##VIDEO ID:WmqlnPV31wk## excuse me we are recording good evening everyone I ask that we all rise for the pledge to the [Music] flag pledge allegiance to FL fled States I like Mr Miller please call the role Mr Callahan pres M KY Smith pres M quch pres m l pres M Leon M will pres and Mr colum present thank you Happy New Year everybody as we get started before we get on to the approval minutes just wanted to say mayor Reynolds will not be here this evening as there is a a group meeting about the sale of the Bethlehem votek which has been widely reported so mayor Reynolds is participating in that discussion moving on to the approval of the minutes for the December 17 2024 minutes any comments on the minutes minutes stand approved moving on to public comment for our first public comment this is for any subject that is not being voted on this evening we have three individuals signed up in advance we'll start with Mr Harry Faber I will remind everyone about our fem minute time limit excuse me and also if you don't mind stating your name for the record for our city clerk thank you Harry Faber hello everyone happy New Year I hope your holidays were Splendid 2024 sure was something huh in 2024 Israel killed an average of 41 children per day can you imagine that 41 children a study came out in December titled needs study impact of war in Gaza on children with vulnerabilities and families it was conducted by the community training center for crisis Management in Gaza and the findings broke my heart uh one here are the facts one 79% of the children in Gaza suffer from nightmares 79% 87% of them experience severe fear 38% report bed wedding 49% of caregivers said that their children believed they would die in the war and five 96% of the children in Gaza felt that death was imminent put simply every child in Gaza believes they are going to die in 2024 I told you guys to be a little revolutionary more times than I can count I figured since some of you guys are fellow Greyhounds like myself um maybe it meant something to you like it meant to me you know I chose it to mean something and although we all didn't go to Moravian we all do live in historic Bethlehem did I miss the meeting where we decided to stop being historic I can list the history Moravian University was founded in 1742 we were the first college ever well Moravian College at the time was the first college ever to educate women uh in America as well as the first college to educate Native Americans in their own language um that's what they claim uh Lehi was founded in 1865 over a century later the historic Bethlehem Steel was founded in 1857 until its bankruptcy in 95 the Historic Hotel Bethlehem which I worked at for a little over three years celebrated its 100y year anniversary a few years back uh in 22 because it opened in 1922 are we done with all that are we done being historic is our history over of course not it's a crazy question it's ludicrous history is happening every day so I'm asking you city council make some history start the new year off right how every meeting I came to last year every meeting I spoke about this genocide and I'm asking you I'm not even asking for a ceas fire resolution which I would love and you guys did promise back in February condemn the Gen genocide being funded by our country by our government demand that our finite limited resources be spent on us instead of on genocide on death and destruction as how as Howard Zin said you can't be neutral on a moving train and I'm saying right now you can't be neutral when you witness genocide you Mr favor next speaker this evening is Joe Daniels good evening everyone happy New Year I'm a little unprepared today but I'm going to try and speak off the cuff as much as possible so my topic today is the southside of Bethlehem um primarily how the south side of Bethlehem has deteriorated since my time in my home which has been over 50 years now I live on Broadway one of the main streets in Bethlehem so I've seen all of the changes over the years and I've mentioned this before um to be honest with you you know the southide gets a bad WP because of the way it looks primarily it's not as nearly as bad as people think but because of the way the Southside looks the the appearance of the Southside people automatically associated with high crime uh drugs things of that nature and yes we have issues like all cities and neighborhoods have but it's not as bad as people think and unfortunately I'm going to put the blame of the Aesthetics of the Southside on the city I'm doing this in large part because again as I mentioned this on previous meetings you have a number of ordinances that are not being enacted a number of them everything from Weeds to to snow to garbage to painting of the properties to not having furniture on your front porches everything possible there's an ordinance for it that you cannot do it yet these ordinances are overlooked nobody is doing anything and I'm only speaking of the Southside because that's where I live that's what I see every day it's very upsetting that this has been taking place for well over my lifetime and again I know this because I've grown up in that same house I'm 57 years old I moved into that house with my mom and dad when they got married when I was five years old so I've been there for quite a while and nothing's gotten better as far as the residents are concerned everything's gotten worse business-wise everything's booming with the businesses they have pretty storefronts and this that and the other and they have the nice brick line uh sidewalks and everything's crisp and clean with the businesses but with the residents with the homeowners and the slum Lords specifically they're not and I'm tired of it not only is it bringing down property value property value that I would love to see increase but it's bringing down the morale of those that want a better neighborhood and are not getting it I walked my dog the other day and almost busted my behind on a rental property because it was not shoveled no salt thrown out or anything and this is every other house going down Broadway I know there was talk at one point about someone driving around and doing like a ticket type thing why that hasn't come too fruition I don't know is it budget probably and this is where this piece comes in so you guys are getting 52,000 sem OD dollars for every unit that's not being deemed affordable housing with all these new in in um excuse me properties going up all these new apartment buildings going up and I understand that's earmarked for the other new property that you plan on putting up on Four Street where the silicate fuel was fantastic I understand a portion of that is going to be affordable housing fantastic but some of that money needs to be earmarked to take care of the residents both homeowners and tenants that have unfortunately no other choice but to live in these slum Lord buildings that are not being handled properly on the inspection side which is another issue something needs to be done I don't care if you send out a mailing to everyone G them a 60 90day notice to get their properties up to St sniff or they're going to start getting cited I know people can afford a lot of things I understand this but something has to happen I'm tired of walking down the street seeing garbage everywhere which is another ordinance that for every occupant within a rental there's to be a 32 gallon trash can that's not the case Angela Mitchell would speak on trash all the time you go down Broadway again Broadway caddy corner from from the TD Bank there there's a red building any time of the day any day of the week trash lined up the side of the the building they probably have eight to 10 trash cans there which is not enough so there's trash everywhere and I'm just tired of it guys I I love my home I love my neighborhood