I think it's already on.

We are recording just for my nose.

Good evening, everyone.

I'll call our order tonight's committee, the whole meeting.

Tonight we're gathered to review the 2026 through 2030 capital improvement plan.

I don't want my notes with me for this call.

You call role, right?

Ms.

Miller, call role on the committee, please.

Mr.

Callahan.

Present.

Ms.

Gramscy Smith.

Present.

Ms.

Queetek.

Ms.

Laird.

President.

Wilhelm.

Present.

And Mr.

Cologne.

Present.

Yeah.

Bear with me one second, everybody.

Thank you.

So just for our YouTube audience, if you start after 161 watch live, feel free to schedule ahead.

So tonight, again, we only have one agenda item, the 2026 through 2030 capital improvement plan.

I remind everyone this committee meeting is for informational purposes only.

I will accept public comment after discussion of our one agenda item.

As is typical, we'll have a five-minute time limit.

We'll begin with a presentation of the capital improvement program from in the administration will make a presentation.

Their proposed 2026 non-utility capital plan that is incorporated in the five-year capital improvement program will be reviewed by council again during the upcoming budget meetings as part of the proposed 2026 non-utility capital budget.

First reading of the 2026 non-utility capital budget will be at the November 18th council meeting, and our final reading will take place at the December 16th council meeting.

I'll turn to the administration to present and then I'll start with whoever wants to lead off and let's just go through everything.

We do have full council at seven.

I would like to try to start full council at seven.

Everyone received the full plan in our packets review prior to tonight's meeting.

So I don't feel like you have to read everything dollar by dollar, but I will get started, then I'll open it up to members of council for comment.

And I will note Councilwoman Queatech has joined us.

So the floor is yours.

Good evening, everyone.

We just wanted to do a quick round of introductions.

I am Kathy Fletcher.

I'm the director of planning and zoning.

Um Eric Evans, business administrator.

And I'm Bassel Yandem, Deputy Director of Public Works.

So to start, um, just wanted to remind everyone of the capital plan what it is and the process.

Um, so it's really the plan for capital expenditures.

We anticipate meeting over the next five years.

Not everything is guaranteed to happen, but it helps us prioritize projects, lines up funding, and allows us um to show the public what's coming up.

So um it first goes to the planning commission, as as Mr.

Clone already mentioned.

They voted on it and made a recommendation and then eventually comes back around to city council uh to adopt it in in the full budget.

So this year's capital improvement program covers the years 2026 to 2030.

Only the first year 2026 in this case is really being voted on.

The out years show the direction that we're we're going.

So as we're reviewing this, just keep in mind that the plan is still flexible.

Many projects depend on grants and outside funding to really make it happen.

So as part of your packets, um, you received a uh spreadsheet in table form as well as a document um narrating each project.

So the tables are an overview of the monetary needs across the projects, and then the narrative is just more information on each of those projects.

So I will just highlight uh each of these sections and then kick it over to my colleagues to go project by project.

Um public safety is really looking at things like vehicle replacement and equipment upgrades.

Public works has a number of subcategories, uh traffic, streets, storm sewers, facilities, grounds, and other.

I just wanted to highlight some um safety-based improvement projects.

We've officially kicked off our complete streets planning process, which will really further inform these projects in the upcoming years.

So I just wanted to highlight isolated intersections, the street overlay program, the Linden Street two-way conversion, as well as the center street two-way conversion, as well as East and West Broad Street are all projects that really fall under that type of category.

Um, stormwater management has really come up a number of times in land development.

Uh, and the city is really determining where to best approach those needs citywide.

There's also facilities investments, um, mostly regarding maintenance.

And then within grounds and uh recreation, the 40 and 10 parks plan is really wrapping up, expected to be complete later this year.

Um, and that's really laying out the capital investment needs across all parks over the next 10 years, specifically in this capital plan.

Um, there's projects such as the Rose Garden, as well as improvements at pools, ice rinks, and sand island um are examples of projects that would fall under that category.

And then other is really projects that don't fit nicely in any one of those buckets.

So that's kind of a catch-all.

So things such as um the bridge and ramp improvements, trails, Minoxy Way, South Bethlehem Greenway, as well as some multimodal infrastructure like Gap Street, get our street sidewalks.

