Council - Regular Meeting

I take two. This evening's meeting is to order. I ask that we all rise for the Pledge to Apply.

Mr. Raymond. Present. Mr. Callahan. Present. Mr. Colon. Ms. Daniels.

Present.

Ms. Pliatek.

Present.

Ms. Laird.

Present.

And Ms. Leon.

Present this. We have one citation for firefighter David Falco. David Falco is not with us tonight, but we'll make sure that he gets his citation. Moving on to the approval of the minutes. Any members of council have any comments on the minutes? The minutes will stand approved. Moving on to public comments. Our first public comment is on subjects not being voted on with a five-minute time limit. I have two people signed up. The first person is Harry Faber.

Hello, Harry Faber. I am in this program right now, aside from my master's program, called Capitalist Incarceration and the Fight for Freedom. I just left my class on Wednesday. listen to the recording because it was so good, but I'm here today to talk about Flock. I struggled with addiction like my father before me, and addiction is a self-destructive behavior. In addiction counseling, we learn this tactic about setting up barriers. The easiest way to stay sober is by avoiding alcohol altogether. This means a good barrier for an alcoholic is to avoid going to bars or other establishments where alcohol is served and encouraged. By not going to bars, you lower the pressure of temptation to drink. And let me tell you, it's a very easy temptation, given how much pain there is witnessing the devastation of our planet and its inhabitants and that cause to the conscientious soul. But addiction is not solely an individual crisis. It is imbued into and plaguing our society's political, economic core. We are addicted to convenience and spectacle. Our society is addicted to war and plundering the dominated, whether that be racialized and disenfranchised peoples or mother nature and the climate. Ruth Wilson Gilmore's Abolition Geography taught me that a geographical imperative lies at the heart of every struggle for social justice. When justice is embodied, it is then therefore always spatial, which is to say part of a process of making a place. Freedom is a place. And when we accept that freedom is a place, the question becomes, how do we make such a place over and over again? It begins with the infrastructures that we invest in. You cannot expect a society producing bombs and other weapons of mass destruction not to explode people, not to destroy and massacre. In the same vein, you cannot expect a society which depends upon oppression and exploitation to build a massive surveillance infrastructure and expected not to be used by those in power to eliminate their class enemies. Surveillance is the instrument of mass incarceration. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, I think we can all agree that this is Hitler and the Nazis' ultimate fantasy. I say, why create the power primed for abuse in the first place? The infrastructure we build and put into place is directly tied to us. I know I brought up the imperial boomerang theory many times before, but by funding and building up flock surveillance capacity, you enable the utmost infringements upon our civil liberties. As we've already seen, a flock camera in Sherwood, Arkansas misread the license plate of an SUV. This led police to detain an innocent couple at gunpoint as their six-week-old baby sat alone in a car seat in the back of the car this year. This was one of dozens of instances nationwide where flock AI cameras have led to wrongful detentions and arrests. Also, recent investigations have confirmed that police officers have used flock safety camera network to stalk and spy on women. revealed that at least 50 law enforcement officers nationwide have been accused or charged with misusing automated license plate readers. And lastly, I just want to point out, the Flock CEO takes different routes, changes his vehicle daily, making it harder for him to track. Because obviously, who wants to be tracked? They say that Flock is here to solve crime. I believe it is only an enabler of further crime by those in power. And I think it's up to us to build a geography, a place in Bethlehem that is not one for the ultra-wealthy and for the bourgeoisie or whatnot, not one for mass incarceration, but one for community and care. And I know Bethlehem is a great city. I love Bethlehem. That's why I even come to these meetings. I don't come here out of spite or hate. But geez Louise, dude, I mean, the amount of resources investing in this stuff when our public infrastructure and transportation is gone, and the amount, like the easy access it is for these companies to come in and implement this stuff, opposed to doing things for the people, even like a, geez Louise, a mess hall. I mean, come on, things that build community, opposed to just further isolating and alienating us. It's just crazy that, yeah, it's crazy, thank you.

Thank you, Harry. The next person I have signed up is Deanna.

Hello.

Sorry, my voice is a little strange. I'm battling a little bit of asthma versus excitement to go back to the school year. So it's a mix. So my name is Diana Rodriguez. This past May, the Lehigh County coroner ruled that two men died from extreme heat right inside their homes. I bring this tonight because sometimes we think that we're making technical zoning and regulatory decisions. But whether we call it that or not, what we're making here are public health decisions. And those decisions either avoid scenarios like that or they fuel scenarios like that. I believe on July 27 you received an email from MANA and they were asking some questions because they were concerned, excited and concerned about the opening doors initiative that has been going on in the city for quite a while now. And I believe some of the answers they received is that there are some meetings and committees that are dedicated where neighbors can go and kind of learn about it. I think the feedback has been that they're not always structured these meetings in a way that people can get like real answers to the things that concern us. and that's why they wrote that email. So I'm here today because I have just four of those quick questions and we would be so grateful if someone please can take notes of these questions. We have some city staff here today and they're so simple really and it's hard to go to this meeting sometimes so we'll be very grateful and it's gonna give the community a lot of peace of mind if we can get some of these answers. um i just wanted you to know that i think um there is a mixed feeling in the community especially on the west side there is excitement to see um affordable housing opportunities i mean there is a real housing crisis but people are struggling because that's not the majority of what's being built and they are afraid that the open indoors in asia if it's just gonna fuel more of what we have already seen which is seeing these expensive units being built at the expense of the natural resources that we need for our health, and that we need to be able to afford to stay here because if we keep making our roads harder, if we keep making it for people more difficult to breathe, by increasing our electricity, our water consumption bills, our visits to the hospitals, and we all know how healthcare is getting these days, So we just want to make sure that if zoning changes are going to be made, and I'm just jumping into my first question right there, if actually zoning changes are going to be made as part of the alley house and opening doors initiative, we wanted to know if these changes are exclusively going to apply to alley houses. And since the goal of the city is to create affordable housing, we wanted to know if affordability is going to be a binding condition for people to take or developers to take advantage of whatever changes they're going to make. The next question that we have has to do with fire safety. There's been a lot of emphasis on using alleys, and alleys by nature are not the most practical places to increase density. They are very tiny, they have sharp angles, they have very limited visibility, and the international fire code requires a minimum of unobstructed 20-foot access road to the building you're going to be serving. Most alleys in the city, because they are very old, are only 12. So if we're going to make an exception from what the fire code says is the safe thing to do, we want to know if that exception is going to be just made for alley houses. Or if any developer can now say, well, you made the exception for alley houses, you cannot discriminate against bigger buildings. So now the neighbors are concerned that we're going to be opening the doors not to affordable housing. We're going to be opening the doors to developers to have buildings in tiny alleys which means more fire risk. Fire is going to spread faster in a very constricted space. And obviously, we are very terrified of that. So we just wanted to know if an exception is going to be made if the language that's going to be used in this ordinance or procedures is going to say explicitly for alley houses. The third question is the way that this on-field or in-field development is being used. We are very excited about the idea of taking maybe a garage or a structure that already exists and converting it into an affordable unit for the family that truly needs it. But we are terrified that we are literally targeting the little green spaces between houses. These are not some garbage, useless places. These are green spaces we need to be able to confront global warming. All we have those spaces are we're going to cook inside our houses. So please don't treat these in-field spaces as like an open opportunity to be whatever they are, because we need that for our health. um finally i'm just hoping and the neighbors are hoping that someone please is looking at the cumulative effect that all of these isolated projects are having upon the same communities over and over again thank you so much guys i really appreciate it so you are taking notes i appreciate it so much thank you so much i have no one else signed up so i will go around the room so this is the five minute

comment on things not being voted on this evening. So I'm going to start in the center. Mary Jo.