but I'm tired of the way that people are not being held accountable for the way they keep their properties I'm tired of these slum Lords getting away with just too much crap and I really need you guys to do something about it finally first and foremost something has got to be done it's ridiculous at this point it makes no sense don't have these ordinances on the books if you're not going to enact them thank you thank you Miss Daniels if anyone's looking for seats there's a few over here if you want sit down it's up to you to anyone who just joined us we're currently in our uh public comment for anything not being voted on this evening our final person who had previously signed up Mark will Weber Happy New Year to council uh markw Weber 66 West Elizabeth Avenue I'm uh representing the drip the uh water uh and Sewer advocate citizens group and uh I just wanted to relate an antidotal story uh about a week before Christmas I went to the dentist okay and the the woman that works at reception there she's been there probably 30 years she was there with the previous dentist the new dentist has bought it she's still there and as I was leaving she goes to me hey whatever happened with that water thing she says to me so I stopped and I filled her in on uh you know the latest stuff and Jean McNeil's uh bill that she's trying to get through the red flag alert uh which would be a great benefit I think to every citizen in this city um and uh at one point she says to me how much money did you end up paying I said well you know it was close to $600 when it was all said and done and her mouth dropped open and the jaw uh was went slack and she said I I would have had a heart attack if that happened to me now you know that I'm going to have a heart attack phrase is bandied about pretty gratuitously uh you know you you almost hit deer on Center Street and you I almost had a heart attack or E go fumble on Sunday on the goal line we 80% of the fans are going to have a heart attack uh so I kind of looked at her and she goes well you know there's no way I could have paid that and I said uh no I understand and then I saw something else in her face I saw a brief flash of what I would say was fear you know and I could see her her wheels turning of how how would she have paid for it and uh being the way that I am I of course re resorted to some dark cynical humor about it and I said ah don't worry you know I said if did happen to you the Bethlehem uh sewer uh people would love to put you on a payment PL and she said payment plan are you kidding me I said no I'm not kidding you that's what they do if you can't pay they they let you string out the uh financial burden over a year or two and the humility and all the other side effects the emotional strain that comes with it and uh she just shook her head and the look of fear was gone and she looked disgusted and so on and so forth and I said well you know I it's not a pleasant process and I hope it never happens to you but as I I thought this is exactly the kind of person that should be protected with Gan mcneel's red flag law and my fear is and I talked to Jean recently is that it may not ever get to to the point where Harrisburg looks at it because there's so many bills that come up and they only select a few so it might not even get selected it's got a ton of support from democratic uh State reps in our area almost all of them but I also fear the Republicans May shoot it down because you know how things are with uh you know they don't want to give the Dems a win on this thing although I can't think of anything more uh that should be bipartisan and protecting your citizens from these uh these Mega Water and Sewer bills at Avalanche people uh and that's what Jean's hoping to do but uh you know you'd be surprised though you dig into it and some of those Republican and not exclusively Republicans but some of the state reps are getting guess what they're getting water uh money from the big water companies not the municipal ones but the private for profit they're given to their campaigns how do you think those guys are going to vote so the likelihood of a Jean's Bill passing I don't know you know it's uh but my point is and I would I think Council if you really care about the people you're representing should push the city here to enact that red flag alert regardless of whether it gets passed or seize the light of day in Harrisburg that would be the right thing to do if the the impetus between uh is to save water not to waste water they should be on board with that they basically they'd come in after a month and say something's wrong here and the the citizen wouldn't get socked for three months which is how it is now uh so it should be win-win for everybody right and they have the technology to do it but do they have the will to do it or do they just if they don't want to do it if they don't want to save water then you can only conclude that they'd rather have the penalty fees thank you thank you Mr W Weber so that concludes our list of who had signed up in advance so now excuse me I'll go around the room if there's anyone else who wants to make comment again this is anything that we're not voting on this evening was there anyone to the left who wanted to make comment on anything that we're not voting on tonight I turn to the wide Center I'll start in the very back row and work my way forward my name is Kathy uck I live at uh 528 North New Street which is block and a half from here and um I parked the car in the rear of the building and um my car's been shot this is not the first time this is history for historic Bethlehem for you this is not the first time in August of 2023 there was a shooting at long and East Walnut and now my car's been shot and I've had a 380 round pulled out of my dashboard I have a hole in my door which leads me to my other business with the housing here um I'm pretty sure that I'm paying more in rent than at least a couple of you are paying for your mortgages I pay 1770 a month to have 725 Square ft and a parking space for my car to get sh shot I am a one income household I am a widow I'm from allent town in AAS and when I had the opportunity to live here I thought wow I've lived down in Georgia there's no place down in Georgia that's like historic Bethlehem let me tell you how special this place really is um so here's my concerns with Moravian Academy a half block away a couple just moved into my building they're having a baby in March I've had several talks with the management company that owns the building in northern Jersey and they just want me to keep them posted and I have an ongoing investigation and a detective that's working really hard and and I don't know weever going to get an answer I can't get this this guy and believe me I want to know who this dirt back did that did this to my car I work hard I love my car I've worked so hard to have the things that I had I've been homeless in my life 25 years I really worked hard to come out on top and now I'm dealing with this and I'm really concerned about my neighbors I'm really concerned for the children at Maring Academy parking authority officers guests at the Democratic Club club members at Democratic Club the granola Factory right behind me which is doing well I don't know if you've been over to Wegman's at Christmas time they're selling kles for him now so there's a business behind me that's really working hard to do good things in the community um so I'm I'm doing the only other thing I know that I can do being Irish um once we have a cause we don't back down and if I can't get this guy and find out who he is I'm going to come into City Hall and make sure everybody here knows I'm looking for the him and I want the community to pull together and try to um help the police department um do the best that they can to serve the community I think