##VIDEO ID:Z04Zoap0o0Y## good evening everyone I will call the first budget meeting to order I'll ask Mr Miller call rooll Mr Callahan M grmy Smith present Miss quch present M lard pres Miss Leon pres Miss Wilhelm president and Mr col president thank you Mr Miller Mr Callahan's just delay a couple minutes he should be joining us shortly just our YouTube reminder if anyone at home starts the meeting after 6 p.m. you can scroll ahead if you'd like to watch the current discussion on the floor rather than a recording of an earlier portion of the meeting tonight we're going to be reviewing the following budgets Public Works which is page 85 our liquid fuels fund which is Page 273 our storm water fund which is Page 309 our non-utility Capital fund which page 279 the water fund revenue and expenses page 18 six our water capital budget 291 the sewer fund revenue and expenses 239 and the sewer capital budget 297 after the appropriate Administration representatives make their presentation for each of the items for review I'll recognize the appropriate committee chair and members and other members of council for any questions or feedback related to each budget we're going to have public comment after the first four items and then after the final four items we'll follow our custom five minute time limit for each comment period Please keep any comments uh to the specific topics and budget items that we're reviewing tonight for this meeting before I turn it over to Public Works I will remind everybody tonight as we go through whenever we're asking questions giving feedback anything like that everyone please reference what page of the budget book you're on just to make sure everyone could follow along appropriately please may not this yeah should be with your agenda agenda packets a week oh you this we're gonna get started Mr Callahan welcome we're just about to kick the show off I will turn it over Public Works to get started oh I didn't see you back there Mr Al I'm sorry I wasn't going to come but glad you made it thank you thank you council president members of council uh as usual we'll start by uh I think you know most of our management team in the Department of Public Works all the superintendent buau Chiefs are here uh there are a couple of new faces that I'd like to introduce to you we finally um filled the position of superintendent of uh traffic maintenance and the new superintendent is Ryan canos he has a Bachelor of Science degree mechanical engineering from Penn State University uh also New to the project team is Adam Wagner he's our new superintendent of facilities maintenance he replaces uh rostar suus who is a previous superintendent and Adam was previously a former po facilities and he's been with us for 18 years so I'd like to welcome them to the team and we're fortunate to have a very responsive and competent team in the department that uh work really hard and we should all recognize their efforts um starting like the president said on page 85 uh we summarized the uh uh Department's operating budget um and uh as in past years you could see um our summary includes with and without uh the salaries of course so without the salaries would be the actual operating uh budgets uh salaries are controlled by contracts so it's always good to take that part out so you can see what's happening to our operating budgets in the very various uh nine or so uh bureaus um we've held put we have the line very consistently over the years and uh this year is uh no difference few things to note um engineering you'll see the um there's a an increase in the overall budget that's because the um um proposed sustainability manager which we've recently hired is going to be in that Bureau and otherwise things are held at the same level as previous years um in streets uh there's a decrease in equipment through the purchase of radios in 24 and we don't need any in the 25 budget in urban forestry uh slight increase in the oping budget um as you know from year to year more recently we've been having a lot of uh summer storms down trees um and we didn't have an item uh to utilize for those events we basically just moved money around to cover those costs when they arose when in-house resources couldn't take care of some of the U damaged lar trees that are in utilities for example we don't have sometimes the equipment or manpower to address so we have to go to outside contractors so we uh put a line item in there um and a and a budgeted amount in order to cover those instances um typically those things are built to um responsible homeowners so they're uh those funds are U recovered in mechanical bureau there's essentially no changes from previous years in electrical there's a significant uh reduction in the operating uh we've talked about all our effort in the U maintaining our street light lighting system um in 2024 was the last payment Debt Service payment on the acquisition of the lights um so that line item essentially goes down to 430,000 to maintain our over 8,000 street light decorative and non-decorative lights had we not taken those initiatives that we've discussed in the past acquiring the system um upgrading all our lights to LED um and giving us the opportunity to competitively shop for energy our budget level um this this coming year would have been nearly three million 2.8 million versus right now it's at 430,000 not only that but we are maintain the system inhouse um very efficiently and of course we're utilizing a lot less energy which is um good for the environment traffic there there's um no no no changes as I said as I said there's a little bit of in we have a position is filled you'll see the uh the budget um is more than previous year because the previous year is revised to reflect that there was the vacancy all that time we didn't incur the salary cost so that's why you see a little bit of a of an increase otherwise it's pretty level previous years no changes in facilities or grounds likewise in fact there's a slight drop in both of those operating budgets um and the same is for recreation in summary U the overall budget operating budget drops by nearly $300,000 principally because of what I mentioned with respect to maintaining our uh Street lighting system Mo moving on to page 273 that's the liquid fuel budget um is a summary of our budget levels we get about two million um from the state for the liquid fuel budget most municipalities utilize the liquid fuel budget exclusively to B Streets um we have had historically numerous demands on this budget um but more recently we of course implemented our storm water program so that reduced Demand on this budget uh the main thing is um we used to only be able to budget two 300,000 a year to devote to baving which of course I'll be talking about shortly uh now we're up to being able to uh dedicate as much as 7 to $800,000 uh for our Paving and our road mainus programs on the next page you'll see a some pictures of U our inhouse Paving that we did in 2024 we have fol focused um and increased our efforts in funding Street Maintenance uh specifically overlays over the past several years as you know uh this Administration allocated $6 million in ARA funds uh to for the years 2023 and 2024 3 million in each of those two two years where we um for the past uh six years The Bu budgeting levels for for Paving for maintenance maintenance in 2021 was little over 2 million in 2022 at 23 was almost five million and as you'll see um as I will detail in 2024 and next year uh what's available for the paving program is nearly $8 million um we we have partnered with u utilities to reduce impacts on our streets to their activity by improving Street repairs and ENT entering into cost sharing arrangements to more efficiently and cost effectively resurface streets impacted by these major utilities on the next slide you'll see two graphs one for um one for our budgeting over the years over the last five years and the other one is what we spent against uh the the budgeting uh on page 282 you'll see a summary of what we will have available for us in 2025 for Paving um little over5 million dollars and that's on page 282 uh the number the total on page 82 doesn't include cdbg funding or Lial fuel that's why it's shown as I think 4.2 or 4.8 Million Dollar on the next page um we show the uh our Paving program for the past five years uh in-house Paving is in um white um and contract is in green and the total is in yellow you could see that um we have continued and will continue to improve our in-house capabilities and efficiencies to allow funding to achieve much greater results do as much as we can inhouse uh as I um stated in the past it cost much more much more money for us to Outsource bathing so we've been trying to do a lot of it inhouse uh essentially it costs about $70 a linear foot to do uh pavings um in a city using our in-house forces um and contracted is 120 to do a couple of blocks in the city inh house is about 50 ,000 uh if we Outsource it it's $85,000 so obviously uh we've been trying to do a lot more inhouse improve our capabilities and house and including our output and you can see by in the graph in the white we've consistently increased production and this is despite um in the past at least four years we've had some significant challenges in terms of lack of personnel turnover I think right now we uh we have in the bureau streets in a bureau of only 26 Rank and file I think um we have currently seven vacancies and we've had that level of vacancies for the past two three years consistently so we haven't had a so I think we can uh probably do a lot better moving forward if we can just address that problem and we're working hard to do it there is some improvements I think we're on the verge of filling some of those uh position and if we can sustain that uh will be able to improve on the numbers in terms of Paving in uh 2024 uh we still were able to do um 16 Lan miles of Paving and we outsourced six Lane miles for a total of 22 um this year and next year together we're on target to hit 50 Lane miles which is pretty significant improvement from from past U uh years moving on to the stor water budget um on page 39 to 316 we have a significant number of projects and improvements budgeted and planned for 2025 um along with some carryover work from 2024 into 2025 um the actual amount of money available to date in the stor mot fund is almost million we're able to program uh for next year 3.4 million um just about in projects and improvements um as you can imagine these types of projects take some time we have to do analysis identify problems uh go through design procurement construction um and the uh what we are not programming we we put in a interest bearing account um and as we identify and develop more future projects we'll program more and you can see from year to year since we started this um this program we're doing more and more improvements a sampling of some of those improvements that we did in 2024 you could see here Firelane uh storm sewer improvements this is an area that had frequent flooding of um U fire lane and college um College Avenue um it's where the ball fields are uh the area that we we converted an area um into a Detention Facility you'll see in the lower left the outlet works that we installed there basically to carry water from an detention area that we created uh at that intersection uh so water can Pond and be conveyed at a slower rate underneath the road as oppos to frequently over topping and flooding uh that road you can see in the upper left hand corner uh over the winter we've also had issues the result of that freezing uh that we constantly had to um you know address so this is a and this project was U roughly about a little over $300,000 to make those improvements we also um rehabilitated the Johnson Drive uh detention Basin that Basin was heavily silted it silted in uh the outlet Works was in significant disrepair there were sinkhole sink holes develop developing in in that detention facilities uh we dredged it out we regraded the Basin we increased the uh storage capacity um installed a new of course addressed all the sink holes installed a liner to inhibit further um sinkhole activities um and the result obviously is a rehabilit basin that has greater um storm water management capability uh and greater uh settling of pollutions which AIDS in our pollution reduction plan goals another somewhat minor but important projects there were a significant number of uh deficient catch Basin similar to what we did last year on lynfield uh I think there's 21 catch basin that we had to replace you see on the left the conditions they were in and on the right is the improvements that that we made this was roughly I believe uh $50,000 or something like that um another project that we we did we improved and replaced the storm water management system that serves the West Broad uh bridge between Terrace Avenue and cono Road you see on the left is the condition of some of the system there and on the right is the improvements that U we affected and that project was nearly $60,000 worth of improvements moving on to projects that we are either in the middle of pursuing or will pursue next year including going to construction uh East Boulevard Basin this is a project that we're partnering with um Bethlehem Township they have a lot of flooding Downstream from where these detention facilities are uh some significant grants uh were secured for this for this project the anticipated modifications are to make the basins larger and deeper uh with additional modifications uh of retrofitting existing storm pipes and upgrading the outlet control structures uh by doing this we are trying to slow and filter storm water flow and prevent flood damage Downstream in bethleem Township the project is also part of of course the city's PRP uh which ultimately um which whose ultimate goal is to reduce sedimentation and improve water quality in the city under our uh ms4 uh program the total value of this project is over $2 and a half million doll of in in the city and the city's contribution uh is about approximately $600,000 this Pro this project is detailed on page 314 in the budget another project is the bridal path sale improvements that we plan to do next year the project is to regrade the STA the Swale and stabilize the outfall on Bridal path to eliminate erosion and ponding that occurs in that area uh this is about a$ 300,000 dollar project and we anticipate construction uh in the spring of 2025 and we're doing the design line in house this year um that's on page 314 um we have similar um projects detailed on page 314 to uh 315 such as the Eastern Avenue to stepco which will replace and upgrade the storm sewer in that area East Market drainage improvements intended to install a storm water system between Jennings and the city boundary to prevent flooding in that particular area and there's some planned stor motor improvements at yellow's track intended to improve the stor motor system on Johnson Drive between Barrymore Avenue and redont Lane moving on to the non-utility projects which are detailed on page 279 to 290 um completed projects that I'll touch on in 20124 uh we've talked about this project before the flooding that occurred at so Park you see up there um the conditions that were at the park pursuant to the damage that was incurred there uh you can see the damage to the creek walls pretty significant damage there uh The Pavilion floors were all washed out um and the playground equipment which was outdated and old was also damaged um we did a lot of improvements at the park as you could see in the next picture um there's the new pavilions with a composite flow of concrete and fine Stone uh where you sit on a on a tables we put a table tennis um at at at the park you see the repaired uh wall there in the upper right um the project is substantially complete in fact we did the um the flood walls repairs inhouse using our in-house forces which saved quite a bit of money we also removed a lot of