong and solid plans um that we were able to use for example for the the $10 million that we got for Broad Street that directly came out of the Broad Street active Transportation plan um you know that Miss heler and the health Bureau and Department of Public Works all worked on together even before um mayor reynolds's Administration and you know those plans all of the plans really that that underly these grants uh that we were awarded these projects that we were awarded you know I'll note because it was has been a topic of conversation they've been done um largely with third party support from consultants and um you know those Investments while at the time may have seemed uh unclear what what their purpose was I think when we look at the grants that were able to pull in as a result and knowing that these funders are looking for this type of planning before they are willing to give out large uh sums of money to do these projects um I think is really important um so as I said we're actively administering right now nearly $15 million in federal funds uh we have the congressionally directed spending for the greenway and Friendship Park uh we have the US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration Safe Streets for all uh $10 million for Broad Street we have a National Park Service grant for Friendship Park the US fish and wildlife service is supporting the greenway acquisition uh and HUD also awarded um the very competitive Choice neighborhoods Grant to the city of Bethlehem um for planning for the Penbrook neighborhood uh at a time when we were one of only 14 cities um across the country that was awarded and then uh this is in addition to um state and local grants uh for many years we've been very successful in getting state grants um and you know there are numerous that have historically come into bethlhem projects we added another three million over the past few years um for a broad range of projects from improved parks to expanded Trail development Street safety commercial District sidewalk repair facade improvements and then the development of a a comprehensive Parks and Recreation plan um I will note as it relates to federal grants one of the questions that came up from a member of council um in response to my email was the potential impact of a new U Federal Administration on you know any of the work of of our department but um you know for each of these projects we are working very hard to make sure that uh we are under agreement by the end of this year um most of these are already under agreement the few that remain I think for um Friendship Park in particular we're we're working really hard to get those finished up by the end of this year um it's a top priority for us um we're working with the federal agencies who are all very aware um of the of the potential um challenges that are coming so everybody on both sides is working very hard to get um the these grants um finalized uh it's even better if we can actually spend the funds down which is true of our uh Greenway project um for the trail Gap acquisition um as a general matter I do think it remains to seen the broad um impacts of a of a new Administration um you know we do have regular annual allocations for Community Development block grant and the home partnership U there's also many discretionary programs that are the ones that we've we've been fortunate to be awarded um like through the infrastructure bill um we are you know following as much information as everybody else is in terms of what some of the proposals are but I think you know we're in a similar position and not knowing um exactly you know what can be accomplished with or without Congress and then you know how quickly any of that can be accomplished but um you know there's a number of organizations that are currently running webinars and um you know different sessions I think Lori is attending one this week and um uh Kristen from the health Bureau has attended a few as well so so people are you know talking you beyond just Bethlehem about about how we um you know think about federal federal grants and a federal funding in particular moving forward um so then going uh Bureau by Bureau I will fittingly start with health uh I noted on the other screens that cdbg and health uh grants were not even included in that 15 and $3 million that we had talked about in Grants that we've brought into Bethlehem Health has brought in an additional $7 million to um Carry Out the work of that of that Bureau um the health Bureau provides Direct Services and initiatives in five core program areas those are chronic disease communicable disease environmental health Maternal Child Health and public health preparedness so in addition to act 315 and act 12 money a number of these grants uh that you see here fund staff and programming to cover all five of those core program areas and I think this list of Grants probably gives you a sense of the scope of their work um and just you know how much the health Bureau is providing to residents of Bethlehem on a regular basis um so here are a few health Bureau highlights from 2024 and 2025 uh the first is that the new mobile Health fan came online this year it gives us the ability to expand Clinical Services to highe neighborhoods in Bethlehem um you can see the van there in that first picture that's um a photo of Benet burger and officer L gazlo at the health bureau's drive-thru drive-through flu Clinic that was held at Freedom um Benet also runs the community connections program which continued to grow in 2024 and we have talked about quite a bit um they provide social support services alongside the police department and they're also on call for other departments and they're doing direct Outreach to the unhoused community as well um in 2024 uh through rly September the health Bureau received over 530 referrals to the community connections program that's for issues like U Mental Health crisis homelessness substance use um and Elder Care needs are just some examples the health Bureau also has been successful in continuing to secure funding for the program and also to help us expand that program uh this year we also started the better blocks Bethlehem program which is funded by a pccd violence and injury prevention Grant uh that focused on neighborhood level interventions in particular to start in one South Bethlehem neighborhood the photo there is from uh just one of the events and activities they they held as part of that Grant and that was at um Madison Park and there were a few of those uh throughout this year the next is the lead and healthy homes program that I mentioned um HUD provides funds to the health Bureau as well um and through this program we're able to perform uh lead-based paint remediation and uh healthy homes Remediation in both owner occupied and some rental units in the city of Bethlehem um as I mentioned the bureau performed remediation on 35 Bethlehem homes in 2024 they also conducted radon testing in over 35 homes and installed radon U mitigation systems in all homes that tested above epa's recommended rate on level um also looking ahead to 2025 the health Bureau and and and others in the city are partnering with the blue zones program and lehab Valley heal Network um to create policy and environmental changes that uh improve the built environment Food Systems in Bethlehem and this is really an exciting Initiative for Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley both Allentown and Easton are also participating so we're looking forward to getting that kicked off um I think this week actually we're having some of our first meetings and then lastly up here we have the Workforce Development Grant um uh funded uh city-wide Communications plan so in 2025 the Health Bureau will be studying and creating a plan for communications uh with the goal of delivering more inclusive informative and engaging Health Communications and also we're able to expand um that study and that plan and and look Citywide at our Communications as well um moving on to code enforcement um this uh Bureau is led by Chief Building Inspector Mike Simonson um it includes four inspectors and a permit coordinator uh their job in Code Enforcement is to as you probably can guess uphold and enforce codes and ordinances um to protect public health safety and Welfare um permits that are processed through this office include building commercial certificates of occupancy building permits electrical permits mechanical permits Plumbing permits um all sorts of things come through this office uh in 2024 through October uh we reviewed 1,461 plans conducted did 5,857 inspections issued 3,848 permits and collected over $900,000 in fees for projects that total over $239 million so you can tell that Bethlehem remains a very attractive place to invest in new construction and that ranges from you know large projects like the Boyd or moravian's new Hub Building or the Martin Tower Medical Office Buildings um to things that are like smaller home projects like new additions or for um interior Renovations um each of the projects that comes in through the code enforcement Bureau goes through a rigor rigorous review I mean it is dictated of course by the size of the project or the type of project but reviews often extend beyond just the code enforcement office um you know you might have engineering and Public Works looking at plans the zoning office sometimes even the tax Bureau for things like um business privilege licenses you know so in an ideal scenario obviously project comes in and the submission is complete and everything is compliant and it works its way through all these different reviews and then we print a permit and issue a permit and somebody gets it and everybody's happy um I would say that the ideal is probably not the norm more often than not we're having multiple back and forth interactions um with either contractors or Architects or the applicant thems um whether that's to make revisions or provide more information or you know address problems with plans so um you know I do note that all of that really does add time and and is a is a pretty regular part of the inspection process um we do know that um you know we are just quite busy right now as I said I think bethleem is a really attractive place to invest and we see that in the volume of applications that are coming in um and and the reviews are not always quick and painless um we are spending a lot of time and are constantly looking for ways to be more efficient or catch problems early in the process and and turn those around um and and communicate with applicants uh I will say that for now and for the foreseeable future we do anticipate that permanent applications and and uh you know Plan reviews the level and volume of those is probably going to remain pretty high and we're going to remain pretty busy um we are doing everything we can to continue to be you know customer friendly and move things along and communicate as best we can um it's it's an area that we're paying a lot of attention to and we're spending a lot of time uh working on you know recognizing that the volume is just quite High and um you know we've got a small and lean team like we do in other in other places in the city so we are certainly doing the best we can to uh deal with that immense immense volume of work um moving on to Community Development again another Bureau that is very diverse in what it does um Mr vidoni who is here predominantly administers the HUD Community Development and housing grants which is the cdbg funds and the home investment partnership funds those are federal entitlements that we receive every year um they support Social Services housing capital projects that support low to Modern income communities so in 2024 we administered over 1.4 million in cdbg program funds and about 391,000 in home program year funds um the cdbg and home budget is the second item that's on your agenda tonight um the list of awardees and projects um are ones that you reviewed earlier this year we had the public hearings and and votes on those so there's not anything new in those budgets um if you have any specific questions that we've not already discussed about any of the programs or the projects we're happy to answer those but you know otherwise there's not much new to go through in in cdbg in that regard um just for your reference uh we are opening the next round of applic for cdbg and home uh in the middle of December I think December 13th is our opening date and I think Mr Von is going to be sending out notice of that um probably tomorrow um but here just a few photos of some of the programs that we fund currently through cdbg um and you know when we when we fund programs it's not just getting the money out the door it's it's really quite a lot of back and forth with these organizations uh compliance with the Federal Regulations support for these organizations to to do their projects um so it's quite a bit of work that we're that we're very proud of um the first uh photo here is a Habitat for Humanity project we we fund habitat uh regularly they provide home ownership opportunities with our cdbg funds um for low-income residents I believe this is uh their project on William Street is that right um the second photo is from New Bethany that's uh from their rep P program which is another program we've been been really excited to support um help help people get um some Financial footing who who are struggling and it's it's really a great program the third program uh third photo here shows uh I think you might be able to see it's uh new Bethany's executive director Mark riddle talking to a large group um it's on West Third Street right by the Cathedral Church this is from October when um Miss tulo and and Mr vidoni helps coordinate event with the FDIC and the office of controller of current and the United Way uh we brought 25 banking officials to attend uh Bethlehem Community Development tour uh we highlighted um the work of New Bethany and habitat and Community Action Lehigh Valley and Community Development Bethlehem Hispanic Center other nonprofits some of our city work around the greenway and other projects um and we focused on Community Development successes and also future opportunities um it's it was a really great opportunity for banks to see what are the types of projects that they could be investing in um as part of their um CRA requirements so we looked at projects like the fourth and pul turret building which the RDA is working on we also talked about bees and a number of other projects so we were really pleased with the turnout and it's already bearing fruit in terms of once again bringing some more interest for Bethlehem projects generally not just City projects but also those of our partners um there's a lot of opportunities for tax credit credits for these for these Banks um and you know we're continuing to see how we can get those Banks involved and support many of our community development projects uh also out of the Community Development Bureau um the cdbg uh and home funds uh fund a program that is run by us at the city of Bethlehem for housing rehab Mr Von oversees two really amazing staff people who do the financial um and the technical um pieces of these projects um we were are going to settle by the end of this year 43 housing rehab cases and uh residential facade cases um they're all owner occupied homes so um you know again it's one of the many existing programs that we have that support homeowners and um affordable home ownership opportunities so what we can do through this program is support low-income homeowners um with projects that help people stay in their homes and keep their home safe and make sure that they are are um code compliant as well so the first home here is on uh Lincoln Street that's a before and after the second is on uh laer that's on the south side and then the third is in the north side alive area um on East Garrison and because I figured I would be a little bit tired of talking um we did we had put together just a a very brief video of somebody who's a recipient of the residential facade program I just if if you don't mind I wanted to play just the first two minutes of the of the video just to give a sense of you know what these programs mean to the people who are able to um benefit from them say two minutes because why not why not take the help if it was being offered they were um there were some issues that I needed help with that I wasn't able to tackle just yet part of the application process was um to include like a wish list that I had so I just put you know the things that I had hoped to accomplish with the outside of my house then we went from there so I was able to have the front and the side sidewalks of my house done and some roof work that needed to be done and my gutters were fixed and put under the cement which is really great and I also got a couple windows so our Northside alive facade program is designed to assist homeowners in the Norths side alive area North Bethlehem with making essential repairs to their homes that both contribute to addressing issues of cod compliance um and getting you know properties into shape uh as well as having an impact on the surrounding neighborhood the Norths side alive initiative identified housing condition and quality as a priority area for investment and so um the city of Bethlehem it provided us funding uh from their Community Development block grant program uh to address facades in this neighborhood so so far we've worked on three properties and we're looking forward to uh picking two new properties in the coming year uh to complete facade improvements on I received a letter in the mail otherwise I wouldn't have known about the program then I contacted Anna and um began the process there I received an application and um she was very helpful from from the start with any questions that I had and what paperwork I needed to submit um so she helped make it easy and painless it wasn't difficult at all and every single person that I worked with or that worked with me was excellent they were helpful they answered all my questions they made the process so easy and truth be told Peter specifically he was the goet with the contractors so I didn't even have to look for my own contractors or anything like that he did most of the work and then would connect us in order to schedule when they were going to come do the work so so it goes on for another five minutes but I just wanted to play the beginning of it just to to give you a sense and the the housing rehab and facade work is just one component of the north side alive program as uh you probably know um so so talking a little bit more about North Side alive as as an overall program um we just had our annual meeting last week it was super successful well attended had really great engagement um from a diverse group of residents um and of course I have to you know point out as well that um Council L has been such a critical part of that program for for quite some time um you know but when mayor Reynolds first proposed the idea for Northside 2027 back when he was still on city council you know he he really set I think in motion a series of events and got people engaged and we've since you know really built a great team uh of of people not only at the city and and our partner organizations but residents who are part of the the real community-driven nature of this program um to to create something that I think is maybe even exceeded what he would have imagined for it um the 10-year plan that was created uh in 2027 or 2017 you know the 2027 plan um we've incrementally been working towards uh accomplishing those plans goals and we've had a lot of success doing that um it really I think demonstrates what happens when you kind of prioritize a project and create a plan and and put people in place to carry it out so um in this past year the program worked on different public Improvement projects um they had 18 community outreach events they worked alongside a number of Partners who are very actively engaged from the YMCA to the public library cat and the food co-op Community Action of course um and and arts Quest that helped as well with with the mural that you see here um some of the key public improvements in this in this neighborhood in 2024 were um in addition to this this great mural um the installation of free little libraries they're working on a community garden they have um invested in enhancing uh Christmas decorations further up Broad Street into the footprint of the north side alive area um they added crosswalk signage around schools which was a big request of residents in the neighborhood uh facade improvements um pet waste stations was was another big Community request um and obviously the ongoing progress with the um Friendship Park um revitalization um as it relates to Friendship Park this was one of the major components of the north side plan uh it's an approximately $1.3 million project uh we have completed final design and Engineering we secured all of the funding required for the project from the sources that I that I listed up here um we are finalizing all of our Federal grant requirements at this point and um you know that's really where where we stand right now but we're looking to constru start construction in Spring of 2025 it is it is a good example again of of um you know the work that is required not only to uh successfully apply for Grants but then also when we receive the grants um there there's a lot of work behind the the um Park Service orlp Grant the community Project funding you I think sometimes people really estimate what it takes to execute on federal grants but we're really fortunate that we have um a lot of people here um in in not just Community economic development but the law Bureau and elsewhere that are really helping us make sure that we're um getting these Grant agreements in place that we are following Federal Regulations um and you know that although this money is not necessarily easy to get um that we're putting in all the work that it takes to um really um do these projects right so uh like I said we are making progress and and we expect to start construction in 2025 um so moving on then to the Planning and Zoning Bureau um uh as a broad overview uh Planning and Zoning covers activities that relate to the maintenance of Long Range Community planning programs uh it has initiatives related to Historic preservation Transportation Planning uh they work as well on Grant submission and project management uh they also manage the entire subdivision and Land Development review process they review all permits and manage all zoning hearing board Appeals um again for for permits related to zoning uh it also includes the administration of the Planning Commission the zoning hearing board and the two historic boards um so just looking at some numbers from 2024 uh we've reviewed a number of land developments you can see there 22 Land Development or subdivision subdivision submissions uh We've administered 12 zoning hearing board meetings 10 Planning Commission meetings and 23 harb or HCC meetings already this year and then on the right you can see a a summary of recent planning projects that are coming out of the Planning and Zoning Bureau as well you know in coordination with with many other bureaus and departments across the city um so you see for example the complete streets and bike infrastructure plan um will be releasing an RFP for that one shortly that's uh coming out of the um Safe Streets for all Grant we have the parks and wreck master plan about to kick off the Adu zoning plan that we've talked quite a bit about the Penbrook Choice neighborhoods project is underway uh the Southside Community Center feasibility study is near final and we are anticipating making some exciting announcements in early 2025 on that one and then just going back a little bit uh in addition to housing strategy then we look at as I mentioned the Broad Street active Transportation plan which was a a a large planning effort that came out of Planning and Zoning in coordination with many other bureaus and departments but that you know the implementation of that plan is now very actively underway with the award of over $10 million to do East and uh West Broad Street improvements uh and then as well um Miss heler and others are are very active in implementation of the climate action plan uh leading the subcommittees for land use and green space and also um transportation and mobility and Miss hel gave a a great report on the work of those committees at the climate action plan annual meeting um just a couple weeks ago or maybe last week it's hard to remember um but you know one of the things I'll point out is that from these planning projects you can see that really in addition to housing work that we talk about a lot you know there are some major areas of focus and activity around planning and grant writing and and project coordination you know coming out of this Bureau and others you know I think one of the the key themes that you see here is that um we're trying to plan for designing a city that makes streets safer and more accessible and that's really a thread that runs through a lot of the work that we're doing and the grants that we're acquiring um you know and and making streets safer is not just about cars it's about you know people who are walking people who are biking people who are using alternative transportation um and a related Focus I think is designing a city that promotes indoor and outdoor recreation and Trail connectivity um I think not only in making Park improvements specifically for example on Friendship Park or Fairview but looking at this master planning with the Parks and Recreation plan is really a part of this larger strategy of thinking about how we're designing a city um that promotes you know these sorts of activities and then of course as you know as it relates to Trails um we have talked quite a bit about the greenway um but you know worth noting um that really after decades uh of work and multiple administrations and councils and people in City Hall and outside some really hard work over this year alone from Miss heler and um um Mr spurk and Mr Beltrami and the law Bureau as well as others in in DPW uh we did I'm very excited to announce if you haven't heard already we did close on the purchase of the greenway Trail gap on Friday um so now we officially own this land and uh we are looking forward to designing the construction in 2025 and and starting construction um as soon as we can so um you know I know people are really excited about this and it's been a big accomplishment that may Reynolds really pushed for and also you know we are once again very grateful for City council's support to to make that possible and it's nice to be able to highlight you know just a a a true win um you know here during the the budget presentation uh the next Bureau is the recycling Bureau um as I mentioned the recycling Bureau handles curbside recycling the yard waste facility and uh the uh drop off recycling center uh the bureau also employs an enforcement officer who handles uh Recycling and trash complaints and enforces all the relevant city ordinances related to trash and recycling um as I had mentioned the recycling Bureau does have one of the higher budgets in our department overall but uh the largest expense there as you know is for our curbside recycling service contract with Republic