they need a lot of help I see a lot of what goes on in Bethlehem outside my kitchen window a lot and and it's a lot of important people moving through my community every day and I don't want to see anybody get hurt especially children I wonder if any of these parents are aware of what's going on at maraven Academy at night thank you for your time have a nice evening thank you Mr Wu thank you for coming out you our chief of police chief Cod is here I'm glad to hear you said the police are already involved in it if you wanted to stick around for after the meeting talk to any council members individually You're Welcome to our individual contact information is on the city website if you wanted to speak with any of us individually also it doesn't have to be a council meeting it could be any time yeah hello happy New Year um my name is Katherine Grasso I'm a resident of Bethlehem I've lived here for about 10 years and it has become my home I love the city I also work um at dl's University I'm a professor in communication studies the reason I'm here is because I am interested in serving the city in some capacity um on the authorities boards or commission um I'm particularly interested in planning and zoning but I would be open to learning about and becoming involved in other things as well um a few days ago I sent my resume to the city clerk and hopefully it's been passed along to each of you to take a look at but I just thought I would come so you had a face with the name um and I really want to get involved so I'm hopeful about future conversations with all of you about how I can be helpful in serving the city thank you thank you Miss gron thanks for coming out anyone else in the wide Center who wants to make comment this evening sorry with Miss Mol don't get old happy New Year Mary Joe mol 449 Grand View Boulevard at the last meeting the issue at the intersections of Pennsylvania Avenue Union Boulevard Eaton Avenue was addressed I was pleased to see the situation has been resolved I also brought up the situation involving Club Avenue Eaton Avenue Handover Avenue and West Broad Street my understanding was was that Bethlehem was working with Allentown and pendock to devise a plan on January 1st at approximately 5:15 a.m. I was awakened and noticed numerous emergency vehicles from Allentown in that area another apparent accident I believe a photo showing the poll was sent to the city representative if not Terry has one the poll was basically snapped in half from and from the angle I saw the vehicle icle had to be traveling from Bethlehem to Allentown my guess is that Bethlehem while looking at the situation probably is won't proceed until the developer submits plans for the former Bennett car dealership hopefully there will be no fatalities in that in that area at in the meantime thank you thank you m m m cler we'll pass it around that's we'll manage Terry kber gra View Boulevard Bethlehem it's good to be back I've been out for a month and a half with h foot surgery so I've missed you all but what I wanted to talk about tonight in addition to that I mean I'm I'm sure hoping it doesn't take a fatality till something's done building or no building on on the Bennett lot but back in February 2023 almost two years ago I wrote this letter to our lawyer hi I just wanted to let you know that I did inform Dwayne Wagner on Friday morning February 24 2023 that we did not want to meet with him and Norton herck just to give you so you all know this is in regard to Bennett's lot the building that's going to go on and how we've been fighting this and how some people said it's really nice that the builders talk to the neighbors and uh whatnot so anyway so how we did not want to meet with him and Norton Herrick on Saturday in talking with Paul and Mary Joe we were just not comfortable with that at around one 1M Friday February 24 I received a call from Norton herck himself he is the developer wanting to see if we were sure we didn't want to meet with them he said they just wanted to present ideas to make things better I.E flowers shrubs Etc and that we didn't have to speak just listen to their ideas one of the things he told me that after talking to the mayor he said that the mayor wanted him to put affordable affordable housing in there then he asked me in a very condescending voice do you want affordable housing in there I said I just we just want three stories no higher as that is what our neighborhood is our whole neighborhood is twostory except for one little set of tow houses which go like two and a half to three stories he said he's not breaking any laws by going five stories and if I wanted to blame someone for that I should go after the zoning commission as they are the ones who zon that now I know that but that doesn't mean he has to go five stories to which he said he has a lot of money invested in this and I said that's what you're all about the money and we are all about preserving the health of our neighborhood I was very uncomfortable speaking with him and told him that it's not just me in the neighborhood there are a lot of others so it's not fair to everyone else for me to have this conversation with him he said he's only ever done this with maybe three other people am I supposed to feel special that he wants to talk to us I feel he got a little testy towards the end of the phone call maybe because I didn't want to meet with them I also do not feel he was telling the truth in that he wants to make things better for us because his thoughts are all seeming to be superficial I.E flowers that's not going to block that ugly building from our backyards so I just thought you should know this was again to my lawyer I just thought you should know both Dwayne and Norton herck contacted me I do not feel that either of them cares about us neighbors and are only looking for what they can get for themselves in their project so the only reason I wanted to bring this up I happen to come across this email and I just wanted to remind you all that we are still fighting this tooth and nail heart and soul there is a hearing that we're waiting to hear on that our lawyer is fighting with the judge from or I'm not even sure who from Allenton what what Tim's fighting yeah he's fighting well he's he's fighting the commercial part of it because they're saying that they don't have to have commercial and we want them to say it's a commercial lot you need commercial in there and I know bethlehem's lawyer is also fighting for the hund the 180 foot length that he wants to exceed so I just want to kind of refresh you all that this is still very near and dear to us in the neighborhood we walk around and we see you can see the skyline and to throw that in there I don't know what legally we can do to fight it other than what we are but I just wanted to kind of just remind y all we're fighting for the health of our neighborhood thank you thank you Miss cler Mr shy Bill sh 1898 and Avenue I think the city must have turned the heat off at five o'clock again um about the so-called Handover Apartments I can add one little fact to that um some of the people in Council already know this but he met with the council members individually one at a time and they weren't allowed to bring anybody with them but he had his number two there so it was two against one uh you know just gamesmanship and about this commercial business it is presently Zone limited commercial which has a five-story limit uh that's true and they wanted to be excused from having to have commercial um oh the ordinance says that any multif family housing has to be in the building with commercial they wanted to be excused from the commercial which was granted by the friendly zoning hearing board and they in interpretation of that is that they therefore they can have five stories of housing anywhere on the property well it