And then the last category is under the Department of Community and Economic Development.

Those are also um to advance other broader initiatives.

You know, the city is working on housing solutions for the community.

So looking at family shelter, emergency shelter, and then we're also looking to support the community otherwise, such as through the South Bethlehem Community Center.

So that's it in a nutshell, and I will kick it off to you.

Thank you, Kathy.

Um as most of you were this is an annual exercise.

We move through that.

There is no vote on the capital plan itself.

But the non-utility capital budget will look strikingly similar to what you see in front of you.

There will be a few minor changes, but for the most part, what you see here tonight, you we will also be talking about when we get to that Thursday.

I think it's the 20th of November at the third budget hearing following public works.

Um, that being said, um, my for my position before I turn it over to you can see a lot of our departments are represented behind me that will work or walk us through each of the sections is to speak to the left-hand margin of the spreadsheet.

Um, the way this plan is presented, I think it's very helpful that spreadsheet shows you how it's being funded very specifically each project, the spending schedule.

If it's something that might be funded in one year, but spent through other years, it reveals that and it's accompanied by that the word document that has a nice explanation of each project that goes on.

Uh, for my role tonight, uh, I'm just gonna speak to the left-hand margin, uh moving from top to bottom to explain which each of those funding sources and give a little bit of a history, and then I'll turn to our public works officials who are here just to speak to the um their sections, and then we'll turn to Basil Yandum to lead us through most of the projects, which are public works related to streets, their roads, the bridges, and then Laura Collins is here this evening to talk about the community and economic um projects are listed at the um tail end of the report tonight.

So when you look at the top uh left-hand box in the spreadsheet, you'll see the word bond 2019 for a series of years, and some of you have been around a couple of years on council to know we have historically borrowed money in the form of a bond every other year to fill up the buckets, the funding buckets that allow us to take on these projects, whether it be an acquisition or a project.

These are things that fall outside of the operating budget.

They're large in scale, they're tens or hundreds or even sometimes millions of dollars, and they're done or they because of the size of the projects, they need to be done or planned over a period of time.

So when we look at the five-year grid in front of us, uh you'll see that um the bond 2019.

That's what's left.

When that showed up in the year 2019, the 2018 budget hearing, that was at five or six million dollars.

That's just showing what's left of that.

It's been moved around, most of it's been spent off.

Some money has taken on uh in other forms.

So 77 is left from 2019.

If you go back five, six years ago, there was a 2013 bond, a 15 bond, a 17 bond, a 19 bond.

The 19 was the last bond that the city took on for the general fund.

The line behind uh underneath that is LRR that stands for loss revenue um replacement 2022.

Um in 2021, actually the fall of 2020, it was you know in the pandemic, so we didn't move on anything, everything was paused.

So it was normally it would have been a 21 funding.

But since everything kind of stopped for that year to the pandemic that year plus, uh, we didn't do anything that turned into even years.

So in 2022, the loss of revenue replacement uh provision of the of the ARPA placed $9 million to fund all of the projects that the city needed for two years, and that took care of 22 and 23.

The remainder there is $664,000 in 2024.

Uh nine, I'm sorry, 8.992 from the loss revenue provision was used to take care of all the projects.

The uh less than four million dollar now remains.

You'll see the four million dollar mark in the 2026.

That is also expected then to be spent.

So you'll see in the following years after 26, that's no longer there.

So when the funding runs out, there's you know, it's time to find another way to source it.

And you'll see the next one is a new line item, it's called capital reserves.

The last couple years when we presented this plan, it said bond slash capital reserve.

We weren't sure which one we would do.

The plan A is if we can use capital reserves and avoid a borrowing, just like at home.

If you don't need to take on debt, if you're able to pull that off, that's a great thing.

It's not easy to do, but if you can avoid the debt service and the interest that you pay on it.

So at this point, um we are set up, and the proposal we're going to bring forward at the budget is to fund four years of capital projects from the years 26 through 2029.

This is a five year plan, but for the next four years, uh capital reserves will be used to fund all the projects that are gonna be speaking about tonight.

The one below the line below that is bond slash I'm sorry, reserveslash bond 2030.

The 21 million is expected to last four years, and that's revealed in the spreadsheets and the narratives at the end of four years as that that round of funding, and just like the 18 million dollars in the 2022 and 24 is winding down.