you've probably seen that um you know the municipal trash and recycling industry is one where costs have been increasing significantly and I think some of our uh neighboring municipalities have gotten it much worse than we have and I think you know we're really fortunate to have Mr Hal Forster um Mr Evans and others you know really you know all of us working together to make sure that we are minimizing impacts on residents um as much as possible you know we did see a jump in cost for our service when we um entered into our new contract um but we really were able to save money overall by um you know making a change like um converting from the Dual stream to the single stream recycling and I think you know now that we've had a little bit of time to look back on that we're seeing you know Not only was that a smart financial decision but it's one um that I think in our view is providing the same if not better results from like an environmental perspective um I I think I note here yes that our um curbside recycling um materials our our collection has increased by 4% since we started the uh single stream recycling uh I think that's you know there are a couple reasons for that I think it's easier for folks to recycle when you don't have to you know just take that one small extra step of separating things um and although it's only a small step I do think it it does make a difference um and we've also spent time with our recycling enforcement officer and and Mr H forer has has really directed you know that we're spending time figuring out you know who's Recycling and who's not and you know that's part of the job of the Enforcement Officers to make sure that per per city ordinance you know people are actually Recycling and um this this past year uh we mailed out over 4,000 cards to Residents who we saw um you know were not recycling for at least you know three pickups in a row um and about half of the people who received cards followed up and we had conversations with and you know either talked about you know how it is that you recycle or what's the process or where do you take it um and you know I think that has contributed as well to seeing an increase in in um the number of people who are participating in the program um some some other uh factors are here um the yard waste facility uh is quite well utilized um in addition to processing City materials uh last year we processed over 100,000 cubic yards of compost and mulch uh that's a 25% increase over over 2023 and um you know I think uh I think some of you have had the opportunity to go out and see the facilities with Mr Hal Forester um but he really doesn't excellent job and is always very happy to to tour people around or answer any questions um so you can really see what it is what it is that we do out there um you know but in addition to running great facilities as I mentioned a large part of what we're doing is just trying to figure out how we deal you know with this Market that is a little bit volatile it's uh overall recycling is not the the the cash producer that it that it once was um you know that's just a result of what the market looks like for these goods and materials but um I think we we've done a really good job of evaluating our services being smart about our Contracting um and making sure that you know we're still able to provide a high level of service without you know overburdening residents too much on the cost all right uh last two bureaus here uh Economic Development first um you'll see in your budget book uh Economic Development was reset as its own Bureau in uh 2023 I believe um prior to that for for a few years it had been nestled in Community Development and prior to that it it was its own Bureau so we did bring that that back into its own budget category um you'll note that there the budget increased significantly from 2023 to 2024 and is back down again for 2025 and uh similar theme that is the result of last year we had a $1 million pass through grant for an economic development project that increased our our budget overall um so you know that was for the steel general office building on on Third Street that was uh grant that we had received as the city and were administering to the developers on that project to do um interior Demolition and abatement of environmental hazards that is um ongoing now so overall in Economic Development uh we do a number of things uh it's the administration and oversight of all of our Economic Development funding and incentives and programs that includes the Enterprise Zone the Chris District the kis the lured districts um you know commercial blight remediation uh importantly to carry out all this work we do provide direct management and oversight uh for Bria bedco and the RDA um and and just for those who are probably tired of all the acronyms I just said Bria is the Bethlehem revitalization and Improvement Authority which is our Cris Authority um bedco is the betham economic development Administration corporation which administers uh the kiz which is the Keystone Innovation zone They also operate the Southside Art District program the Southside ambassadors and the pi partnership for Innovation facility and then of course the RDA is the Redevelopment Authority so a few highlights from 2024 uh we administered over $2.7 million in chis increment we facilitated applications for seven kis and Enterprise Zone uh tax credits we're also actively working now uh on K tax credits uh for four or five other companies not reflected here for the December one closing date so Mr ziller's Been Working uh with with a lot of companies to to kind of continue that pipeline of folks who are taking advantage of the Keystone Innovation Zone uh we also award through the the kis board that we administer the kis Tech transfer and student internship grants um and then we also uh work on the the Lura applications with the county when those come in and we had three of those this year so um other work then as I mentioned through bedco is uh includes the Southside arts district and the Southside ambassadors um so I just wanted to highlight the Southside Arts District program which if you're not familiar with it it follows the uh fourpoint Main Street approach which is you know focuses in the Southside District on economic Vitality design organization promotion uh they hold a number of really great um activation activities in the Southside commercial Corp from live on the greenway to the very popular chili Fest or the naughty or nice cocktail and cookies Trail which I think is coming up um we work in partnership with Lehi on on a lot of these um initiatives and also in particular on the administration of the Southside ambassadors program uh looking ahead to next year we do have a few goals that include um developing a strategic plan with the advisory committee kind of looking the program's been in place for almost 10 years now you know where has it been where is it possibly going uh we did uh through bedco pursue an application for a a a planning process towards a formal Main Street designation through the governor's Main Street matters program um and you know we're also looking at diversifying and and expanding some funding sources for the ambassadors because we know that that's such a a critical and successful program and I think you know we're going to be looking ahead to you know how we make sure that that program remains uh sustainable and can can expand with respect to the north side you know neither bedco nor the city directly manages a program in the in the way that we manage the Southside Arts District program on the Southside but the chamber and the DBA have been in place for for quite some time and have have kind of served that function and our office and the mayor's office have you know long-standing relationship with the chamber um and you see that reflected in the budget um for our you know our chamber contract um we you know work with the chamber to support in addition to the historic downtown also you know Citywide business initiatives ribbon cuttings things like that and then overall marketing activities um for the city um you know and and part of our work I think with the chamber in particular is is to facilitate relationships um and then we serve on all of these boards really that's that's kind of our our role in in in working with these organizations that are on the ground dealing one-on-one with businesses we sit on the chamber board and the DBA board and um all of their subcommittees and the site Arts District and their subcommittees the Christmas City committee the marketing committee you know all of that sort of Falls uh within the realm of the the economic development Bureau and and building those relationships um between those organizations um and also trying to help them and and push them to to grow and evolve and and meet changing needs and challenges um just a few ways we offer additional support um is again through grant writing which is the theme of the evening but you know we've recently written grants for example for um sidewalk improvements in the Southside commercial District um facade improvements in the historic district um and then both for both business districts and the and the north side Al live area U we recently applied for a Main Street matters Grant again the new governor program um to develop a program that would provide micro grants for businesses um to use for things like small capital projects or um marketing needs and things like that so we do have that active application out as well and then with respect to Grants in addition to those those smaller grants for some of our like Main Street programs and um small businesses you know we do also do quite a bit of of Grant support on on larger Economic Development projects we you know annually support private development through um Arc cap applications you know and we do administer those when they're awarded um in the most recent round of funding I just noted up here Governor Shapiro announced $2 and a half millionar u in an arcap Grant to support a semiconductor Hub in South Bethlehem and so we've joined the Consortium of organizations and institutions um that are working on that project um we were pleased to see as well a a different semiconductor project that receiv receives support through the federal chips act um and we're going to continue to collaborate with key Partners like lvdc um on on on this you know exciting work and and you know the regional growth that we're seeing in in key Tech and Life Sciences centers also shown here is a photo of the steel general office building that I mentioned you know Governor Shapiro was here announcing the P sites program and he he announced the entire program for the state the $500 million program right in front of the the sgo um and and that project is one that in addition to the million dollars I mentioned that the city is administering um we have through Bria uh two different grants that we're administering for that project um an LSA Grant and isrp Grant and then through bedco a separate LSA Grant so Mr Zill Ziller has been working quite a bit on um you know all that goes with the the Grant Management for for something like that working you know really weekly with u the project developers as they're working through their interior demo and abatement in the the East Annex portion of that building but it's just you know one example of the kind of work that we can do in Economic Development to you know take what remains of of the largest Brownfield in the country and you know turn some of these really historic really important properties back into useful and contributing structures in Bethlehem and this is you know one of the projects in particular we're very excited about and then our last Bureau is the housing inspections Bureau um similar to code enforcement um you know housing Inspection Bureau is one where we have seen a sustained high level of activity our staff is working very hard every day um moving through inspections and rechecks and Licensing um the housing Inspection Bureau inspects the housing stock at various points like prescribed by by ordinance generally um that's whether that's a sales inspection or a rental inspection or a regulated rental in the case of student properties so our uh rentals are inspected in city of Bethlehem every 3 years student rentals inspected annually um all homes for sale are expect inspected before closing and then we also uh inspect on a complaint driven basis um so here you can see some data on inspections from 2023 to 2024 the top bars are 2023 through October and and the bottom 2024 through October so you can see that at the same time last year we had conducted over 7,000 inspections 7,116 and and this year that number has jumped all the way up to 8,699 uh inspections that we have performed so far we do have a total of eight housing inspectors now um Council approved the additional two inspectors earlier this year um we got all we have now filled all eight positions as of about two weeks ago we had hired the the two new positions and then we also had one inspector who moved from housing to code um and and were able to fill that position as well you know earlier this year when when we came to you we had hit an inflection point where it was taking you know 8 to 10 weeks for us to schedule housing inspections we have gotten that down to about three to four weeks which um is really an improvement obviously and you know although adding inspectors is not you know fixing the whole problem with with our workload we are um you know we are working very Dil diligently to to find ways to continue to improve that process and make sure that we're turning these inspections around and um you getting them done as soon as we can um Mr tulo and and um Mr Simonson have been working really hard and looking at how we can be more efficient including through the use of Technology um automating as much of the processes as we can and you know we have really spent a lot of time making improvements in that area that I think are also going to continue to to help us um in in getting these inspections done quickly but you know I'll note that I think part of the reason that we're so busy is because the rent inspection program is working as you know as it was intended to um since its Inception we've identified I'd say hundreds if not you know thousands of properties that had not previously been on our radar as rentals that we had not gotten into for decades um and we're able to add those to our list get in them more regularly and really overall make sure that our housing stock is uh much safer and you know much better for the for the people living here um we've also made significant progress ress on some of the problem properties like Sherwood Apartments has been one of our challenges and um we're working with the large student housing landlords and that's really a a testament to Mr Simonson and Mr tulo's you know tenacity in kind of you know bringing these large players to the table and and and really forcing them to to work through their inspections and make sure that the housing that they're providing is is truly safe and code compliant um another point I'll make here and the inspection numbers is that there's also uh about 837 inspections that are done in response to complaints so that's you know not on the regular rental cycle or not as a result of sales but that's when somebody calls um either a tenant or a neighbor and that could be like your high grass and weeds as well and we've done 837 of those inspections this year um you know we've talked about this before but one point I'll make uh in particular about the complaints inspections is you know we know that the system for responding those isn't perfect but it's really often prescribed you know by ordinance so somebody calls we get out there the same day that that doesn't mean that they grasses cut the same day or or the problem is resolved the same day but our team really does a good job of getting out there and starting the process and staying on the process which includes sending letters and then a prescribed period of time that we have to let somebody self-correct um if necessary sending um you know the the violation notices going to the magistrate hoping that the magist in the case of high grass and weeds and recycling I think Mr H Forester would agree sometimes uh it can be a struggle to get the magistrates to to take some of these cases seriously but um you know that is the process that we follow and we do work really hard um to respond to those complaints and um you know work through the process that that we have available to us um so you know overall I you know I think in housing inspections and as well as the the rest of uh the department I think um you know we are really proud of the the work that we're doing and the high quality professionals that we have you know performing this work um I you know I think we have a tremendous team and you know I'm want to thank them again for their incredible work and for their for their service their Public Service um you know it's not always easy work but I think you know we work really well together and um you know it's it's a really great team to work for so I am happy to answer questions or let them answer questions if you are tired of hearing from me well I wasn't here the whole time so all right and I apologize for my tardiness I got caught up at my day job later than expected I thank councilwoman Leon for starting the meeting in my absence I will recognize councilwoman willhelm advised she is signing off um to attend to an emergency so she will not be um participating for the remainder of the meeting meeting the I will start with thank you Miss Collins for the presentation I'll start with our community development committee starting with the chair councilwoman quch for any questions or comments thank you um thank you for that very thorough presentation and it's truly impressive when you look at the dollar amounts and the number of projects that are going on it's uh kind of head spinning um that you are all doing it on the level of Staffing that you have um I had just a few questions um and starting with uh questions about the health department so I don't know if director one rich might want to answer these so um I noticed uh the line item for opioid prevention uh is now at zero it's been you know up and down over the years I assume this is because of Grants so are there other sources other um places in the budget where that's that work is happening yes so um we a grant that's pending right now so I couldn't put it into the budget because we haven't received final approval but we anticipate receiving it thanks and um I've recently read in the media that um there's been thankfully a decline in overdose deaths nationally I mean not you know obviously a huge decline but a significant decline are we seeing a decline in our area as well yes um and this year we started actually an overdose fatality review team so we work with the coroner's office to review um fatal overdose deaths in our community and look at at what preventive measures could have been put in place to prevent those deaths from occurring so we have a team of um professionals that are reviewing those cases every quarter but we have seen a decrease in the last it went up slightly during the pandemic and then it's starting to come back down so we're hoping that Trend continues that's great news and the distribution of the Noone and the boxes and everything it's also you noted in your report in the in the budget is uh an impressive number as well so hopefully that's helping um on that um so the the budget line for public Public Health preparedness sorry for all the microphone popping with all the piece um it's $2.45 million uh in particular um it's a it's one of the biggest line items it's $3.4 million and then there's 2, 450,000 um and in the description it says supplies educational supplies office supplies MRC supplies and could you just go a little bit into what all goes into that since it's such a big chunk of your budget sure and and that's a covid related fund so that's why that number is so high um so a lot of um the co funding they're getting very um prescriptive as far as how we can spend those dollars so it's become increasingly difficult to spend down those dollars as time has gone on um but those funds have been used to purchase our mobile clinic um so and that will continue to help fund the supplies and um operations of the mobile clinic um we also have um contributed to our it Department so upgrades with Microsoft um as well as with GIS we've paid for so we've done a lot with technology um we're also looking at Public Health kiosks so kiosk machines that would offer harm reduction products testing materials and public health materials so that's included in there scanning is also something that we've been able to use the funds so we help support Community Economic Development with their scanning efforts as well as um the health Bureau will be scanning some of our documents to try to free up space and have everything electronically um and then covid test kits we pay for so it's it's a whole wide range of things but we have to pretty much send everything to the Department of Health to get it approved at this point before spending and um is there a deadline on these dollars so we have the funds until uh June of 2026 June 30th of 2026 okay great um and how is the mobile van going do you have any statistics on that or I mean it's pretty new so it is pretty new so we spent some time working with our Community Partners to determine what types of services they want it to see because we are working directly with our Community Partners and having our van there on site so um as an example we were at the Hispanic Center two weeks ago offering our family planning Services we're working with Northeast Community Center and and several other organizations so we worked with them to figure out hours days of the week services to provide um so that's just getting getting off the ground but so far nothing but positive feedback that's great to hear um that's it I that's all I had for you so thank you um and then I just had a couple of other questions um one of them is about the Lura affordable housing budget line so whoever would be answering that maybe Miss Collins um so uh the on page 67 of the budget um the Lura affordable housing budget line is $300,000 for 2024 and 430,000 uh for 2025 and so this would be funds that have been gathered through the payment in lie of correct correct correct and actually I I think we have even since printing of the budget received um an an additional payment for one of the newer projects so our overall um total uh for the the uh payment in Li of through Lura I think is about $700,000 a little bit over $700,000 and so is there a plan to spend all of it in the coming year or is it and so on what so the as I mentioned when I was talking about the Civic expenses account when we put together that overall budget for housing we did include our projections of Lura in that in that overall budget um and at this point I think we're targeting um at least some of that money most likely for the the Gateway on Fourth project um and I think that's kind of how it falls in the overall breakdown of our housing um implementation plan thank you for that um yeah I think that was it for me so thank you very much thank you councilwoman and I know Miss quch had but I ask everyone reference page numbers if there is anything you're looking at in the page book oh you did and I forgot to remind everybody councilman ksey Smith our other Committee Member okay thank you thank you for your presentation um I have a couple questions chronologically but let me see um on page 53 I just wanted to address the temporary help budget it's it's increased significantly is that parttime folks is that grandf funded folks um 53 and then 54 it says temporary help well actually it says world heritage 20,000 and then 72 for Grants administrator uh yeah so um the temporary helpl line a couple things happened there in 2021 I believe uh we had only in this line the financial assistant and that's you know Chris Jones who supports a number of the economic development initiatives we actually ended up moving him out of the administration into the economic development Bureau when we um added that as its own Bureau uh and then we added in when we um hired a a grants um the grants administrator I was get confused uh the grants administrator I believe we hired them towards the very end of 2022 so you'll see their full budget in for the 2023 2024 and 2025 years and then also uh the in the additional increase in 24 and then you know relatedly in 25 uh we added half of the salary for Miss Jello and that's what the world heritage um coordinator component is so can you just just so I'm clear um so the grants administrator is under temporary help so correct is that being funded like a salary position or is that being grf funded I guess I'm just trying to get a feel for why is it under temporary help as as far as and also the world heritage position yeah you'll see actually I mean I think throughout the entire city budget um there are positions in temporary help um for for various reasons sometimes because they're Grant funded um other times they're they're just the decision was made to have them be contract positions um I believe for example that mellos is not a a grant-funded position position um but when we um started the grants administrator position we did um fund that through the um Community Recovery Fund lined so that's the grant position correct okay and then the other the word here is so basically part of Mrs aello um salary is being paid under um Administration correct okay and then the rest is paid under another line item correct okay thank you and um I have a question on health but I'll stick with since you're there I'll try to not have everybody back and forth um on page 68 again it was a temporary health uh question regarding the um neighborhood coordinator and the housing policy lead and the community fellow I I just wanted to get you know information on those positions what they entail sure so the community fell I'll start with that one that's um further down under Community Development that's um every year we have a a Lehi student it's a the Lehi Community fellows program um we've had that for a number of years um I think this year it's 11,400 that that was increased um from Lehi I think used to be around 9,800 I believe um you know but we do fund that that position every year and it's somebody who comes in as as part of their um graduate coursework at Lehi um and and provides assistance to the entire Bureau uh then the neighborhood coordinator that's the north side alive coordinator um Selena Daario if you're familiar with her and we put that position in Community Development again I believe in 2023 um and you'll probably recall that in the Civic expenses account we had um since the start of the Lura for the north side um the the north side area $50,000 line item for the north side area we did take um 25,000 of that um and put that towards actually hiring uh the person to to bring them in house um so that was our that was from the $50,000 annual investment for the north side area um and then the remainder of that is um you know I I think Grant I think that one is Grant funded as well and we're also um you know Selena is helping out