would be equally logical to say that and I want to read the decision again very closely if the commercial was removed which it was but if the Restriction is still there then if you have to have only can have multifam housing in the building with commercial if and if there's no commercial then you can't have any multif family housing this I'm certain would be an argument made at the court of appeals about Broad Street I've talked about that before and it's worth noting Perhaps it is a high-speed Corridor um as I've told you twice I've been going the speed limit of 35 miles per hour and I've been passed on the left um there's no stop signs or traffic lights between 8th Avenue and in Pennsylvania Avenue that's a distance of uh almost a mile if not a mile and it's um and it's good that the city planning department is working towards some uh shall we say traffic cming on there I think a a good perhaps but expensive traffic calming would be to have a median with trees like there is on Pennsylvania Avenue of course that's another problem but that's a different one and about uh the lady from north New Street there was a and the chief would know this if the block watch at in Steve samon's office on almost on the corner of broaden Center if that block watch is still functioning maybe that would be something that could could be tried and finally I would like to um make sure everybody knows a piece of good news on the development of front and there's been very little of that recently in Friday's Morning Call there was an article reviewing uh development in Bethlehem and apparently the main basis of it was a interview with Don Cunningham but in one little paragraph here German pharmaceutical company gfm bramman acquired the former iqe bill building at 119 Technology Drive where a developer earlier wanted to build Apartments gfm plans to put its US headquarters and operations center there and this this request for apartments as you may recall was turned down twice by the previous Council and perhaps uh the president Council was involved in one of them so a good piece of development news other way it's uh the same old same old a uh pension for overdevelopment um I've twice made references to Little Manhattan on the Lehi which some people seem to want I understand that Lehi valleynews.com has a bunch of new newsletters and one of them is called the little apple thank you thank you Mr sh is there anyone else in the wide Center who would to make comment who has not had chance to yet is there anyone to the right who wants to make comment that's going to conclude our first public comment we're going to move on to Second public comment which is reserved for comment on any ordinance or resolution that we're voting on tonight no one had signed up in advance so again I'll go around the room if you want to make comment on something council's going to vote on is there anyone to the left who want to make comment again I turn to the wide Center Mr sh um just a short comment on the um proposed contract with artifact Incorporated uh the CEO as perhaps everyone knows is Christine usler who used to be the historic officer for the city just want to mention she even knows about the paints that were used in the Revolutionary War work thank you good to know thank you Mr sh is there anyone else in the wide Center who want to make comment and again I turn to the right thank you everybody who came out tonight we're going to move on through the agenda old business any old business for members of council I don't see any old business new business any new business for members of council I'll start I'll work my way down I'll start with councilwoman quch thanks um I actually uh just wanted to um say thank you to everybody who came out to speak tonight especially folks who've never spoken before I really appreciate that um with regard to um the situation um behind your house your apartment on New Street ma'am um it does sound like it's related to something that we've heard about before and we've we've received concerned uh Communications from other residents and so um Chief cot could you offer any um update on what's going on with that what seems to be a nuisance property or situation so the liquor control board has yet to do a ruling yet they had the hearing we are anxiously awaiting the the outcome of that hearing we continue to provide a presence in the area whenever possible when when Personnel power as well as call volume allow us um but you know we are listening to the residents we are are providing a uh a increase in our regular presence especially on Saturday evenings in the early morning hours into Sunday um that has seemed to help the past two weekends we do have a detective that is actively working on on Miss Cathy's case um the best that he can and and we really do need the community to come together to help us um that is the the best course of action to to have any positive solution um from this this issue that we're experiencing thank you for that update I appreciate it it's when it it's started to ring a bell with me I just thought perhaps there was more you could tell us I appreciate that that was all thank you councilwoman cramsey Smith thank you I just wanted to address uh Mrs Daniel's um concerns first I wanted to clarify as far as the affordable housing um the only Properties or developments that have to do um every 10th unit Fe andl are those that are getting the Lura tax abatement so if you're not getting alerted they or they're not they do not have to do the fee and lure every 10th unit unfortunately um but I'm hoping maybe somebody from Administration can address Mrs Daniel's issues as far as um I know Manpower may be an issue but as far as enforcement of for example the the snow and um the garbage and other issues I know that you brought this up as well as um Angela has brought it up in the past too I'm I'm happy to address it especially with respect to um High grass and weeds was mentioned and and garbage um Community Economic Development doesn't handle snow removal but I would imagine this situation is the same you know so with a lot of these types of issues first of all I will say I you know certainly agree that these are these are quality of life issues that are really important for the community and and for us um I think our inp CT s do a really excellent job I the the way that these issues are addressed are either through complaints so that if there is a specific uh complaint about a property you know my neighbor has let their High grass grow or um you know likewise with trash um we have enforcement officers in both um bureaus who will go out on a complaint on a complaint basis to address those problems um or uh with respect to General home conditions um you know we we do get into homes quite frequently uh rentals in particular we're on a cycle where we're in a rental once every three years and in the course of those inspections we would look at any um uh ordinance violations for example High grass and weeds or uh um you know furniture on the porch and and things like that so you know we are not driving around the city on a daily basis like citing every house but we do respond to complaints and we do um go out into homes for overall housing inspection um uh on a on a one and every threeyear cycle um I'll also add you know when it comes to high grass and weeds in particular um you know our and and trash as well how we enforce that is you know we will do by ordinance what's allowed which is um sending a violation letter there's a prescribed period of time that a property owner has to address an issue um and if there's a lack of followup or a lack of remediation on the part of the property owners then we have to follow also what's by um prescribed by ordinance which will ultimately get us to a magistrate so some of the challenges the way the system is set up