We then get to 2030.

If you look way out on the right side, you'll see five million dollars of needs that we have identified by the year 2030.

And we have then moved to the line item called reserveslash bond.

We're not sure.

We don't have enough to fund more than the four years.

The four years is what's set, which we're going to propose to you during the budget.

Uh, but in 2030, we'll have to make the same decision.

Hopefully, we need to reserve.

If not, then we'll be looking to a boring in order to make the purchase and acquisitions that we need to do to keep the city moving and invest in our infrastructure.

From there below, it's pretty standard.

The CDBG's an annual allocation you're all familiar with.

Some projects are funded with federal dollars, some was state, and you'll see some a very large one there in 2026 with a blend of federal and or state funds working together on the same project.

Moving down the line, you'll get into the county.

We do have county grants.

You've seen them.

Liquid fuels is a state allocation that's used for specific projects or specific eligibility requirements.

And we we see your liquid fuels is our part of our operating budget as well.

Below that, SWF stands for stormwater fund.

And in the year 2020, we introduced and it rolled out in the year 2021, our uh stormwater plan and program.

Uh, the fee is attached with that, and uh that allows us to take on, you'll see across all the lines 12 million dollars between now and 2030 with all ideas, all ideas about the stormwater fund is to reduce stormwater runoff.

So all the improvements into the infrastructure of the stormwater will be taken care of with that specific fund.

And again, that's just like our golf course or our water or sort fund.

This is a specific fund.

The funds go the fees go into that fund alone.

It does not mix with general fund dollars and is used specifically for projects associated with stormwater.

The one below that cash reserve is the UGI reimbursement.

You see in the parentheses, that's when the UGI road work gets done, and Basil will talk about that when we get into the primarily streets.

The next line down rec fees is the the fees or the funds that we uh generate by development.

Development occurs and through developers agreement, fees are generated.

Typically, we see two to three hundred thousand dollars a year based on the amount of development going on within the city.

So that regeneration that's often used to supplement grants.

If we have a DCED grant that may need a matching funds when it has something to do with recreation, this is a perfect use for it.

Uh appropriation from general uh is primarily the police vehicles, and the last uh row is other, and that encompasses anything that does not fit on top.

And as you look to each project that's identified, sometimes it's something other than these, but it's funded.

In other instances, it's it's a uh situation where we have identified a project that's needed, but we have not really come up with the exact formula of how it's gonna be paid for yet.

So it's isn't other until it's otherwise defined in one of the categories above.

So those each categories you'll see through the plan.

And when I when we turn into, I think at this point, turn to the public safety projects.

I'll turn to fire chief first to handle items one through four, and then police chief for items five through seven.

Hi, good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

Uh please excuse my ignorance.

Would you like me to read through the items one through six?

Or I mean you could name them just so we're following along.

Okay.

But if if there's anything, I mean, some of them, like some of the vehicle and ambulance replacement, pre-self-explanatory.

I think everyone on council has enough experience to recognize the fluor or new to the department if you want to get in greater depth, but things that are sort of routine, just bringing an old vehicle offline, bringing a new one online.

We don't need to get in the weeds on some of those things.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

And then at the end, I will open it up to council to um elaborate on their own questions.

So I would say give us the general overview.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Uh, so basically, what we're covering within this request for the capital budget is the standard ambulance replacement.

Uh, our goal is to replace and equip one ambulance per year, uh, because basically at the end of that eight to nine year life, the ambulance is basically coming out of service and uh increased maintenance issues and working with the mechanical bureau.

Uh, we're doing the same thing with item number two with fire apparatus.

Uh, however, here this year we're doing something a little bit different.

Uh, what we're proposing to do this year is um shortly the new engine one is going to arrive, which was purchased in 2024.

That engine one is going to go on the our South Side station at Company One.

The current engine one is going to be repurposed temporarily to go to Company Five on Easton Avenue.

We have what's called a quint, which is engine five right now that has a ladder on it that is running as an engine 99% of the time and not functional as a ladder.

What we're proposing to do is take engine five, replace the current ladder one on the south side, and then eventually replace the old engine one with a new engine for engine five.

Um, that's the only difference.

We've identified we have a couple million dollar piece of equipment that we're not fully utilizing to it, the best of its capability.