with uh some other projects as well like the the um Choice neighborhoods project so we are billing some of her time to some of our other grants um the housing policy lead is one of the the um expenditures that we talked about in the fiveyear implementation plan for the the housing plan and that is also a a new position that is supporting our housing work okay new as of last year not new as of this year okay thank you and then on the same page I just was want to about the choice planning coordinator services so is that under the choice um neighborhood Grant is a position is that just is that several people is that services like what does that entail because 158,000 so that is you're correct that is funded by the choice neighborhoods program and you'll maybe remember when we first got that Grant and that was when we um yeah as part of implementation we do have to you know do a variety of activities that are prescribed by Hud and and like other communities who do Choice neighborhoods um we work with um the same group that um Easton worked with actually it's collabo and they are uh the planning coordinator on the on the choice project they do a number of these um uh you know across the country actually okay so those funds that will go to them for their services primarily okay thank you um and then on page 67 going to recycling um let's see here there's a pretty um large amount for temporary help also so that's like almost 400,000 wonder what it's you know office staff compost TC RC is that so A a number of the recycling employees are contract employees a number of them are it's part-time labor okay the number is 12 12 um so so again that's a that's a situation where those are employees they're not Grant funded that's not that's not really the defining factor of what makes some many temporary help but they employees who work seasonally they work part-time they you know work at at the center they're not Tams they're not Union employees they're just on contract to provide support at the facilities okay thank you and related to that for the curbside recycling I know um at one point you know was said that we're really not making much money on that do you have any idea like what the revenue is from the curbside recycling as far as we what we get reimbursed for what we recycle I'll let Mike talk a little bit about okay thank you hello thank you currently right now we do get a rebate for our material it ranges by the month uh we're ranging any anywhere between 65 a ton to 80 a ton unfortunately the processing fees are higher than what our rebate is our current processing fee per ton is 9750 so we're we netting about 13 to $22 a ton that we are paying for the material we estimate about 3,900 tons a year of material that we do process and pick up curbside so while we are getting paid for we're not actually seeing the funds as a as as a positive it's still actually a negative we are paying the bill it's just not as much as what it used to be okay thank you thank you Mike um see what else I have um oh okay and then on page 78 I was just wondering about the the student internship Grant is that the grant is that to fund the student through Lehi then the graduate student sorry where are you looking on um I think I'm on page 78 Economic Development 70 oh I'm sorry I I'm sorry the kis yeah okay that's uh that is that is not Lehi so part of the kis program and maybe Mr Ziller if you want to talk about the the two different kis grants if you're okay the tech transfer and the uh yeah so through uh the kis the Keystone Innovation Zone uh there's several resources and incentives that are are businesses that are enrolled in the kis which is primarily in our Southside can Avail themselves of um that is the uh Tech transfer Grant which is usually the big draw for KZ businesses as they're coming in and they essentially once they're enrolled in the kis they come in front of the kis Advisory Board who they have to present to and their uh you know a possibility to receive that Grant has to be under review by the by the committee and then um from there it's a reimbursable uh basis uh that's run through again the K's overseen by bedco SE from that we also uh reimburse kiz companies uh when they have a need for either uh undergraduate students or graduate students so there's a an internal process we manage uh to ensure that you know they are uh uh seeking to reimburse a an enrolled student uh and and somebody who would contribute to uh their company and the work that they're doing uh so again that all runs through uh um you know bedco and and kind of through our primary partners sponsored by our primary Partners um uh that assist in the own okay thank you thank you that that helps tremendously and I just had a question I don't know if it would be Miss Collins or youan but um talking about the Lura I was wondering um how many additional um developments have used the Lura in the last year and um you know what what we are I know you had talked about using the funds possibly for the the Gateway but there any other plans for the fund is it going to are we starting a Housing Trust Fund or do we have one that already exist sure so I I'll speak to the applications that have recently come through for Lura so I'd say um you know throw it back to when I started which was the end of April um we've received uh I believe four four to five additional Lura applications that have uh come through and then you know we facilitate that process and and kind of coordinate with the county um as to those L applications um coming through and ensuring they're eligible first and foremost so but um in terms of the projects that have paid in um I think we have uh 610 Flats the uh third and Taylor building and the Marshall which recently um paid in as well which is the project that's um being developed at the former Boys and Girls Club um facility okay and do you anticipate I mean I know it's like you said I think I think is it 700,000 right now okay and then do you have any idea what you're projecting for next year for 2025 I I don't okay right that's okay I was just curious um and again just to be more um more specific on the funding I know it's going to go the Gateway but are we looking at doing like a Housing Trust Fund where we can use that money to assist those that you know with the down payment or with rentals or anything like that are we looking at doing as part of the the as I mentioned so the the Lura dollars are part of that overall $8 million um fiveyear implementation plan on housing so all of the strategies that are included in there are ones that are funded through some combination of the Civic expense line the Lura line or the cdbg and home I think those lured dollars are are likely to be directed towards the Gateway project um but overall in you know in terms of the strategies that are included in that plan um for example we have the creation of a revolving Loan Fund as one of the the main components of that so um you know that would be uh a Loan Fund that um you know projects could look to they could apply for funds um you know as as a revolving you know a loan that would you know come back and and revolve to be used for later projects so if that's the the the type of use you're thinking of that's something overall contemplated by um contemplated by the plan and then in terms of I think you had mentioned down payment assistance as I mentioned in the presentation um you know we've had you know homeowner first first-time home buyer assistance programs in place for um quite some time and they're routinely funded every year by this cdbg and and um home allocation and they'll continue to be funded um as well into the future um I think I mentioned we've only done seven closings um in that first-time home buyer program since 2021 I think we've talked before about how um that's kind of reflective of just the housing market generally you know the funds are available for the firsttime home buyus program still don't help somebody you know it's maybe $10,000 but it's not enough to help them with the person who's offering cash on a home at you know 30 or $40,000 over asking price and so it's it's been a a challenge you know we've put I think um money the money that has gone towards the Community Action component which is the the um like the education and the training course you know 400 some people have gone through that and we've marked our our beap our our first-time home buyer assistance program to every single one of them and we've as I said only had the seven closings and Mr Tula reminded me today I think um as well that you know there's also requirements um there's limits on the purchase price for that you can use in that program so I think it's like maybe 240 or 250,000 so if if a home is going for more than that you automatically it it's it's not um an option for them to use those funds but but we have had seven closings um so so that is um again an ongoing program that has been funded for a while and would continue to be funded okay great thank you I think I only have two or three more um page 80 again it's a temporary help I just wanted to get clarification it's the economic development coordinator position at almost 60,000 yep so that's a that's a position that I think has been in the budget for a decade at least I don't know if you remember um a Asher uh Shone who had had I think has presented at Fair Hearings and and and other hearings um he uh did he as an individual left um the city earlier this year but we have um recently um hired somebody to fill that role who who we're very excited about his name is Alex Miller um comes from uh worked for the state and um uh the Department of Labor and Industry and I think you know he's he's going to be a great addition to the team but that is a position that we've had um for quite some time okay I guess I'm just curious why is under temporary help then because it is a salary position it's a it's a contract it is a contract it's a contract position yeah thank you um and then I think my last question is um regarding inspections 82 um page 82 and it's it's great that we're really ramping up the inspection um program but I just was wondering I know it's you know we have a lot of catching up to do are we pretty much on par we still pretty far behind are we catching up as far as the inspections like every three years and the um y I don't know if Mike want jumping out of his seat yeah go ahead I mean I know you we just got hired I think one more recently we hired two more recently Council approved the hiring of two more staff members for our inspection staff uh we were like miss Colin said about eight to 10 weeks behind now now we're at about three to four weeks to schedule an inspection which is about what we'd like to be at for uh we do still do the every three years so we have large complexes mixed in and take a lot of our time but the uh the amount of Staffing we have currently from the housing inspection standpoint is adequate to keep us in a good space for time and response good that's great to hear and thanks you've been very accessible and responsive when I ever I have people call me with complaints no problem I appreciate thank you yep um I just have one question for um chrisan regarding health I'm sorry that's said and it's just I think it's more just to clarify from me um on page 5758 it looks like and it may just be a transfer of funds But continuing the services and I'm looking at like a big drop in lead but then an increase in healthy homes and then there is like the lead the lead healthy homes had a big drop more than half but then the healthy homes program had a big increase was that basically just a transfer of funds and and the semantics and the wor are you talking about from 20425 because lead went up account 42175 increased as well as healthy homes 4297 because the lab when I see okay 42171 it's LED healthy homes it was 115,000 last year and then it was that's a small Grant through the PA Department of Health okay um so that that's the smallest portion we we don't have as many homes to complete the two larger grants directly from HUD are um account 421 75 and you can see there it has a slight increase as well as um the healthy Homes at 4297 and that's just a projection based those grants are um over threeyear grants so it's always just a projection based on the number of homes we anticipate completing okay great thank you and then the only other question Kristen I had is about the emergency housing um you know you're looking at going from 8,000 to anticipating 1,500 is that again just that you're hoping that's the case or is that because of the grant money or that that was a a one-time Grant we had received from Two Rivers Health and Wellness Foundation so that's what's remaining in that Grant fund line so that's all we have for 2025 for emergency housing is 1500 are we are you looking at getting any more grant money possibly I believe Sarah you had written as part of the was it the ESG Grant um there was emergency housing written in there great because I know I know we had to use that especially during covid and if there's any other flu outbreaks or whatever so okay thank you so much sure I'm done thank you thank you Council so that is everyone in the committee who's present I'll open it up to other questions or comments from members of council Mr Callahan um I just have a few questions Mo most of them been been answered already um on the uh where did the initiative was it internal or was it external from from uh residents or or the state on transferring or changing l Street and um uh Center Street from one way to two-way was that something that that we wanted to do on our own yeah yeah it was uh I actually think it made it first into capital budget back when your brother was mayor um because I remember being on city council and I think it was involved there in the capital plan back then and then lynen Street and Center Street came up I think when I had first proposed North North Side um 2027 which turned out to be North Side alive uh back in 2017 when we were going through those neighborhood planning meetings it was a conversation that came up with a lot of the residents with the schools William Penn and Thomas Jefferson um because as you probably know they were originally made one-way Streets back in betham steel to help with like the shift change um but you there was a lot of conversation um about the speeding through the neighborhoods um about just kind of what it means to have that and I think you know I think Miss lared was at some of those North Side alive meetings as well um that it really was from an infrastructure point of view as well as Friendship Park what people looked at as kind of the uh main um things to focus on that they thought were detrimental to to small businesses to kids crossing the street and just the general energy of the neighborhoods that surround a busy street which are kind of similar to what had led to all of our work around West Broad Street so that's kind of it's been idea that's come back and forth like I said I think it was when your brother was mayor was when I remember first seeing it I think on the capital plans coming up um but then it came up in all of our North Side planning meetings in 2018 2019 and 2020 so so what's the what was the total number on that for for both roads you know it depends on estim yeah well it depends on when you're going to do it because Mr Al Call's smart about the idea based on what you're looking at as far as what a road would cost in like seven or eight years versus is what it would cost if you do it like next year based on materials and things like that there are also some synergies that come when you do it the same time when you have to pave a road like if you're planning to pave a road um so you don't do it then have to repave and things like that um they're includes the idea about whether or not you upgraded the Ada ramps or not like whether or not those were already upgraded before you did it and things like that um but I think that um lyen Street which is the one that we uh is the priority is I think it turned out to be roughly about 1.7 1.8 million which we have been working on Grant dollars for some money from like pendot from the state and things like that um but that also and I'm just giving the estimates here it depends to how much that work you're able to do inhouse how much the work is comes down to can you use previous engineering things like that um so that's what that estimate would be then Center Street is a um it depends on when you do it I think it's on like pend Do's long-term tip plan now for like $4 million but that's under the ID I believe that they would do it in like 10 years so it's like a like a cost adjusted to do that so so we've been looking at what other potential funding sources could be for that uh on page um 63 um on their permits and uh Miss counts are are we seeing the number of uh I know that um in the last four years the number of permits have skyrocketed and your Department's been extremely busy are we seeing it settle down a little bit now or is it is it still it's still at a peak it it it is still quite High I mean sometimes you know we we remark that we're all like oh it's you know the it's going to be winter and we're going to have a weeks that'll slow down down and and the week to slow down never really seems to come so um it it has remained High I do think we are anticipating um you know that that it will continue to be sort of at this level for for a little bit do you have any idea I know we're landlocked as far as you know the the the big projects sure but are are most of the permits and and most of the uh inquiries in to like single family home areas within the city I I would say that it's mixed I won't turn to Mr Simonson I I would say it's mixed I think you know in in my time in this role every year we've had um you know a few of those massive projects that have you know really taken up you know a lot of time and and um you know been a big big part of the work of the department and then sprinkled in as well with um you know residential and sort of your your regular stuff but you know 2023 that was Wind Creek for example I think to do a project like Wind Creek they probably are out there inspecting like 700 times in in a year um you know I think this past year 2024 the Boyd was a big one um the Marshall which is is being worked on now the Martin Tower Medical Office Buildings so you know I think we are still projecting some of those big projects um you know every every year but Mike did you have more to that so like uh inversely the housing department and the code enforcement department work together so the increase in the housing inspections we saw an increase in permits because we're getting in a lot of properties that we haven't previously gotten in so we're catching a lot of work that was done in the past and reinspect it and making sure it's safe and stuff so that drives our permit number up as well currently um but as far as the single family dwellings we are seeing some single family dwellings we're seeing more duplexes and uh tow houses being currently built than than actually single family dwellings they are single family dwellings but I'm saying Standalone homes uh but we still see the the larger projects in the apartment projects more so right now and how and how about like the um the number of people refurbishing properties is that number high too yeah it is um so we have uh commercial permits and residential permits and our commercial versus residential commercial Contin is usually our larger projects the boy such projects like that warehouse or something like that commercial projects is probably about 60% of our per I mean residential is probably about 60% of our permits that we issue so that's people putting investing money into their own houses or into their residential style properties and just just add to that Mr K because I think it's a legitimate question is you know one of the things that the whole industry has seen we've seen is that you know in 2020 the pandemic happened and a lot of people were not going to work but they still had their jobs especially some of our upper income residents they were able to take on projects redo bathrooms redo kitchens redo basements and we're still seeing that and I think think it's kind of also correlated with when when I show that graph or that chart about like earned income tax that like our residents continue to make money every year like even though we're we're not drastically adding population we're going up half a million a million a year in earned income tax because the people that are living here are making more money we're we've seen for the past like four or five years just as and you know when anybody that does Home Improvements has been like super busy the last four years because as people weren't able to go spend money they weren't able going vacation they weren't able to do these things a lot of them said I'm taking that 10 15 20 $25,000 if I can to put it into my particular my particular house the other thing though and I just remember having this conversation with Mr Simons and Miss Garner was like I just want to reiterate for a second is like when we started doing inspections differently and doing every property once every three years like that just completely changed like what permits look like because it used to be as we know like if you only had to call if your tenants changed so and if you were responsible landlord but somebody's not you go Seven 8 nine 10 12 years without having anybody anybody go in there and take a look at it so the fact that we are now getting properties every three years is allow is to be able to get up to code whether or not you're missing this missing that and so on and so forth has also increased because people then are now having to do those property upgrades and things like that so those two things I think the fact that people were banking money because they still had jobs but weren't spending in 2020 20 21 and you're still getting now in 2024 sometimes jobs that were booked two years ago by the time the contractor gets around to them so I think one of the things we talk about is like is this a permanent thing I mean the economy is not going to be this hot forever is this something that's going to slow down this year slow down in two years I'm not sure yet but those are that's that's just some of the information that we're dealing with yeah I I mean I I I couldn't agree with you more on that and I think the thing that really concerns me is that um we only have X amount of land in the city we only have X amount of rental properties and properties and I think I mean it's it's it's a great thing that we're doing inspections and making people upgrade to make sure it's up to code the problem with that is I think that it's good for the um it's great for the renter you know make sure that they have a safe place to live in but at the same time uh you know I you and I know a lot of people who rent out properties and I think when they go in there and they fix a lot times they're going in and ripping out kitchens and bathrooms and stuff and then they're when the when the lease is up the rent's going up and I think that's making I think that's part of the problem right now it's not that's not it's not the only part of the problem I think also during covid because people weren't moving there wasn't a turnover of you know of of low income housing and moderate income housing and people moving up you know in in their level you know of housing you know what I mean so I I think the rental properties are going to continue to Sky Skyrocket in the years that come in betham particular it I would what I would say too is I mean you're really talking about what are some of the effects of market economics right and the other thing that happens too is I mean we've talked for ages about how there's not a ton of blighted properties in the city of Bethlehem well if you don't have blighted properties and you have safe neighborhoods and you have good schools and you have good parks and things like that those places are desirable to so one of the paradoxes of being able to do good housing rehab and housing inspection if you don't necessarily do anything that guarantees affordability which leads to the general philosophical question I see a lot of people who do this on a daily basis I know so an back there and stuff is that like it comes down to that philosophical question about like what amount of money is the government or what are the guidelines or what do you want to do to be able to say to somebody and this is a kind of rhetorical just question is like we want to we're going to help to pay for this whether not it's lad in healthy homes or some of the other programs Sarah Laur talk talking about but in exchange there's some type of guarantee of affordability over a certain number of years but one of the ways that we've gotten into this place with our affordability crisis in Bethlehem is the fact that city government predating us and our nonprofit sector has been pretty good at being able to work on making sure that properties didn't become blighted so it is something that people talk about as far as like if you're not going to have blight and you're not going to do these things what are you going to do and once again I I understand your point and from a market point of view and the inequities of market economics like that is completely true we obviously don't want to ever create I'm not saying that you're suggesting this it's like you don't want to not do inspections or not be able to have a standard of Health that people live in it comes down to I think what is the fundamental problem is that people want to live in the city of Bethlehem we have good housing stock and the city has a pretty good job of in inspecting that housing stock so the way markets are going to react to that is the safest city in Pennsylvania is that the price of things are going to are going to continue to go up especially with the economic which I think you've hit on is what is the Crux of why we spend so much time on housing and so complicated and nuanced because you're right when you do when when you fix a it's gonna have a market effect on B and we just need to kind of predict that and think about that with all of our nonprofit partners that do such a good job yeah um one one of the things that you've heard me say a few times already as far as like the recycling center Miss CS thank you Mike the um and it's it's not something you did I don't I don't think it was I think it was there way way before my brother even got there but the to me illmore road is our is our Parks area and I don't know how or when we can find money to move the recycling center off of illmore Road and at least you know and last time I talked to Mr alol about it you know I thought he I think he said it'd be like a million dollars to make a road from the entrance point of that parking lot to the back of the The Mulch piles because to me we got our swimming pool tennis courts uh ice rink golfing uh and and they drive down El Mill and see those huge containers of recycling containers and I'm not I'm not picking on a recycling department at all I mean it's it is what it is but I think that's something that we really have to if we're really thinking about beautifying our city that's one of the things I think that we need to try to find some type of funding to move