um if somebody calls and said my neighbor has high grass we could get out that very day get on it that very day and spend a lot of man hours um our inspectors as I said do a really good job and they are very diligent um but we may end up six months down the road uh just waiting for a magistrate to to issue a you know to to give us a court date um and and that's unfortunately just a situation that we kind of have to have to deal with but there are many instances where we are out there and are able to get you know voluntary remediation through you know conversations through violation letters and working with property owners but um you know it's it's uh it's a lot of work and our our guys I think our guys and and ladies do a really good job getting out there okay thank you so basically um if anyone sees any issues they should either report it on the my betham app or contact the health department for garbage right so I think um in general people should call just the service center and the service center directs people to the correct departments um trash is handled now by the recycling office it was previously there was an officer in health Bureau but it is now recycling um so a lot of people um are calling the Health bu and they have to get redirected so the easiest thing for anybody to do if they have complaints is just call the service center and they'll create a like a ticket system and get it to the right person okay thank you thank you Mr Callahan M Callins is it possible um on uh on the quarterly newsletters that we sent out is it is it possible like to take maybe like like maybe onethird or quarter of the page little little block area and just put like um some type of notification on there for if you have any uh problems with high weeds or Garbage or furniture on there this is the you know the you know a number to call yeah absolutely we could certainly do yeah yeah and and and I don't know if if it's something that we could keep on there for for every quarterly thing I mean I mean it seems like an important issue because every time that I mean in the nine years I've been on Council um you know it it always comes up and I think if we could like a standardized area there because it's it seems to be a recurring issue over and over and over again it's just not with this Council or the next Council or four councils ago it's it's almost a a yearly thing so I mean it's just an idea so yeah I absolutely we can talk with um the mayor's office about adding that into the thank you thank you am I allow to say anything response uh not during the meeting uh but you're welcome to address anything you want to with us after words ma any other new business for members of council councilwoman Leo it's more 2 PSAs than anything but uh as the Southside was was brought up and and I know that Miss Daniels is aware as she's very active in it but if you are um in the Indian Hill area or any of these areas that have high rental High trash Community Action is a great resource um to go through we regularly schedule cleanups I don't work with Community Action so it's not we they um I just go to the cleanups regularly schedule um cleanups but it's also really good point of conversation so we can start tracking what we're seeing the most and and really Target our efforts um so thank you as always for for coming and bringing that to our attention um also I just wanted to remind people that we did sign thatou so if you have ring footage of of anything disturbing in your neighborhood you could always um the cops can ask you for it you can give it they can't compel you but if you if you want to be part of the solution that is um an Avenue that is available uh for the police officers now thank you thank you councilwoman any other new business thank you everybody thank you Miss colins I I'll just kind of add to what was brought up before as it relates to enforcement and as we heard earlier and I agree with that it's not new to council so as I've stated multiple times over the years one of my summer jobs was working for the health Bureau doing enforcement and I would go on behalf of the city to these magistrates but sometimes I I was working over the summer there were things from months prior that were finally going in front of the magistrate and people as you could imagine I mean we hear from as we did tonight people put resources behind getting out of things people put resources behind not following the rules and one of them is even as simple as needing a local property manager that's not always the case and then trying to hunt down who are you even contacting to address an issue because it's on the responsibility is on the property owner not a tenant for something like um garbage hauling and things like that so I know these are not easy fixes but I'll just say I appreciate everyone's continued efforts to make a dent in I know sometimes it feels like we're we're mopping outside while it's raining but I do assure everybody that there are some um dents being put in the problem Mr Callan M miss cins one quick question so I if if there's a uh a violation that's noted and we have to go through that time period where the magistrate doesn't get to rule on it for a period of four five six months if at that point the the homeowner or the owner of the property uh remediates whatever the issue is taking the furniture off of the you know the porch or cutting the you know the high grass or clean up the garbage does that if there's another VI he cleans it and then it's it's remissed so then at that point if there's another violation does that start the whole process all over again or is it like a a multiple violation I would say that in most instances it would start the process over again if it were a different a different violation because the original violation if it's remediated then the magistrate would say there's no there's no problem that this violation is remedying anymore so so then maybe Council needs to look at it and maybe what what we have to add to you know the code is that if there's repetitive violations within a certain amount of time I don't know whether it's a year or six months or whatever that there there's an additional fine or something because I mean I yeah I totally understand that you know if someone cleans up the process and then there's another violation it does start over again I guess right so I mean Mr alcal is reminding me that there is an escalator I believe in most of the ordinances where if there's multiple uh violations multiple fines that it goes up each each time like with each instant yeah but there wouldn't be a fine though if if I cleaned it up if it was my property and someone called and said hey I have I have high grass and be and before I went to the hearing to the district justice I cleaned it up so there's no violation in right well there was still a violation right but there wouldn't have been a a fine yeah a fine associated with it right did you want to weigh in attorney Steward generally you're being cited at a particular point in time for conduct up to that point so even if you remediated before you went before the magistrate the violation is for a prior period of time so you would still be potentially that that individual will still be potentially found guilty what what what committee would this go under I guess if we wanted to look at the ordinance just to make sure it's you know the wording is tight community and economic development yeah thank you any other new business thank you everybody thank you again miss Collins Mr Miller Communications January 2nd 2025 memorandum with an attached resolution from Edward boscola director of water and sewer resources Mr boscola recommends a contract with Steven G Lowry and Associates Incorporated in mechanicburg to provide assistance and all hydraulic valuations for water distribution system