dead trees and replaced uh trees in in in the park and replaced the swing sets um in the park we did the last phase of replacing all the tile in City Hall um the last phase was all the flooring on the fourth floor and some selected areas in the police department so that project is now substanti complete they're just putting the finishing touches uh on that particular project no one's going to mistake this city hall for the tajma hall but it's a lot better than it used to be uh next um as as I've mentioned in the past we systematically continue to do the upkeep on all our traffic signals in 2024 we upgraded the signal at Linden and GAP and the during that upgrade of course we anticipated the conversion of uh uh Lyon into 2A um so there's no conflict uh when when we get to that project uh what we're pursuing as far as that type of work in 2025 is we're designing uh improvements for Pennsylvania Avenue at Union Boulevard in eaten Avenue and West Union Boulevard in eaten Avenue and that construction we're expecting to take place towards the end of uh 2025 that that project is on 281 additional non-utility projects that we're going to do in 2025 or some of them maybe carry over from um even 24 23 as I mentioned we're pursuing the conversion of Lyndon street from oneway to two-way traffic from church to Fairview Street the city has been coordinated with lvts um the uh uh budget for design environmental clearance and FAL design is in place and we're currently rping for that work utilizing the state's ecms um system and we're at the same time working on either grant opportunities or to place the project on the tip so construction can be funded and we're hopeful that that could be in place in time to go to Construction in the spring um or in the late spring or early summer to affect those improvements for the conversion next two projects are for East and West Bost Broad Street and we've we've of course talked about these project a number time the estimated cost for the East uh Broad Street active Transportation plan is um nearly a million dollar um most of that funding is from multimodal um PL um the project includes the development of the median on Broad Street in the downtown core area by extending the median Eastward from New Street to Penn Street and pedestrian safety upgrades including bump outs at the intersections of maple Elm and high streets the project will also include Street trees lighting along with complete Ada upgrades at all the intersections we've been working um engineering design and construction is being coordinated with the Safe Streets for all funds for the West Street quor improvements this project is detailed on page 283 in the budget and West Broad Street um the focus of this project is to improve pedestrian safety and alterntive Transportation uh modes on this very wide Street including incorporating protected bike Lanes bump outs decorated crosswalks pedestrian Refuge islands and trees as you could see in Illustrated um on in this Slide the main goal is to create a culture of safety for bikes and pedestrians as streets are for people not just cars simultaneously with the preliminary design we will be working on developing a complete streets plan and a city-wide bike infrastructure plan which will be incorporated in the design the majority of the funding which we've gone over in the past was a u um a safe Street for all Grant of nearly $10 million thanks to Laura Collins's efforts in securing that Grant um we are currently pursuing a we're we're constantly pursuing um one point million dollar um in multi multimodal Grant along with some funding that we got through the cost sharing from UGI uh that will serve as a match for this project uh we're currently out with an RFP for the design for for this project and we're hopeful that um we can go to construction uh in 2026 we are uh going to expedite the U design work uh for the East braad Street um portion of this project so that we can make some of all those improvements sometime in 2025 possible the two projects are being coordinated um we're also right now working on the grant agreement and trying to finalize that this project is detailed on page 283 on the next slide you see some improvements some additional improvements for this building the guts of this building uh we're planning on replacing one of uh three boilers and two large domestic hot water tank exchanges at City Hall which result in additional energy reduction and improved efficiency we started this uh this year and we're planning to complete it in the spring of of of 2025 this project is on page 284 the total cost is around $400,000 next is Friendship Park that's another project you've heard quite a bit about the design of the improvements includes upgrading the basketball court adding shade areas improving the trail and adding a water splash park uh we um we're working on the design which is which which is uh actually we completed the design in the third quarter of this year um currently the grant agreement is being finalized and the project uh plans and timeline are being reviewed by dcnr the plan is to pit the project in January of 2025 and construction to start in the spring of 2025 the total cost of this project is approximately 1.7 millions and the detail of the various funding to support this project is on page 285 next the Rose Garden we did a phase one improvements as you may recall we budgeted another $250,000 to do additional improvements here uh we have been working in-house including with all the all interested parties to pursue uh phase two improvements um which uh include upgrade to um replacing uh lights at the park additional walkways benches picnic tables uh We've designed this project inhouse and uh we plan to complete the uh improvements in the spring of 2025 as I said the budget is about 250,000 for this project and that's on page 286 at this point I should also mention that uh we did did award a consultant to conduct a Parks and Recreation master plan in 2025 that will create a um a strategic guide to planning improvements to our assets and focus on all recreational opportunities in the city um including Equitable and accessible options for all residents of all abilities additional programming needs possible future funding sources priorize maintenance and improvements for an an accessible and connected neighborhood park system and a full review of our uh Staffing in the city to maintain all our assets that project is detailed on page 287 uh the minoy way Trail project uh phase two we did phase one last year which was from Memorial Pool to shanesville road that was completed in 2022 actually uh phase two will continue the trail from shanesville road to the DNL trail design started in 24 it's expected to be completed and be bid and constructed this coming year in 2025 uh the funding is dcnr and matching funds from our fees the project is on page 288 West Fourth Street improvements in the business districts we are um currently designing for reconstruction of sidewalks including Ada curb ramps in the Southside Arts District between New Street and Broadhead Avenue the anticipated construction for these improvements is the spring of 2025 this was this is being funded with a $370,000 grant um and that's on page 288 I believe we continued our efforts in electrifying our Fleet as feasible uh the city including the parking authority now has 21 e EVs and hybrid vehicles which is little more than 5% of our Fleet and we're in the midst of planning to add six more by the end of 2024 and early 2025 um there are now 1 charging stations downstairs in a garage in City Hall and we're looking um at the feasibility of adding a fast charging station at the stco municipal service center and of course as we do every year we also support um the Department of Water and Sewer resources uh in providing engineering support for all their capital projects which Ed will probably touch upon when he's up next that's kind of a quick overview of the major um projects in the department of course our folks do a lot of provide a lot of basic Services fun stuff like baing and snow snow plowing and leaf collection and even uh Christmas decorations which is fun to do so with that with any questions be happy to answer if I can't I have as I said the project team can get into more detail if necessary thank you Mr alol for the presentation I'll start with our chair of the Public Works committee Mr Callahan any questions or comments from Mr alol regarding the four budgets he just presented Mike on the um I'm all in favor of the of the sidewalk uh repair for Fourth Street but aren't the business owners or the owners of those buildings responsible for the sidewalks yeah of course by ordinance buing property owners are responsible for sidewalks but we've um from time to time we especially when there's grant opportunities or in the past we utilize a substantial amount of cdbg funding to do as I recall probably about 30 major sidewalk whole sales sidewalk replacement projects on the South Side in cdbg eligible areas um Fifth Street uh um I mean just about every street we did Carlton um that has because of uh challenges to funding in cdbg that has that a sto but we have we have done substantial amount of work we even on Main Street you may recall we did a major streetcape Improvement project and uh that was half funded uh by grants and half was build to the abing property owner so when there's opportunities when there's grant opportunities uh we try to take advantage of of them to help out either the um residents and or the business owners all right the gentlemen I want me to interrupt you Mr Callan just because I said before if you reference anything in the budget book if you don't mind just referencing what page you're on sure just for anybody that wants to turn to that page sure thank you um on on the West Broad Street Improvement projects MH uh I think that's on um that's in the non utility yeah 283 okay um how so are we the the lighting that Acorn lighting that ornamental lighting that we I think we're up to like what like four fourth fourth half fourth or fifth uh Greg do you know I believe we stopped at fourth fourth is that being extended with this money we there's lighting improvements but is it is it that DEC yes I mean the the scope of the project is all the way to the city line from from from from Main Street to the City Line and includes lighting I believe right all right and my last question is on the um uh page uh 289 on the on the uh $700,000 that's being uh transferred for for the golf course what it doesn't list any of the project I mean 1.4 million is a lot of money I mean what what are we doing with that money this is not in this B in my budget but maybe Mr yeah we'll discuss that a little bit tomorrow night it's the the next project the golf course is the barn next to the recycling center it's structurally unstable and that's being evaluated we don't have a firm price on that through engineering but it's being looked at now expected to be close or near all of that it's got to De demo the existing remove preparation of site and and build that's what houses a lot of the maintenance equipment so it does need to be replaced so that's the target that's that's tomorrow night under golf versus public works all right thank you I appreciate it we provide support obviously for that I will turn to our other committee members council members quch and L for any questions or comments for Mr alol um counc I'll just say I don't actually have any questions because um you've been incredibly thorough and I appreciate that um and uh so thank you to you and to your team everybody in Department who works so hard really thank you thank you very much yeah um could you repeat just because I cwom do you mind pull your mic down please yes um could you please repeat the um the lane miles the difference between inhouse and the rate difference between uh if we do it in-house or contract it out I just thought that was a really great number and I didn't get to write it down sure for for two blocks essentially if you want to do it by Block it's roughly I mean wi vary and what have you but U using an average it's about $50,000 to do it using our inhouse forces and $85,000 uh if we were to Outsource it and that would include all the prep work upgrading the Ada ramps uh otherwise the difference would be even greater between in-house and Outsource because the Ada ramp work is outsourced has to be outsourced we don't have the resources or the workforce to do those improvements in house otherwise the disparity would be even greater obviously that's mainly attributed to the fact that we have a competent Paving you know Paving Cruise here uh that we're able to use that do other functions and other Seasons uh that's why we're able to do much so do it so much more cost effectively than Outsourcing Network so first we'll maximize inhouse and then if there's funding available if the need is there that it can't wait till we get to it in-house that's one we'll Outsource that got it like this past year we did Westgate and we did stepco by contract um for monoy way that was in the 2 29 288 um speaking of the uh current enhancements The Crossing enhancements um so assuming that those would become Ada where you're referencing uh improving them does that mean the entire Trail is going to also accommodate Ada now like where there's stairs now and everything that's going to be yes okay yeah much less we like we did when we connected The Greenway down to the ball fields and Salen Park we make sure that's ad that's accessible handicap accessible that's great uh that's great to hear right uh I think that's all the questions oh one other question and I'll be asking basically every office this as we look ahead to um new federal uh Administration and budgets um are there any significant expenses or significant income streams that come from the federal government to your bureaus right now that you are concerned about losing in the next four years other than Grand opportunities possibly being significantly impacted and I don't know that for a fact um I mean a liquid fuel is a liquid fuel that's generated by gas in fact that may go up because I want to but but I I I can't think of anything other than maybe Grant sources drying up or but I would hope that anything that's committed is is in place and secure and will be there for us to utilize to implement these projects and all of the grants uh dollars that are referenced in this budget are all committed already is that correct yes okay yes they wouldn't be in here otherwise right okay thank you any other questions or comments from the rest of council I'll start with councilwoman Wilhelm uh yeah I will start by echoing uh councilwoman qu quch comments uh with of thanks um you know I had mentioned to to her actually earlier today one of the things I like about budget season is it's a reminder that there are people behind the budget and you are here and we can look you in the eye and say thank you um the amount of work you do is overwhelming dizzying there are zero degrees of separation between what you do and the people of Bethlehem we live work and play are kept safe by the work that you do so thank you so much um and any of you that I've had the opportunity to work with you're responsive and knowledgeable and and appreciate it and appreciate the attention to sustainability the fact that so much savings has come as a result of decisions centered on sustainability just really great to hear it all um tonight so so thank you um you mentioned the the Christmas lights which we have discussed uh at some length and they're not turned on yet and already social media is a buzz with opinions um I don't think most people realize that that Public Works is responsible you know in addition to addressing Pro streets and parks and traffic and and problems that they come up that that you're also responsible for stringing every light in the city of Bethlehem um um you know we certainly notice a difference in on the payr tree