Mary Jo McCool, 449 Grandview Boulevard. Several things to express tonight. Bike routes through the city sound great. applause for an attempt to encourage less environmental footprint. I see several problems. First, all those utilizing the public streets need to be educated and in many instances reeducated about the rules of the road. Stop signs are totally a foreign entity as they are ignored totally. I need 20 feet and 20 hands to count the number of times stop signs and stop lights are ignored. I also want to restate that the speed limit is also ignored. Education is only part of the issue. All bikes need to be licensed and registered. Police patrols need to be more prevalent to function as a reminder to all those who use the road While I'm grateful for the speed indicator on Grandview Boulevard, it is now a moot point and totally ignored by traffic on Grandview Boulevard. Why? No consequences, and drivers know it. We residents requested flashing lights on the stop signs at Glendale Avenue and Florence Street. City Engineering Department needs to take a long look at the intersection of Grandview Boulevard and Glendale Avenue. Visibility is extremely poor due to the head-on parking along Grandview Boulevard. Many homes have more than two vehicles and do not utilize parking in the rear of their homes, adding to the congestion. Next point I would like to address is the flooding of Grandview Boulevard and Ritter Street. If you want to see a video, check the Friends for Responsible Development of the Former Bennett's Lot Facebook page. There are two videos showing flooding, one looking west and the other looking east from Ritter Street. The force of the water forced the manhole cover to dislodge and water was shooting two feet in the air. the developer's plans for bethlehem portion are preliminary it proposes five buildings and paving the portion directly across from the used car dealer at grandview and broad broad street for parking and an entrance to the property off of grandview that's only going to force the water because it's paved down onto grandview and further flood the beth while the While the developer's plans for Bethlehem portion are preliminary, it proposes five buildings, paving the portion, as I said, across from there. While the preliminary plan, this could only serve to exasperate the flooding issue. As city officials are aware, there is a major flaw in the underground stormwater pipe. Allentown is a foot larger than that of Bethlehem. There are also only four storm drains along the entire length of Grandview Boulevard, located at the intersection of Ritter and Grandview Boulevard. Grandview Boulevard is scheduled to be paved this month or next. I would strenuously like to see the city contact the developer and advise them to replace the smaller diameter pipe with one that measures the same as that on the Allentown side. before paving. I would also like the city to upgrade the pipe along Ritter Street prior to paving Grandview Boulevard. By doing this, the paving would not have to be dug up later and thus disrupting a fresh paving job and creating new issues. While I realize this would delay the paving of Grandview Boulevard, I believe it would be more cost effective to the taxpayers. And I really don't want And we really don't want to add additional burden on the city residents that have just endured two-way hikes by PPNL and the school districts averaging 10% total increase to the homeowners. For several years now, businesses and homeowners have been paying a quarterly stormwater runoff fee, as Bill Shire calls it, a regressive tax. I have inquired numerous times as to how this additional money figures into the budget and personally never received a satisfactory answer. I believe freeing up some of this money could go a long way in remedying this flooding issue. No one can accurately predict the weather, but I'd rather be ahead of an issue than behind. I stated my concerns now it's in the hands of this council and administration to start truly listening to those who elected you into power. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Mary Jo. Bill Shire, then I'll work my way back.

Well, to quote Monty Python for something entirely different, affordable housing. Bill Shire, by the way, in 1898 in Avenue. There's a saying in the consultant industry in which service. The saying is that the solution to a problem, half of the solution to a problem is to define the problem correctly. When it comes to affordable housing, we have been fixated, myself included, on how can we make housing more affordable. But To a certain extent, we're dealing with a symptom and not looking at the causes of the affordable housing problem. And this past week, I realized rather belatedly I should start looking at it as an economist. By the way, this is going to be part one of two.

Remedies in part two.

We all know from basic economics that when prices are rising, either supply is decreasing or demand is increasing or both. So let's look at it from that perspective. The supply of housing is not decreasing, but it is not rising, some say, as fast as it used to. Two things are quoted. One is that urban areas are running out of open land. And the second thing I've encountered is that some local jurisdictions are adding more requirements for quality of housing, et cetera. While both things I think are true, I don't think they're substantial enough to be the main cause. Incidentally, I'm going to end up blaming Wall Street. So let's look at the demand side. Are people richer in demanding more housing? No. As a matter of fact, there's evidence that increase in wages in particular are lagging behind the increases in the cost of living. Do we have more people? Well, we do, but population is increasing at a slower rate. And also we're getting rid of people right now that we don't want to have here. I don't include myself in the weed. So what is it? Well, the clue is in this housing bill that was adopted by the Senate, 82 to 15. And then there was a similar vote in the House. Our president refused to sign it, giving the rather flimsy excuse, that he wanted them to pass the SAVE Act first, which would restrict voting. This bill hurts his friends on Wall Street, let me put it that way, because it has a limit, and this is an eye-opener, a limit of 350 houses that can be owned by one institution. So what's happening here? Why is Wall Street buying up single family homes and renting them out all over the country? Well, there's money to be made, obviously. And also maybe they're running a scrimp on maintenance. And that would increase their profits. So we would get the absentee landlord problem on steroids. I think that's the main reason why we have this affordable housing problem. Now, we can continue to try to find more affordable housing. But in a sense, we're dealing with the symptom and not the cause. The cause is Wall Street. And what can we do about that? Well, I have some suggestions. But you're going to have to wait for the next meeting. Well, then that's about it for tonight. I knew Harry was going to like what I was going to say tonight.