Engines are a lot cheaper to replace, and they come in from the manufacturer a lot quicker.

Right now, aerial devices are running about four and a half to five years.

Engines are about four years.

Um, so we feel that we can it can be more cost effective and benefit the community greater to reallocate engine five to the south side to serve as a ladder.

Uh we're also proposing to purchase a new command vehicle to replace what we classify as utility two.

That is the vehicle that is utilized by the shift commander, the assistant chief on duty.

Uh, we're currently operating a uh Ford Explorer in the fleet.

We tried to downsize several years ago, and unfortunately, downsizing that command vehicle is presenting a problem for us because it's not large enough to carry everything it needs to carry, and it's causing some maintenance issues for us.

Uh, so again, what we're proposing to do since that's a 2020, rather than purchase another new inspector vehicle, we would repurpose the current OIC's vehicle to be utilized by one of our uh fire inspectors who can benefit more from a smaller vehicle.

It's it's more of fuel efficient and easier to get around the city.

Um, so basically we're we're looking to uh to replace some apparatus, but we're doing things a little differently this year, just trying to repurpose some things to find a better use and be more cost effective.

Uh we also have our SCBA, our air packs, our air cylinders are coming to the end of their life in 2032.

Uh and we brought this to Mr.

Evans' attention because it's going to be a rather large uh costly expenditure for the city at that time.

And basically, they're reaching the end of their 15-year life.

We're going to have to do a purchase of new cylinders and air packs at that time.

And uh, we wanted to put that in the capital budget because we're looking at based on cost increases over the last 15 years.

By the time we get there in 2030, uh, we could be looking at uh approximately two million dollars for that replacement of all that equipment.

I'll say let's continue.

We'll progress through Chief Cott.

And then what we could do council is once we had through every department.

So we'll finish public safety, open it up to questions, we'll go through public works, I'll open it up to questions just so we don't have to wait till the very end.

So we'll we'll do it that way.

Good evening, Chief.

Good evening.

Over is yours.

So the first item for police under public safety is the police vehicle replacement.

Our vehicles are on the road 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

So we are looking to replace approximately five to seven police vehicles here with the capital budget.

The next item, item six, are public safety cameras.

So this project is to expand our already robust public safety camera network that we have.

And the funding is utilized to add cameras in places where there are no existing cameras, as well as replace outdated antiquated cameras that we may have in service.

And the project's funded through the NORCO Grow grant.

So there's matching funds in that.

Obviously, that's why it's here in the Capitol budget.

And then finally is the police armored vehicle replacement.

The current one that we have, the rescue vehicle is 17 years old.

Um, so that is another hefty purchase that we're working towards, uh similar to the fire apparatus.

It takes several years for the vehicle to be built and delivered to the department.

Um that is uh been a very useful tool for our department throughout the years.

Thank you, Chief.

Excuse me.

So I will open up to questions from council as it relates to public safety for either chief or Mr.

Evans.

Does anyone have any questions related to the public safety capital items?

Councilwoman Kwyatech.

Uh, this is a quick question for uh Fire Chief.

Um about the engine five engine one thing.

Um when you mentioned uh engine five being having a ladder, you said it wasn't in use.

Did you just mean that they aren't using it, or did you mean that there's some cost involved in getting it up to speed so it can be used?

Uh no, the way we're currently operating on the north side of the city, that that vehicle, although it has an aerial device on it, is not in service daily as an aerial.

It's perfectly capable of doing the job.

Okay, we're just using it as an engine, and we're not using that piece of apparatus to the the best of its ability or what it's attended for.

It's it's not being effectively and efficiently used as we could possibly do.

Got it.

Thank you.

That was all anything else, councilwoman Cram Smith.

Um Chief Giffin, I just said a real simple question.

Um, regarding the air packs.

Um, and I'm not sure, but I'm just wondering.

So they're all going to reach the end of life at the same time.

Is that how you buy them that they have to all be at the same time, or can it be spread out?

So it's not one big cost at one point in time.

You know what I mean?

Yes, I I do.

Uh we've actually looked at a lot of things in the budget and tried to spread them out over the years.

Um, unfortunately, in the past, this was made as one large purchase and and a grant was involved.

So, unfortunately, for example, the cylinders are good for 15 years, they have to be tested every five years.