um I was going to ask you if you had an idea of you know what the comparison of like how many lights were on the tree before and now but I won't ask you but it's noticeable it's but that also means it takes a lot more time um and uh I I wondered sort of for your sake to lift that burden is there any conversation around finding funding for at least sort of the core downtown areas to have uh an outside you know service do do those lights in the future not this is not a complaint it's I'm very grateful for what we've discussed this you know I'm very grateful but just again to sort of lift that burden is there any conversation around finding an outside Source yeah we we've been having conversations from year to year I mean the goal is to you know our our electric bu does a a really great job with putting up the decorations every year it's you know it's a it's a major effort that gives a you know a lot of stress to Greg um and we are we are and have been from year to year constantly uh trying to make improvements uh trying to be receptive of uh comments from everyone to try to and react to them as calmly and intelligently as we as we can and we're trying to do things as coste effectively as possible and uh we don't say no to additional work as long as we have the capacity to to to do it and we'll we'll try but definitely as you know if um demand continues and if there's ideas that would um put um more Demand on our resources in terms of time and effort um we have discussed and will continue to discuss the possibility um if that comes along with with with improvements uh Outsourcing at least a a part of the decoration efforts and still do in the core and most of it by our electrical Bureau um but if there's areas we need like Main Street if we're want to focus and do something different there that we just simply don't have the resources and time they have a lot of other functions to deal with coming out of Celtic Fest is the last major effort that ties up a lot of their resources and they have to uh do you know removal at the end of that Fest before they can jump on decoration and it takes I think now it takes us maybe four to six weeks to do all the decorations yeah so anything that would make that not feasible is something that we would try to go to an outside source and try to seek the respective funding in order to implement it thank you you have indeed been responsive to small business I know the DBA you've had a lot of conversations with them you've been responsive to members of the public and members of council as well um so thank you for that [Music] um I think um Ju Just One Last Question we've had a couple of conversations around public restrooms and that we tend to keep them locked in certain you know Rose Garden skate park and um if I recall sort of the primary reason for that it is vandalism yeah that that's it in a nutshell yes and we've been working on that we try to keep them as accessible as possible unless it becomes unmanageable um you know San island is a perfect example and even that we're now looking into having some uh remote controlled locking and unlocking mechanisms so we can provide more more accessibility while still being able to because it gets I mean the the damage the impact on our crews to clean up it gets a little bit much and we have to balance that with making it accessible sure yeah I mean it it it is a great service and people are very grateful for it I mean obviously some communities do and I read today I guess that they're adding a restrooms on the sock and rail trail too so it just it brought it up in my mind so it's good to know you're thinking about ways that we can um make those available to the public so thank you again thanks for a great presentation appreciate it any other questions or comments from members of council do you have anything Council M Leo U my my lack of questions really is just because of how responsive you and your team are not just right now during budget season but throughout the year you guys are incredibly responsive to us um especially your presence at like these smaller committee meetings that happen within whether it's the Southside or the north south side tomorrow North Side alive um including conversations surrounding the water fountains in the bathroom so really appreciate all of your your flexibility and your Forward Thinking with that so I really have no questions for for you but uh to the table um to piggy back off of um councilwoman L's question can we talk a little bit about the grant funding and uh the difference between our budget season versus like the state's budget calendar or whatever so that we know that the grants aren't the grants that we've been given aren't going to be kind of yanked back from us do you remember what I'm talking about Len was earlier today that was more the health the health Grant okay so that's just the health Grant cycle yeah it's not um what Mike would deal with okay all right just the Health site um grants um they are um federal grants have passed through the state okay but the um State's budget year is July 1st through June 30th okay so it doesn't it doesn't affect him cool well then I got nothing for you all good notes thanks councilor okay thank you um first I just want to say thank you Mike and to your whole department and staff for the great job I know it's it's challenging and you get a lot of complaints you know the number one thing is the streets and snow and everything else so I appreciate it and also um huge C cudos regarding the savings and the lighting that's significant and great I was also really happy to see that you using you were using an intern from laat I think that's great because it's great to collaboration with the uh the colleges and it's also great to give those those kids those students and um some experience within City Hall so um I just have a couple questions one uh the sustainability manager um now they've already been hired is there um or can I have and I guess maybe all of us a job description because I'm just curious what would be under their job description I mean I think it's a great well absolutely we have a job description on file be happy to send it to council okay great thank you um let's see oh the parks and recck plant I think that's great also um just some input I've had some um residents from redf Lane actually they have a a playground there and they were saying that they feel that they need more age appropriate that there's a lot of real younger kids like toddlers in that playground and they were wondering how they can um how can they get more equipment for like the kids that are like toddlers they said they would even be willing to pay for it but I think I can say that after the um the study we'll get more information relative it will'll be referencing those kind of things right right I believe we're gonna have some Community meetings and there'll be opportunity for for the public to be part of it such as that and we'll react to it okay um I'm glad we brought up the sidewalk issue because I was curious too um it's great that we're doing on the south side but north north side in historic Beth Main Street I've had some people with concerns and I know I have concerns myself come down like sometimes there's bricks that are um bricks that are loose or bricks that are not even there I'm really concerned about like falling haard especially as we get into the holiday season so that would really be the business owner's responsibility then unless we could get gr funding uh that's essentially correct we do do some small maintenance type work there like resetting small area of brick that might either be go missing or pop out slate we we install on a small scale uh our hean Chuck Yanka and Grand towns and between them and streets we we we do make some improvements down there and we have a line item for the downtown business district that takes care of these types of small items but anything significant we notify the budding property owner all right um would you know are you aware if there's like I know I've looked I haven't seen I haven't been aware of it lately I know the past has been like loose bricks or yes bricks that are missing so you see that and fix it then yeah we have allegedly or supposedly some um brick theft uh We've also some had some brick go missing and seon Plaza on either side of City Hall and we're pursuing those repairs okay great thank you thank you so much um the other thing the last thing I have is um the roads I know we always bring up the roads and we have um 8 million you said for 2025 for Paving do you have any idea how many miles will be pav or you anticipate Paving 24 and 2025 the budgeting level or the available funding is almost 8 million for 2025 we have available a little over 5 million between all sources five mil okay where was the 8 million from I thought that that was it's for both 24 and 25 if you combine those years the funding level is at almost eight million okay so do you have any idea on the amount of Miles because I know a lot of people like to we will yeah I mean once again we're going to try to do more in-house baving um we've been looking at uh trying to Outsource like the hauling in order to run two baving Crews if we can various ideas to pave as much as possible utilizing the funding inhouse and and and tax our cap capacity uh and then um if there are roads that like I said before that can't wait and need to be paid sooner rather than later uh will'll contract those out but I think I mentioned uh on one of the the slides uh we expect to complete probably like 50 lame miles between 24 and 25 okay great so this year next year about total of of of 50 so if we did 22 in 24 what we're saying is we'll probably do something closer to 28 at least in 2025 which is a significant Improvement right then in the past right then in the past I just want something that I can tell the folks that always come and complain to me about R right so okay great thank you so much appreciate it Mr Al call just a couple general questions I had and thank you for all the the background as it relates to Lane miles and the the price disparity how many total Lane miles do we have approximately in the city of Bethlehem 7 to 800 so as I believe I brought up in previous years we're we're really fighting an uphill battle year after year we're talking and it was 50 Lane miles for Paving Seasons 24 and 25 correct so up up against 7800 7 to 800 yeah oh 7 to800 yeah thank you because 7800 I thought we were going to the Moon I know at the one way to look at it at at the funding levels that we've been averaging and it's been substantially improved like I mentioned especially including the allocation of six million uh by this Administration to this program um it still would take us I think something like 30 years or something like that 32 years uh to pave our our L miles um and the average pavement lasts roughly in round numbers about 20 years so if you look at the math that way you could see we would continue to fall behind yeah and well thanks for clarifying the 728 figure because even at the the high Mark of 8800 50 miles over two years is about 116th of the total Lane miles for the city which I think is a rather significant yeah job that everybody should be be proud of trying to tackle and hopefully we can sustain that funding level which is gonna be a challenge but like I said liquid fuel more and more we're able to allocate more for for Paving um and see we'll see what we can do to identify and keep up with it and then in terms of you shared the the cost differences can you give me a an estimate of of how much Paving is done inhouse and you've already touched on there's different capacities for in-house vers contract but in terms of the paving we do is it is it 75 inhouse versus 25 contracted 5050 can you give me a rough estimate of that well just using last years we did 16 inhouse and six contracted okay wonderful thank you and then the only question other question I had related to the budget book is if we turn to page 310 as it relates to the storm water Bureau I just had a quick question about the two positions project engineer and design assistant I see that uh now design assistant of course is a newer position going by the historical budgets but there is some disparity in the compensation is that due to seniority is that due to the one position being graded how I mean is is is design assistant uh graded higher than project engineer uh no but there are steps to each position step one through 12 now right and there's so if someone's been in a position there's longevity too and and Longevity which is a little bit of but if someone's been in the position even though they're the position May pay less overall they could still make more than someone higher who just started understood so the person who occupies the design assistant position is more experienced or more senior than the person occupying project engineer coming in you yeah understood it just jumped out of me so I appreciate I appreciate the background prob will be making more because the design assistant already almost reached the top level careful what you say everyone's here listening to you it's automatic yeah thank you is there any other before I open up to public comment councilwoman lert sorry I forgot to ask this one apolog um and also I was so focused on finding the page numbers that I did forget to add my thanks and appreciation for everybody's uh work too um and one area that I know I've I've actually heard a a really great amount of um public appreciation is the forestry office um in the the recent couple of years um and people having really positive interactions and getting good advice um but I I don't think we talked you talked a ton about what's coming in the forestry office and I actually had a resident reach out saying they had heard about some exciting work being done kind of turning the focus to Street trees and the City kind of helping get some more Street trees out there can you speak to that I mean from year to year we pursue initiatives and that's largely contingent on grant opportunities as far as any planting projects either in the public RightWay which is essentially then becomes buing property own responsibity those trees that we plan plant initially or in the in the Parks uh in recent years we have done tremendous amount of improvements in that Bureau um our new city Forester continue to I think we're finishing the master plan um we developed a GIS database to keep track of all all our trees uh how many trees do we have in the city what's that a lot she said but that's the kind of thing that that database is intended to do uh it'll keep records of the history of each tree type of tree when it was if it was damaged and removed and replac that sort of thing so we can better and more efficiently and quickly get that information and better manage and permanent uh activities uh under our shade ordinance um all right yeah thank you you're welcome anything else from members of council Mr Callan I just have two two quick questions like on the when we do the street overlays um why don't we put the the risers um on the manhole covers so it's even instead of that I mean that's always that's always the goal I mean you have to adjust sometimes the speed depending on whether we M or not uh conditions there the age of the manhole there's different utilities that are in the street but part of Designing the overlays is to get rises where appropriate and sometimes they struggle with getting exactly the right size at least initially the installation may be a little bit off and it may be up a little more or down more than you'd like sometimes you can't get it exactly flush with the street but that's the intent of the design and most of the time we achiev that but I wouldn't doubt that there some time to time some manholes that are a little bit down more than they should be or or projected up and if we can fix that we will if if if if not it just it just I I know we didn't do 191 out was a state