see you later thank you bill anyone else in the center let's start in the back all right my name is mr schaefer and i live at 1242 north boulevard i'm i'm going to stand here and talk about the apartment building your three-story apartment you're going to put up three blocks from my house I watch 50, 60 kids go by my house every day. When I go up the street, I see 100, not 100, but 50 cars parked. Teachers, whoever you're along to, whatever. But I know we got a lot of parking. Five blocks from where a school is and the traffic there is unbearable in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening. I watch those kids walk sometimes three or four at a time, walk right across the street. Not where a car's got to stand on its brakes because they got to go across the street and the car is making a right-hand turn. I'm dead set against that apartment. Three blocks from the school, they want to put a three-story high rise up. Can you imagine the traffic that's going to be in that area close to that school and what those kids are going to have to dodge every day? I see the traffic. I live at 1242 North Boulevard. I see them walk up 15, 20 kids a day. They got to cross three or four blocks before they get to the school. And now you want to put a high rise or a three-story condominium? maybe five blocks from where the school is, as far as I'm concerned, it's putting those kids in danger. You know, they gotta walk across those five blocks of the street to get up to that school. And I see it every day where someone's got a slammer and brakes on because the kids are walking across the street so they don't hit them. But I'm here to condemn that apartment building going up three blocks from where I live at 1242 North Boulevard. too close to a school and where i live is on 12 12 42 north border north forward which is the main drag right there and you want to put that that apartment complex up three blocks from my house and five blocks from the school is anybody thinking about those kids is anybody worried about those kids no they're just worried about produce the three-story apartment house up there, and who knows how many apartments are going to be in there, and the traffic, I know what it is on North Boulevard. And I can imagine what it's going to be when that place is built. So as far as I'm concerned, I'm dead against it. And I wanted to come here and tell you how I feel and what I think could happen. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Schaefer. You're welcome. Is anyone else in the public? Mr. Antalex.

Mr. Antalex, 70% rich.

Little shards provoke me to change my theme.

If person, and celebrated the 50th anniversary of being a borough, and came back to Bethlehem today, they'd have a coronary immediately. Why? Because back then, the Borough of South Bethlehem had seven ethnic churches. And the persons of those churches So the predominance of real estate in that core of South Bethlehem were single family homes. And that was the core of American society. So I say, if that person, could wouldn't last simply because those affordable houses are all gone not physically but in occupancy many almost 100 doors on the south side in that area have yellow doors with American flags they belong to Americas And they're in what they call the student zone. So what has zoning, I'm repeating myself somewhere here, but I want to reinforce what Bill had said and what's been said about formal housing. And our counselor get the message to stop approving high rise buildings, as the gentleman said, because the South side had become a high rise Mecca for companies and renters. So the single family is a prehistoric animal on the South side. and any of those properties going back to single family i probably will never happen because city council supports the idea that five students are a family so only a fool would rent to a family when they can rent five individual persons A fee which is almost double what they would charge a single family. So console encourages. That kind of occupancy. So you have third street. Which at one time was the shopping center of lehigh valley with its marvelous marketplace. not becoming high rise residential properties. The area at South Broadhead was quite the historic area. You now have Archquest building and the building at Third and New. So Article 1714, which is supposed to preserve South Bethlehem, is a paper tiger. And city council, if they wish to be honest, will accept responsibility for this device. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Antares.

Is there anyone else, Ms. Blair? I just wanted to follow up with what Mary Jo had said about the flashing stop signs. Unfortunately, sadly, we've been told that that will not happen. The flashing stop signs that we requested for Grandview and Florence, and Grandview and Glendale will not happen because that only goes for new intersections. We just want it to be a reminder to people to stop. Three months, take it away, fine. After I almost got hit, just pulling out of my driveway and going down Grandview, not even 10 miles an hour, and somebody running that stop sign almost hitting me, I put a camera up. The other day I didn't need the camera, I just heard the horn go and someone coming up Grandview almost got hit by someone running across Florence Avenue. I can't tell you how many times I sit out there and I watch these cars. Maybe a flashing stop sign won't do anything, but we'd at least like to have it to try it. I can't tell you how many cars go, They slow down and they look and they keep going. They don't stop. Two motorcycles the other day came up and just kept going. And it's just really sad, especially down at the Glendale, because that's a school bus stop. What if somebody runs a stop sign and hits a kid crossing the street trying to get to the school bus stop? You're going to have a bigger problem on your hands than you think. So I just wanted to reiterate about that. Not only once, if, if, I say if, because it hasn't gone through yet, but if the building starts at Bennett Slot, how much more traffic we're gonna have on Grandview and Florence Avenue. And it's just gonna be another mess. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Kloiber. Does anyone else in the center want to comment on something not being voted on this evening? Anyone to my right. like moving on to public comments on things being voted on this evening. I had no one signed up. Does anyone in the center want to make public comment on something that is being voted on this evening? Mr. Anzals.

Stephen and Thomas again. In regards to the Dominican Festival, that I'm talking about pedestrian safety. Some of these people will not be speaking English, so realizing the signs at pedestrian light, what a flashing number means, they won't know. So when I bring up what I call a serious problem and possible involvement with fatalities, When the pedestrian lights give the pedestrian right of way, the lights are all red in four directions. All traffic stops. That's probably because of the Linsenberger building, but I cross that intersection quite often when I come to City Hall or come to Market to Main Street. And I rarely, if ever, see a pedestrian crossing with all lights red. because they don't cross on foot, they drive their cars. So, 100% safe. There is no moving traffic at Forth and Webster when the pedestrian line says walk. Very clear. Let's go to A Street. Hayes-Divins into 3rd, and 3rd Street ends and becomes Daly Avenue. Very, very busy intersection. Very busy. I also go through the intersection to go to stuff, go to school, or go to the grocery store. So I know those areas extremely well. So I can give you Here's what troubles me. The Greenway crosses a street. I see hikers and I see children on bicycles. And here's what shocks me. The traffic light at the bottom of a street is green. At the same time, the traffic So it gives both people the right of way. I have seen close calls. And we have a situation waiting for a major catastrophe. And when someone is killed, then something's going to happen. But what is the logic? A's and third in regards to pedestrian safety. I think anyone in the city should look at this problem immediately because if a child on a bicycle speeds across A's without looking and is hit by cars, killed, I will understand how a grandfather of that child would feel because it could be my grandchild if she lived in Bethlehem, but she doesn't fortunately, but I feel for that grandfather. So I think the city, Mr. Mayor, I will look at that at eight o'clock tomorrow morning and say, what's going on?

Thank you. Does anyone else in the center want to make public comment on something that is being voted on this evening? Anyone to my right? All right. That concludes our public comments for this evening. Turning to council members. Any council members have old business? Moving on to new business, any council members with new business that they would like to address? Mr. Crowley.

I just want to make a comment about Mr. Antowks' remarks. I think Mr. Antowks, I think one of the things that could greatly help over on the south side is,

and check those freshmen and sophomores.

I believe it's freshmen and sophomores.

Yeah, I know there was talk years ago about them requiring up to juniors and only seniors living off campus. I think if we all can put pressure on Lehigh University to require at least juniors, freshmen,

UNITS OVER HERE FOR FAMILIES.