assistance in planning and capital budget develop standards for system design evaluate impact of proposed developments Water Quality Investigations scatter and da data analysis cost estimating and review of hydrant flushing program cost of the one-year contract is $68,000 there are two optional yearly renewals at a cost of $68,000 each and resolution 10A is on the agenda tonight 6B January 2nd 2025 memorandum with an attached resolution from Edward bu BCA director of water and sewer resources Mr boscola recommends a contract with ITR LLC of Bethlehem to perform predictive maintenance on equipment of the wastewater treatment plant cost us $10,200 for a contract that would run through 2025 five annual renewal options are offered at the same annual price of $10,200 and resolution 10B is on the agenda tonight 6C December 30th 2024 memorandum from Robert vidoni Housing and Community Development administrator Mr vidon recommends a contract with artifact Incorporated of Bethlehem to provide historic property reviews for many federally funded projects through the Community Development block grant and other programs term of the contract is two years running from January 1st 2025 through December 31st of 2026 and at a cost of $19,100 contract is based on average cost per unit an option exists for a second 2-year contract to run through December 31st 2028 at a cost of $1,720 and resolution 10c is on the agenda this evening 6D December 30th 20124 communication from attorney Michael Rashi on behalf of BPG Investments 2 LLC with a petition requesting an amendment to the city zoning map involving 1115 West Garrison Street the current Zoning for this property is RT or high density residential request is to change the zoning classification to become part of the adjacent Central B business district the petition intends to propose a 70 unit apartment building with commercial SL retail spaces on the first floor and I will accept a motion and a second to schedule a public hearing for February 18th here at Town Hall to hear and consider the requested zoning map Amendment so moved motion by councilwoman Leon second by councilman Callahan any discussion on the motion for the public hearing on February 18 all right Mr Miller please call the RO miss quac I miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith hi and Mr colom I pass to 70 so the public hearing is scheduled for February 18th here in town hall at 700 p.m. and that'll be before that's a council night so that'll start off our evening that night and then the ordinance will be placed for first reading on a future agenda last communication 6E November 21st 2024 memorandum with proposed resolution from Health director Kristen wri requesting the destruction of records from the health Bureau Miss wri has reviewed the municipal records retention Act and the records listed on the exhibit accompanying the memo fall within the categories where destruction is permitted and that resolution will be placed on the January excuse me January 22nd city council agenda moving on to reports I'll wait till all the appointments to go over our 2024 year in review but we'll start with the First Council manic appointment Mr Miller Council manic appointment of Hillary quch to the Bethlehem Area Library board the resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith I'll just start uh briefly as we have six appointments in front of us so as we heard from a speaker tonight about serving on Authority board or commission city council appoints people to the library board to the environmental advisory Council and then a few positions on the human relations commission so these appointments that we're about to vote on are ones that came before Council uh they're filled some are reappointments some are filling vacancies and just for everyone's knowledge on kind of the process here I do consult with uh Mr Burke the executive director of the library as well as Miss Rothman the chair of the EAC to help identify who's interested in serving who's interested in being reappointed and really who just keeps me up to date with the uh the board configuration because sometimes people a lot of these you have to live in the city sometimes people move I don't necessarily know that right away so I just want to again extend my thanks to Mr Burke and then M Miss Rothman as well along with the folks who are interested in volunteering some of whom are here in the room tonight so thank you for coming out this evening but right now we are on the first uh appointment for the library board so I will open it up to any discussion regarding this appointment start with councilwoman qu thank you I just wanted to say first of all I'll be abstaining this evening um but also just to um especially after hearing Miss Grasso desire to serve and and everything um this particular seat is a seat that um councilwoman um Vice uh president Leon is vacating because she's taken another role um and it's in particular a seat that uh the executive director of the library uh wishes to have a council member in so it's I I just wanted to because we've talked before about how important it is to have people from all over the city serve and so I just wanted to put that on the record and and make sure people understood that thank you councilman I will confirm yes that that comes from the executive director at the library just looking at the makeup of some of the other not some of the other participating municipalities and then um the request to see if any council members were interested so I had pulled all members of council individually and thanks for your willingness to volunteer for one more thing m any other discussion on the appointment we call roll Miss quch abstain Miss lard hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi Miss cmy Smith hi and Mr cologne I passes 60 with one member abstaining for Christy Jacobson Council manic appointment for Christy Jacobson also to the Bethlehem Library board resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion call the rooll oh Council Miller sorry wanted to say I've uh had the pleasure of working with Christie at Moravian and as a freelance uh designer we've worked collaboratively on some projects and um I think she'd be a great asset to the the library um and I'm glad to see her name before us thank you councilwoman any other discussion call Miss quch hi Miss lard hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi M Callahan hi Miss grmy Smith hi and Mr cologne I pass 70 for Ron Williams Council manic appointment Ron Williams also to the Bethlehem Library board resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss grmy Smith discussion call roll miss quch I miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan I Miss grmy Smith and Mr colum I pass 70 for Mr Guri Guthrie Council manic appointment of Benjamin Guthrie to the environmental advisory Council the resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion we'll call the RO M quch hi Miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan i m crampy Smith hi and Mr colum I pass 70 the appointment for Miss trembler councilman appointment of KD trembler to the environmental advisory Council the resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion on the appointment call the RO M quak I miss L I miss Leon i m Wilhelm I Callahan hi M grmy Smith hi and Mr colog I pass 70 and the last appointment for Mr rvy Council manic appointment Steven C olevsky also to the environmental advisory Council resolution sponsored by Miss on Miss kmy Smith discussion call the roll miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan hi M grmy Smith I and Mr cologne I passes 70 so that concludes our six appointments thanks again to those volunteers as is custom I will review our annual city council report for 2024 bear with me as I go over a few things so 