right yes I on 191 but I know we did Washington on Washington and 191 there I mean it's a substantial drop off there and okay we'll we'll check that and address it yeah I was just curious if it was that much more expensive that we couldn't afford it but it no it shouldn't be it it unfortunately sometimes things are not done perfectly and right we appreciate you know discovering that so we can address it the LA last quick thing so under mayor donz we had the Christmas tree lights I've had this discussion with you before you know main abroad U I'm not talking about the new decorations they put on understand that's for the Christmas season yes but having those tree lights on year round was a very popular thing with the business owners and the residents in the historic district who makes that final decision is that is that the DBA that said don't put them on anymore because I I know the mayor got it done the last time I'm just curious who whose decision is that we we try to consider input from all interested parties including obviously the DBA being principal Christmas committee we have those discussions at at at at at Christmas committee meetings uh elector P obviously has has as put just because from the standpoint of what it takes to maintain those lights year round there aren't any to my knowledge lights that you could put up that are supposed to stay out there so there's a lot of relamping um for one reason or another both Broad and Main Street in that area is like a wind tunnel there's a lot of wind that occurs in that area so damage we have a lot of deliveries B box trucks that damage you know so that that's a consideration but and and quite honestly we've had mixed um input as far as who would like to have them on year round versus during the holidays some argue that U it takes away from the impact when we turn on for the season if they've been on all day at least on Main Street um and we're trying to find a happy medium to make everyone satisfied one thing we're considering is uh keeping them on at least not only during the holidays remember they come on the day after thanks Thanksgiving and they traditionally we turn everything off and and and do the takeown um Russian when Russian Christmas ends which is typically like first or first week of January first week of January um but we're we've had ideas about keeping them on the Lights On Main stre like you're suggesting um through March at least um and maybe that's a happy medium where they're um and and and once after March quite honestly the foilage starts to come come back and those lights are less effective anyway um so that might be the the the best way to approach it we're we're discussing that and we'll see where we end up but we we take input from U everyone was was was the DBA against it I mean the lights are on the trunk now so they're not up in the trees so I don't know what the f is gonna do about that but seems I thought you specifically just asking how long they're gonna be on versus yeah we we're we're to Christmas City yes not during just Christmas time year round and I think in the two years that or three years that Mayor Don has had him on is a very popular thing and people down there dining love it and um I've heard a lot of comments about it not being I haven't heard any comments of of them being off as a good thing so I was just trying to figure out who's respons responsible for that final decision is it is it the mayor is it the DBA as I said we've had meetings uh we've had discussions we reached out with email to get people's opinions and uh principally driven with the with the Christmas committee um we're going to make a decision on how long they stay on thank you anything else related to the public works budgets thank you Mr alol before I open up to public comment our controller Mr yaso is here Mr yaso do you have anything you'd like to add to the [Music] discussion thank you Mr y so at this time I open up to public comment for any of the first four agenda items on tonight's agenda that Mr alol had just gone over we didn't have anyone sign up in advance so I'll start to the left anyone to the left who want to make comment I don't see any so I'll turn to the wide Center yes in the front uh hi um Valerie Nunan um so I read through like maybe like 2third of the budget it's really long um but I do have a few questions related to Public Works um or like thoughts um I noticed um in engineering on a page 92 you have the line item for temporary help just says one um maybe it was supposed to be zero cuz um the justification says um basically that for help they use unpaid interns um I just kind of want to note like that as a resident I think the city should be paying their interns I don't believe in unpaid internships as a concept honestly um so that's just kind of me logging my thought on that um then uh if you go over to streets um this is also about temporary help page 96 is hearing the discussion about how um you know they've been trying to fill these seasonal positions and for the past two or three years they haven't been able to that's also something I noticed like in the comments there when I was reading on my own um I mean it seems that across the board for temporary help like not just in streets that we seem to be offering $15 per hour um the last time I made less than $15 per hour was before covid um and it was hard to live on that then um I do understand it's seasonal work but it's also really important work clearly so um I'm just wondering if there's any chance that the compensation can be upt to make it a more attractive Prospect because streets are really important and clearly like even um uh councilman cologne said it's an uphill battle to keep them maintained um aside from that um I did hear some discussion from Miss Leon related to water fountain I was actually reading the budget as closely as I could to see if there was any mention about this um the closest I found was um grounds page 28 repairs and upgrades to current equipment as one of the goals um I'm not sure if that includes the water fountains but after it coming up multiple times in City Council meetings um starting in August I want that to be a priority I know a lot of people who feel the same way um so it wasn't called out specifically in this budget as far as I can tell um so I just kind of like Assurance that that is a priority uh and then aside from that let me see I would just say I live in the Westgate Mall area I walk around this streets all the time it's a pretty walkable area uh there is an area of uneven sidewalk on kataka road right near the Elementary School uh Buchanon Elementary School and it's been uneven for as long as I've lived there which is like 3 four years but um it's highlighted with like yellow paint that paint has started to fade so I think that you know that paint was highlighted there so that people wouldn't trip on the uneven pavement but it's really started to fade at this point and this is an area with like a school crossing with a lot of children who are going across the street and walking um to the elementary school from the surrounding apartments and Suburban um area so that's just kind of an issue that came to mind while hearing all of this discussion of the Public Works projects uh I believe that's everything and I'm almost out of time so that's great thank you guys thank you and thank you for coming tonight and again as I'll remind everybody during the budget hearings I do invite anyone to approach uh any council members after the meeting if you want to have one-on-one conversations or of course Mr alol who's at all the council meetings is here at the budget meeting tonight we'll be at next Council meetings to answer any of those questions were there any other members of the public in the center who wanted to make comment and I turn to my right that's going to conclude our first public comment I thank everybody from the administration who came out tonight and for sticking around and then we are going to move on to the SEC to the second part of tonight's agenda thank you Mr alol thank you [Music] everybody get home safe everyone so now as we allow Mr boscola to get settled we are going to be going over the water fund revenue and expenses the water capital budget the sewer fund revenue and expenses and then the sewer Capital what we'll do Mr BOS is we'll let you go through your presentation when you're ready if you want to go through all four of those just like Mr alol did and then we'll follow the same procedure I'll start with Mr Callahan as Public Works chair when we're done and then open it up to other committee members followed by other members of council right all for the day e and was nice day beautiful day oh you're the best thank you oh I have some here thank you thank thank you so much [Music] lny yeah how was that well you know it was too good in the beginning [Music] thank you so thank you sorry sorry we got it [Music] [Applause] everybody good right Mr boscola and Company we're ready to get started whenever you are all right thank you uh so I also have a PowerPoint presentation I think maybe just try and go through go through it all which covers all of water and sewer and then we can kind of get into the question Q&A yep we'll follow we'll follow the same process we did for Mr alol super okay first of all a couple introductions uh just to let everybody know who's here for my staff um Diane batty she is our quality manager she's in charge of our water and sewer Labs Jason Davis he's commercial operations manager he's in charge of metering and billing Bill reee he's our superintendent of wastewater treatment Joe Westfall the head of our utility maintenance department and Steve palone who's working the the slideshow he is in charge of our water uh Supply and treatment Bureau so with that we'll get right into it and of course if there's any specific questions I have these guys to help me out if we once we get into the the details next slide so we'll go over uh just some overall uh accomplishments and in iives for the fund for both the water and sewer funds the 2025 budget and our Capital program so I figure next slide I figured we start from the top um and kind of give it an overview of kind of like work our way down from where the water comes from what we're doing today and how the water gets down uh to their our customers so as most of you know we have a big a big wed up in Carbon County in the Poconos two large reservoirs pen forest and wal Creek um W Creek was built 1940 give or take pen Forest back in the 50s and then was rebuilt in the 90s 20,000 Acres of watershed that we maintain um combined both res reservoirs contain about 10 billion gallons of water in and of themselves if that water was able to be bottled without any kind of runoff or evaporation that's enough water to serve all of our customers for two years of course recently we're it's been pretty dry as everybody knows right um we're currently in a drought watch this the state issued a drought watch a couple weeks ago pen Forest is actually down about 20 feet from its full level we keep and both res the reservoirs are in series so pen Forest is the up upper Reservoir wild creek is the lower Reservoir so we keep wild creek full and Par pen Forest is the one that fluctuates in its level so right now pen Forest is down uh pretty I would say substantially um it's it was down this low about eight years ago eight nine years ago in 2017 and it so it depends on the weather obviously so uh we're currently in a drought watch which means uh we ask residents for voluntary conservation measures and of course this time of year it's it's it's sort of fortuitous that it is this time of year because our water use is going to be is low anyway nobody's filling swimming poles nobody's watering their lawn Gardens and so forth so in the fall and winter is when our usage normal usage goes down anyway so hopefully we get some rain more than we had this morning um and then of course we also rely on some snow and get that snow melt uh in the spring um particularly up in the Poconos um next slide and of course we have W Creek as well so w Creek like I said we keep that Reservoir full um and that's what supplies a raw water to the Filtration plant now we have this this huge Watershed 20,000 Acres um it's what what I would consider the Crown Jewel of the city's water system um kind of hidden up into Poconos everybody loves the city water it's the it's the best quality water around so we have a responsibility to maintain that that entire ecosystem next slide so we have a whole um sort of program to manage both the Flora and the fauna right so there's a lot of wildlife up there um we work with a lot of third parties like The Nature Conservancy Department of Conservation and natural resources The Game Commission Penn State um because if you have a healthy ecosystem that means you have a healthy water supply and good quality water on a daily basis next slide The Authority also employs a Forester so we have a forestry Management program with these 20,000 Acres right so there's a lot of effort that goes into making sure that the forest stays healthy so there's a lot of logging operations that occur every year you want to clear out a lot of the Dead stuff lot let a lot of the the the young growth grow up so o so over time you're constantly re generating the forest it also helps with trying to prevent forest fires which of course this this time because it's so dry out is a big concern it's and it's a big watch area for us so we do logging operations every year um The Authority also sells carbon credits so you think of the woods is a big carbon sink trees absorb CO2 um they get income by selling carbon credits so that they make we make about a $100,000 to $200,000 a year in carbon credits and that goes into the city's Capital fund next slide so that water from the reservoirs comes down a big pipe and gets to our Filtration plant Filtration plant is located in Lehigh Township it's 30 years old this year it was built in 1994 um it's 24/7 operation this is where all the chemical treatment and uh filtration occurs once the water leaves the plant it then becomes portable water uh for sale to our customers next slide so we take pride in our like I said before pride in our water quality and our Filtration plant performance um just this past year um we went through a a performance audit by D they audit our Filtration plant every 5 years rece we we received the commendable rating which is the highest rating you can get and we also have been awarded this the areawide optimization program that's the the so-called awop award that is a Consortium of Mid-Atlantic filtration plants and I believe they award that to only 15% of the filtration plants in our Mid-Atlantic region so we do get high marks from The Regulators on uh our Filtration plant and her performance next please so some basic information on a drinking water system we treat about five billion gallons a year remember I said our reservoirs hold 10 billion gallons so it was enough to get us through two years in theory um with the amount of consumption 37,000 metered customers we have about 500 miles of water M the median age of our water remains is about between 50 and 60 years old that's going to be a big challenge in our Capital program over the next 50 years to start replacing some of those water Ms we serve the city and all our parts of 12 surrounding municipalities and we have no planned rate increase water rate increase for 2025 next slide so we also have a utility maintenance Bureau and these uh folks they're responsible for maintaining all of our underground water and sewer sewer utilities so everything buried water mains sewer Mains plus all of our tanks and our pump stations so these guys are busy almost 247 as well chasing down you know problems next slide so we we get on average about 50 water main brakes every every year 70 or so service line braks that's the service line from the watermain to the house we have a leak detection survey