that to the back of the property and there's a huge tree back there that we saw when we're on the tour of the Martin Tower site you know before they knocked that down there's room back there it just we have to extend that I think it's a one lane little PVE road right now and it would have to be at least a two-lane road both directions and I I don't know if there's grant money for this but you know I I I would definitely like to see and I'm going to bring it up again and again and not not to bug you but just it's something that I feel passionate about that's one of the things in the city that I think that we need to get done just to beautify that area yeah and I think uh one of the points that you know we've made and I've tried to make is you know for a long time you know those kind sttion even about spending money on something to move something like that like Grant funds or not just there were other you know how how are we keeping the lights on how we pay for our pension and things like that as we move forward as being able to focus more on our parks and things like that that we've done the last couple years pave more roads like those conversations about where the best places for things other than when they are right where they are right now make a little more sense I will say just generally when some of these conversations have come up is you know what's going on the recycling world as far as the like declining revenues and things like that at least leads to some bit of uncertainty about what it's going to look like five or t years from now so when you're thinking about Capital expenditures just not sure exactly what that's going to look like is because you're seeing every city municipality kind of struggle with some curbside recycling and things like that so there's just that's a bit of long-term long-term instability but you know it's it's something that has come up before and we will continue to think about yeah and and and my last question is on is on an issue that uh I think was addressed um in the two years I wasn't on Council so on the on the pedestrian bike bridge that was I guess we did a a study on that to go over to Lehigh what's the status with that so Northampton County if you remember had I think they provided in Darlene might remember I think it was about1 120,000 $110,000 they were three sources yeah but the majority of it that was County EXA McLure I think had made it a priority I think if I remember correctly it was like 115 or 120,000 so that study was completed and it came back and I think there were three basic options I'm summarizing here because I've not looked at it a couple years but as you know the challenges of going over you know the the rail and stuff like that but I think the three options were something like and don't hold me to these numbers because I often right I don't like to say numbers wrong is like 55 to 60 million 6 5 to 70 million and like 75 to 85 million or something like that and I think that and I forget exactly when this was Darlene M if this was in 2022 or 2021 I think I might have been here full-time is that that's just a lot of money that's going to probably require if there were grants out there that are specific for things like that but that cost is just something that is unlikely to be taken on without some type of you know Federal funding yeah Federal funding probably but I'm not saying I mean they passed the infrastructure bill which seems like it happened 150 years ago but like they passed the infrastructure Bill and they had all these different funding sources so you could have an alternative uh you know and who knows what's going to happen with the rest of those funds going forward you can have an alternative um you know Capital project that it's a good application for um but there's just obviously you know that's not something that's going to be paid for out of our Capital fund yeah thank you thank you Mr Callahan any other questions or comments councilwoman Le uh just a few um see since Laura's at the podium okay uh questions that I think would be relevant for you um the facade grants um and it it may apply to some other grants that we provide to the community uh is the money being fully spent and distributed from those funds at this point like I'm recalling uh with Norths side alive there were some facade grants that ended up being and it was during covid so I'm hoping it's resolve uh it was really challenging to actually get completed applications and deliver funds because I think one of the big issues was the requirement to have three estimates completed and with how saturated all of the workloads are for um various contractors in the area they just weren't responding even um especially when it's like you know ones that need to be approved and all that how is is that better now um yeah that's the starting question sure so we actually we have a couple different facade programs so we have residential facade we have commercial facade programs um I you know I think think as a blanket statement it is fair to say that we are spending down all of them I don't think we are experiencing those same issues that you're describing which I think predate me but I do think that we are spending down all of our facade dollars I don't know if Robert or Sarah wanted to jump in on that my goal is to get everybody to speak once just um yes I think that specific issue was about Fair funding and and we are uh there were multiple issues sometimes it has to do if there's a bunch of different types of facade funding um the money is all to be spent at the same time and sometimes we sort of rotate through funding sources but uh it it is being spent we're going to be um renewing that particular agreement and I believe 40 left of that but it is being spent is is the answer great it's not stuck okay thank you [Music] um okay then for code you mentioned uh that you are seeking to implement some automation uh to make things more efficient um I think that was code and not zoning but maybe I was housing H was it housing it was housing oh okay uh so let me switch that question to housing I heard automation to make things more efficient are you using existing tools or are these new systems that you're looking to implement a little bit of both we're we are using our existing system uh that we we use in combination with the health department ezri and stuff like that and we've gone to make a s uh a inspection program that our inspectors have on the tablets out there we're looking at some additional software possibly to gather the data but initially we're using the the ezri software the in-house software that we created a program to do our inspection so it speeds up it's no more pen and paper so it it it's more efficient for our guys in the field inspectors in the field yeah I think I did see um that on as a line item uh I just wasn't sure if there would be any additional expenses like if you're going to seek a new program or something like that and if that would hit your budget or it uh we're also using um like automation to send out our reports through like make which is like a third party um subscription uh Service uh right now we're not able to do it through the Outlook system we have um but we Health has been able to support most of our it workto date with some of their grants which has been greatly appreciated but we're always looking at different opportunities um think that was all for you thank you um and then um Recycling and health so whoever wants to come up first you guys are popular tonight sorry sorry okay so uh for health um one it sounds like you guys are you Champion a lot of other uh initiatives so the communications plan and uh we funding that was just try to leverage our funding yeah thank you for for supporting across silos um I saw in the budget yours has a lot of asterisks that and then it says not reimbursable with Grant funds um after those items and I was wondering does that mean all of the other things on this page uh pages are Grant funded yes the majority is is grant funding um aside from like the office expense operating supplies uniform safety so yeah the things that have the asterisk would be City dollars that we use for our match for ACT 315 so that's a per capita GR grant that we draw down from the Department of Health that's Federal no that's state state okay um what are the programs that are most dependent on federal dollars within your most most of the grants they they come um through us from the Department of Health the Pennsylvania Department of Health so our contracts with the Pennsylvania Department of Health but they're receiving the funding through the CDC so the the vast majority is ultimately federal dollars okay uh um and you are uh Miss Collins mentioned looking at all the contingencies for if there's big changes in that um The noock Zone though um I believe previously that was Northampton County specific in its distribution uh because of the funding source yes uh is that still the case well we do city of Bethlehem as an entirety and then Northampton County okay so it is available for Le the Le County portion of the city of Bethlehem great okay um and then project Lifesaver um I know that has existed for more than just it's not new brand new uh I see though that there was no money allocated we were using emergency preparedness dollars to help support project Lifesaver but we actually received a grant through um the Bureau of Justice okay great um so that's a new source of funding but the program yes has been in existence for quite some time okay okay excellent so that's wonderful and uh yeah I think that was all of my questions for health thank you and then uh recycling was next um so the yard Way Center sounds like it's uh incredibly successful um still uh I'm wondering if with that success um we've considered expanding into any other types of composting um food waste or other commercial composting like uh the paper products that say you know compostable and everybody thinks that means you could put it in your backyard pile but you can't um is that on the radar at all currently right now we do accept some paper products at the facility uh that we do utilize for compost they consist of the biodegradable bags for leaves and twigs and yard waste um with the mayor's initiative with the uh um thank you very much the climate action plan uh we do have a food waste committee that is currently reviewing and looking into the possibility of starting a food waste program one of the challenges that we do face with that type of a program is unfortunately it does come with some drawbacks odors smell uh varmints things of that nature so before we can just jump into a program like that we really got to do our leg work plus we do have to rely on thirdparty uh type individuals to be able to come in to take the actual material to process it um a lot of the folks that are in city limits are starting to do smaller projects with food composting at their home and at their residence um and my my colleagues that are on the actual committee itself were getting additional information but it is something that we are always looking at and we are continuing to look at I don't have an answer for you right now and when we're going to be able to kick something like that off but it is something that we are looking at to see if it's something we can offer our residents in the near future okay that's that's great to hear um and yeah that was that was actually it it was just the two parts of that food waste or other uh compostable items um so I think that does it for me thank you you're welcome thank you thank you Miss Le Miss Leon I think most of my questions are going to be for Miss Collins um just once again want to thank the thank everybody in this general area for all the work that you're doing uh Mr Simonson there's another house that popped up outside of the student housing overlay I'd love to talk to you about um so you know treat me like I'm five here what does it mean to administer a grant whether we're pass through or whether it's and when we administer a grant are there any control mechanisms to ensure that the grant is used for what it is used for and if it is not are there any mechanisms to pull that money back there are so many mechanisms yes let's talk about it um so I guess I'll start with like a grant that we would be administering for a city project just as a good example so um like you know the life cycle of a grant is you know backing all the way up right like as I talked about you have a plan you do an application you you point to this is the project you're going to do here is my cost C estimate here's the scope of work you know maybe when you put in the application you have some back and forth before they make a decision with the representatives uh then it gets awarded so administering a grant once it's awarded really starts from the moment that um you get a a grant agreement from the funer so you know say it's something like Friendship Park um you know we get you know if we get a gr agreement from the federal government there there's a lot of back and forth potential or or Broad Street is another example you know there's there's back and forth even in putting together the the agreement because from the time that you submitted your application to now you um may have different cost estimates you need to make sure the scope of work is the same you need to identify you know certain um you know for example Federal requirements that you're meeting and how you're meeting them and you're kind of working through the details of a project maybe how it's evolved from the time of your application and that's all even like sometimes before you put the the grant agreement like you sign on the dotted line so with state grants not so much but definitely with the federal grants um Broad Street is the one that's searing in my head right now because because because it's it's um been so complex then once the the grant Agreements are in place with your funer when you are actually carrying out the project there are a number of you know Federal requirements you you need to follow whether it's um that you are you know appropriately bidding and including the um you know minority own business women own business Provisions that you have your civil rights Provisions that you maybe are following section three which has to do with like where you're advertising know your bids I think that's right but Robert will tell me if I'm wrong um but you know there's a number of these different sort of you know what we would call crosscutting Federal requirements that you need to make sure you're following from the moment you even bid the project right um there's new federal regulations um from the build America by America Act or Baba as as we lovingly call it um has to do with where you procure your materials from so you need to make sure that your bid documents um you know have all of that in there as well and then once you actually you know go out to bed and you start the project along the way you're you know not only making sure that you're following those requirements like depending on the grant Source you might have quarterly reports you might have you know six-month reports where you have to kind of report on different elements and then also when you're submitting your reimbursements you know you have to have backup documentation you have to you know have all sorts of things in place so that they will actually you know give you the money so that you've demonstrated that not only are you carrying out the project you said you were going to carry out um you know that you're spending money on eligible expenses but also that you're following all these other these other requirements so it's some so so so managing a grant is some combination of um you know compliance with Federal Regulations reporting um you know collecting all documentation and all invoices and then also going through like the financial pieces of of getting reimbursed I think that covers it I know and making sure your employees don't quit doing those things and I I know that gets a chuckle but it just I mean the amount of time that the same employee spend on meeting all of these requirements is a thing that leads to like burnout of public sector employees and Smart Ones and things like that so like there's a real cost from a human level to filling all of these requ requirements and she went to law school and she's like a little bit more okay with it but like it seared in my brain the frustrations of like wait we have to take another three weeks to do what and I'm not even the one that's got the paper in and go doing a lot of the stuff on a DayDay basis I'm just getting the reports and having the conversations and in the meetings but it just I they work so hard to do this on a day-to-day basis and a lot of people do in Miss Collins's Department some people like Miss have been doing it for 25 years here and a lot of good things have happened but it is just it takes a a lot of time it takes a lot of energy and a lot of emotion and at some point people are just like I there's there's other things for me to do trying to fill all these requirements when you're potentially thinking you could lose funding or whatever whatever it might be and I it's just it's an important human part of all of those requirements I will add though that because um you know we have such smart people working on this and and have for a long time like you know there there you know kind of two pieces that are are helpful one it's the relationships that we've built with the grant tours you know Miss heler knows just about everybody who works in dcnr um but the benefit of that is they they know that like when they're working with the city of Bethlehem like they know that we you know know how to do certain things and they feel more confident giving us grants in the future and I think the same is true um with you know federal dollars like when you can demonstrate that you can administer federal dollars like we do annually through cdbg for example um you know but when you demonstrate success on these projects you know it then shows that you're able um to you know to get more money and and to administer more dollars so um I think part of our success has been you know going after some of these grants early and then being able to point back and say like you know look we've we've done this project successfully or that one successfully and and you know and we know how to carry out these projects and having partners to do some of this work when we can't do it or don't have the capacity and I know Miss Smith and um so like New Bethany is you know represented here actions represented here is like it's impossible for all the good things to happen in the city with just like the 11 people in Miss Collin's Department that are filling these Grant agreements out and we have just relied on our nonprofit sector and at times we rely on Professional Services as well to be able to help with a lot of this these tasks because we just don't have the capacity to do these good things and thankfully we have a community of people that we work with to be able to carry out these tasks in a way that understand what these guidelines are so we stay in compliance and things like that but also at the end of the day help people which is what this is about and I will just stop these comments by saying it's like the tenacity and the passion of our employees that work in this space to be able to go through some of this just mind-numbing stuff to be able at the end of the day do things like facade agreements be able to do things like some of our housing agreements like what we need to do to be able to pass the money along to community action or New Bethany like at the end of the day somebody's being helped there but it takes a lot of work when alone sometimes to do this and they do it because they're passionate about helping people and they won't say that and they won't Pat themselves on the back but I just I see it on a daily basis and and they deserve that public recognition um I'm going to sum all that up with yes we have and that's that's a no way meaning to be dismissive I'm I'm curious to ask more questions about that but not at like a budget meeting we should address Budget things but I'm curious about the life cycle of a grant specifically what happens um if we just can't execute the Grant and how do we make sure that we're not running a foul of anything um and I'm ass I'm assuming reimbursable grants our grants just they did all that and there's already the documentation so then you give them money kind of right I'm sorry say that again a reimbursable grant you did all that stuff they did all that stuff you've got the documentation and you just give the money back for what they've already we yeah we asked the funder to to give us the money yes yeah um I had questions about the facade program um as well I was wondering how much we fund it versus grant funding and more specifically um I understand the benefit to the homeowner or the commercial property owner uh but what's the benefit to the Greater Community for us to be singling out specific properties and investing money in those specific properties over other ones and what do the income restrictions look like for that okay I'll try and take your questions in order um but you know in terms of H how and you said facades but I'll kind of talk about like housing rehab and facades you know kind of combined we have a number of different programs and sometimes I even confuse them in my head but you know so we have our our housing rehab program that that is cdbg funded that we run there's also money through cdbg that we give to Community Action to do facade grants there's also money that we get to do different types of facade works like commercial facade or the historic district facade work um so so it's a com the answer to your first question is it's a combination I think your second question was like what is the broad benefit and I think um you know when you're when you're looking at the exterior of of homes or properties like you're thinking not just about the benefit to the individual property owner you're thinking about like the quality of life in a neighborhood Hood overall you're thinking about like the sense of place the quality of place I think Anna could probably tell some like really great success stories of like investing in a particular area like Hay Street and doing a couple properties in a row and not only seeing how those properties kind of improve the entire like look and feel and you know kind of experience of the block but then also other people who will then voluntarily invest in their properties or you know other people who will will you know make make improvements and you kind of have this like wave effect particularly if you if you you know kind of Target specific areas at a time whether it's you know Hay Street or I think now we're working on on Broadway right as like the next kind of kind of area to look at collectively have we ever I'm not I think that answers your question yeah and it just it have we ever like specifically studied whether there was a direct economic impact I.E I get a aade Rehabilitation so then my neighbor and my neighbor's neighbor all of a sudden they they see real property value shifts upward so could there is there have wow has there been any study to correlate the investment that we're making in one specific property to an economic development for the rest of the neighborhood I don't know if we've studied in Bethlehem specifically but I think as a general matter it's like a respected principle that that is a a way to do sort of like neighborhood revitalization and neighborhood Community Development to you know spur further like economic investment and growth and I guarantee you that the people that work for us would love to have the time to be able to do those type of economic studies um I can tell you the stories as Miss Collins had said that you hear from Miss Smith and other people about what those personal stories mean for the neighbor and mean for the neighbor after that and things like that but just I would point to like one of the big economic you know kind of indicators you can see is that the kind of Coalition of groups we've had doing this work now for decades has improved our housing stock has improved our neighborhoods has improved property values has improved our safety like the effect of these programs collectively both within City Hall and in the nonprofit sector of the last 30 years have just created stability in many many neighborhoods um but this is a classic question an example of the type of thing that is on the list that like we would love to be able to measure this if people weren't so busy trying to get the next one out the door and then eventually sometimes you have to make the decision that you know can can we pay someone to do this can is it worth paying someone to do this like this isn't something we have a current study on um because we think we see the value of it so you pick and choose where you do do that work um but as miss Colin said it's something that certainly you see investment in like I said I would encourage you know I I think Miss Smith had told me told a story last year the year before that when there was a facade that was done and the neighbor like saw the work going into it and then said I'm going to do this and it really was like a domino effect um that that's impressive yeah I've seen my own antidotal evidence I was just wondering if there was any concrete I'm fine with my anotal evidence we're not making decisions on it um but I was just curious is asked if there was any um concrete and I I have seen the facade program go well in certain areas um I'm curious about the commercial facade program I should have known about it but I don't I would love to know more about getting business owners that information not right now we're talking budgets um but maybe later um I had more questions actually I think this one might be Miss aulo um if you don't [Music] mind so we talk a lot about like the housing crisis and affordable housing versus on attainable housing and all these other things in between um I know we've all sat through enough housing studies to really talk about like the housing Continuum and how rental and afford and Rental and Home Ownership is like here and there's this much more to it so I just wanted to talk a little bit about the housing Continuum and do we have programs in each one of these so like Baseline is homelessness what kind of programs do we have for people who are just homelessness so not not emergency Sheltering not but the people who are homelessness or are experiencing homelessness right now um so one of the great things about the Strategic plan to address homelessness is we inventor the entire housing Continuum um from one you're talking about from someone being unsheltered and the demand and the need and what we currently have available across the Lehigh Valley um all the way up to you know affordable housing market rate housing and the plan really said that for us as a local government with the resources that we had available to us thanks to arpa and city council deis ision that like our role was really to play in emergency Sheltering and then um increasing affordable housing opportunities because we see our market rate development is going quite well um but you need more subsidy in the affordable housing uh so you know existing