And now we're nearing the end of the life on all the cylinders that were all purchased at the same time.

Um, yes, there is the opportunity to break this down and and uh you know, do things in increments, of course.

Uh, but unfortunately, that's just not the way this was done because of the way it was able to be funded partially through a grant.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions or comments from members of council?

Councilwoman Laird.

Just a comment.

Uh, I do appreciate the you know, creative look at at trying to repurpose things and think through uh the best placement for vehicles instead of just giving up on ones that that uh could still be used somewhere else.

So thank you for that.

Councilwoman Leo.

Same.

I appreciate your uh your flexibility there.

Um, again, more a comment.

Uh wanted to thank the administration, Basil, and you all for sitting down just and speaking with some of us.

Um, I'd love to see a precinct.

Uh, but granted, this is more facilities, but I did talk with them about the entrance to the police station after dark, and they've been very agreeable to better signage and making it a little bit easier for people to access um at night.

And I I like to see the continued investment in what's going on down there.

Anything else from Urbus Council?

I just had one quick question for Chief Cott.

Chief for the camera, um, the camera upgrades.

Can you give me a rough number of how many cameras are operational now and what this would take us up to in terms of how many cameras?

So we roughly have a a hundred or so cameras here in the city right now, and it would take us up over a hundred if we added to various intersections.

Again, that funding is critically important for us to replace some of the older cameras that are currently in use.

Oh, thank you, Chief.

You're welcome.

We will continue on to public works.

Right.

I know there's a a number of sort of subcategories for public work.

So we'll go through the first couple and then I'll open it up to questions, then we'll finish them up.

But same if it's things are routine that we see every year, you don't have to.

I'll let you use your own discretion.

Sounds good where you want to elaborate.

I'll I'll try to cover the major project and the major purchases.

And if I skip anything that you would like to discuss, feel free or ask to discuss it.

Uh, I'll start with the traffic, the isolated intersection.

Usually we try to do two traffic intersections every two years.

One year we do the design, the second year we do uh the construction.

Right now we are working with last year.

We completed Linden and Gap Street.

Uh right now we're working on Club Avenue Union Boulevard and the major intersection at Pennsylvania Avenue, Eton Avenue, and Union Boulevard.

This is being designed, hopefully uh for uh club and union construction will start end of this year, early next year, and construction for the other three intersections will be completed definitely next summer.

As for traffic safety improvement, this is just a maintenance item for our 128 signal signalized intersection.

We make sure that they stay working all year round.

Uh, we're adding we're working looking into adding a paint truck to improve the efficiency of our line painting for our roads, especially after pavement or where it whatever it's required.

And our electric bureau is looking to purchase a new aerial bucket truck, which has a longer span that will help in installation of all our street light and all our electrical maintenance in the city.

Move to streets.

Uh we've been talking about Linden Street for a while.

Uh, it's being designed right now.

Estimating this is converting the Linden Street to two-way.

Construction should start in spring into summer of 2026.

Currently, we are finalizing the preliminary design and going into the final design.

The project is about two million dollars.

Uh, we got a grant to complete that project, and we're working with Pandot to finish it.

Center Street is kind of related to Linden Street.

They were both used back in the days during Bethland Steel.

Now I guess it's time to convert them to two-way for better access to all the neighborhood and the businesses.

Center Street will be looking in the near future in the next few years to find funding for it, and hopefully, we can find a grant to complete it as well.

The street overlay program is one of our major programs and under public works, where we try to maintain our street as much as possible.

We require two and a half million each year to keep up with our roads, which is hard to fund.

Uh especially unfortunately with with UGI excavating and digging our street over the past few years.

The only benefit getting out of it is whatever street that they are digging, they are paying the city.

There, we are working on it under a cost share agreement with them.

Where if they're only working on one side of the street and we want to pave the other side, they'll pay their portion.

The city will benefit from this money and pave the whole street, which can expend and be more efficient in utilizing the money to pave more roads in our city.

Uh we used to fund before when as uh Mr.

Evan mentioned, we used to fund a million for every two years beside liquid fuels.

During the 2022 funding and 2024 funding, we were able to fund three million for two years.

And now we're looking to fund four and a half million over the next four years.