program where we monitor about 200 miles a year this program allows us to identify and Tackle small leaks before they become big leaks we have 14,000 Valves and 3700 fire hydrants to maintain so we're constantly out there maintaining all of this infrastructure next slide some of the major capital projects that we did in 24 uh Freemansburg we replaced the water main in Freemansburg if anybody's driven down Freemansburg lately they're to they're totally redoing their Main Street part of it was replacing the water main next slide we replac the section of water main on Walnut Street that's in Bethlehem Township next slide willbrook Road uh this is now this is part of our transmission main that comes down from the Filtration plant to the city this was a major project in cooperation with the county when they replaced a bridge the county actually uh funded 50% of this job uh for the city we did that watermain relocation like as you can see a lot of this is It's Capital intensive it is not cheap um used to be the rule of thumb was a million dollars a mile to replace a water M it's getting more expensive it's probably closer to like a million two a million five you know depending on the amount of services uh so it's it's not and a a cheap proposition Capital intensive next slide service lines so like I said we have 37,000 customers that means we have 37,000 service lines uh this this is the typically the copper line that runs from the water to the house now turns out we still have some lead services and that's obviously big topic of discussion lately and it will be for the for foreseeable future next slide so the federal government uh through the EPA has a goal to get all of the lead out of every water system in the country in the next 10 years it's a big undertaking um but it is doable um we we so far have replaced about 500 in our system to date um we published a service line inventory and we have an interactive map on our website that allows customers go to go in and see what kind of material that they have on their service unfortunately a lot of the material is unknown so it's still an ongoing process uh for us to try to identify all of these service lines and then replace all the lead like I said the goal there's some Milestones that we're going to have to meet along the way but ultimately the goal is to get all of the lead out of the system over over the next 10 years the good news is that we don't think there are we we don't know how many how many lead Services there are I'll just leave it at that we know there's more than five there were more than 500 there's probably less than a couple thousand all of the lead that was installed was installed back in the 1920s 30s and 40s uh over time a lot of those a lot of those Services were replaced over the decades um but now we have to go back and make sure that what was replaced was replaced properly and if there's any lead left we have to then replace that as well the good news is that our lead levels are less than one part per billion um very low I know zero is the best is the goal is always zero um but we're less than one the EPA limit is 15 so we're much lower than the the current EPA Action level next slide meters is also a big topic of discussion uh we were in the middle of a major meter replacement program we're doing about 4,000 meters a year 16,000 of our customers now we're put you know I talk about these meters uh every time with the new um electronic meters with the automatic meter read right now we have 16,000 customers on that new platform it's 43% of our customer base we're going to try and do another 4,000 next year the goal is to get 25,000 meters done in that six-year time frame up through 2028 and by that time we'll have probably more than 90% of our customers on that new Ami platform that will allow us to that that platform allows us to monitor their usage on a daily basis so those customers um we get and I know we've talked about this before when we talked about meters ear early part of the Year meters and billing um we're able to monitor their usage daily so we get high high usage aler alerts on a daily basis if it comes if their flow rate goes above a certain threshold so we're a able to give some immediate feedback to those customers who are on the Ami platform and eventually the goal is obviously to get everybody on that platform unfortunately right now the older customers I should say the customers on the older system where we can only read once per quarter unfortunately those customers we do a report every quarter and we see what their average is and if they have a quarter that goes up a certain threshold will contact them as well of course that is all kind of like 90 days after the fact so it's they don't get that immediate feedback that we give those customers that are on the new automatic system but unfortunately that's the best we can do with those customers next slide another big project that's going to be in the works we have a a 2 million gallon Reservoir this is up on South Mountain it's 1920s vintage it's 100 years old um it's due to be replaced we're going to go through design phase next year and then replacement in 26 and that project is funded in part by state Grant uh H2O paa Grant next slide um we like I said before we take pride in our water quality um we have a hydrant flushing program where we we run about a thousand hydrants every year to kind of keep the water fresh and get rid of the kind of like the silt and the sand and the other impurities out of the out of the system we do posos testing that's been in the news lately we've been doing that now for about a year on our drinking water we have no detectable levels of posos in our drinking water we do lead testing um residential we do every three years we've been doing that for the past 20 to 30 years like I said those lead levels are below one part per billion schools and child care facilities they self test right now they've been doing that since 2019 the city will take over that testing starting next year so we'll see how you know and I know school you know schools have been pretty we're basically talking about the bethlem area school district um has been very diligent at doing that that testing over the past five years and we do over 2,000 analyses any given year on our water system pH Metals chlorine total coliform all sorts of analysis just to make sure that we meet regulatory guidelines and make sure the water is is safe to drink next slide so talk a little just very briefly about the numbers finances um water fund of course each fund is its own Enterprise fund Water and Sewer uh water fund relies entirely on on user rates right um user Billings there's no outside income um it's very steady from year to year you can see our total revenue for 24 was 23.5 million for 25 it's 23.6 million so it's very slow growth it's very predictable and it's very that is very um consistent from year to year because you're a residential makes up about 58% of our of our re revenue and the rest commercial industrial institutional about 28% next slide on the expense side of course we have to produce a balanced budget so overall expenses match match Revenue Personnel cost about 19% the big number on this page is the under purchase Services debt $9 million in debt payments every year I say this every year that's the big anchor around the neck of the water fund and it has been that way for the past 25 years and it will be for the next three to five it's in the book page 191 most important page in the book that is preventing that is really like I said it's the anchor it's it's preventing us from doing a lot more Capital that we should be doing um once that once that debt starts to get paid down then you g start to stay instead of spending $9 million on debt payments for work that was done 30 years ago now we can start raising some Capital to do some work that we need to do today like replacing water mains but that won't occur for couple years in the meantime we have to do the best we can uh with the funding that we have next page Capital fund so even with those restrictions we're still able to budget $1 million in capital for the year uh so we're doing pretty good financially considering um we have that $9 billion annual debt payment that we have to make every year um again the big Capital focus is meters we do some water mains that where we can we have tanks we have to maintain we have to replace the roof on the 30-year-old Water Treatment Plant we have to replace that 2 million gallon Reservoir the 100y old reservoir uh so there's a lot you know with this aging equipment um like I said it's Capital intensive and we gotta constantly spend money um to up upkeep the system next page so shifting over briefly to sewer wastewater treatment um talk a little bit about what we're doing down at the wastewater treatment plan I like I like this overhead picture because you get you see the footprint of the waste wow treatment plant in the foreground then look at the size of the warehouse behind it on the left uh the the the treatment plan can fit inside that warehouse that's how big some of these warehouses are that that warehouse is over there in the Commerce um Bethlehem Commerce Commerce Center I don't know if that's the Walmart one or uh anybody know which one that is right there on the corner it's either Q Walmart or QVC or something but just gives you a sense of size of scale how big those warehouses are uh next to water treatment Waste Water treatment plan next page so some basic info on our Wastewater side so we treat four billion gallons a year of course all that gets released to the Lehigh River or permitted to do so we produce 10,000 wet tons of biosolids every year and that gets uh strucked out as for beneficial use effent essentially as fertilizer uh for Farms um dozens of farms mostly in sort of Central and Eastern Pennsylvania that is also permitted we have 25,000 direct customers and we also we serve 12 municipalities a big a big accomplishment this year was We got approval from D to increase our organic treatment capacity kind of gets a little technical but it allows us to treat more Bo it's called B D biochemical oxygen demand is the way we measure the Organics that's the amount of stuff in the water right um so it basically allows the plant to to to meet the growing needs of our community right that's the ultimate goal to keep up with the growing needs of our community so we're able to get that um that um permit approval from the D this year to increase that organic capacity and again no sewer rate increase planned for 2025 next page so some capital projects that we're that we finished up this year think so we have all our clarifiers uh upgraded now we have two four6 six clarifiers uh we we went through a period of about four to five years upgrading all of our clarifiers so now we're done with our clarifiers um next page we have new influent pumps um these are the pumps bringing the sewage into the plant um so we just had three pumps three out of six were just replaced so we have all uh six influent pumps um that are able to bring in 50 million gallons uh per day of uh of sewage if we need it next page we got a new Wastewater lab so we've we've done a major sort of renovation of the some of the Creature Comforts down at the plant so we have new new restrooms new toilet rooms new office space a new lab um and that is ongoing now and expected to be finished by the first quarter of 25 next page chemical addition this is this this was the the project that allowed us to increase our organic treatment capacity so we're adding a chemical now to our primary clarifiers it assists in um dropping out the solids the Organics if you will and so that we can bring in we can treat more Organics coming in and coming into the into the plant so this was a big accomplishment getting this this little chemical addition plant uh finished and in service this year next page uh the gas the the digesters have these big gas two of them have these big gas covers it's like a fabric balloon shaped cover um those covers are basically at the end of the use of a life we're going to replace one in 25 and and the second one in 2026 they're about $750,000 a piece uh to have those replaced of course if if just to explain a little bit about the process so when you digest those that organic material one of the byproducts is methane methane gas so that gas is maintained in those digestors we use the methane to burn in the boilers and then that hot water gets back routed back to the digesters because we keep the digestors at a constant 98 degrees Fahrenheit it's all part of the so it's sort of like a regenerative process um next page next big project on our to-do list is to upgrade our aeration tank um we're going to be going getting into the design phase in 25 and then probably construction over the next three years or so again this is for improving or increasing the organic treatment capacity uh of the plant um this is kind of like the pinch point right now of the of the plant process is our airation tank so that's going to be our next major Focus this is the big open tank if you see driving by on shimersville road with the big uh uh air Raiders spinning you see a lot of froth bubbles so next time you stop by and we'll give you a tour beautiful Aroma too yeah actually the odor hasn't been that bad lately next page so our again our utility maintenance group like I said they do both Water and Sewer um we flush over 100 miles of sewer M throughout the city every year we T TV and CCTV so we run TV line a camera down about seven miles of sewer main to just inspect the condition of our sewer lines and we obviously we rotate that different areas of the city we have six lift stations that we maintain 7,000 manholes we inspect and we have a grease control program so we're actually adding uh these these little bacteria type pellets in certain uh manholes they help break down grease we we we do these in a lot of the areas where there's a high concentration of U like restaurants where you get a lot of grease and it helps break down some of that grease next page couple of big projects we've done this year was a big section of the Broadway sanitary sewer line that was last winter that was done that was a two million doll project next page we did a section of sewer on gar Street um just this past actually just a couple months ago next page and again looking at some of the numbers ver similar to water Fund in that again the revenues are very stable there's not a whole lot of change from year to year um it's basically a self-funded uh Enterprise fund so all of the revenue comes in from our customers residential is about 41% actually all in if you if you add up residential commercial industrial and institutional that's 56% of our Revenue comes from in City customers and then 33% is tributary that's over outside City customers next page and then again and on the expense side we have a balanced budget again not much change from year to year and again if you look at the debt service on the sewer side that debt we're only spending $2 million a year in debt service which is only 10% of the budget remember on the water side it's $9 million so there's a lot more room on the sewer fund to be able to afford um more debt basically more capital projects at least in the short term next page so sewer Capital fund at $10 million right now again a lot of it is investment in the plant electrical systems the Control building um the the gas cover the dcer replacement we have some lift stations that we need to upgrade uh the boiler and hot water system at the plant and some other miscellaneous systems down at the sewage plant next page so in summary um you know Water and Sewer utilities they they're what is known as critical infrastructure so like the the federal government when they're um classifying our systems critical infrastructure what what does that mean so these These are systems like you know electric um water are sewer um important to protect the health