2024 was another busy year for the city city council it was a year that saw Bethlehem join the likes of Athens Venice London and Rome as cities on the world stage for UNESCO world heritage sites the historic Moravian Bethlehem District as part of the widely advertised transnational site Moravian Church settlements in 2024 was named as a historic destination and joined world renowned landmarks such as the Acropolis the Roman Forum Vatican City and the great wol ch China much credit belongs to the Bethlehem world heritage Council and commission along with the Bethlehem Area moravians Central Moravian Church historic Bethlehem museums and sites and Moravian University for its Part City Council was pleased to support the efforts and ways possible that led to inscription on July 26 we are proud to help our city to celebrate this momentous achievement which is something that we can all celebrate for years to come in addition to being proud of our City's history Council all also in 2024 supported actions toward ensuring Beth's future Council held a committee of the whole meeting to review plans about the Demolition and reconstruction of the Walnut Street Garage Council also held public hearings to approve a zoning map change which led to a street vacation to make way for the garage as anyone who's been downtown saw demolition has taken place and the garage's replacement is anticipated for the 2025 Christmas season along with the additional adjacent development that's currently being planned Council continues to support efforts to reduce homelessness and create affordable housing Council endorsed efforts to apply for grant money toward the Gateway on Fourth project and authorize two contracts to enhance the Penbrook Choice neighborhood project the first was for a traffic study to review the Pembrook Road and stepco Boulevard Corridor the second was to conduct a market study to evaluate demand for affordable and market rate rental and for sale housing additionally coun has reviewed intentions for making significant Street changes including restoring two-way traffic to Center and lynen streets pardon major Renovations are also planned to make much of East and West Broad Streets pedestrian and bicycle friendly and generally more appealing Council also has authorized refurbishment refurbishment at the wastewater treatment plant and replacement of a 2 million gallon Reservoir drinking tank meanwhile grants contracts and other authorizations involving City Parks and Recreation have frequently come before Council on Council agendas Bethlehem reached a milestone late in the year with the final purchase of land that will close the greenway Trail gap which will complete a dream that started several years ago Council passed resolutions authorizing phase two of improvements to the monoy trail and it authorized work to be done to make significant improvements to salkin park the Rose Garden and Fairview Park as well as a complete makeover of Friendship Park in addition Council authorizes stud of the city's Park system which is going to provide a comprehensive prioritization of future needs for our Park system here in the city in all Council held our customary 24 regular meetings Council also conducted 13 committee meetings three three of which were Committee of the whole meetings including our ethics training for Council and the administration Council also held a Curative Amendment hearing lasting seven and a half hours total over two nights to consider proposed changes to the Limited commercial zoning District all in all the year led to the passage of 61 ordinances and 280 resolutions key legislation pass included a new article to curtail the use of illegal dirt bikes and allterrain vehicles on city streets that our chief of police brought forward with intentions of improving safety and reducing nuisances as well as amending the animal ordinance to ban the sale of pets from puppy mills within the city which was brought forward by councilwoman cramsey Smith looking ahead 25 2025 promises to be another busy year our efforts will continue as we continue to promote affordable housing as well as working to complete initiatives that were started in 2024 as well as preceding years as always Council will continue to work with the administration and all the department heads to bring residents and businesses of Bethlehem the services that we've all come to expect and enjoy and why we're all here and tonight we start 2025 thank you for joining us that concludes my report I'll turn it over to Mr Evans thank you president cologne um as you noted the mayor accepted an invitation uh to be with our great partners of betham Mayor School District tonight at the VTech board meeting and he'll be speaking on um with regard to the Expansion Project which is great and very exciting development opportunity on the southide for us in the coming months and and couple years to get that going uh we have one administrative order and then two quick reports or announcements y I'm sorry administrative order number one administrative order 2020 51 Cynthia e jerz Luna Board of Health the resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith any discussion on the appointment to the Board of Health we'll call the rooll miss quch I miss lard I miss Leon I M Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi M kmy Smith hi and Mr cologne hi that pass to 70 thank you two announcements first one occurred last time we met as a group was on December 17th the last council meeting of the year and as council is aware there are three Collective bargain units inside the city of Bethlehem the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of firefighters are currently operating under four-year contracts those contracts run from 2023 through 20 end of 2026 uh the previous SEIU contract which is our bargain unit that is uh Public Works it's our non-uniform employees it's clerical it is our paramedics and their contract ran 2022 through 2024 uh it was set to expire on December 31st but after series of constructive meetings in November and December we're pleased to announce that the administration and SEI have agreed to terms for a new four-year contract and that contract will now run from 2025 through 2028 so that we're very pleased with the results of that and that was ratified by a vote of sei's General membership on December 19th which again was the Thursday after last time so this the first time we've seen you since that was taken care of and came to a successful closure so good uh the other item is we want to thank you again with regard to finances and the collaboration we had during the budget process we do have some early 2024 numbers I just want to share they um there are no surprises evident that that were immediately evident and as always we will be fully audited which will begin in the coming weeks and last most of the year to get the 24 2024 numbers completed uh but the final numbers are are solid we want to thank Council first of all for all the steps through the years uh and also all the employees throughout the city we have people across City Hall doing a variety wide wide variety of responsibilities that they need to take care of they're also stationed throughout the community we also think of our First Responders out in weather like this as well as uh water sore department when we we've had we talked to staff this morning several water main breaks whether like this when mother nature strikes and we hit the hard winter there's a number of um conditions that become difficult but uh just another one of them that we need to deal with and respond to deliver maintain repair are are the things that keep the the city running you know the water and and the seore so they've been out and very busy and in the coming weeks you might expect also Public Works everything else they need to do will