THE HOUSING CRISIS, IT HAS TO BE DEALT WITH IN MULTIPLE, MULTIPLE LAYERS, FROM BUILDING MORE UNITS, MAKING MORE UNITS AVAILABLE THAT ARE CURRENTLY THERE. AND I KNOW THAT THE MAYOR'S ADMINISTRATION, THEY'RE WORKING ON SOME AFFORDABLE HOUSING UNITS, BUT AFFORDABLE HOUSING ISN'T AFFORDABLE. I mean, I think we're spending $50 million on 120 units at the Gateway Project. And that was with the land that was basically given to us for free. So each one of those units is gonna end up costing $460,000 for affordable housing. It's not affordable. So that 50 million has to come from taxpayers and grants. grants money from the state money from the community money from you know city Bethlehem if possible but it's affordable housing is not affordable to build it's very expensive so there's got to be a multiple approach to it and I think one of the things that could possibly help is that maybe we go to Lehigh University and ask them the required And whether there's a will for that or not, I don't know. But there's a lot of outside of the alley. I mean, we're trying to attack this from all different angles, alley houses, new developments, new houses, new rental properties, affordable housing products going on. And there's gotta be multiple layers. I think getting and putting some pressure on the University to have someone that at least the junior class moving back on campus, I'm just trying to give you a reason why the Southside is the way it is now. It is being taken over by all student housing, or a majority of it.

Thank you. I will just point out, and I can send this to you, Lehigh has sent out some of their long-term plans. I think that there is requests there to consider housing. So I can send you that information. I will also point out, just from the last time I was looking at the student housing overlay, it's not just Lehigh students that live there. So even if we did ask Lehigh to be a little bit more aggressive, I'm not sure that that would, there's students from DeSales. So just, I can send you the

any other person want to make thank you I just wanted to say I've had a couple of really interesting opportunities to attend some steering committee meetings the complete streets and the Steffco Boulevard steering case in the last couple of weeks I think you had one of each of those and the Steffco Boulevard plans are semi modest because it's it's you know doing work in conjunction with a street overlay project but still can really make some great progress on you know calming the traffic they're making making that street more accessible for everybody for walking just people on bicycles and cars and also for the buses so that was very exciting and then the complete streets again we've kind of reached a really great moment in that as well and you know we'll be seeing that report sometime in the not too distant future but the know i think that a lot of times we we know anecdotally we know some of the places in the city that can be on the dangerous side and when you see the data overlay that and kind of confirm some of that it is reassuring that we're not just working on anecdotal evidence, but also there were some surprises in there for me in terms of some of the places that are a little more dangerous. But no surprise at all that Broad Street, Stepco, these are places among others that we're hopefully going to be able to make strides in the future. And having this plan is really the first step. And I'll just tie that to something that a representative from dcnr said to me when we were at the opening of friendship park and i said i see you here a lot in bethlehem and he said i said you know it's really great how supportive you've been and he said well you know bethlehem has plans and that makes all the difference so i just wanted to share more planning going on for making our streets safer thank you any other council member have new business to address this evening

yes yes council vice president uh just a quick comment in response to uh i believe it was uh about the mountain area neighborhood association questions um about the uh affordable housing some of the that i did respond to the you know with a bunch of those questions and just heard back from mama yesterday uh so i'm in active conversation and we'll follow up with you outside the meeting and discuss it thank you vice president um

So I was going to follow up on that. There were quite a few zoning questions that were asked, and I think that they each deserve time and attention. So maybe we can get together after, and then we can present the information back, because that would take up a good chunk of time. I'll get with you and ask those questions and get the information. I had a quick question about traffic studies and Grandview Boulevard. I'm not sure who this question would go to, but what would trigger a traffic study over there? Or when was the last traffic study done over in the area by the Bennett lot? what would trigger if there were concerns identified in the neighborhood complaints accidents could trigger something like that or if there's a development going on we would look at traffic as well so we would see another traffic study as that land continues to be in so any other additional traffic concerns can be presented um as that development goes okay thank you so much mr alcohol um I have additional questions for Mr. Alcott, but I'll ask those after. It's just, I think that they might also take quite a bit of time. Director Collins, I had a quick question about 1242 North Boulevard. I don't believe that would have come to council for approval for any reason that's not within any of our oversight. I'm curious, has that already gone through all of its planning, through our planning commissions and stuff?

No, I believe they went for a sketch plan review of the Planning Commission and my understanding is that they are pulling the plan back. Okay. I don't believe there's any active plan.

No active plan. Okay. If that changes, I will send you an email follow-up, but if that changes, if you could just let us know so we would know when the public would have time quickly. Sure. Thank you so much for everything. that concludes our new business for the evening moving on to communications communication 6a

July 28th, 2026 memorandum from DCED business manager, Tiffany Wismer. This Wismer recommends reclassifying five existing cash accounts within the community development block grant fund budget into distinct revenue and expense accounts. The change would result in the creation of five new revenue and five new corresponding expense accounts as shown in the proposed ordinance.

And ordinance 9A is on the agenda. Communication 6B.

On August 7th, 2026, memorandum from Deputy Director of Economic Development, Sean Ziller, with an attached resolution. Mr. Ziller recommends approval of an agreement with Taggart Associates to provide professional services to support the city's upcoming enterprise zone renewal. Cost is $19,950. Completion is expected by December 31st of 2026. There are no renewals.

Resolution 10A is on the agenda. Communication 6C.

On August 12th, 2026, Memorandum from City Solicitor John F. Spark Jr. with an attached use permit agreement and a resolution. Permittee is the Dominican Festival and the joining party is ArtsQuest. The event is the Dominican Festival 2026. Activities will occur from 1 to 8 p.m. on September 13th. Premises are 1st Street from Polk Street to the Eastern Terminus and Founders Way between 1st and 2nd Streets.

Resolution 10B is on the agenda. Communication 6B.

On August 12th, 2026, memorandum exhibit and proposed ordinance from Public Works Director Michael Alcall. Mr. Alcall recommends this ordinance and its exhibit describing the legal cartway and right-of-way widths of all city streets affected by the Linden Street two-way conversion project, Broad Street Corridor Improvements Project, and the Stefco Boulevard Corridor Improvements Project.

I'll accept the motion and the second to place an ordinance on the September 1st agenda for first reading. So moved.

Second.

Any discussion?

Clerk will call the roll on that.

Mr. Callahan?

Aye.

Mr. Cologne? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Kwiatek? Aye. Ms. Laird?

Aye.

Mr. Raymond? Aye. And Ms. Leon?

Aye. Communication 6E.

august 12th 2026 memorandum consent order and agreement and proposed resolution from edward boscolla director of water and sewer resources mr bosco recommends approval of this agreement between the city and dep in response to a number of violations of the discharge permit at the city's wastewater treatment plan the agreement provides for corrective actions to address the violations the resident intensity is on the agenda moving on to reports um

The only thing I will mention is there is a survey being done by Community Actions Bethlehem that involves the Greenway and how people utilize the Greenway and also includes a rather robust discussion about traffic the Hays Street crossing of the Greenway. So I implore people to go to Community Action and fill out that survey if you want to make your voices known about things that are happening along the Greenway. That's the only thing I have to report. Turning to the mayor for the mayor's report.