right now obviously we have amazing both nonprofit partners that are doing Outreach work with our unsheltered populations we have our community connections team um and all of the different providers from bees conference at churches New Bethany they're all meeting on a Kristen is it by weekly bi-weekly basis um and doing coordinated case management together to make sure that we're leveraging all of the resources making sure everybody knows about the touch points they've had with these individuals and we also have Street medicine that's going out there so we're trying to connect people to um care and case management um and then you have like the emergency Sheltering options with bees and other providers and then you get into options like temporary and perative Supportive Housing um and like our single room occupancy so the you really flew through that the Strategic plan to address homelessness and and that um the byy weekly thing um is that something that's open to the public can Council listen in on it how how does counil kind of get the information that might be discussed in those meetings if we want to use it to kind of get our thoughts through on homelessness a lot of what we're doing is um talking about clients okay so like how to effective never mind that's that's too personal for Council um cool thank I would mention there's the regional homeless Advisory Board of um like service providers and I'm a member of the governing board committee um and you know those meetings are when all the providers like get together and talk about what we're seeing in Trends across the Lehigh Valley and in care and I'm mean I'm sure they would welcome you know if somebody from Council wanted to come and kind of have an update as to you know what everyone's doing and how we're coordinating our efforts thank you um so the the next one is the emergency Sheltering and so can can we talk a little bit about I'm not pointing to budget line items because this isn't specific questions just is how is the city spending its money in general to address our biggest thing so what does emergency Sheltering look like and what does the city do for that um will we support bees through our cdbg and Care CV funding So currently supporting their ongoing operations we meet every other week with the BS leadership team both members of its board and Bob R um and work very closely with with him so we're both working on the immediate Sheltering needs um and also work closely with conference at churches in New Bethany uh but then we're also doing that long-term strategic planning when looking to bring be's operations to be a 365 you know day a year 247 operation and working with the board to help them both fundraise and build capacity for that um we're in the process of working on like formalizing a like an like a legal agreement with them to really formalize that partnership and lay out the next steps uh and then we also are working with Conference of churches on uh converting hopefully one of their buildings into non-congregate family Sheltering uh we have both our current federal funding that we are given through the home ARP and then we've also as Miss Collins had referenced applied to the state for further funding to complete that project so we're waiting um you know to learn about that Grant award and we would be really ready to start final design and Engineering on that project if if awarded the funds okay um so the the next one is our transitional housing what do we consider transitional housing here and how do we as a city support it um I mean that really like in terms of when we did our strategic plan to address homelessness that's what like our current um Partners like New Bethany and Conference of churches are currently providing and what we try to do is support those efforts if they need help obtaining greater funding but the kind of um assessment was that there were already nonprofit service providers you know working in that realm um so I'd say the primarily the thing we do is provide uh support for their Grant applications and then next our permanent Supportive Housing it would be kind of you know the same situation yeah okay affordable rentals other that like what are we looking like there um so I would say that it's someone was eluded to earlier all of our affordable um rental efforts like if we're providing any sort of assistance to landlords we are trying to tie that to long-term affordability Provisions um we are trying to increase the number like of affordable rental through things like um our you know the Gateway on Fourth project uh and then we have really created a very like Innovative partnership working with Community Action Lehigh Valley Community Action development in New Bethany to really create hopefully a new model like uh we just submitted a fair application uh on behalf of the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in hopes of um that Community Action would rehab those uh some of their properties on third right by the church um that are currently blighted um renovate them into um affordable rentals with a 15-year like deed restriction for affordability and then hopefully have new Bethany then manage then since New Bethany has um a lot of expertise and experience in managing affordable rentals they have a pretty actually large portfolio um I I know that we've talked about this before but are there other things within our ability as a city to help stabilize our our rental market something like and I know that this is it and I'm not asking anybody to add anything to the budget please don't no tax increase um but but when it comes to like some kind of very transparent database that has all of our rentals that is that something that's within the realm of possibility not this year not next but at some point when we have the flexibility to do some kind of internal it upgrade that would give consumers the ability to see what the market looks like but also choose landlords that are acting appropriately yeah um we actually just saw a software demo of an amazing product that Rochester has used to make all of its grades in codes and they actually grade property managers and landlords through a formula um based on their inspections and so there are like opportunities out there but it obviously requires an IT investment um and a couple things that I kind of forgot to mention we are working on uh developing a rental rehab program we also just submitted a grant which um those uh properties If a landlord were to participate we would hope to identify them through the housing inspections um that there would again be long-term afford provisions and um in terms of trying to prevent displacement right now to help people that are currently like part of the housing plan and contracts that we like have executed uh this year uh has been rental assistance for New Bethany and ongoing case management for the next five years and then also um funding the new uh tenant Advocate uh and mediator um who's developing the mediation program at Community Action development bem so we're trying to both create you know new rental units and then support people that are at risk of losing their housing to keep them housed yeah I I have again not here because it's the budget meeting but I do have additional questions about that because while we see massive Apartments everywhere a lot of our our houses on the South Side are rentals and those rentals are owned by other residents of Bethlehem and and I would hate to see good landlords penalized because there are some not so great actors um out there and the last one is a affordable home ownership is there really a cap a $250,000 cap to what we can use for that first time home buyer thing Mr voni actually let me know I can pull up his they just increased um right now the limit is 276,000 in Northampton County and Lehigh County is 261 which is still pretty limiting when you look at um our median sales price which is well over 300,000 right now just places the Southside those are going for like 195,000 now and they're complete gut jobs so I I don't it it seems so limiting of anything that we can actually do to help someone buy a home in Bethlehem and we've what got what 2% vacancy of land to build something new um so I've just it's just a thought I don't need an answer or anything like that it's just a thought that I'm having about I think it's also why it's really important for us to can continue to work with habitat Community Action um pretty soon Community Action is going to be taking a blighted property on Broadway that they' have done a amazing renovation that we were able to walk through a few weeks ago um that it's going to be a you know sold to a low to moderate income um buyer and then it's going to be uh de restricted for 99 years is affordable housing so we're continuing to look for those opportunities where we can find them um but it is increasingly challenging because we used to be able to find blighted properties and get them for really cheap and you know it requires a much higher level of subsidy than it used to which then of course limits the number of proper opportunities that we can create 99 years is a whoer um that's all the the questions I have the last thing is just the general concern I have um I love budget season you get to go very far back into the budget and of all the Departments that I've seen go up and down and up and down and up and down dced in general has had like a 22% decrease while also a huge uptick in development in the city um and it seems like the you're going to hear me say this about police too it seems like it's the clarking positions that we were continuing to to not have so I just have a general concern about how many people we have within the department are able to do all of this work um because you guys are stretched and I'm worrying about what we might be missing not because of negligence or because of inability or whatever but because of the fact that we are a very hot housing market um and we also have an increasing population of unhoused or housing insecure people so I just very much have a concern with the with the numbers and I'm not asking again for anything um I would always prefer a budget neutral position good luck Evans um but that's just a general concern that I have I would say we're really really lucky to have amazing really experienced unbelievably hardworking um clerks in our office and they they are so passionate about what they do and if you ever want to pop in and just see the way that they treat our customers at the counter and the care they take with every person it's truly truly impressive thank you those were all the questions I had about and other questions or comments Smith um I just want to clarify are we going to do um topic two then cdbg separately or are we doing this is this included no we're going to do them separately okay all right once we conclude this round of questions and comments I'll turn it back over Miss Collins yeah I mean as I said in my presentation it's you it is the same list of organizations and same dollar amounts that you had seen in the public hearing and when you passed it so I I don't actually have a presentation on it but um so I suppose I could let me just make sure we finish this round qu so any other questions or comments from the presentation we'd already heard May Reynolds do you want to add something to what Miss Collins had presented just councilman Leon's questions all of those questions I think you know there's 62 municipalities in leh have Valley and we are obviously very focused and the people in this room are very focused on how do we meet whatever whatever ability we can to increase what the supply is of all the different spots along there but the part that's missing that was implicit to your conversation is the limited opportunity we have in the city because we are landlocked and things like that and this is really the big Market here is the 62 municipalities and the idea that we need to continue to have this conversation on a Lehigh Valley level about the housing Continuum and I'm not saying you're suggesting this is we don't have 62 continuums we have one Continuum and 62 municipalities and we need the other 61 well I'd say 59 I'll take alleny s that we need the other 59 municipalities to step up their understanding of what the Continuum looks like and their willingness to be a part of this particular situation as far as understanding if we don't have like the additions and supply all the each step of the way we are going to continue to struggle no matter how success we are and our nonprofit Community is and that's just a result of the market and the biggest challenge as we know is once upon a time we had very natural affordable housing and now there's no real way to create affordable housing in the city of Bethlehem that doesn't involve government subsidy and the only way to move in that direction to get back to more naturally affordable housing which was the expectation around here for as long as I think most of us lived here until the past five 10 years is to have more housing Supply along the Continuum not just in the city where we don't have a lot of room to build but throughout the lehab valy so increasingly our advocacy our conversation needs to be how do we create how do we like Define the Continuum on a larger scale and there's organizations that are trying to do that but that's if you're talking about like what's the thing that's going to move the market the most it's going to be get all other 59 municipalities that have more land most of them to get on board with understanding what the Continuum looks like rather than just Allentown Beth and East who all don't have a lot of land to build on thank you Mr Clen thank you well one thing I I'll point out just because it came up earlier I'll turn to page 57 uh all my questions were asked were answered already but just this should I should have brought this up at our earlier budget hearing because it's relevant when we talk about different positions and position controls so I'll use 57 just as an example if anyone's not familiar um next to the actual position we have the different abbreviations so that that's the different classification for each position so NC is non-classified Mr Evans feel free to jump in if I um am misspoken uh at any point here so the non-classified would be positions that are either elected officials work at the discretion of the mayor or our city clerk who works at the discretion of city council our Tams that would be the non-union professionals uh you see on page 57 the uh directors for the bureau and the health Bureau so those are non-union professional positions seciu that is our Union that is not that well it's not fire and police that's all the other City Union so there is an SEIU collectively bargain contract that the Administration has to follow whatever those um wages and then all the other provisions of that contract we have our fire Union which we'll hear from the fire department and then the police Union and then temporary help so when you look at the different budgets temporary help has historically been this this catchall for Grant funded positions for uh seasonal positions for part-time positions for contract positions I know as long as I've been on city council and it was referenced by Miss Collins for some of those you had um like Mr shone's position was a temporary help position for at least a decade uh if I'm not mistaken and and I think and again Mr Evans you can correct me if I'm wrong that that temporary help helps give some flexibility and reduce our pension liabilities because there's no pension liability associated with temporary he positions and then also just as the nature of the work changes and bringing on some of those positions whether it be for uh the length of certain initiatives for the length of certain grants and and things like that so I think that just gives some background that we didn't talk about this budget cycle this budget season to those those positions and why some things uh are typically looked at as temporary help where when you have the Tams positions the seciu positions those come with uh pay grades and steps associated with them where temporary help gives us more flexibility as it relates to position controls that we have at City Hall Mr would you say that's a fair summary of of the different classifications that's fair and accurate yes thank you anything else from Miss Collins regarding the first presentation we heard Mr calling yeah yeah I just have one one one question and it was sparked by uh councilwoman uh Leon's question about um the coordinators having a um or or secretaries uh having to Bear the brunt of a a lot more work so on page 63 uh Miss C the permit coordinator we we we we've only had one for a long time there's how's the the turnover of the permits from the from submitt data on it I mean what I think I think we're allowed 30 days right to get back I believe it's 30 days for residential and 45 days for commercial we are we pretty good with that number still yeah we're we're within you know as I mentioned there are you know there are many circumstances where we're going back at and forth right and so the back and forth causes the extra 30 days you know I mean could could certainly extend it might be that we you know go back to an architect and say we need you to change XYZ thing and then there's you know a new submission which restarts the clock but you know from a receiving end somebody might think oh my gosh I've been waiting for two months instead of one but you know a month of that might have been waiting for them to come back with new plans for example so we are staying within our statutory requirements but you know you know as I talked about we are extremely busy um the permit coordinator does work very very very hard um and um you know she does a really good job of of you know pushing things out where they need to go and and getting back information and communicating um but you know there there is a lot of a lot of work to do and part of the challenge too is then you know as people are calling and just saying hey what's the status of my permit you know then that adds you know more time and more work for everybody that they could be you know actually you know you know printing the permit or entering it into the system but instead they just have to call people back and be like no we're still working on it you know and it's it's kind of compounding in that regard um also with the people coming in for the for the same reason yeah I mean I just want to make sure that we're staying within our legal we are turnover rate yeah which in in to to applaud uh her and any everybody else in that department um I haven't heard anything from anybody that I know I mean I people come to me all the time you know I I'm pretty social I get out and uh one of the things I'm always getting hit on or two years ago three years ago was the turnover of the permits and it was non-stop I mean just not just from uh people who are flipping houses not just from developers but just from you know Mom and Pop That want to add a pool to their backyard or a patio to Backyard it was just non-stop that you know there was a problem with permits permits permits and I'm be honest you I haven't heard anything in two years so I don't know what's turned around in that department if there's um additional help there there there's there's other people that you know that trip it in but um who whoever's responsible for it I I thank them because I know the residents get very irritated and a lot of times that's their only time that they're dealing with City Hall other than their taxes so um you know it's um it's a great thing and I can imagine that she's very overburdened but who whoever it is I applaud her thank you thank you Mr Callahan could we move on to Community Development block grants is Collins so just so I understood you correctly and I know it was previously discussed at a council meeting but uh nothing to present as it relates to the cdbg program we'll ask our questions but you're good I I I am so the budget that you see starting on page 303 is the um um you know exact same budget that Mr vidoni presented um it was subject to the public hearing and and and then votes by by Council um you know some of the projects here again we talked about even in our presentation just now with respect to the cdbg home program and and you know we highlighted a few of those in our presentation earlier but you know certainly we could answer any questions that you have and Mr Reon is prepared to answer them as well thank you Miss Collins anyone have any questions or comments related to Community Development block rants councilwoman ksey Smith sorry I just have some simple questions hopefully um on page 307 we talk about the well we did talk about the non- congregate shelter and then the permanent going from the bees to the permanent shelter can you just give an update on where we're at as far as time frames for the you know the completion of both of them any any idea I mean as far as sure yeah when we're going to see those those happen let's put it that way yeah and Mr s satula did speak about them but yeah I'll ask Mr tul to answer I mean I'm sure just even a ballpark I'm sure it's not it's not easy to say specifically but um in terms of the PAB with the non- congregate we would really be ready as soon as PCD makes a decision on whether or not we're going to be awarded we'd be ready to go out to uh like final uh engineering um which can take many months um just to design like such a complex project we' be able to get that moving right away um Bas is working on like a lot you know kind of several tracks they're trying to build their board capacity right now to be able to go to that uh you know year round operation um and as I had mentioned we're working on that legal agreement so we can start applying for funding together um for the city applying where it makes sense and for um bees seeking you know the sort of opportunities that may be available to them and not to us as a city um but that is going to be probably a several year process in terms of raising all of the available funds we had for both properties um conducted architectural feasibility analysis to get a scope of work in cost estimates which is kind of the precursor of what you need to be able to then like seek funding um so we're you know have a lot of kind of different tracks simultaneously uh moving at this point but you know it is a somewhat of a slower process than we would probably like but and just to add to that and I think the clear point there that Sarah's making is that bees also needs to raise some money um the cost of what that permanent shelter is going to mean is that they need to do some development and they need to do some fundraising so some of this is going to come down to what their success is it's not like we're just waiting for us to spend our money that has been allocated that's come from the federal government things like that this is a there's a piece of that but they need to be able to do substantial fundraising and development to be able to get it to the next stage and the honest answer is is until we have a better idea of where they are on that it's hard to come up with any particular real estimates okay thank you and then the other question I have is um so for the arpa money that we had set aside for affordable housing and the homelessness shelter so is that it's all earmarked that this point there's no more left so it'll go toward the the shelter and then the affordable okay thanks the only other question last question is on page 307 the community we have La Community Land Trust the 78,000 for renovating one affordable home can you just I don't know if it would be you that's Broadway right Robert to just I just wanted to get a little more information like is there one home that's already been selected and if so how are they selected Miss Wismer I believe that's 723 Broadway yes so yes it is it is one home it's a home that was was actually obtained um right now the RDA has it it was selected basically rehab a home that's in very very bad shape complete got rehab caclv is going to take ownership of that home sell it to an income qualified individual it's going to be subject to long-term affordability okay that's that that was the property that I had mentioned earlier that we recently tored it was a blighted property that RDA acquired okay and then like partnered with Community Action to rehab it okay great thank and then people will be able to apply as far as you know who will get to be able that would be through Committee Action correct okay all right great thank you that's all I have thank you councilwoman any other questions related to cdbg miss L um for the shelter I certainly understand like private um organizations or nonprofit organizations needing to do their fundraising um is there a like an expiration date on the funding that we have earmarked so we can roll it over if we need to okay correct good all right thank you any other questions regarding cdbg thank you Mr tulo thank you Miss Collins May Reynolds Mr Fon at this time I will open it up for our first public comment so this would be about either of the two budgets we listen to the community and economic development department as well as Community Development block rant funds is there anyone to the left anyone to the wide Center Miss Smith I'll ask all speakers to please state your name for the record and remind everyone of our five minute time limit good evening Anna Smith 6:30 one Ridge Street uh director of Community Action development Bethlehem I wanted to just provide a few clarifying comments and some data and particular in response to miss Leon's question but uh before I do that I did just want to um say a huge thank you to council and the administration for all the the hard work that you've been doing on the issue of affordable housing and homelessness um I know you've heard our name come up quite a bit um there's a a small group of Partners who are working uh very closely with the city and I think uh thanks to the extensive planning process process that was conducted through opening doors we've really been able to work collaboratively to leverage uh now millions and millions of dollars in funding uh whether it's through um housing rehab grants through fair to support eviction mediation um just last year the fair program throughout city of Bethlehem and all of our nonprofit Partners brought in $1.5 million and that wouldn't have been possible um if it weren't for this planning process that brought everyone together and so I wanted to take a moment just to acknowledge everyone in this room who works so hard um and making that planning process possible um we wouldn't be bringing in this money if it weren't for the leadership of the city on this issue so I can't say enough about that um just a a brief comment on sort of a an overall neighborhood revitalization strategy and how facades fit into that um we've been working on the southide in partnership with the city since 2001 uh through Southside Vision uh two rounds of that and now Southside tomorrow and you know a keystone of that approach is really investing in quality of life um in our neighborhoods with the idea that it's going to generate generate Economic Opportunity create safer um thriving neighborhoods where there are more Community connections um where neighbors uh want to live and feel