and safety of the public and the environment um right everybody needs clean portable drinking water and they need a way to dispose of their sanitary waste in a safe and environmentally friendly manner um we fall under a very robust regulatory regime both in terms of the you know the US EPA primarily and the de Pennsylvania D um physical security and cyber security are very important very critical um been in the news a lot lately especially cyber we have a pretty robust cyber it group I should say that really keeps an eye on our cyber security elements we have a resilient system what is meant by that resiliency means ability to bounce back from a an upset so like a power outage severe weather event some major disaster like so we have so we have redundancies we have backup power generator s you know systems we have other elements in our systems that allow for a very resilient um utility it's Capital intensive like I had mentioned um and we have a stable and very reliable rate base right our custom we have a very mature service territory um not a lot of changes in the grand scheme of things so it's very stable from year to year and very predict very predictable from year to year next page and that's it that's our outfall from the Wastewater Plant to the Lehigh River thank you Mr Bosa for the presentation we appreciate it as IID said at the beginning again I'll start with our Public Works committee chair Mr Callahan for any questions or comments from MRC thank you Mr President uh Eddie a couple quick questions um on the water main repairs that we're doing are we coordinating that uh like if if Mr alal department is doing uh overlays and Street Paving are we coordinating the the waterm repair with the I know we do with UGI but I would hope that honestly the short answer is no just because we don't have the money so in other words if if if Mike is replacing like I don't know how many miles of Road he does a year five miles seven five between five and seven so we repa I I cannot we we cannot afford to do five to eight miles of water main we just don't have the money now there are some areas where may you know if there's a really critical area that we got to do and he's doing the paving then maybe will try and fit that in but generally speaking we just could never keep up with the amount of road miles he's Paving and replace all that water M do we know the areas of the city that have have the oldest Mains like I I would assume it's in a historic area yeah down downtown Southside I mean I I I would just hope that if if if there's a thought process on on his Department you know to get it overlaid where where I don't want I don't want to have it repa and then have it ripped up years later yeah where there where there's a major project like for for an example is like the one the job down in Freemansburg that's a major job where they're just ripping it ripping the road apart that one we're doing we did several years ago we did 412 remember when they rebuilt 412 coming in all through the Southside all at Waterman was new um when there's a major reconstruction effort yeah we'll try and get to the water M but if if it's just an overlay probably not probably not unfortunately yeah yeah um the $9 million in debt payments uh left over is that in the water department is that left over from the rebuilding of of the dam from years ago yeah that's the biggie it's pen forest from the 90s and then uh on the meters uh how many high usage um notifications that we get on a day day-to-day basis I mean is it astronomical is it uh it's like 10 10 10 10 to 20 a month 10 to do a month 10 to 12 a month and then we're notifying the those are the on right so so our meter uh Forman comes in every day so the first thing he does is he looks at the alarm print out from like the previous day so and then he'll start making he'll see somebody you know Mrs Jane do at such and such has a high use alarm we'll call her'll try and contact her say hey look something see if something's going on right just to give right so we get about 10 like I said 10 to 15 a month so that's only two two or three a week right two three four a week of those now those are the ones that are on that the new automatic metering system right the other ones won't be caught the other ones we run a report quarterly so every every time we do a quarterly billing run then we take a look at that group of customers in that quarterly run and we see okay who's got the big spike you know from say you know X gallons X plus something and then we'll make a contact to those people so that's how that that's how we treat those but again of course that's all kind of like after the fact right right but at least there's some level of trying to tempt to trying to commun it happened to me on on a property I have on Hay Street you know there was a running water I had a th000 hour it was almost three times a amount so there's nothing you can do about it you know I paid it and do what I had to do but hopefully with the with with with the new metering systems by the time we get that all done we won't have these issues that you know is bothering the the drip uh correct you group and all that other things right correct all right uh you mentioned that the clarifiers are getting replaced I thought in in in the Digest I thought we replaced the digestors like like six years ago they they weren't they were the internals were all they were gutted and rebuilt about that was probably in 20 that was probably 10 years ago 145 um the the the co the I'm talking about the fabric cover on top they they were the last time they were done was maybe they were 15 years ago maybe those covers they last maybe 15 20 years I'm talking about the fabric um cover that's it's kind of like a balloon it's heavier than a balloon I just recall one of my terms when I was in Council that we had spent a lot of money on the digesters and I wasn't sure if that was the cover or the actual no no the covers were the same it's it was all the internals that got replaced all right um on the logging um under my brother's Administration I think they started that and he they had grandiose uh thoughts that was going to generate a substantial amount of money we've never really had any substantial amount of money generated from it right yeah like I said 100 uh the actual logging itself no no you don't it it it the the cost of um I think it varies year to year I don't think it's a big number I mean if you're making $100,000 off of it that's probably a lot because a lot of it is depends on the type the type of wood right the type of tree and then what you can get for get for that wood on the market because a lot of the a lot of the wood up there is not high quality it and they so they sell it for like Pulp or paper um there's not it's not like the a farce full of like mahogany and you know and Oak right right those aren't the trees that you're that you're harvesting right yeah on the on the um on the um my on the credits on the environmental credits yeah how many acres I know there was a sub I know a couple companies 10 years ago whatever bought substantial uh environmental credits on the acreage up there how many acres do you have do we have left to sell for environmental credits it's the whole it's the whole package they they sell it as a as a lot meaning 20,000 Acres so so a company TP the way those carbon credits work so a corporation will will buy the carbon value of that 20,000 Acres so that there's a whole kind of calculation a calculation that goes into okay you have so many trees of this variety and it's a very comp complicated formula of how they figure out okay it can it our Watershed can absorb X number of tons of carbon per year and then they they go out on the market and then corporations will buy that with so we get that income but what it's what what they're buying is the oxygen they're paying us to keep it wooded green right which we're going to do anyway so it's the whole carbon Market is a little bit of a but but there's no more there's no more credits to be purchased it or sold corporations will buy it for a a block of time so so they may buy it for like a year or two or three and then then it'll go back on the market and and somebody else will buy it so it it doesn't it's not like you break it up where Corporation a is buying a thousand acres and the corporation B is buying 2,000 acres right it's all sold as one big block right yeah uh th this is a a major concern of mine with the with the election last week um I from what I understand there's a possibility that Mr Kennedy might be in charge of Health and Human Services or whatever we don't have any I mean what happens he he on top of the vaccinations he also is against fluoride and water we are still currently putting the fluoride in the water correct correct and what happens are we are we going to continue to do this or is it something that the federal government can come in and say we don't any fluoride in the water and we're forced to do it so so fluoride is it's a it's it's voluntary right we we we do not have to add it today okay it it is a voluntary treatment um there is no requirement that we add fluoride now we've been adding fluoride since 1971 um if you believe what you read from the DDC and the dental American Dental Association they they all say it was one of the best public health initiatives of the 20th century because it you know promotes healthy teeth and so for so on right um personally I think you know before we rush into any sort of R make a rash decision you know you got to wa wait and see what the Regulators are going to say about this you know um and then also get some feedback from like the medical and dental professionals to say Hey you know is it is it really in 2024 is it doing anything is is it is it useful is it not useful can we afford to eliminate it you know so I think you know before you hear about any kind of like government Fiat from on high let's just wait and see what how things shake out here all right um that's it I just want to uh you know other than that I I've told you this story a million times about how um the quality of our water I've lived all over the country I lived in you know California I lived in multiple States and I've never ever had better water than in the city of betham so to all you and your staff and your workers everybody that maintains it thank you very much it's it's it's really um Eddie I think told you this you know before when my wife had cancer um she you know obviously did a lot of research on it and she was against everything that had uh acidity in it and she went out and bought these you know we started having one day I show up and there was five gallon you know from uh all these different water companies I you I don't know why you're doing this you know Beth water is the best water she for two years she's buying all this water having it delivered and one day it's one of the funniest videos I have of her um you know we did I see you know what let's do a test in a city test so we had these little strips we had uh Deer Park and you know all all the high-end uh bottled water companies on the table and then I went over to the tap and put some betham water and she's doing her strips and the look on her face when bethleem came back as the lowest city of all the water and and here she was spend all this money you know a bottle of water and Beth betham water was the best and uh you I think it's it's proven every year by the you know the awap awards that we win so again I just want to thank you and all your staff and uh you know we we have really really good water and you know it's it's really something that should be appreciated so thank you thanks thank you Mr cam any other questions or comments from the other members of the committee Council women quch or layered councilwoman lared okay um so again like uh councilman Callahan said thank you for all the work that you and all the people uh in water and sewer do for our community um and your presentation was really really interesting as uh you know this is my first go round with budget so it it was neat to see the whole uh process um you mentioned that the EPA wants all Le placed in the service lines um in 10 years correct um so thinking forward to any potential changes with new Administration um at the federal level if that's not a federal priority anymore is that something that Bethlehem would intend to continue are we receiving funding from the federal government to do that um or is that inly funded that's a good question um yeah because we you know we try and follow federal and state regulations right we're not we are not I try and tell people we're not Regulators we're operators so we try not to get too far out ahead of ourselves in doing things that we may not need to do from a regulatory standpoint we do not have the research capability we don't have the scientists um so we kind of rely on those regulat to kind of help guide us to say okay this this this element is safe this element is not safe you should replace this you should use this you should use you should do that so you know and usually the regul you know it's hard to predict what's going to happen but normally the regulatory process takes years you know normally like I said somebody just doesn't come up and on day one and say okay you're now we'll do this this instead of that you know these regulations take years to develop they got to go through the research Pro process testing public comment etc etc which is all kind of like per the law before it even before it comes to us so if they're going to change and say okay say just say for the sake of argument okay we're going to like okay forget about Le the lead and copper rule all right you're all you're on your own okay then then what do you do then we're going to have to have a make a decision um on what to do because you know number one you know the funding is kind of like okay who's going to pay for it um so that is currently federally funded no there's no no there's no well we would have to apply for it right there's there's just there's just no money you know with the infrastructure Bill and you know pen vest you know it's just you know you have to actually go ask for it apply for the funding right uh to do anything like this and like I said on the water side we're very limited right now in the amount of debt we can carry okay just because we have that high debt load um so it's it's kind of like we just have to approach it kind of like um logically just to see how how we can get things done in a financially you know responsible manner while taking care of these regulatory matters you go to you know you also have to remember the lead has been in our system now for a hundred years um or we we we treat our water with a um corrosion inhibitor which is by Design coats the inside of the piping so that that lead does not leech out of the metal out of the pipe into the water stream is that a reasonable that's been a that that that has been the reasonable approach now for decades of course now The Regulators changed their minds and said okay now instead of doing that now we want you to replace the lead which is okay we'll do it so um so unless and until they change the the rules we're going to go you know full speed and start replacing lead services and get it all done in the next 10 years and like I said it's not you know we have 37,000 Services probably less than a couple thousand were are G it's our B our educated guest is how much lead is still in our system so it's it's it's it's it's so it's manageable to do over a 10year period um in terms of the Watershed the 20,000 Acres um what levels of protection are on that land you said you work with like the natural lands and um what are the different levels of protection on that that package of land to you know in terms of um pollutants in terms of allowable Industries in terms of who has access to the land um Etc well there is so we have a source waterer a source waterer protection plan that gets reviewed and and um