Yes, several things. One is I just wanted to follow up on one of the comments that Mr. Callahan made during New Business about the Lehigh and on-campus housing. And just as like a piece, because these things with markets are constantly evolving is, you know, I agree with Mr. Antalex how terrible the outdoors are and how like the names of these properties are just, it's awful. I wish there was something we could do about it. But the dynamic there with like the amicus properties, amicus is the ones that own this portfolio of I believe 350 or 375 units. And what they did, legally of course, them all together and there was a period of time where they bought units that they didn't know they operated or they didn't even know they had acquired and we went through then and you know mr simonson and everybody in this tool worked really hard to get a lot of those units up to code i mean there were people staying in attics and things like all the things that violate the code The market challenge though is, I'm just giving a summary here, don't hold me to the exact numbers, is that the amount of money that they paid for their entire portfolio came down to something like making it up a little bit, $350,000, $375,000, $400,000 a unit under the idea that they could rent every month to Lehigh students for $3,500 or $4,000. Because there has been excess inventory and because those 350 properties, currently, there is a significant number of them that are vacant. And by that, I would say at least dozens, I don't want to put a number out there and say it's 100, 150 or 200, because I don't know what the number is. But the number is significant. And there has been encouragement as much as you can legally, to be can If you buy this unit and you think you're renting it for X amount of dollars, at some point, you would hope that they would turn around and they would rent it to people, even if they think they're not gonna get the 3,000, 3,500 and so on and so forth. Now, I believe there have been a few units that have been rented that way. That is not something we necessarily can force. We can't force you if you own a property. And even as far as like the standard of what's going on inside, all the codes and things like that, The government doesn't have the power to be like, you own this property, you need to rent it. We don't have that property. It is just as far as the market is concerned, because there are other housing opportunities that Lehigh students are living in, the demand there is kind of equaling out, in my opinion, as far as who is choosing to live in a certain manner. I won't get into all the dynamics about how 18 and 19 year olds want to live, but I think it's safe to say necessarily 18, 19, 20-year-olds were willing to live 20, 30 years ago. You can read into that comment as much as you'd like to. So we are hoping, obviously, that Amicus decides to just basically rent those properties out or sell them. I think there are some different options there as far as master leases are concerned with different organizations, whether or not it's Community Action or New Bethany. That side of the equation, as far as what you could do necessarily to help out with this, you're getting Gary properties and they didn't even know exactly which properties they purchased. A lot of the internal work was trying to get them to get these properties up to code so people could live in them. So like it's bouncing the two hands here. Is that like your students that are living in some of these properties, you don't want to kick them out on the street. They moved here in August. They want to, is you have a significant number of properties that could be rented to anybody. And like, it could be 20, 30, 40, 50, that as you said, a little bit here, a little bit here, a little bit here, a little bit here. I will also say like Lehigh's building the 400 units is not a small number to be able to keep more people on campus. And I think that's reflected having students there and on campus and things like that. So all of these dynamics are obviously at play, but I just wanted you, I wanted you to know it's like, that's kind of the current, it's not the situation where you the idea that there's going to be a profit margin and you have other housing opportunities, whether it's five same flats or six same flats, or what's the name of the one that I forget all the terrible names. What's the name of the one on the fourth street? The Marshall. So whatever the different situations are, there's other kinds of high other places. So I just want to, that's one of the things we're working on trying to think about what's the best strategy to be able to try to get some of those properties that were purchased. But obviously as you know, businesses, there's this idea that they have to evolve to the point that like, they don't want to keep losing this money right now. They're, they're just sitting there making some of them.

And I think one of the things too, is that I, I know a few owners down here and I know that in years past, And they're now down to some of the units are empty. And some of them, they're really actively trying to advertise to get people in for the next semester. Because they're empty for this semester.

Yeah. And I think there's, I mean, once again, I'm making up a little bit, but there's different options. I mean, they could try to retrofit those and basically just If you don't want to share a room, all those different dynamics. There's just so many other options that we have students to live in now if they have the money and they're used to living in that level. That's just been kind of the expectation. And there's a lot more like I'd rather live by myself in an apartment or with one other person rather than live with three or four other people, which is just a market dynamic that they're dealing with as far as how they're building on-campus housing. how how how can that evolve yeah and hopefully um the financials start hitting them where they end up selling and it becomes a single thing it's it's it's certainly impossible i think there's a lot of different options and i think you know as it evolves it was our biggest priority when there were students there obviously and mike and sarah started to dive into it it's like you don't want anybody living in a home that wasn't safe You would hope that at some point. I think it's a question of when, and I would like to be able to, on our side, connect Emicus, who's the major property owner there, with some of the other organizations that do master lease type of situations that can help us then along the continuum of report. So I just wanted to kind of give you that update as soon as possible. A couple other quick things. One is just to follow up on Councilman McQuitt's text. Our Complete Treats Plan should be done in the next couple of months and we'll be to be able to turn Stefco into a safer type of street. We are very much framing that because the investments in both our bike map things that we have already done at Minoxidil Way Trail. So like we are not starting at zero. It's like not how do you get from zero to like, marketing as walk, bike, roll, broad as a real kind of opportunity here. And basically from nine just for that one hour. And then we are starting at the Rose Garden and we're basically creating a inclusive, accessible opportunity for people to be able to go as far down to downtown as they want to. If somebody wants to walk two blocks and turn around, they can under this idea that like we are building streets for everyone. And then afterwards from 10 until 12 in the Rose Garden, we are having a basic party, food trucks, event and we have kind of morphed it into what is going to be our our annual as much as we do with our annual meeting for parks and um in the spring much as we do our annual meeting for climate action plan in december like this is going to be our complete streets bike master plan annual event where we're going to talk about what the progress has been and also like where we are going but we are trying to get as many people as possible to come out for this hour headquarters and come back um but we are also going to have opportunities for walkers and you know people in um uh with any accessibility issues to be able to participate because complete streets is not just about bikes that's a portion of it but it's basically is how are we centering experience that is as the idea that streets are not just for cars but also for people so if you have ideas about people to invite angie and janine and everybody have been trying to apart, bring your kids, whatever it might be. It's an opportunity to kind of like learn about where Complete Streets is going and just be with other people that I think are talking about what the potentials are for this idea of Complete Streets. And then the last thing I would say is tomorrow from 4 to 6, We found a triangle there that's a unique parcel. Selena and everybody at Northside Alive worked with our choice neighborhood project. People don't spend any real time there. So we are excited. School's starting next week. Kids stopping there. There's a new bus stop there. So from 4 to 6, if anybody feels like joining us, we will be there tomorrow. And Council President Leon, that, I believe, completes my report. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Saturday, September 12th.