proud of where they live and in the early days um of uh Southside Vision 2020 uh we had prioritized the haze Street neighborhood for investment uh just due to talking with Neighbors in the area um there had been concerns about safety there had been concerns about the quality of the housing stock um and over a 5-year period we completed 14 improvements uh we fully Acquired and fully rehabbed four homes through the Lehigh Valley Community Land Trust um that then were sold to low to moderate income home buyers uh with a 99-year affordability guarantee uh we invested in planting new trees we installed a community mural helped a few businesses get started along that Corridor and over that five-year time period we saw 15% increase in home ownership in that neighborhood uh when simultaneously throughout the city uh home ownership uh remained steady and we were the only uh neighborh in the entire city that saw greater than um a singled digigit increase in home ownership and so it's it's um you know it could be really hard to figure out how a market um is responding to something uh like the very targeted neighborhood facade Improvement because there are a ton of other factors that go into housing prices uh but just being able to single out that one data point where we saw Home Ownership increase literally the only place in the city that was increasing at that rate was that neighborhood pairing that with the anecdotal evidence we had from talking with with neighbors of someone who owned a rental rental property and after she saw the facade improvements go in she moved back into that rental property um because she wanted to stay in the neighborhood we saw three homeowners um and investors along that street uh voluntarily fix up the exterior of their homes following the facade improvements along the street uh we talked to some of those first-time home buyers who had moved into the neighborhood and when we heard from them they said this was the nicest neighborhood in Bethlehem uh where I could find a a place to live and where I could actually afford it and back then we're talking predict pandemic days uh this was a very very affordable neighborhood for folks to move into um my next door neighbor bought a house there for $95,000 um and was able to do that as a single mom with three kids um and so it's you know uh I think that was a testament to the power of that type of targeted Community investment now things are different right post pandemic we know that a lot of our low-to moderate income home um homeowners are really struggling with staying in their homes as construction costs have increased so a while our facade program still prioritizes that broader Neighborhood Impact uh we target a specific street that we want to work on we are really looking to do those exterior repairs that if you know that maintenance is deferred could lead to really severe issues with roofs with leaks with mold um and get at those code compliance issues early um so that low to moderate income homeowners are able to stay in their homes in the long term and aren't faced with that dilemma of like this is too much for me to fix up I'm going to have to sell and then I have no idea where I'm going to go um because I just don't have the income to rent anywhere and certainly can't buy so we' modified our approach I think a little bit just to respond to the nature um of the housing crisis in the city the last thing I'll say with my last 20 seconds is uh we have limited funding for facades we target specific neighborhoods but if anyone comes to us with a major housing issue uh that we can't address because they're not in our targeted area we refer them to the city's housing rehab program to other programs within Community Action to ensure that they're getting uh their issues addressed whether that's weatherization a new roof a new furnace we find a way and we use the facade program sort of as a filter to bring them in um and uh make sure they get connected to the resources they need so just a little background on that happy be happy to talk with anyone also about leh Valley Community Land Trust And how that works if folks have any interest in that later thank you Miss Smith is there anyone else in the center who wants to make comment on either of the two budgets we already heard anyone to the right all right that's going to conclude our community and economic development budget thank you again miss Collins thank you to all the bureau Chiefs that came out tonight spend the couple hours with us get home safe we are going to continue on now to our Police Department budget which starts on page 143 and Miss Chief K is getting started with her presentation we're ready when you are chief ready okay well good evening the bethleem police department is committed to maintaining Public Safety and fostering strong relationships within our community Through Innovative technology and dedicated service we strive to ensure a safe and secure environment for all our [Music] residents real quick I misspoke the police budget starts on 139 is the organizational chart and then the the different line items and narratives so sorry about that the betham police department is the eighth largest Police Department in the state of Pennsylvania BPD is authorized to employ 154 sworn officers currently we employ 144 officers leaving us with 10 vacancies of those 144 officers 136 are available ailable for duty to break that down further we have eight that are unavailable for Duty two of which are deployed overseas with the military two are station State side with the military one is out longterm due to an onth job injury and three are currently assigned to the Allentown Police Academy as Cadets and are unable to exercise the duties of a police officer until they receive their act 120 certification through mopc which is the Pennsylvania municipal police officer educ ation and training commission now this past year we hired three new police officers those officers are scheduled to graduate from the Allentown Police Academy next month on December 15th in addition to the three Police Academy Cadets the city is set to hire one new police officer this December 2024 the new recruit is slated to attend the January 2025 session of the Allentown Police Academy BPD is currently accepting applications for our next hiring cycle if you know of someone interested in serving their Community have them check out our website the deadline to apply is January 3rd 2025 I'd like to direct your attention to the following slide it demonstrates how incredibly difficult it's been to attract and hire quality qualified applicants in the past a civil service list of eligible candidates would be good for two years however as you can see starting in 2023 BPD has had to conduct testing for the position of police officer twice a year this decrease in applicants is not from a lack of trying on the contrary our department has taken several proactive measures in an attempt to increase these numbers for example we wave the $50 application fee made mandatory disqualifiers related to personal drug use less restrictive and contracted with via media to better advertise that we're hiring through online streaming services additionally we've also increased the recruitment account in 2025 by $3,000 so that we can expand our efforts to attract diverse qualified applicants [Music] now these next couple of slides are going to be heavy on statistics but they help show the activity level of our officers throughout the year this past year BPD officers have responded to an average of 4,772 calls per month and from January 2024 to September 2024 our police department has fielded 42944 calls for service in addition to responding to calls for service service officers have attended over 148 community events furthermore while serving the community BPD officers have administered nxen 27 times and finally during the course of this past year we've seized 155 guns 78 of which were related to criminal offenses this next slide contains a breakdown of reported crimes here in the city of Bethlehem as you can see total violent crime Total Property crime and total public order and alcohol related crime is down in the city this next slide is a breakdown of Special Operations conducted by our vice unit our vice unit is made up of one sergeant and four officers enforcing narcotic laws is crucial to maintaining the safety and well-being of our community by targeting the illegal distribution and use of harmful substances we aim to reduce drug related crime protect public health and create a safer environment for all so over the past year our vice unit has seized 2,750,000 , 624.713 7 grams of cocaine 46379 gram of fentanyl 505 grams of heroin 35398 point8 G of methamphetamine 11,8 89 pills 23.5 grams of MDMA 13,678 grams of K2 and 15 Firearms additionally we also seized one vehicle as you can see the betham police department is dedicated to upholding the law and working together with our Community Partners to combat drug abuse and its negative effect [Music] now we're going to talk a little bit about Music Fest attendance at this year's Music Fest was 1,20,000 attendees this year officers had to contend with record-breaking high temperatures as well as the remnants of hurricane Debbie officers handled 125 total incidents and offenses with the most common being medical calls there was a slight decrease observed this year in incidents and offenses in regard to arrests there were 28 total arrests this year which are comparable with total arrests made in 2022 and 2023 [Music] this next slide highlights some of the Department's programs and Partnerships first is our community connections program which is a collaboration between the Bethlehem police department and Bethlehem Health Bureau as of November 6 2024 BPD has made over 498 referrals for community members with unmet Social Service needs next is bus Patrol a school bus safety program over the past five months BPD has issued 671 citations to violators who have illegally passed school buses Handle With Care is another one of our programs that's very important that enhances police School Communications to better support students exposed to traumatic events for the 2023 2024 school year BPD has completed 69 handle withth care referrals and finally the impact project is a program designed as a diversionary op for firsttime juvenile offenders year to date we've had 100 referrals 42 of which were successful 18 juveniles were referred back to BPD for arrest that failed to comply with the parameters of the program and 40 juveniles are still awaiting disposition on this slide I'd like to highlight a new program that we recently started it's a program created in 2018 by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office the goal of this initiative is to connect individuals suffering from substance use with treatment options Ley helps to reduce deaths overdoses and crime associated with drug addiction by getting individuals into treatment ends the stigma associated with substance use disorder it strengthens police Community Relationships by encouraging individuals to seek help from law enforcement and it connects individuals with organizations that are ready willing and able to provide help so how does the program work there's two tracks the first track is a voluntary referral and occurs when a Community member voluntarily advises a member of the Bethlehem police department that they are suffering from an addiction and in need of assistance the second track is the post arrest alternative this track occurs when individuals that have been arrested and are awaiting their preliminary hearing for a drug or alcohol related summary or misdem or offense a representative from the District Attorney's Office defense and affan meaning the police officer must be in a in agreement regarding the referral to the Ley program so if an individual is referred post arrest into the Ley program their preliminary hearing will be continued and they'll be allowed the opportunity to enter into treatment if they successfully complete the treatment program those charges will be dismissed a functional vehicle Fleet is essential for a police department to ensure timely and effective responses to emergencies maintain Patrol patrol coverage and support officers in performing their duy safely and efficiently well-maintained and reliable vehicles are crucial for operational Readiness Public Safety and the overall effectiveness of law enforcement efforts now this slide shows the Investments that the city has made in its police Fleet over the years as a reminder it's important to remember that our vehicles are on the road 24 hours a day seven days a week these vehicles are heavily used by our Personnel while ensuring the community safety for example a night shift officer recently put 105 miles on a vehicle during his eight hour shift so since 2022 to 2025 the city has invested $1.7 million into the police vehicle Fleet [Music] the betham police department is committed to providing professional Police Service to our community therefore we encourage our officers to increase their skills knowledge and abilities through further Education and Training investing in police training is an essential aspect of modernizing law enforcement and improving Public Safety by ensuring officers are well prepared for a range of complex situations from de-escalating tense encounters to handling emerging threats we can foster greater trust improve operational efficiency and reduce negative outcomes for both officers and our community members during the year officers attended a variety of training courses some topics covered were firearm trafficking and elicit trade arms investigations medical marijuana Workshop crime scene initial response and management criminal gangs awareness Trends and identification methods search and seizure Crisis Intervention training investigative report writing hate crime recognition and Reporting law enforcement response to suicidal subjects and Trauma management the department has made several facility improvements in 2024 for example we purchased new office furniture for our vice unit added additional security me measures to the evidence room that brings us into compliance with accreditation standards repurposed office space for Community Connection staff which increases accessibility for our officers to reach out to our social workers and mental health workers and it encourages more collaboration between the betham police department and the betham health Bureau and then we added Pavilion to the police training range uh that help provide Shelter From the Sun in adverse weather conditions technology plays a critical role in modern policing by enhancing the effectiveness efficiency and safety of law enforcement operations this year we replaced our outdated body cameras and our incar cameras we also continue to upgrade the city's camera Network by adding new cameras and updating replacing Antiquated ones finally we've added automated license plate readers to various parts of the city these devices automatically scan and capture images of vehicle license plates which are then cross referenc with databases to identify stolen vehicles wanted persons and assist us in help finding missing and endangered individuals Wellness for police officers is critical not just for their personal health and well-being but also for the safety and effectiveness of the communities they serve the role of a police officer is inherently stressful and can be physically emotionally and mentally taxing prioritizing Wellness can help officers manage stress maintain resilience and provide highquality service to the public one of the ways we're prioritizing officer Wellness is through the adoption of external vests external vest carriers provide more freedom of the movement compared to traditional concealed body armor worn under a shirt or uniform the design allows for better Mobility particularly in the shoulders arms and torso which is critical for officers engag in physical tasks like running climbing or engaging in high stress scenarios external vest carriers also allow officers to carry a w a wide range of essential gear such as magazines flashlights handcuffs radios and medical kits on the outside of their uniform making it easier to access the tools they need in a crisis finally exterior exterior carriers are often designed to distribute the weight of the body armor and Equipment more evenly across the body this can reduce strain on the lower back shoulders and neck areas that are often subject to fatigue and injury when carrying heavy armor for extended periods to further assist with reducing risks of chronic health issues as well as improve posture and circulation the department will also be installing two ergonomic standing desks to areas where our Patrol officers typically type their reports and finally in partnership with our Lehigh County Law Enforcement agencies members of the Bethlehem police department will attend Boulder Crest struggle well training this two-day training is a preventative based program based on the science of post-traumatic growth the goal of this training is to help officers prioritize their physical and mental healths the final slide for the police portion of the budget presentation shows some of our goals for 2025 we are prioritizing equipping members with tools necessary to perform their duties in a safe efficient manner increased recruiting efforts to seek qualified diverse police officer applicants further develop the Department's relationship with the community Through participation in community engagement activities and events utilize the Department's social media Outlets to provide crime Public Safety and Community engagement in information to the public strive to lower part one offenses also known as violent crime and part two offenses maintain and update current practices to ensure compliance with both federal and state accreditation standards support the wellness and professional development of our personnel and have a strong focus on implementing Innovative crime strategies and modernizing services this is the end of the police portion um Mr President would you like me to continue and okay you could complete the presentation and then we'll open it up to questions okay thank you skip around here a bit next is going to be police records police records is comprised of four dedicated staff members three of which process all requests for police incident crime and accident reports additionally they also assist citizens with right to no request complete State reporting logs for juvenile arrests and complete the court ordered expungement of Records finally the remaining police record staff member serves as administrative Aid to the police Command Staff now I've included this next slide in here because one of our records clerks also serves as our Animal control officer since January 2024 we've had 244 Strays in our care thanks to Animal control officer roach's tenacity we have a reunification rate of 73.2% it's worth noting that we're observing an increase in the number of Strays we take in as you can see on the slide we're expecting to surpass last year's number of 252 Strays total for the year finally our trap neuter and release contract with No Nonsense neutering has yielded 130 TNR or trap neutered and released cats for the year that program is also managed by our Animal Control uh reccords Clerk our goals for 2025 is maintain a high level of customer service in the police records room in continue to invest in training for our personnel and work towards the addition of a full or part-time records Clerk to assist with the increased demand for services we're experiencing and last last but not least is the Bethlehem Communication Center so the bethem communication the Bethlehem Communication Center serves as the initial point of contact for the majority of phone calls coming into City Hall for example over the past four months the Communication Center has fielded 24,1 114 phone calls in addition to answering phone calls Communication Center Personnel triage service requests and are responsible for entering them into Community plus which is software the city uses to track work orders now since January 1st 2024 Communication Center staff have entered 320 service requests and have also processed 108 service requests that were submitted via the my Bethlehem app furthermore the Communication Center also answered 14,499 pa1 calls in addition to all of that the communication Center is also an extremely important part of the police department and their staff Works seamlessly with police Personnel for example staff monitors 127 City cameras which helps with situation awareness as well as officer safety the Communication Center staff are also responsible for clean NCC entries tow operations and assist with snow emergency details now just as a reminder NCC in clean are two programs that our service center staff are able to utilize when assisting our officers NCC stands for the National Crime information center and it's a computerized database of Criminal Justice information including missing persons fugitives stolen property and criminal record history the NCC is operated by the FBI's criminal justice Information Services Divi division which is seious and is available 247 to federal state local and tribal law enforcement agencies clean is the commonwealth law enforcement assistance Network and through clean criminal justice agencies in Pennsylvania can message partner agencies and assess information and access information from Commonwealth sources plus networked national federal and international systems and finally our goals for 2025 with the Bethlehem Communication Center is continue to cross Trin Personnel maintain a high level of customer service and recruit develop and retain a strong Workforce that is the end of my presentation I'd be more than happy to answer any of your questions thank you Chief cot for the presentation we'll start with our Public Safety Committee I'll turn to committee chair councilwoman Leo uh thank you Chief um thanks for the information on the impact project um and the numbers I was curious as to how that that program was was growing it see going it seems to be running very well and um I I just never think enough is said about some of these diversionary programs that you are all um engaging in especially the ones that affect our our our school age children who need a Stern talking to in an opportunity not necessarily to be put in front of the magistrate and start a juvenile record so early um so I'm very much appreciative of the information on the impact project as well as the Boulder Crest um thank you for calling that out trauma is not something you could really avoid in your line of work so it's a matter of how we how we deal with the trauma and I've been very concerned over this past year there's been quite a few um I mean I guess not any different than in the other year but when you attend these um police ceremonies and you hear uh the very specific call outs that you might not hear in every day um it's just it's it's a lot to um to take in um great on updating the fleet I think that was a big concern for me when I first got on and it it seems like everything that backlog of vehicles that we were just awaiting has has cleared from the pandemic exactly we have received all those vehicles in that's that's excellent news um I mean you know my heart uh I I think everybody has a pet project they'd love to see accomplish that's some pipe dream thing you know if if I had $30 million I'd build you a Precinct um the addition of the full or part-time clerk um so not this budget season but hopefully working toward next budget season I'm very excited about that I always worry as I said earlier in dced like there's there's trimming the fat but at some point you're cut into me and I I worry about the the clerking staff and and how much data we're operating in as a city so I'm I'm happy to learned more about that and if we as a council can support in any way uh you know I'm here so I didn't have anything else thank you councilwoman I'll turn to the Public Safety Committee members Council people cramsey Smith and Mr Callahan anything s Mr Callan um no I just want to I want to thank you in the force for everything you guys do very tough uh job for the guys on the street and um I know that they always have the you know I I I've never heard of a bad interaction that someone had uh with one of our police officers I mean they've always tried to calm things down first and uh and deescalate which is I think a really important thing um and if it doesn't turn it that you know our police officers are very professional in how they handle themselves I know that always hasn't wasn't the case many many years ago uh in every police force but I think uh betham is a very unique place so I want to thank everybody for that my only question is um the um the H how many shootings we had a number of shootings there for um a month and a half did that did that go down too that went down as well yes thinking of over on the South Side what was the number last year you know off the top of your head off the top of my head I'm I'm not sure all right but the number of shootings total went down this year from last yes great that's awesome thank you you're welcome thank you Mr Callahan councilman KY SMI thank you thank you um to you and your department for a great job um I know I keep saying I lived the first 20 years of my life 21 of my life with the police chief uh 247 so I know it's not easy at all so thank you um and it's great I love the um the spreadsheet you had about the special operations and the seizures and the drugs and um and guns that's amazing you know the numbers uh the one only question I had and I I may have missed this when I went to the restroom but when when do you expect to be a full compliment like how where are we at with the numbers as far as the department goes we are currently down 10 officers um we're hiring one officer in December uh which will take that to to nine uh we are currently accepting applications I'm hoping that we're able to gather enough applications of qualified individuals that were able to take a chunk out of that those 10 those nine vacancies um but it is something that we're actively working towards is is trying to get the force back up to full compliment great great I noticed I did see on the one side like it seems like you get so many applicants and then by the time they go through all the different stages it really it's it's more of an issue now than I guess it used to be is that correct back uh I'm dating myself but back in two uh 20 4 when I applied for the police department there was 500 people on my civil service list the gymnasium over at uh Le uh Liberty High School was packed to take the test now we are lucky if we have 60 people wow show up to take the written exam um it's just extremely frustrating and and something that uh we're we're not in anomaly uh there is struggles across the country in law enforcement Tri trying to recruit qualified applicants um but it's something that we're not going to take laying down we are going to do everything in our power to try to get the best caliber candidates to come here to the city of Bethlehem right good for you great thank you um I also want to commend you on the The Wellness the office of Wellness is great as far as the prevention um with the traumatic