updated every year there is environmental easements that I think the nature conservancy has for a lot of our properties so the nature it's either the nature conservancy or other third parties so they have there are covenants and easements on our property to to keep it the way it is basically to preserve the waters so that there is no development so there's a lot of things in place um that protect the Watershed in in the way it is and there's probably things in the bethle in the authority um their mission statement and their Covenant because you remember the author the city set up the Bethlehem Authority The Authority owns all the property so the authority also takes it very seriously um you know protecting and there may be things in their covenants and their mission statement that says this is what you shall do uh by law so aside from the uh purchase of the carbon credits and the logging are there other Industries presently uh you know and and the water but uh presently using that land for money-making Endeavors uh far I think there's some Farmers um there may be some Farmland up there um that we lease to um there are utility easements so there are like like PP like electric lines and gas transmission Mains that go through our property so those those companies have access to their infrastructure um I don't know who else it's overwhelmingly undeveloped I mean I mean there I mean there's G there's hunting allowed in certain areas okay um there's no fishing not on the reservoirs fishing's not allowed um oh yeah yeah that's about it we uh we own the property we don't sell it to yeah person that person we can control uses it for what so keep it relatively undeveloped yeah okay um and then you mentioned cyber security and the robust team um is that an internal team is that a contracted company um how are we handling that so we have an internal it Department like the city the city so they so they take care of like all all of the city um it Enterprise stuff so bill so you think about the the billing um you know purchasing billing you know our Billing System is part of the city's what Finance plus Community plus system um and then specifically we have a skada system skada is the systems that we use at the plants that's the Wastewater and water treatment plant that's the internal um um data management and computerized system so our plants are sort of semiautomatic you know there's there's a lot of you man machine interface going on um but those systems are kind of self are self-contained to each of the plant each of the plants and there's a there's a way to get in from out side but you have to go through a virtual private Network and there's a lot of password protection there's a lot of barriers preventing nefarious actors from Gaining access to our Data Systems I just kind of leave it at that um and then in terms of the you fluoridation but also any of the other chemical treatments um are most of those or how much do we rely on um additives from outside of the United States that may end up subject to tariffs moving like into the next year yeah um well I think all the chemicals are produced in the United States you know it's all part of the petrochemical industry which is you know there's plants all over the country all over the world really um I there may be some raw materials that those plants get from other countries in certain very limited sort you know fashion not not that we would buy but if we're if we're purchasing a finished product right from company a that company is obviously getting raw material from other sources uh to make those chemicals and some of those raw materials may come from other countries to what extent honestly I don't know um but you haven't heard anything about needing to prepare for significant price increases or buying ahead anything I mean we've just went through actually coming out of the pandemic our chemical budgets probably doubled since the 19 20 from 2019 till now chemical cost of chemicals have gone up drastically um just because of supply chain issues and so forth and so on and they they have sort of moderated but they're not going I don't think they're going back down um but they sort of like flattened out um but no other than that I haven't heard anything about uh tariffs impacting you know chemical production like I said most of that stuff is made in un States all right I think that covers my questions thanks for your thorough information okay thank you councilwoman quch thank you thank you um I think that uh there's a theme as you can tell there's a lot of concern uh from many of us about what's going to happen and and in in terms of water and waste water treatment um I think you can imagine there's some alarm on the part of folks who um want to move ahead with things like uh posos monitoring and testing uh and the other uh you know sort of um evolution of of regulations uh that that will be Stripped Away uh not to mention things that have probably been in there for decades that uh there may be interest in the new Administration in uh uh clawing back so there's there's obviously a lot of concern and and I share those concerns um I did want to ask about posos uh testing and sampling so when it comes to the uh the drinking water at what stage is the testing done uh by stage you mean where like where yeah like it's finished finished is it finished right finished War at the where with the Filtration plant so it's the it's the um where it leaves the filtration plant so so it's it's it's that portable it's the finished water as it leaves the Filtration plant okay and then the the sampling that's happening at the wastewater treatment plant that's different than the testing that's done of the drinking water or is that it's a different method I mean you're testing for the same things um there are technically actually no regulations yet on the Wastewater side but we started we're starting to test proac actively uh both at the plant and also some of our suspected industrial customers right um just to kind of get a handle on what those numbers look like we just started doing that like this past like third quarter okay um so we don't this is bench marking right now orre right right now there's no like I said there's no regulatory requirement for any Wastewater testing right yeah correct there's no requirement those those Rags have been under development for a little while I I think because I think just my personal opinion I think it's it's I think they're finding it difficult to get their hands around that just because that everybody knows that peos is in the waist streams right so then the question is okay if you're going to measure for it what do you going to do about it right so that's that's the big I think question mark that's out there about that right so and so then um when the water is released into the Lehigh that's the slide that has remained on the screen for a long time um at that point that has been uh that has been through rigorous testing that it has to pass before it can go into the stream and we have a license to release it but under the understanding that the treatment creates certain level you know reduction in levels of anything we'd want to put into the river right there there right we have a permit npdes permit from the D so we have to monitor for certain elements chemicals uh chemistry um when we release you know obviously it's it never shuts off so it's a constant flow right uh so we're monitoring every day um like I said there there are no posos right there's no limits there's no right there's nothing so we there's just nothing we can correct and so if uh the next head of the um you know the federal uh EPA uh you know goes forward with ripping away regulation which is certainly something that uh in the previous four years of the incoming president's um Administration was something he bragged about a lot um I think that I do share uh councilwoman lear's concern when you say we're an operator not a regulator um about taking steps backward from where we are now um and I understand that uh they may tell you that you can go ahead and do whatever you want uh because it's going to you know save so much money uh I would just say that uh you know we are I know allowed to have stricter um controls right we can we can actually um at the local level um require correct a higher level of of you know regulation um so I just I just want to say that this is just my my having an opportunity to say this I would be on board with uh if they were to tell us we could do whatever we want um working with my colleagues to make sure that um we're at least keeping the level of quality control um and safety in our uh water and wastewater treatment um system and I want to thank your um your folks for doing a tremendous job it's it's really incredible what you do and I have one last question and it is about the water um so we all know that a couple times a year when you flush the hydrants the water's Brown everyone complains and all of that so uh recently had a neighbor complaining on Facebook and it wasn't during a flushing thing and I know that you've talked about the inversion and the smell and the taste in certain parts of the Northeast um he was he was saying it was happening on the West Side um but one of his comments was this never happened when I lived in Philadelphia you know why can't we keep our water from getting Brown every once in a while unexpectedly can you just explain what's different about our water system from Philadelphia well from what I know about Philly um I think we're both surface water systems so that means you're getting water from a surface system so but ours comes from reservoirs I think Philly pulls it out of either the skookul Andor the Delaware River um H beyond that I will say this every every source is different right every source is different they have Source has its own challenges its own little quirks maybe its own little kind of uh impurities that you got to deal with whether it's a river or a lake or a reservoir or a well um water is a funny thing that can um that carries a lot of different impurities depending on where you are on the planet um so treating Philadelphia water may be a lot different from treating Bethlehem water right the processes maybe a little different right every every place is a little different so um beyond that I don't know if I can really compare uh what what they do versus what versus what we do um we all we but at the end of the day we all have to follow the pretty much the same regulations right because Philly's in Pennsylvania we're in Pennsylvania we all have to follow the D so at the end of the day you know you have to produce a water that meets certain quality parameters it may taste a little different just because taste and odor are subject to elements that you may not be able to control through filtration or other chemical treatment water is a funny thing that can just carry a lot of little microscopic impurities that just get through and you just have and that that that's what gives every water system slightly different taste so hope that I hope that helped appreciate it thank you okay any other questions or comments from members of council from Mr bosola councilwoman cramy Smith thank you well I go to Billy pretty often and I'll tell you the one thing there's a major difference I think in the water because I won't drink it it's certainly much much better in Bethlehem so I'm not sure what the process is but um I just want to say again um like everyone thank you so much to you and your staff because the quality of water is you know Boran just awesome I think everybody knows betham water is really great um and you keep the toilet toilets flushing as as needed so we really appreciate that I just did a couple quick questions on um page 291 we talked about the 2 million for the reservoir replacement and I think I read like was that was that like a hundred years old or something and that I was wondering what the lifespan will be of um after we put the $2 million in hopefully hopefully another hundred years yeah well is that a possibility it's it's a con we're going to re the existing tank is concrete the new tank will be concrete and concrete has a very long lifespan okay I was I was just curious because um 100 years was a long long time okay and then you said about um I know I'm glad we addressed the red flag issue as far as overuse and you said you get like maybe an average of 15 the 10 to 15 per month of um you know excessive use what what are the main reasons for that are you seeing any kind of patterns regarding what the main reasons are for that a lot of it is is uh well it it could be a it could be a valid use like if somebody's like watering the lawn or filling a swimming pool right that we see like on any given day so it could be a valid use it could be something like somebody has a run running toilets are no notorious um problems if somebody toilet is running and they don't address it that flow can add up quickly if if if left unattended or any other like running faucet or a leak um so it it it it varies okay just curious yeah and and then like you said they are the people are contacted right away when you can right right when they're on the news right the news system okay um and I think I know the answer this on page 242 we talked about purchas Ser services that approached this um take up about 50% of the budget um is there any way that any of them can be done in house I mean I'm assuming n it would be right is it a matter of that it's a Specialized Service you know Services let's put it that way uh you're looking at sewer fund purchase Services um it was on page 242 24242 yes so that that that's kind of like a catchall that includes do they throw like all the general charges in there Lenny do you know yeah that include that's like a catchall category that includes like all general fund charges um Insurance pensions is it pensions in there um or is that in payroll Personnel I think it's in Personnel okay you know Professional Services uh bottom line um Capital Appropriations there we have bottom line is we we have given our given our the size of our Workforce we have to Outsource a lot of um of what I would call just Capital work like water main Replacements um replacing 4,000 meters a year we couldn't do it with our Workforce we have to hire contractor to do that um so there's trade-offs you know between what we what we can afford both in terms of right payroll Personnel versus what we have to sub out to others and I know this might be difficult to to answer but if um would it be more cost effective if we hire more people in house to do some of them or have we ever looked at that or in the past was it done do you know well I I don't know if we really I don't know if we've really taken a hard look at that because you got to consider you know what comes along with payroll P pension health care costs Etc Etc the equipment they got to buy um and again so a lot of the the capital work is kind of like onetime work you know even though you're um you may have to replace water mains every year but each project is kind of broken down into a finite project that you can bid out publicly bid and then hire a contractor to do it so I guess historically that's just the way we've always done those things okay and I don't specialty projects too that would be tough to yeah yeah okay and that goes into my next question on page 243 I noticed um you have a loss of one position from 2023 24 and can you just explain that that it you you're down one position it was you were 39 and 23 and then 38 and 24 and 38 anticipate in 25 that was please somebody move to water yes we moved we moved a position from sewer to water so if you look at the water fund yeah the the head the total head counts still the same for the whole department water and SE it's been 106 for the past okay several years every once in a while sometime depending on resource availability or if I have maybe I need a guy here I can probably I try and steal somebody from another