Yep. 9 to 10 is the literal bike

you so much turning to councilman kliasek for committee reports thank you very much and having just been in new york when they actually closed down like the entire was it i think it was fifth avenue on saturday just you know summer streets it's phenomenal when people can just walk in the middle of the street i think we all know that from music fest i will that's the point of personal privilege since it's community economic development The Community Development Committee met at 6 p.m. on August 11th in Town Hall. There were two agenda items. Consideration on the first, considering amendments to yard setbacks, was postponed until another meeting as a committee member took ill and was unable to participate. Another meeting to discuss this matter will be scheduled. However, a presentation on proposed amendments involving data centers was received. That was a presentation by the city, by the administration. The committee moved the proposed amendments to this ordinance to council for its consideration. We had a really fruitful discussion, I think. We had some very informed residents and others share some of their thoughts on ways that perhaps the proactiveness of the administration in presenting this proposed amendment to the ordinance. That's my report.

Thank you. I will accept the motion in a second to set a public hearing on this matter, the matter of the data centers for 7 p.m. on October 6th, 2026 in town hall.

Make the motion.

Second. It's a motion and a second. A public hearing will be scheduled on October 6th, 7 p.m. Town Hall. Moving on to ordinances for final passage, 8a.

The ordinance of the Council of the City of Bethlehem, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties, Pennsylvania, authorizing and directing the issuance of general obligation notes, series of 2026, known as the notes, in the maximum aggregate principal amount of $25 million, providing the proceeds of the 2026 notes shall be applied to carry out refunding of all or a portion of the city's A, Outstanding General Obligation Bonds Series A of 2017, tax exempt, known as the 2017A bonds. B, General Obligation Bonds Series B of 2017, tax exempt, known as the 2017B bonds. C, general obligation bonds series E of 2017, known as the 2017 E bonds, and D, general obligation bonds series of 2019, known as the 2019 bonds. Pursuant to a refunding program, determining that sale of the notes shall be a private sale by negotiation under the act, and determining that the notes shall be non-electoral debt of the city, fixing the interest payment rates, payment dates correction denominations and registration transfer and exchange privileges of the notes and providing for book entry bonds providing for the maximum principal amortization maturities and interest rates for the notes establishing the redemption provisions of the notes accepting a bid for purchase of the notes and authorizing execution of the note purchase con contract Designating a paying agent and registrar. Designating a place and method of payment of the notes and interest thereon and making certain covenants with respect to the tax exempt status of the notes. Establishing substantial forms of the notes. Designating a sinking fund depository. covenanting to pay the principle of an interest on the notes and pledging the full faith, credit, and taxing power of the city of such purchase, establishing sinking funds for the notes and authorizing and directing payment therefrom, setting forth certain rights of the paying agent and note holders in the event of default and other rights of the parties with respect to the notes, providing for the circumstances under which the ordinance may be amended or modified. providing for the terms conditions and covenants with respect to the insurer if any for the notes authorizing and directing specified officers of the city to do and perform certain specified required or appropriate acts declaring that the debt to be incurred is within the limitation imposed by the act upon incurring of such debt by the city authorizing directing proper officers of the city to deliver the notes upon execution and authentication thereof upon receipt of proper payment of balance due therefore, and only after specified approval as required of the Department of Community and Economic Development of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, providing for compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 15C2-12, Covenanting to pay over at the settlement sufficient monies to provide for the payment of the 2017A bonds, 27B bonds, 27E bonds, and 2019 bonds, collectively referred to as prior bonds. in accordance with the refunding program, authorizing and directing certain other actions, improving documentation with regard to the refunding program, providing for the issuance of irrevocable instructions to paying agents for the prior bonds to call said prior bonds for redemption and establishing the form of such irrevocable instructions and the notice of redemption. providing for severability of provisions of the ordinance, providing for repeal of all ordinances or parts of ordinances so far as the same shall be inconsistent, providing when the ordinance shall become effective. Bill number 24, 2026 is sponsored by Mr. Amen and Ms. Laird.

Discussion? The clerk called the roll.

Mr. Callahan. Mr. Cologne.

Aye.

Ms. Daniels. Aye. Ms. Kwiatek. Aye. Ms. Laird.

Aye.

Mr. Heyman.

Aye.

And Ms. Leon.

Aye. Moving on to new ordinances. 9A.

amend community development grant fund program income reclassification. Ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehigh and North Hampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending community development block grant for 2026. Bill number 25, 2026 is sponsored by Ms. Kwiatek and Ms. Leon.

Discussion? Clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Callahan? Aye. Mr. Colon? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Kluetak?

Aye.

Ms. Laird? Mr. Raymond?

Aye. Ms. Leon? I pass a seven zero moving on to resolutions.

Resolution 10 a be resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and or such other city officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute agreement with Taggart associates to provide professional services to support the city's upcoming enterprise zone renewal. Resolution is sponsored by Ms. Kwiatek and Ms. Leon.

Mr. Callahan.

Mr. Colon?

Aye.

Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Kutek?

Aye.

Ms. Laird?

Aye.

Mr. Raymond? Aye. Ms. Leon?

Aye. Passes 7-0.

I'm going to take a quick break right now before we move on to 10b.

I accepted a motion and a second for the public hearing, and then I scheduled it anyway without calling the roll or not, because I have two options, and I picked half and half, which is not an appropriate use. So we are going to backtrack to 7c under Committee to create the public hearing. Sorry, Tad, for what I'm doing to your existence right now. But we had the motion and the second. So we will call the roll on the public hearing.

Mr. Callahan. Aye. Mr. Colon. Aye. Ms. Daniels. Aye. Ms. Kwiatek.

Aye.

Ms. Laird.

Aye.

Mr. Raymond.

Aye.

Ms. Leon.

Aye. Passes 7-0, having . We're going to move on to 10-E.

Be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and or such other city officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with the Dominican Festival and joining party arts quest for Dominican Festival 2026. Resolution is sponsored by Ms. Kwiatek and Ms. Leon.

Discussion. I just want to say I hope this is a wonderful event and I have every faith in our Dominican community that they understand the street signs.

Agreed. The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Callahan. Aye. Mr. Colon.

Aye.

Ms. Daniels. Aye. Ms. Kwiatek. Aye. Ms. Laird.

Aye.

Ms. Draymond. Aye. And Ms. Leon.

Aye. Passes 7-0. Moving on to Tennessee.

It resolved by the Council of the City of Bethlehem that the City will enter into consent, order, and agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to settle violations of the Clean Streams Law of Pennsylvania as amended and enforced under the City of Bethlehem National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit Number PA 0026042 and be it further resolved that the mayor controller and solicitor shall execute the consent order and agreement on behalf of the city of bethlehem the resolution is sponsored by ms kuyatek and ms leon thank you before i open it up to the council discussion i will turn to a member of the administration to kind of explain what we're looking at

I also have with me Bill Reese, who is the Superintendent of the Wastewater Treatment Plant.