growth and the ergonomic desk that's awesome um I what is the pa1 calls what what is that I didn't know what so that is something um that is law where if an individual is going to dig they have to call oh okay the number to confirm that there's no gas lines or okay and so you have to okay that's another responsibility that the service center the Communication Center handles okay and my last question is about the animal control and cats are you seeing a significant increase this year in the number of like fural cats and Stray Cats because I've had I've had many people with instances of that it seems like it really is grown yes so it seems the the amount that we're able to get in and trap and neuter and release uh there's there's dozens more you know okay so it's really hard to keep up so it's very difficult to keep on top of it okay good to know well thank you again thank you councilwoman anything else from the other council members councilwoman L yes sorry I so much Stu thank you for uh the presentation um and my first question was what you just discussed with the vacancies and um it's it's a tough uh Beast to tackle I think it is um for the Ley program that you mentioned so um is that for the Post arrest side of it um you said it requires both the arresting officer and the da to agree are there any like outright limit ations like um you said summary or misdemeanor is it like Ard that it's only firsttime offenders or do you allow people have relapse to we we are understanding that it's going to take multiple some people it takes multiple times of going to rehab uh so there there it's not limited to just a once andone legar okay uh that's great and is the treatment um build to health insurance is it a community provided know it's provided through the Northampton County drug and alcohol okay all right um and so that would be an inpatient there's various options they'll do an assessment and they'll determine can they do inpatient can it be outpatient it's all dependent on the person needs um that's great uh the external vests um sound like they're they're great for the officers and uh I'm curious how they're being received by the public not that it should like even if people are like oh I don't like them like they should still be used because they sound like they're practical but uh you know are people more intimidated by them or are they like oh that's neat so we were very mindful as to the the type that we purchased we're also very very strict as to what can be carried and where it can be carried so officers can't just buy various things and and have them hanging off their vest um it's very regimented because we want it to look like the normal uniform we don't want it to look militaristic so it's something we were very mindful about I appreciate that uh that's good to hear um then for the service center so you mentioned Community plus uh and that it's work order tracking um if a couple of our meetings previously this budget season we were talking about work order tracking and how challenging it is across the city so are multiple departments able to use that or is it just the police or multiple departments utilize Community plus okay and is there a front-facing like a resident facing portal where people could check their uh the status of their work order or whatever I believe on the app you would get something that says that your your order is complete but if if you don't do it on Via the app I I don't believe that there is something that um an individual citizen would receive and you mean the like the um I'm blanking on the name of my Bethlehem yes yes yes correct um okay uh that's that's good to hear because we we did hear that come up a couple of times so hopefully it'll get some what's the big challenge with it do you from your perspective like you said it's hard to so we're it's the way I lik in it is it's trying to take a a circle and put it through a square hole you know it the system is good for what it's meant for but I don't know if it was necessarily meant for this um so the workflow is a little wonky and trying to get it to do what we want it to do um there's limitations got it so it it's something that we we continue to evaluate and try to make better because I I know as a a city resident resident uh I know it can be frustrating when you you send something and you're not quite sure you know what happened with your request so something we're evaluating and working on got it okay um and then uh last question on that front no two questions uh in the um Communication Center what percentage of calls do you think are what you would consider police related versus or like 911 type related versus other things for the city so since primary dispatching capabilities were moved to Northampton County oh that's right I I don't believe we have a lot of them don't get me wrong there is occasionally calls that come in that our uh service center staff have to um transfer to Northampton County to be Des patched but the majority of the calls coming in uh is somebody calling for information about how to pay their water bill or um when you know how can they get a hold of community and economic development because they want to talk about permits I would say the the vast majority of the calls that come in is for City Services um okay so not even just for non-emergency police even non-emergency police would go to Northampton County n Center oh all right interesting um okay and the people Staffing those phones then are they are officers no they are H non sworn civilian staff okay um right and then uh when they're looking you mentioned the cameras that they're keeping an eye on um I remember reading something about a resident database like a optional yes the citizens cameras ring cameras nests Etc is the Communication Center monitoring those is that something that uh like officers are only how how is that handled who's looking at those so no one's looking at those um the only way you see where somebody has like a ring camera um I registered my ring camera with the program is an officer would have to go into it's a big Google Map and it'll show an icon over my house that I have a ring camera available that I'm willing to share with the betham police department so if there's a crime that occurs in in my area um they know that they can come to my residence and that I have camera footage okay so they're coming in person they're not remotely access not live yeah it's not remote access I knew it wasn't live I just okay um all right so the and so the Communication Center is not dealing with that it would be an investigator correct it would be investigator it would be a sworn personnel all right thank you so much you're welcome thank you councilwoman anything else from other members of council just a couple quick questions Chief and thank you the for the police academy said we're we're hiring one officer in a few weeks how long is the from start of the academy to when they're out in the field how long is that process so the most recent class that is going to be graduating in December started in July and from the the time that they graduate they'll spend about two to four weeks inhouse um again going over in-house procedures uh making sure that they're fully equipped with all the gear that they need before they're assigned to a platoon to be uh with a field training officer and then they'll be with a field training officer for approximately 12 weeks um 12 weeks being the minimum uh at times we will extend someone's field training um just so they get more experience with a seasoned officer uh but it it varies but for the most part the police academy would uh would run from like this next one will be from January to uh to June so we're looking at at least six months at of at Beyond six months at a minimum correct and I think that just speaks to the the challenges we have to fill these vacancies when you talk about 10 right now do you know of any retirements coming up in the next six months yes how many roughly off the top of my head three oh I I appreciate your efforts everybody's efforts as you're always kind of working with these these you know timelines that it's not with as with other departments where it's get hired they can offer today get the person started right relatively soon training and and performing their their duties so that that's one of those U just Perpetual challenges the the Ley program and thank you for that background is that pretty much what be pair has become yes understood and then with the $2.7 million that's been seized in police operations where where does that $2.7 million go so either goes to the fedgov or it would go to Northampton County or Lehigh County District Attorney's office and then the District Attorney's office would divvy up that money it's discretionary um what they want to do with it and and that helps pay for the Ley program yes correct and and I ask because I know there's been a lot of attention whether it's a couple years ago there was a big national write up about CI I think it's called civil asset forfeiture yes and then there was a recent Netflix movie that kind of Y creates this dramatic interpretation of what it means so of the 2.7 million that was seized none of that comes right back to our general fund that's all turned over to either the federal government the District Attorney's office then they program it correct as they want to correct thank you and then for the and this is just more of a general police question not necessarily budget related but for the if I understood correctly for meth 35,000 grams year to date have been seized I had mentioned it at a prior council meeting that methamphetamine is the one thing that keeps me up at night that um our city has seen an incredible increase in now of that 35,000 could could a large portion of that be attributed to one seizure and and operation or have you been seeing a lot of it incrementally building up to 35,000 a large amount of that was seized um during the course of one investigation but um primarily it is is taken over as the drug of choice in in the city so is replaced opioids yes and what what do you attribute that to I I attributed that uh to a number of of things uh I could talk all night about it I I think um better education uh individuals realizing that uh drugs being with the Fentanyl and and causing the overdoses the um how easy it is to get noock and and and have that on hand to to take life-saving measures um I I think with the Crackdown on Fentanyl and heroin over the years I think uh has caused a shift um towards methamphetamine so I I think it's a number of factors and is is there I mean is there fentol and meth or can there be fentol and meth typically however it's consumed if someone wanted to yeah yes well I what I'm hearing is all the work that's gone in I know we've spoken at different budget hearings a lot of council members whether through the Health Department police department different administrations the ATT the coroners um grim and lysc over the years putting a lot of effort into opioid education awareness we've talked about it time and time again and it's it's just heartening a here it's just created sort of putting out this fire over here has created somewhat of an opportunity over here so I wish your department and all the partners all the best in addressing that because that that 35,000 is a rather eye openening number and does that come in typically um in general domestically from other states is that something that comes in from out of the country how how do we typically see that understood and then um and again all the best your work with the district attorneys with Federal Partners agencies Community agencies to address that and and I'll be interested to see where that where we land on those numbers this time next year got community connections congratulations on almost 500 referrals thank you I remember in the back in the height of the pandemic when that was an idea and we talked about how other departments handled similar Endeavors and it was something that was built from within the department and implemented and has really been successful Handle With Care uh are all the municipal departments that serve the bethle school district participating in the Handle With Care Program do you know I hope they are do you know for a fact I I do not know for a fact I know that um the United Way of the Lehigh Valley is and and res ilent Lehigh Valley has tried their best to get the other police departments on board um but I I know again this is something we're very intentional about uh is making this program part of our department culture and and making sure that even if a student doesn't go to a betham mar School District school um we're still doing the referrals because it can get to Charter Schools parochial schools so it's it's incredibly important that we're doing it but I'm not sure about the other departments if you find it's not something I need to know this holiday season uh because it's not going to change the attitude of other departments right but if you find out please share with members of council and for those who are not aware and chief again interrupt me if I'm mistaken handled with care is if a student within the school district is involved in a police incident let's say hypothetically police have to come out to the house because there's an overdose or something like that a referral will be made to their school within the the district and then the school uh Administration staff is notified that that student that young person was involved in some kind of um police incident at their house correct very B um just Handle With Care and just show them some Grace that day yeah so which I I really appreciate I've shared this story before but before I was even on Counsel I'd gone on a ride along with the department and at that time is when opioids were really starting to um that was being told in local media and an officer who I was doing my ride along with I had asked them well what what is your challenge I I don't know I'm just I was just a person running for council at the time and he had said opioids and within probably 10 minutes of that conversation we were dispatched to a residence where two schoolage children were in the house where there was an overdose so they Handle With Care Program uh I don't remember when it was something that I became aware of but I I really hope as we as our police Department serves just the city as we talk about often our school district serves outside of the city so I I hope all of our school students are able to to benefit from that program uh as a related to cameras each officer have a functioning body camera each vehicle have a functioning camera in it yes thank you and I know there was years ago I asked because there was a kind of a blackout period where there was an issue with the software and I don't think we had I think people were outfitted with cameras and the vehicles were outfitted with cameras but the technology wasn't there to function properly so thank you for that update and then the last question I had for chief C Mr whoever can answer it um our fop collective bargaining agreement when does that expire the current contract at the end of 2026 the end of 26 this is end of year two two years left great thank you Mr Evans I didn't have any other questions but I will turn it to miss lair and then anyone else who has followup questions um with the methamphetamine um you said most of is coming from outside of the area right so does that mean that uh there's not a significant concern about manufacturing of methamphetamine in the area we haven't seen it in the immediate area okay I remember it was probably like eight years ago one on Main Street it was like my daughter's daycare was right there and I was like oh so okay I'm it's an unfortunate shift or you know rise but I'm glad that we are not seeing that so thank you any other follow-up questions or comments for chief cot councilwoman KY Smith oh I just wanted to mention with the handle a care that um I know in the in eastern district they were using it for years and I I'm pretty sure that other districts use it and it is very bag basically just the teacher and the counselor are alerted and know details but at least then the counselor can you know see check in with the student it's a great program thank you thank you Miss KY Smith anything else Chief cot Miss Leo sorry I meant to ask earlier um how much do we rely on the federal government for our funding and how much of a firewall is there between our police department and the federal government we receive the Jag Grant which is sometimes uh roughly between 30 to $40,000 um we also receive funding for our bulletproof vest that's part of the grant where we'll get a reimbursement um for purchasing the vest we have Task Force officers that are assigned to the uh DEA as part-time officers the FBI um that stien that comes into our budget is is from the federal government as well okay um think what else as for a firewall I'm I'm not quite sure not gonna lie it's late and I'm probably not asking that question appropriately so I might Circle back with you okay about it it's been a who of a day yes um but yeah it's not a remarkable amount amount I mean the vests concern me but yes yeah I'll Circle back with you when when I'm not saying thank you anything else for chief cop thank you Chief cop I will open up to public comment by show of hands is there anyone in the room who want to make comment on the police budget seeing none we're going to continue on to our fire department budget while Chief re comes on up Chief cot I'll let you know I did text officer Nicholson that he could Moonlight as a vest model should he should he need to find a second job and then our fire department budget starts on page 155 is the organizational chart Chief Frank what we'll do is you will go through the fire budget and then we'll go to EMS in one presentation then I'll open it up for comments once we've heard from fire and EMS certainly thank you very much uh with me tonight is Deputy Chief bear director Fritz Union president Lou Jimenez and Fire fighter doton and we have several of our Personnel streaming online uh so I appreciate them engaging this process and and being part of it fire department is on target this year to respond to over 5,000 calls EMS is going to be right around 13,000 calls the fire calls uh that we respond to is not just fire related we have the bomb squad the water rescue team uh hangle rescue team and the fire investigators some specialized teams that we have that require specialized training uh big component of uh our discussion with the administration this year was reference the uh shortage uh not shortage but filling positions that are vacant and an uh heavy emphasis on training and so in that we asked if we could please incorporate into the budget uh up to 18 positions should they as they become uh vacant currently we have a number of open positions we have 16 seats that aren't filled on apparatus by vacancies but seven of those are in the academy we had hired uh eight Personnel for the hack Academy earlier this year and there's seven remaining in that group so they'll be coming out to the line on uh in January and then that will leave us with uh I think it was 10 it was nine plus one at the beginning of the year with the drop February would be 10 and then there's two positions that were being held that are in arbitration so that would be eight we have a number of other Personnel that are considering retiring we're at a point in a department where we have a number of people that are eligible to retire and it's just a matter of evaluating their economic uh situation if it's advantageous to them to go and then also uh whether they have other employment lined up uh this job's very demanding on your body and your psyche and a lot of those folks are finding maybe they move on to another job as they get to that age when they can retire so focusing on uh that 18 number we broke that out um in the training and throughout if there's any questions there's some line items where they used to be all encompassed in one large number we tried to separate that out so that we could show the amount that was being dedicated towards new recruits um some of those I'll I'll just start back uh I'm sorry I'll to jump around but I'll start on 158 we increase the training funds for special teams that would Encompass the bomb squad Hazmat water rescue technical rescue and our fire investigators there's also a new line under that uh heading that is for training for our Personnel to attend training while they're off duty and to compensate them to do so we have uh little over a year ago there were changes made to Civil Service where there was increased standards required as you get promoted through the ranks and uh with that increase requirements in training it makes it hard for folks to get that training when they're on duty so to compensate them uh for their time off duty to obtain that training we added that line um on page 159 we increased the uh pass alarm maintenance and replacement we had to increase that NFPA had some changes in the requirements for the pass alarms and our current pass alarms are good until they're not good so as long as they're functioning we can keep using them but we can't replace them with a similar model the new model is more expensive so that increased number is to uh supply all of our new recruits going to the academy with the newest model of pass alarm another uh kind of initiative that we've taken is I met with President Jimenez and ask if we could get a group of firefighters together to assist in looking for and applying for Grants and we had uh several firefighters one of which is firefighter do and uh they put forth time and effort to research grants and help write some of the grants that we're going after one of the grants that we have applied for would be a substantial number to replace quite a few of our pass alarms that Grant wouldn't be enough to outfit every person but what we're looking to do is kind of come up with a a a plan that would still provide a equal level of protection we'd have a pass alarm at each riding position on the truck and then we'd also have several extra at the command vehicle so if we had call out and additional people were needed they would have a pass alarm um on that same page there's a new line item that is SCBA mass for new recruits when we were uh one two Personnel at a time going to the Academy we could absorb one or two masks uh that's that they wear with their SCBA that lets them breathe air and hazardous atmospheres uh we could absorb the cost of that in the line item above that which was maintenance of self-contained breathing apparatus however what we have occurred in the last couple acmy when we had eight each time is we didn't have enough funds to cover for that and they were we were assigning them with good but used face mass and sometimes it was leading to issues in the academy where we'd have to get them replacement parts so what we're looking to do is provide each member going to the academy with a new face piece on 160 we increased the smoke detector budget that is double that amount uh if we just buy smoke detectors and we buy them at our discounted price that we're able to get with a vendor that purchases 256 smoke detectors that amount reason we're increasing that or asking for that to be increased is some of the partners that we've been working with uh are the available Supply from those folks is dwindling so we're bearing more of the burden of providing that service to the city the line item a couple down from there QRS supplies that looks like a new line item but it was in the EMS budget it was moved there last year I believe or maybe two years ago but it's not been working very efficient for that to be in emss because then they have to go through EMS to make a purchase from that when it's Qs supplies EMS supplies for the fire department so we just asked that that be moved from EMS back into fire another new line item is the Emergency Management supplies and expenses with uh the departure of Bob novotnik those duties have been passed on to the fire chief myself and uh those funds I believe were included in the uh police fund before some portion of it so we asked that that be included in the fire um in the uniforms you can see the first spot where we separated that out and we have our uniforms for our Personnel on the line and then a separate line item uniforms for new recruits and that amount is to outfit up to 18 firefighters the same below that for uh badges hats collar ins signas for the new recruits that was separated out the next one is the bunker gear to outfit uh our Personnel in the line there's a NFPA standard that that gear should be turned over every 10 years and that amount helps us uh maintain that level for our fighter firefighters on the line the line below that is to outfit uh bunker gear for up to 18 recruits on the next page on 161 there's a new line item for self-contained breathing apparatus rental for the new recruits so when we're sending eight people to a fire academy we have to take those eight CBA air packs off of a current truck so if we take them off of a reserve apparatus and then we have call out for an another fire call then we have a diminished capacity to provide that uh for firefighters being called out so we recognize that that's a deficiency so we're asking that to be funded in the future that we can rent that air pack for those folks while they're in the academy and then we can also maintain a proper number of has CBA units within the city for firefighting efforts um under training and continuing education there's the we separated that line item out again uh the fire academy is a separate line item and that number that's there is the amount to train up to 18 firefighters uh towards the bottom of that same heading there's a new line item also for Emergency Management uh since it's under the fire department is for training and that would be a lot of the training is provided free by County local state federal government agencies however there's sometimes training that comes up that's very rare or doesn't come into this area so um one of which that I saw was for for large events such as Celtic classic or Music Fest and that would be used for those type of trainings that are out of the area on page 162 um there was a increase in the we had a line item in there for broken and damaged eyeglasses and we added to that um eyewear to to be used with the SCBA pH piece and that has never been in the budget before and it's a critical item so that the firefighters can have their glasses on on the general fire ground but when they're wearing a face piece then their glasses are basically built into the inside of the face piece and they can continue to see to do operations in a fire doesn't help a whole lot it's Smokey steamy but as soon as you come out then you can still see properly to get to the truck it also is beneficial uh hazardous materials calls where they can read labels more clearly Etc um on the next page 163 it outlines the grants that we typically receive and I expect it we'll still get the State Fire Commissioners Grant and the public safety Grant the tag pipeline Grant is another uh product of the collaboration that we had with firefighters helping uh research and apply for grants that one was spearheaded by uh lieutenant Thomas and we were awarded $79,999 so