engage in snow Ops as needed but that uh staff along with the city council and all our partners allowed us to reach a successful 2024 conclusion uh quick and Broad over be real estate tax our largest line item did or will and we're still doing some reconciliation with regard to taxes will meet or exceed the budget line item that's our $35 million number so of our $100 million budget that that line item alone is our single largest EIT which we showed you the chart during the budget hearings has had strong growth the last couple years did level off it it exceeded a conservative budget number of 10.7 it reached 11.8 uh I'll remind you that 2023 was also 11.8 so the second consecutive year it's reached 11 point out but but stayed that at that number for two consecutive years and we have think that's a good number for next year we for the 2025 budget that numbers in at 11.9 so I think we're set there uh our Act 11 511 taxes also were were solid and exceeded budget uh D transfer 1.6 came in at $2.0 million LST at 1.9 reached 1.96 mertile budget at 2.8 reached 3.4 million so all slightly above uh the budgets we placed in 2024 EMS transports 3.65 budget and ended at 4.4 recycling budget at 2.8 ended at 2.8 so very accurate projection interest income which we talked about running strong was budg at 1.1 and reached 1.9 million for the year interest rates did not drop as were forecast and as a result when interest rates sto uh stayed up on our balances the um Revenue was higher and the host fee moved from 9.8 to $9.9 million on the expense side there were savings of course nothing went over budget under budget Personnel was very close but there were Savings of $380,000 uh there Savings of $96,000 overall this is the general fund we're talking about specifically in overtime the materials and Supply budget uh was budget at 1.9 uh at 2.25 came in under budget at 1.9 the 4200 account which are purchase services including medical those collectively reached 84% of budget pension and debt which are large line items but we know them before the year starts what they're going to be so they came in and exactly what we knew they would be uh equipment budget at 3.4 and we spend 3.3 or 98% of the budget uh with regard to the equipment line items in totality the revenue of $101 million for their general fund with the expenses estimated at 96 there will is expected to be and we'll wait till the dust settles the numbers are finalized the audit is completed but there will be a surplus for the final 2024 and that's a good thing that'll be added to uh the reserves uh the water sewer golf storm water which are all separate funds I'm not going to go into those right now but they also had very solid years the numbers were all all fine we talked a lot about that where we were at that point during the budget hearing and I remind anyone uh that's in this room or otherwise that on our homepage these numbers available every month everything on our finance plus posts to our website's available on the homepage on a quick link under the open bethleem there's a blue bar graph that if you click it on there's several things that are available there all of our budgets pass and present all the audits from the past years are available and every month full list of what I just kind of ran through the budget where we are to the actual both revenues uh and expenses are available so that completes the report thank you thank you Mr Evenson I know at the next council meeting we should be announcing a finance committee meeting coming up yes yes we're scheduling Finance for first one of the year thanks turn to our community development chair councilwoman quch the Community Development Committee will meet on Tuesday January 21st 2025 at 6m in town hall there is one item on the agenda proposed amendments to article 534 involving the residential permit parking program Hillary quch chairperson Community Development Committee thank you Miss quch we don't have any ordinances for final passage tonight we don't have any new ordinances tonight so we're going to jump to resolutions Mr Miller resolution 10A be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor or hereby authorized to execute an agreement with Steven G Lowry and Associates Incorporated to perform hydraulic evaluations for the water distribution system and other spe specified related work resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion on the resolution we'll call the rooll miss quch I miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm i m Callahan I M grmy Smith I and Mr colog I pass 7 Z resolution 10B be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and were such other City officials are deemed appropriate by the city solicitor or hereby authorized to execute an agreement with ITR LLC to perform predictive maintenance at the wastewater treatment plant resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss kmy Smith discussion call roll miss quak I miss lard I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I Ramsey Smith I and Mr colom I pass 70 resolution 10c be it resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller Andor such other City officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with artifact Incorporated to conduct Historic Site reviews as necessary resolution sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss gmy Smith discussion call the Ro sorry one I just said a question I guess for Miss Collins can you just explain this a little further because I'm just wondering first of all um what type of properties and is this new that we need to um contract with um historic preservation special or what is this a new mandate from the state uh this is not this is not new we have um had somebody under contract um for as long as I've been here and I I think for a while before so um predominantly with our cdbg funding but also with now with other Federal funding that we've been receiving as well there are federal requirements for a specific type of environmental review on any projects that are receiving Federal funding um and so um we contract with artifact and uh Christine usler who's I think pretty well known um in the historic Community here um to do those to do those historic reviews so that would be um any project that is funded by cdbg whether it's a city project or an a subrecipient um for example uh the community Project funding dollars that we're receiving from the federal government for the betham food co-op or the greenway or um Friendship Park all of those projects that have the federal dollars require this specific type of um historic review and so just so I'm clear so do we have a did we have a contract with another entity before artifact or did artifact did we have a contract with them previously and we're just continuing it correct we had a uh artifact had been doing this work previously and it expired uh yes it expired so we are now renew we're entering a new two-year contract with two one-year renewal options okay all right thank you any other discussion thank you m Collins Mr Miller call the rooll miss quch I miss L hi Miss Leon hi Miss Wilhelm hi Mr Callahan hi M gmy Smith hi and Mr cologne I pass 70 and our last resolution 10d certificate of appropriateness under the provisions of the act of Pennsylvania legislature Bethlehem resolution is hereby granted for 117 East for Street to install two signs on the front facade of the building one wall sign and one with dimensional letters mounted on the entrance canopy resolutions are sponsored by Miss Leona and Miss Grampy Smith any discussion on the certificate of appropriateness we'll call the RO miss quch I miss L I miss Leon I miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M grmy Smith I and Mr colom I pass 70 that concludes the first meeting of the new year get home safely everyone this meeting is adjourned