In case you have any questions that you might have. So just bear with me a little background here. So the consent order and agreement, or I'll call it a COA.

What is it?

So it's a negotiated settlement.

It's negotiated between the city and the DEP.

It's not a directive. It's not a decree. The city retained legal counsel and an engineering firm to help.

We both have experience in these matters in the state. And they were retained to advocate for the city and to protect the city's interests in this matter.

What does the COA do? The DEP uses COAs, and they're not they document recurring violations of our permit they issue penalties and they provide a roadmap and a schedule to return the system to compliance the COA is meant to be it's a public document it gets everything out in the open okay so that everybody knows what's going on it allows the two parties the city and the state to come to terms to agree on what what's been going So the violations listed in the COA, and there's several, the city, it's a self-reporting system. So we have a permit, a discharge permit at the plant. It lays out a number of sample and analysis and reporting requirements that we do on a daily and monthly basis. We submit It's called a discharge monitoring report to the state, a DMR, excuse me, on a monthly basis. Some are monthly, some are quarterly. There's different frequencies. But most of it is monthly. So there's a monthly DMR gets submitted to the state. So the state is informed on the performance of the plant every month. DMRs, any violations, enforcement actions, permits, all of that stuff, is public record, it's available on the DEP's website. So now it is a little clunky for people, for members of the public to go in, but we can go in and do a search on the DEP website, say city of Bethlehem, NPDES permit violations for January through April, and it'll spit out the DMRs for the city. Now you can imagine that the DEP is managing hundreds of or has oversight of hundreds of plants across the state and there's thousands of reports so it's a huge database of information on the DDP website so how do we find ourselves in this in this position so it kind of goes back to our Act 537 plan so the five if you've been familiar with the 537 plan that's an overall sewage planning document It was finalized in the 2010, 2012 timeframe. So about 14, 15 years ago. And I gave it an overall blueprint on defining what the city had to do to invest in the system, to make improvements, to meet future demand on the system and upgrade plant systems. And it's a 20 year forecast. The initial phase, or it's the solids handling system at the plant. Solids handling involves the digesters, the dewatering plant. Those parts of the plant were in very poor condition at the time, and we felt that that was a higher priority to upgrade those systems. This all happened between 2012 and 2018, 2020 timeframe. The next phase now is going to be investments in other parts of the plant, most notably the aeration tank and some of the other systems of the plant. So by doing it in this phasing, what happened was the improvements of the solid handling systems to some extent exacerbated the problems on the liquid If you look at the COA, the ammonia, nitrogen in the form of ammonia is the primary culprit, if you will, that got us into this pickle. More than that, nitrogen is contained in wastewater in many different forms, nitrates, nitrates The dewatering plant was able to, we're producing drier biosolids. If you remember now, we're shipping out our biosolids as beneficial use The bottom line is the next phase of capital projects now is going to be addressing those iteration training improvements. I will say that the COA is looking at a window of about the past five to six years, so it's about 2020 to the present. We had a pretty tough stretch there between maybe 21 and 25.

I think right now the plant is running fairly well. We've only have had one violation since last October.

So I think we have the plant in a pretty good position right now, pretty good place. The other part of the COA involves SSOs or sanitary sewer overflows. So sanitary sewer overflow is basically a blockage occurs in a sanitary collection main in the street and it backs up in a manhole and it flows out the manhole on the street.

That's what a typical SSO looks like.

They're caused by blockages, grease, rags, roots, So part of the COA now is addressing a couple of pinch points in our system where we've had recurring SSOs.

And I think the record reflects that with the work that we've done so far, we've reduced our SSOs quite dramatically since 2024. We've only had two SSOs in the past two years. So that's a big improvement.

So the COA includes projects to remedy these problems. Two of them are designed to tackle SSOs. There was an upgrade of the Broadway-Sanitary sewer line. That was completed last year. And there's a project to upgrade one of our lift stations on Easton Road that is ready to go out to bid and should be done by next year, 2027. And there were two projects to address the problems with the ammonia in the aeration tank process. One is called the Chemically Enhanced Treatment System. That went into service last year. That involves adding a chemical into the primary clarifiers. It's designed to take the load, the biological demand off of the aeration tank so that you can treat the ammonia. And then the next big project is a major upgrade to our aeration tank system, which is currently under design. And that has to be completed by 2030.

So that's in the COA. There's obviously financial penalties in the COA.

There's a one-time penalty of $26,900. That's a one-time penalty. And then there are what they call future violations of a discharge violation through $500 per discharge violation for $1,000 per SSO. And I think, you know, based on recent history, if we can maintain our current operating performance, you know, our financial exposure to those stipulated penalties should be low. It's not zero, I'll be perfectly honest. the more recent performance. So I think in summary, you know, it's, it's, it's a little, I'll be honest, it's a little bit of a hard pill to swallow. It's no fun getting to COA. But I think it, you know, it, it documents the challenges we've had with the system, it gets us on the right path to fix problems. our operations in the past year or two. And I think we have a reasonable plan to get us through, to get this fixed by 23rd.

And just to summarize some of that in 60 seconds, is the idea that, first of all, this is a complicated enough of a thing that, and one of the things that we try to do as an administration is send explanatory memos. understand i mean i learned a lot as i was kind of hearing through this but just a long-term summary is like our sewer our sewage system had long-term capital needs that go back decades and as we've talked about before for a long time the city just didn't have the money necessarily necessary to put into it and you've heard us talk about before in the 90s the city took on incredible water and sewer And I remember 20 years ago, these issues of where are the SSOs and things like that are not new. So then when the permit was created in 2011 or 2012 or whatever, there were all these areas that we needed to invest in as a city. And what Mr. Mascola said, just to kind of like sum this up is there was big project A that like we took on that was, if we didn't take it on, what we would be dealing with here is this level of violation. But when we took on big project A, Big Project B then couldn't get taken on at the same time as Project A, and solving Project A just created a different chemical issue as far as Project B was concerned. The good news is that Project B is a lot less expensive and necessary to handle than Project A, and the solutions of Project B, as Mr. Bosco has said, included four projects, two of which are done. One of them is going out to bid now, correct? And then the fourth one will be done in the next couple of years, which is as quick as we're able to humanly move. It is also not unique for systems like ours. If you go to Allentown, Redding, things like that, the just general nature of old sewer systems is the idea that they've been in existence for 100 years, over 100 years, and modern DEP violations as they different places and things like that so none of that obviously makes it a situation where anybody wants to ever have to pay any type of violations but like this is the continuation of a long-term kind of like uh investment plan as far as far as water and sewers concerned it's part of the reason why the city had to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars 35 years ago and like we thankfully paid off most of that debt but some of these projects still need to be done to be

as far as sharing with council kind of a timeline of this that i think might have answered some of the questions i'm sure mr bosco did hopefully i did in the last two minutes but i understand it's a complicated situation yes and thank you thank you very much and thank you you're always one phone call away and you're always very good at breaking this down to someone who actually does not work in water and sewage waste management at all you make it very digestible so thank you very much i'm going to turn to council for any questions or comments they might have. And just as a reminder, we're voting on your, like, the administration's ability to actually execute the past two years of negotiations. That's what we're voting on this evening. So I'm going to turn to Councilman Paul.