Bureau to fit over over here but the the total head count has always been has been the same but it worked out as far as moving that it's not that sewer is like having to do work take over for that one position correct water filtration yeah see water filtration okay great and my final question um is regarding the biosolids I know we talked about this but I'm just wondering if you know if there was any more thought to it or any other changes you know um with selling it to the farmers and we've had like groups come people that are concerned environmentally especially up north like in carbin County at the impact and I believe it was cost prohibitive to do anything else correct is there is there any way around that just because of the concerns that the people have for the environmental impact you can you can um you could send it to a landfill the um the price will triple and the landfills don't want it so there's that hurdle you can invest in um additional um drying um capabilities to make a very very dry biosolid so that you can almost sell it as at the retail level again it becomes it basically becomes fertilizer but that's a major Capital expense at the plant you can burn it I uh right that's another option we used to burn it right they used to the wastewater treatment plant when it was built they had our own incinerator there where they actually burned the biosolids um of course that you have all those herle you know again all that equipment is gone U so that's a whole another plant and regul atory uh hurdle that you have to get through in order to do that so I think the best option on today is to do what we're doing which is you we have a permit that allows us to uh um give it to to Farmers uh to use as fertilizer and we we charging them for that at all or we giving it to them for free well we pay we the farmers we we pay a company uh to truck it so um because we don't have we don't have the the the trucking uh um resources so the the the trucking company takes it and gives it I don't know if they make you know if the farm makes money okay or if it's like sort of like free yeah it it it kind of once it leaves the plant it's kind of like out of our hands sort of right um and then that because we're permitted to get to to get rid of it for beneficial use and then each Farm has it his own permit to receive and spread that biosolids on his farm because he's he's restricted on what he can do how much he can take and when he can spread it on his farm and how that that contractual Rel relationship between the trucking company and the farmer is kind of like beyond our right our sphere yeah I know um I think it was like the municipal League conference they had some municipalities or cities that are doing I think like Phoenixville and N Out West that they're um reusing it and turning it into energy and they're actually able to sell it they're burning yeah they burn it they burn it to turn into energy and yeah they but there's a lot of capital money that would be need correct right yes we would have to invest in the in the plant upgrade sub substantial capital in order to do that is that something that you foresee us being able to do at some point do you have any idea what the cost is capital wise to get that going well I think that Phoenixville one was I want to say $5 million order of magnitude and I think their plant is like um you know four times as small as smaller than ours right um so it's it's more I think it's just because of the volume that they're dealing with they're not producing as much so I I don't I don't know I honestly um think that you know the the the current en environment is such that the way we're disposing of the biosolids today is probably the the uh the the um I say least painful for all involved you know once you get started going down the road of doing either burning it or or sending it somewhere else look nobody wants I get it nobody wants I don't say nobody it's it's biosolids right it's it has a bad connotation but you got to do something with it um so I think what we're doing with it right now is probably the least painful and most costeffective solution that we have in order to to deal with it at present maybe not the most environmentally friendly but yeah that that that's probably debatable as well too so but we may not yeah you know we may be fighting for environmentally yeah um friendly ways of doing things anyway so but it's something that maybe could be looked into in the future so all right well thank you again thanks Ed and thanks to all your staff appreciate it thank you councilwoman anything from Council Wright councilwoman Leon uh are the farmers that farm on our land allowed to use bio solids or the fertilizer you were saying that there's some Farms by The Watershed are they allowed to use the fertilizer I don't ours well there's there's some in Carbon County carbon more like Mahoney I believe they said yeah I'm not surea going up to the Pocono like Beltsville but I don't think it's up as far as the reservoir yeah I don't I don't think there's any but I don't know if there's any restrict rtion on it but I don't think there's any far I think the farmers up in the up in our Watershed are probably small they have probably smaller operations so it wouldn't the basol that we're sending it out to our Farms like most of them are out in like commercial Burks County Lancaster County um C you know East East Central P Pennsylvania we have big big farms that that they can take a lot of this large volume stuff in a hypothetical world if you wanted to put regulations on whether or not again operator not regulator but if if you as a watershed owner wanted to say no you can't use that is that within your right or does that have to come from no because we own the property yeah we can do we can say yeah we can do whatever we cool all the questions I had other than that one were were asked and I would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to thank you and your entire team for everything you do Waters life and you guys serve the city well thank you councilman w I will uh join the chorus of thanks for your work you're protecting vulnerable systems and we're really grateful and thank you for being here tonight so that we can thank you in person for for having a late night with us um also between your presentation and my excellent comments and questions of my colleagues most of mine have been asked um thank you for the great presentation I didn't anticipate seeing a family of otter tonight and I'm not mad about it um but one little thing had come up when I was looking through the budget just remembering last last year not too long actually after budget season there was the water main break in front of Trinity Episcopal um on market and then we had voted to upgrade your software I think to include like a new GIS system that would allow you to sort of understand what was happening underground am I remembering this correctly we H we uh so this is the water main break on Market in front of the church that happened um I think around around Christmas year um we finally got a contract with an engineering firm to do some geot technical in investigation if that if that's what you're talking about okay maybe that's maybe that is what I'm thinking about to see they they did they just did it I guess last week or a couple weeks ago they did a scan of the road and sidewalk where they can kind of see what's going on underneath in ter to see if there's any more voids or sink holes or any other basically imperfections in the ground underneath to because we've had we've historically had a lot of uh water main braks on long night street with that were coincident with sink holes right so there's a lot of right history there so that so we expect to get those results soon and then that will tell us whether or not we still have some voids underground to deal with that where where we maybe have to you know dig and and install more grout or soils or something to kind of reinforce those okay so that survey was really just for that area that area okay I was thinking it was City G the gis program if if if that's what you're that that that um that plan was so we have a GIS map of our entire system both you know both water sewer storm water streets um that plan is to upgrade our technology so that the gas can be more useful for us to be able to manage our assets that's what I was thinking about we have like I said we have 500 miles of water main we have 14,000 valves few thousand fire hydrants so the more data we can load into this program with with ages and um condition and all other data will help us be better a uh manage those assets and then ultimately then it becomes a more of a predictive model that will guide us in our Capital plan so but but but it's a long process to get there sure and we're not there yet okay so that's still that is still in process because I was curious to know if what we had learned if anything but that's that's that's that's a multi-year project that we're still working on okay thank you Mr Bull a couple questions I had and comments before I turn it back over to council before we have our public comment tonight uh I did just want to recognize there are no rate increases in this year's budget correct correct that's explicitly outlined in your presentation and I know there's some Debt Service but there's no borrowing for 2025 planned for either water sewer correct correct thank you sir uh you had referenced the 43% um of users that are on the Ami that's the new platform cor yes now is that 43% of City users or system user is that systemwide or Citywide system systemwide and then can you just give us a little background about the methodology used to how you're replacing the meters are you targeting certain areas are you looking at when the old meters were installed to switch Mount sort of how how are you Distributing the new meters across the system so it's a combination of uh um go going after age so we have a lot of meters that are older than 20 years old that were installed in the 1990s so there's that population of meters and again those meters are scattered all over the system uh so that's that's one thing we're looking at the other is is the way we're um tackling it is we're going by what our meter routes right so meter and billing routes so you know we have we like we we do billing every every week and it's not like we just do one bill every quarter we have 37,000 customers so that could build every quarter mostly turns out we're we're pumping out about 3,000 bills every week so you so you have those 3,000 customers in theory their quarter would start this week then another 3,000 would start next week and so on and so forth so every so you have 3,000 customers on different rolling quarters right throughout the year those meter readers then are reading those 3,000 customers this week right any given week so in order to get the biggest um um benefit when we're replacing meters so we're trying to replace them by groups meaning by meter route meter reader route so if you can eliminate an entire route of whatever couple thousand meters then that would eliminate that route and then the meter readers can go on and work on these other routes and the routes are broken up by geographic area and again there's a lot of overlap between in city and outside City just because the geography is such that you know if I'm if I'm in the city of Bethlehem on one side of the street and Bethlehem Township is on the other other side of the street the route might not differentiate between the city and Bethlehem Township it could be Encompass an entire kind of geographic area right so it's not like we're just focusing on Fountain Hill or Freemansburg or this it's kind of like all over the place understood and I appreciate that background and to be up front I forgot that it's a rolling quarter so seeing 43% of system users on the new platform you probably have certain weeks where if not 100% near 100% utilization of the Ami system I would think right with 43% system wide yes it's possible any given week and 12 different kind of billing you have 12 different billing groups if P if you will understood over over a three-month period thank you yes and then as it relates to the the fluoride that was brought up do you know if in terms of our uh neighboring providers or or what the if they also add fluoride to the water or is it the industry standard pretty much to add fluoride to the water do you know I I have no working knowledge of it other than years ago I probably my first Council campaign someone whose door I knocked on brought it up so I asked my dentist and my dentist uh said then and still says now yeah put drink water with fluoride didn't like yeah no question honestly I don't does LCA LC LCA does yes that be that would include Allentown and Easton anybody know East they do yes so our two biggest um utilities uh LCA which includes Allentown and Easton Suburban which includes Easton both add fluoride so I think you would find that in a lot of utilities the larger ones are the ones that the fluoride some of the smaller ones may not and again it may be due to budget restrictions and of course people who are on Wells aren't aren't getting any fluoride either so I I would ask as we move into the new year new federal Administration as we talked about to to keep Council up to date whether it be a council meetings through Public Works committee whatever would be of any I know as you referenced before there is Administrative law at the federal level that dictates Ru making and and What needs to go into these changes as we've also seen over the years they could get kind of creative with their interpretations of administrative law so as it relates to any of those um regulatory changes or things that may be impacting how we any changes to how we've historically operated our system and what we've provided to the consumers any updates would be appreciated if there's anything worth knowing sure absolutely thank you and then the just last one little side I also note I appreciated Mr Callahan's um story that that he had shared recently I got to tour in my personal life uh a commercial user who's a consumes a lot of water in a month they had no knowledge of me being on counil I don't walk around with my badge on and they went on this long five minute um explanation about the quality of betham drinking water and why they're based out of Bethlehem and how much they love the drinking water and I just nodded along oh really Beth water so good but it was just one of those things that is common knowledge to us who consume it and a lot of folks who will never come into this room but in just regular conversation showing appreciation for knowing when they open up their faucet they could drink what comes right out of it and I know I and like everyone else who has a family appreciates it too so thank you Mr Bull and everybody who stuck around this evening anything else from other members of council Mr Callan we we ever think about selling it say that we ever think about selling it or bottling it so Oh you mean selling water the water we need a brewery need a yeah we need a brewery need a bottling plant really plastic yes there used to be one but they closed be interesting anything else from members of council thank you Mr BOS appreciate so we'll have our second public comment or anything that Mr bosola presented this evening is there anyone in the wide Center who would to make comment seeing none that concludes public comment tonight I will remind everyone that our second budget meeting is scheduled for tomorrow night Tuesday November 12 again at 6m here in town hall the final reading and and enactment of the 2025 budget ordinances those are going to take place on Tuesday December 19 2024 at the regular council meeting get home safe everyone first budget meeting ised sure thank you so much Lenny thank you did we get [Music] Brian we're looking good so we're for a change everybody else okay just let us know she's just keep her head down