that is already awarded we needed to have a place to put it in the budget um on the last page for fire 164 there's a one-time purchase under equipment of a new boat and motor and that's proposed because the boat we have two rescue boats the one is a 1997 Grumman the motor is giving us quite a bit of problems again and the repair facility we were taking it to has uh rebuilt the motor a couple of times and kind of kindly ask us to not bring it back again so um that was a one-time request to replace that and that's speaking with our water rescue uh team leader Captain leac he requested that that be a specialize kind of boat it's it's a lighter boat more uh navigable on the Lehi um and then it would also come in be beneficial to flooding that we're prone to some of the flooding areas where it's a lighter boat that they could carry um to an area that we needed that wraps up what I had to discuss for fire I'd ask um director Fritz to discuss the EMS portion thank you Chief right Chief good evening I'll be I'll be brief just want to highlight something from last year if you remember I stood here we added four positions they've all been filled for quite quite some time two of those positions were supervisors that allowed us to have 247 supervisor coverage the other two positions were an additional crew working 11 to 11 three and a half days a week I'll say it's worked out very well for us as the chief mentioned our call volume is going to be just shy of 13,000 which is a record year for us they on Pace to be a record year and yet our Reliance on Mutual Aid now so far is down 2% so I think that's a direct result of that crew I'm excited to see how that Trends forward and what that can mean for the future looking at our budget you'll see a few very very few new line items one of them was for recruitment we just know that we need to expand our reach a little bit so we added $2,000 in recruitment we added additional replacing some oxygen tanks that need to be hydro testing and some things like that nine ventilators we we added we're excited about that we're going to have a a portable ventilator on each ambulance one for the supervisor vehicle it's going to help us free up a position during a cardiac arrest or anytime we need to breathe for someone so we're excited to see how those are going to work out for us I know some other services have them and and I think that's going to be a really good thing we added another Lucas device which is the CPR assist device we have seven we have eight ambulances when we spread ourselves out into the four firehouses well two firehouses and then two AMS buildings we we just realized logistically moving equipment around was a little bit harder than it needed to be so we just said look why don't we just get the same equipment on every ambulance same thing then with the lifeback 15 so those are really the highlights of the budget if you have any questions for EMS or for fire thank you gentlemen we'll we'll open it up again starting with our Public Safety chair councilwoman Leo uh first and foremost I interact with quite a few of the firefighters and EMS just being on the south side we end up calling um a lot I'm in a building that has a lot of medical stuff going on in it and uh every interaction has been incredible the professionalism um even with our more frequent flyers is just really something something spectacular and I'm so very proud of the the public safety that we have here in the city of Bethlehem I'm I'm glad to know that our callout is down I'm wondering the the effect that the additional four positions have had on kind of the burnout rate in the mental health for our EMS as well yeah tough to measure I can tell you the the workload is is still there it's increasing so so that's always there the fact that we're using Mutual Aid less it's a good thing it doesn't mean that the workload has has gone away because the initial volume is up some of those stressors are the calls that we respond to and it only takes one so I it's really kind of hard to measure that question or answer that question with any real solid data I'll say I guess to to that point then um I'm I'm aware of some of the programs that the police have I'm aware of some of the programs that fire has dealing with um like these post-traumatic events does EMS have similar train or training or Rehabilitation for people who are seeing these very traumatic things absolutely and a lot of them overlap if police have had something it's not uncommon for there to be medics in with there if fire has had something it's not uncommon for there to be medic we we all kind of overlap and mostly because they're all on the same call together so it makes sense for the fire department folks who are there the Medics who are there the police they can share their individual stories with the people who come in from the outside and work work through that call okay that that has happened this year I know for a fact okay all right those were the only EMS questions I had and I really don't have any questions for fire just an appreciation for um the cooperation that that there is within the the union and the administration to go after grants that might be used to kind of bolster stuff actually I had a question it was kind of like a joke but now it's in my head did we use our water rescue to rescue a goalpost out of Lehigh River did we have anything no that wasn't us that's great to hear right those were really all the questions I had and just again a heartfelt thanks in Bethlehem it's great that that you guys don't have a thankless job but I think for the most part none of us really realize the depth of which every of what you guys see on a day-to-day basis so just again thank you for everything that you're do thank you councilwoman again to the committee I'll start with Mr Callahan I just want to thank you guys for everything you do um you know I I had a family member um maybe about five six years ago I had a medical event um I couldn't asked for better service I mean it wasn't because I was on Council you guys just showed up and had no idea you know so um you really don't know what you have until you need it you know so I thank you guys for you know all your service especially fire department also when people running out you guys are running in so uh I appreciate everything you do and if uh any of you ever need anything your department see anything um you know I got your backs so um the the only question I had was I don't know if it's changed but when I was on Council two years ago um the fire trucks were going out on calls all the time like even if like if there's a call at the U rving house the fire trucks are going out are they still doing that certainly they are a lot of those might be automatic alarms but and you may go to 10 automatic alarms in a row and it's somebody burnt food cooking or whatever and then the next time you go and the sprinkler heads off because they had a grease fire in their stove and you never know when um how would if it's just like a medical emergency not like uh medical emergencies there's uh certain types of medical emergencies that will send one unit on to assist EMS a fir Tru or yes all right because I you know I I knew there were different categories of calls and I knew that the fire trucks were going out um on almost every call every time there was a call and uh I thought you know back then I think the uh the thought process was that maybe they can get there before or police or or EMS and we all know how much um the fire trucks cost they're enormous amounts of money and I just didn't think that I thought it'd be more beneficial financially if the city had like pickup trucks like a pickup truck in each one of the stations and send out two guys with that in a non-fire event instead of putting all the mileage on the uh you know $500,000 or a million dollar fire truck they they don't go out on every EMS call for certain they when we went up to Northampton County they changed it over to what they called the F fab five it was either you go on everything or you go on the The Fab Five and it that would be like Cardiac Arrest um electrocution drowning yeah so there's a limited number of calls they go on and and it's not every call but yes they use the fire apparatus yeah and I I think some of that is with our Personnel if we were to have them say not go on the engine they go on a pickup truck and then they clear that call and then a fire call comes in then they can respond to that fire call with the apparatus they're in and they wouldn't have to drive back to the station get their correct apparatus and then go to that other call good thank you councilwoman kmy Smith okay thank you thank you to both um you guys and your departments because I know what you do is really um you know life and death and and traumatic certainly so um I just wanted to ask um as far as so for EMS now are you at you're at your compliment as far as Staffing now with the new hires we are if you would have asked me that question the beginning of the month I would have said we're fully staffed we recently had a resignation so we are now looking for one one position but like I said a month ago we would we were in good shape and you feel that it's adequate with the staff you you know exclusive of the person that just left you're adequately staffed at this point sure we'll watch the numbers like we've done and okay and handle things right okay thanks and Mike your the question to you too is so um where are we at with Staffing because I know we have eight vacancies right and that's including that's after we have the the guys come back from the academy right right they we still have eight correct do we have some coming do we have more going to the academy next year I I thought we did right eight yeah oh sorry go ahead we're at nine right now vacancies nine okay and there's a drop which is mandated retirement that was voluntary but that was okay a couple years ago so that will be in February so that would be a total of 10 positions so then we'll have 10 vacancies in have 10 10 vacancies okay we have have two current arbitration so two positions are arbitration that's our that's where reason number eight because typically as policy we vote if there's one's in arbitration we don't fill it because arbitration could result in one way or the other and if it returns in okay um we're over budget so if it were today it would be eight but it's still a running number we have a number of applications okay that were received tests that have been passed physical and then maybe you can talk about the testing we're working on developing a list so if if we were going to send them to Academy next week that number would be eight but if anything happens between now next month or so we still have the ability to add more to make sure okay and when are we sending them to the academy again when's the next group going take that Chief in January in January okay so hope be either the 20th or the 27th I can't so then hopefully we can go and have full compliment in unless there's retirements sure okay so to that extent we had the literally as soon as the list was exhausted with this group that we sent to hack the hiring list was exhausted that same week I had worked with human resources and she put out the um next hiring uh packet right application period she opened that right up uh at the end of that we had about 120 applicants so that was exciting but then there was only we were down to 78 of that applicants that were eligible to take the test and then from that we were down to 33 that passed and then we lost a couple in the um Physical Agility and the swimming and the ladder climbing portion so we're down to about 30 and um example of our efforts is all day today we interviewed candidates so um we're interviewing 15 in hopes of capturing enough that even if a couple more happen to occur before that January uh start date that we can get them into that class so that we can try to get the Staffing number back up to where we want it good that's great I'm glad things are really roll because I know for both bureaus it must have been really a challenge being so understaffed for the last couple years so I'm glad it has been but the uh our firefighters have stepped up and you know it working the overtime and that to fill those positions so it's exhausting and it t takes them away from their families you know a lot of times but uh they've been filling all those slots as they came open yeah and I and I've always said before in every budget hearing I hate to see so much overtime because you know it's it's a burnout and then you know you might not be 100% on and you know it's just not good for for people to have to work so much especially in these situations so it's great that we're having um more full compliment of Staffing certainly and I appreciate that that's that's exactly why we've been you know everyone's been collectively from the union to fire Administration City Administration and HR is working so hard to get a list together as quickly as we can here good great well thank you again sure any other questions or comments for either of the gentlemen start with in quch thank you I just have a couple of questions um so uh I came I'm I'm sorry I had to step out for a second but when I came in you were talking about the pass alarms yes um and uh so I was just wondering how much uh pass alarms cost um and you know does it make sense to just get all the new ones instead of that you know replacing them sort of so to I don't have all of the numbers this number I I can't remember how many uh I could provide that to you I I don't have it written down here right in front of me but the grant that we put in for was for over $30,000 and that would outfit all of the apparatus so far we made it for through the first round um of that Grant okay and uh you know we're hopeful that it continues on and and we get the but currently like I said our our current pass alarms they're good until they are no longer working and then we'd have to replace them what we're finding is with the age of them they're starting to fail so we're purchasing this will purchase uh pass alarms for the recruits going in January and then um uh that will free up you know we with the number of vacancies we have we have also other working current pass alarms that we can use so I think we're in a good spot for right now and hopefully if that Grant comes through the grant comes through then you can replace more of them sure okay similar question on the um the uh SCBA uh apparatus and and really it's more um to do with the fact that since you are now able to send two classes a year and you're really really upping your efforts um does it make sense to keep renting as opposed to just uh buying more I mean if you're going to have to keep renting them every time you send a new class or is this equipment that um if we were to purchase it it would be extremely expensive it'd be a far larger number and also that with the rental if there's any uh breakage uh in the academy they new recruits and they're it's a demanding Academy so there's a high chance of them damaging the SCBA unit um that is included in that rental cost so we don't have to pay any extra for parts repair anything like that okay I just was wondering if you know if it was just a matter that you needed us to to up that line item a little bit um because you know if after we do this like you know three four you know twice a year right that's 16 rental we've also we've also uh it is fairly uncommon until this recent uh influx of retirements it's fairly uncommon for us to send large groups consistently usually it's a handful of personnel and we can just absorb that into we have a couple of spare packs that that's what they're used for okay as long as you're comfortable with it and it wasn't just because you felt like you had to you know kind of no I apprciate scrimp around the edges just wanted to make sure that you have what you need thank you very much thank you to both of you thank you councilwoman councilwoman lar yes um so uh a couple questions for um fire for EXT we're seeing you know more extreme weather droughts Etc um are we well equipped with equipment for brush fires that could pop up you know I know we don't have huge swaths of Woodlands uh in our territory but um you know are we equipped for brush fires up on the mountain or whatever so we have I would say we have the minimal amount of equipment that that uh I'd be comfortable with having and because of the um the scarcity of those type of incidents in the city um we would rely on uh external support that's experts in that field uh we would use hose lines and maybe deck guns off of an engine or whatever to try to reach that um but if it got to that extent we would call in the US the forestry service and then they have uh area we've been forming Partnerships and relations with the area uh fire departments around us to uh Aid us when we have specialized things like very uncommon for us to need brush equipment or a tanker water big water truck because we have hydrants everywhere but this summer we had an incident where there was a an issue with the fire hydrant down in s Park we had a fire and we had to call in our neighbors so working with our neighbors we have a plan in place now that they're going to come in and handle that that specialized equipment need for us and Supply water we would do the same for this brush fire um kind of along those lines uh Handover Township had news recent like within the past couple years about their hydrants not actually being hooked up to high enough pressure water uh to to use um are we getting called to support those types of situations for neighboring municipalities where their infrastructure might be lacking no we haven't been called for that purpose and we were getting called regularly to uh go outside the city to Aid other departments but uh I went to Deputy Chief barar and I went to County Chiefs Association and we told him at this point in time with the number of vacancies we have and the high demand on our Personnel for working overtime and filling those vacancies and that unless it was an extreme emergency where and by extreme emergency we explain like has to be in very close proximity to the city we can't be responding 20 miles from here and truly make much of a difference so if it's in close proximity to the city where our response would save a life or major property damage certainly call us but um we were being called uh because we have a career department and we can leave immediately we were being called pretty regularly and we just explained it we will come if it's a life or death uh situation say there's a fire where there's uh firefighters trapped or something like that call us we will send a a apparatus to Aid in that just like if we were in the same position we would call on them and we just expressed that we would call on them for that only if it was the last resort and we would expect them to return that same so okay um and then with the increase in apartment buildings we we've seem to have more uh height um and multi-unit buildings are you comfortable with the number of ladder trucks that we have for the scale of the buildings we have so once a building gets Beyond a certain height then a lot of those concerns are addressed through the fire code and then there's stricter fire codes enforced on those higher height buildings and um be it uh Through Fire Control measures Fire Protection systems uh Etc so and our our trucks would only go up so high to begin with and with setbacks and and that uh power lines those type of things um but as uh we have two front line what we would call ladder trucks engine five has a ladder on that we use to fill in if one of the ladder trucks is uh out of service but could be used as a ladder truck also so I'd say at this time I feel that we have enough and then last question um councilwoman Leon had asked for police how dependent are either of your budgets on like you mentioned you're looking at a lot of uh new grants which is great um are a lot of those dependent on federal funds well a lot of those grants that were applying for nef fire and I don't know on EMS side a lot of those are for um to improve equipment or maybe obtain equipment that uh we won't use one an example is we we got a grant for a piece of equipment on a HazMat team that uh analyzes chemicals tremendously expensive piece of equipment that gets used a couple times a year cost benefits um if we can get a Federal grant to get that and have that resource in the city where we can better address an emergency quickly identify a chemical um as opposed to if we didn't get that Grant it'd still be available it'd be coming from another like County resource or something like that so most of our grants um are connected to equipment and that type of of thing so if it went away we just be able to make those equipment purchases through a grant more enhancement than sustaining okay thank you that's it thank you councilman Chief re just a couple quick questions same as I asked Chief cot from higher date to when uh new firefighter is out on the line what how long are they in the Academy post Academy what goes on before they get uh assigned to uh you know platoon and and are out there sure so when they are we try to get them on boarded about a week sometimes two weeks ahead but our training Captain likes them to have a week with them to go over um just Department procedures policies those type of things and then they're off to the academy they're in the academy for 20 weeks and then when they come out of the academy as soon as they uh they graduate and we can have them sworn in they're assigned to a platoon and report for Duty so 20 weeks is the 20 weeks is the academy understood and then same as asked Chief cot as related to the Union contract when does that go through uh same as police this is the end of year two and know it'll run through 25 and 26 end of 26 is when it expires thank you Chief FR I have any other questions I just had a quick comment for EMS and I not a question but I appreciate director Fritz your reference to Mutual Aid being down 2% I know year after year we would hear about um what calls had to be rolled over and I'm glad to see that the positions have been filled and that while EMS calls are up we'll never celebrate that we we don't want calls to be up but I think we could all take um comfort in knowing with mutual Aid being down so from a budgetary standpoint those are dollars we're grabbing especially with the reimbursement structure changing but in the more important service I don't know if you have the response times off the top of your head I won't hold you a any estimates but what a a response time from a city unit versus a mutual Aid unit is there it's about half okay in house because obviously we're in house now I was trying to really come prepared with that but it's so hard because that truck is only in service three days a week it's so diluted because we have the other days of the week we don't have that truck but I can say that they've trended down about a minute and a half which isn't terrible it's going in the right direction so we're we're pleased with that thank you thank you gentlemen any other questions for either Chief or director Fritz before we open up for public comment thank you so we'll go to our last public comment of the Night by show a hand anyone want to make comment Mr jenez again if you don't mind stating your name for the record I'm L menz president local 735 I wrote this down so it'll be brief H I just want to take a moment to thank everybody involved uh for the work that's gone into the budget this year uh it's evident there's been a thoughtful effort to prioritize Public Safety is in uh in this uh which is reflected in the increased training budget and funding for the new equipment and for our new recruits this budget is smart one that prioritizes the needs of our city and has us head in the right direction which in my opinion hasn't been done in years I want to recognize and thank the members of local 735 Who provided valuable input and a lot of work during this budget process their uh expertise and their daily experiences on the front lines were critical in shaping the budget that addresses the Practical needs of our department and enhances our abilities to serve our citizens well I also want to recognize uh Chief Reich and deputy chief fa beay for their uh advocacy for the safety of our community they've been instrumental in ensuring that the needs of our department are heard and addressed and their leadership's key and why we're making such progress the DED dedication reminds us all the importance of prioritizing the safety of our citizens and those sworn to protect them I want to take the moment to also thank the members of local 735 who are here in attendant is myself and firefighter Adon and uh those who are watching on YouTube I got plenty of texts of people watching on YouTube uh your commitment to the mission of this department and to safety of our city is commendable the work that you do every day ofer under challenging circumstances reflects the highest standards of professionalism and dedication it's also worth noting that yesterday was our 82nd anniversary of affiliation with the iff for over eight decades we've stood strong advocating for the safety and well-being of our members and the community we serve that Legacy continues today and moments like this when we see meaningful progress in public safety that we honor the dedication of those who came before us and build on this Foundation since the beginning of this year we've seen a marked improvement in the relationship between the Union and the administration through open and honest dialogue we've been able to collectively address items of concern this level of communication has not only strengthened our professional relationships but allowed us to work together more effectively for the met for the betterment of our department and community that we serve while there are still issues that remain to be resolved we're encouraged by the platform that we have to discuss things productively and professionally this progress is a testament to this shared commit M that we have to move forward together in closing I urge to support this budget it represents not only a financial plan but also a commitment to the safety and well-being of our city and the continued growth of our department this is not just a step forward it's a much-needed course correction and an opportunity for us to build a stronger future for our department that's all I got thank you thank you Mr Jimenez I will note when you started your comments we had 17 people watching on YouTube which is only 17 but that's about four times what the average has been uh during these budget meetings so you had you had more of an audience than any of us had uh the last few budget meetings any other comments All right so we're going to conclude public comment uh before we adjourn I will remind everyone that if there will be a final budget meeting on Monday December 9th at 6 PM that is only if we have any proposed amendments to members of council I'll work with Mr Miller to circulate a memo uh in the next day or two just advising of that process and uh cut off date to submit any amendments the final reading of the 2024 budget will take place at the Tuesday December 17th council meeting get home safe everyone this meeting is adjourned