Thank you. Just a couple of brief questions, if it's possible. Thanks for all that background. You said there's only been one violation since October of 2025, correct? And then, thank you. pre-2020 how many violations were we typically looking at so i don't remember ever seeing anything like this yeah in the coa from a legal from a strictly legal uh standpoint the dep can i find you

past five years, so there's a five-year look-back window. Okay, so it goes back to summer of 21. They tried to capture several violations prior to 21 that occurred, if you look into COA, in the, I think, 2017, 18, 19, 20 timeframe, just for documentation purposes, just to say, hey, look, we have these on file, they're documented, they're in the COA, but the fine, years prior to that honestly that would be a little bit of a research project going back um but it's we could probably find that out uh offhand i don't know i don't need it right now i was only curious but i'm encouraged to hear there's only been one since october yeah thank you another council members with councilman

Thank you very much. So that was a very helpful explanation. I do still have a few questions. First of all, did they fine us before? Were they fining us all along? How did it work before they approached us about coming clean?

No. In my 12 years here, no. There have been no other the DEP because I'm not a regulator, but they collect tons of data from plants all over the state. There's always violations. They don't necessarily want to hammer everybody for every little violation. I think they violations so in our case they see a trend or a recurrence of those ammonia violations every month if we had one ammonia violation five years ago we probably

And then, I mean, obviously, once they start looking back, they might find something like that you took two days longer to report something than you were supposed to, or the manner of the report was that you made a sample instead of a direct report. That's why we're seeing some of that.

For the record, they dump everything into the COA to make sure, just from a legal standpoint, everything that was reported is included in the COA.

In looking at this section, the violations in N and and p those are about um the the uh the required time frame of a of a notification of an sso um are these um things that you can tighten up yourself yes yeah so yes these are obviously personnel errors you know um just to stay

reporting time frame rules as well okay so if there's a violation depending on the violation we may have to notify the dep immediately which might mean within four hours or maybe within a day or maybe we don't have to report until the the monthly report and there's variable rules for different what the violation is so in this case unfortunately you know the people involved who just didn't make the call, you know, and it was just it. But so we, we, we address that as they occur with the staff and say, look, it's important that we follow the rules and here's the, here's the reporting rules. If there's an SSO, you got to call there's a, there's a, there's a 24 seven DEP hotline. If it happens on a weekend, you call it and you leave a message. So, so you

So it just, you know, it's a public health situation. And with regard to the SSOs, the word rags appears like a dozen times. So clearly this is an issue. And I'm assuming these are wipes, like that people are flushing. Is that, I mean, we're not seeing a lot of like fabric, are we?

Oh yeah, there's all matter of,

So is rag just a term?

Of material that does not decompose. Rags, mop heads, bed sheets, towels, you name it. A lot of stuff finds its way in the sewer system that shouldn't be there. Wipes, we issue, we have stuff on the website, we issue newsletters. We try to do a lot of public education in that regard. It's helpful to an extent, but the more important part from our perspective is we have a crew and we have to invest the resources to go out and inspect the line.

And so you're confident that we will meet this schedule? The first corrective action was supposed to be done actually by July 31st. Is that done?

Yeah, that was done. They're documenting with the backdating the projects that were already completed.

OK, great. And September 30th, if you feel good about that one, too. That's the Broadway sewer line. Correct. That's right. And so then the next ones aren't until next October and December. Well, I appreciate you coming and answering all of these questions. I will say that my only concern is a little bit of a feeling of it dropping out of the sky and maybe I missed, literally missed a memo. But what I would like to do is, set up a reporting schedule for us so during during this period of the consent of the coa i am going to propose a resolution that will require regular reporting to us as city council i think that trust in in public trust in these systems, especially ones that have to charge money and we do sometimes raise the rates and things and we want people to know that we're progressing on this path and just to keep an eye on it. So I've submitted that to the clerk for consideration at our next meeting. It's not meant to be a punishment. It's meant for us to be able to discharge our oversight duty In the most effective way possible. So again, thank you for all you do and you do it I know it's these legacy systems are difficult to maintain and I'm glad that DP and you were able to come to terms on this agreement If I can make one

or maybe just food for thought. So part of the COA requires the city to submit a written progress report to the DEP two times a year. I can copy council on that. That would satisfy the, I'm just throwing that out there.

I appreciate the input.

Yes, okay, understood.

Okay, Councilman Callahan.

The fine is $26,900.

And that's the total cost of the settlement?

That's just the settlement, yes. And then how about any other fees?

None, none, none. I mean, there's the stipulated, there's the penalty if there are future violations, but right now there are none.

So again, $27,000, yes.

Vice President Laird?

Yes, just wondering, I definitely understand human error and just procedures going wonky sometimes, but will there be some action to tighten up those policies in the appropriate timeframe?

Yes, we have policies and procedures in place with our staff. Everybody goes through training. There are written policies and procedures. have to do to be determined. Our sampling, the entire lab is built on standard operating procedures. They do thousands of samples. for reporting to DEP. So everybody gets trained on that and there are policies and procedures that cover all that.

Yeah, I guess my question is like going forward, since we have seats and pickups and DEP has seats and pickups, can those just be reviewed and or tightened up if there's anything?

We do. When they occur, you know,

Um, and I think that's it, uh, councilman, please. I call forward to see, uh, what you're proposing for, uh, reporting during this period.

I'll turn it back to council.

Thank you. I just had, I just, um, councilman Callahan's mentioned that the civil penalty settlement reminded me that I did want to ask about the stipulated civil penalties. Um, just to, just to point out that, um, you know, uh, $500 per day each violation could add up to 180 000 if the violation if we're not able to address it in a year for instance um and then there's also you know other others 500 for each violation of uh the other you know there's another the monitoring requirement or permit limits, and then also the SSO is $1,000 for each violation. And so the period of monitoring is, what they're looking for is six continuous months without a violation in order to terminate the consent order, is that correct? Yes, yes. And so I'm just wondering, you get to five months and there's a violation, the clock starts over.

That is DEP's boilerplate requirement. I think once you get to the end, when everything is done and we have a pretty clean record, that.

Understood. Thank you.

Any other comments from? Right, you have been there. So thank you so much for all that attention. All right. The clerk will call the roll intensity.

Mr. Callahan?

Aye.

Mr. Cologne? Aye. Ms. Daniels? Aye. Ms. Kwiatek?

Aye.

Ms. Laird? Aye. Mr. Heyman? Aye. And Ms. Leon?

SHOOTING.