If you add to it all the liquid the cost sharing and the liquid fuel money, we should be able to improve our saving and try to keep up as much as possible.

Uh I'll mention later that we are purchasing a new paver.

We're looking to purchase a new paper next year, which will make our pavement more efficient.

This year we and most of the year we have done over 11,000 tons of pavement.

There's we're purchasing a Time Co Street sweeper, which will help with the MS4, our stormwater program, and this is this is coming all out from the stormwater fund.

Milling machine will be looking to purchase it in the in 2027.

As I mentioned, the paper in 2026 for better efficiency.

And we have the our two major projects happening over the next few years.

And we are anticipating construction into spring into summer of 2026, where we would be adding median, possibly bike lanes and improvement to that corridor.

On the other side, we have West Broad Street, which we got the SS4A grant for 10 million dollar grant.

We started looking into the surveying and preventive design for this project too.

This will be happening over the course of the next two to three construction season, starting in spring summer 2027.

Stormwater.

We have the Stefco drainage swale currently is being under design improvement to this swale.

It has been in a bad shape.

There has been some illicit discharge into this swale that we are controlling right now, and there will be improvement which will save some uh flooding on Market Street.

East Boulevard detention basin.

This is the big detention basin on East Boulevard.

This is a coordination project with Bethland Township.

This does connect to the Johnston Drive, where it leads to always the flooding by the Keystone pub over there.

So we've been working with Bethland Township.

They were supposed to get a FEMA grant for about five million dollars.

Unfortunately, they may not get this grant anymore.

So we were gonna save we're going to save over like a million dollars.

We may not be able to save that anymore, but we will be looking into we're looking into other grants to support this project, and we'll continue collaborating with the township.

Miscellaneous drainage structures, usually every year.

We try to repair all these catch basin, the small repairs that we do.

We started with 100,000 a couple of years ago.

Right now we've been doing making big progress with this project.

We're spending approximately 200,000 a year on repairs for this catch basin.

We have the bridal path, Minox Street, and East Market Street.

Bridal Path and Minoxy, they were just awarded for construction.

They will be starting soon.

They are still on the plan because we may not spend all the funding and they may not be fully completed by the end of 2025.

They may roll over into 2026.

East Market is being designed and construction will take place next year.

I'll move to facilities.

We could break here real quick and then go through the other ones.

So I'll turn to members of council.

Any questions as it relates to public works for traffic, streets, or stormwater?

Councilwoman Cramsy Smith.

I I just have two quick questions.

The uh the center street conversion is down for 2028 at two million.

Is that what you're foreseeing it to be, or will it be possibly more given that it's going to be you know two years from now?

It it definitely could be possibly more.

This is a estimated cost for now.

Okay.

If we get a fund earlier, we might do it earlier.

We put it in 2028, but hoping working toward trying to find find funds for it.

So we kept it at two million for now, and especially that it is not a like it's not city allocated money right now.

We're trying to get a grant for it.

It's an estimate is around two million dollars.

Hopefully, after we bid out Linden Street, we'll have a better estimate how much center street will be.

Okay, great.

And my only other question is um related to the oh, you talked about Eastern Avenue and the flooding and the township didn't get their grant.

Are they is the township still going to be sharing the cost of that project at all?

Or yes, we are still working with them.

So under that project, there are six detention basins that are taking place.

Four of them are in the township, two of them are in the city.

31% of the project is city.

We because we have the biggest detention basins.

We are still working with them.

We are still trying to apply for grants, and hopefully, whatever grants they get, we'll utilize it toward our project too.

That because they are also benefiting when we improve the condition of our detention basin, they are avoiding flooding in their township.

And this is where the common interest that led to work together.

This is continue.

We just met with them two weeks ago, and we're still planning on doing that.

Okay, great.

Yeah, I mean, it's great.

I just want to make sure they're paying their fair share.

Yes, they will.

Thank you.

Sure.

Any other questions or comments related to these categories?

Councilman Lair.

Um for the roads, uh, Linden and Center.

I forget in what context it came up uh at one of our meetings, but we um talked uh briefly about that church street, would likely need some changes as well since both of those uh are changing.

I don't see that on the plan.

Um, would that indicate that even if Linden and Center are both converted in the next five years?

Church street would not be within the next five years, or is that outside the capital plan somehow?

So within the Linden Street design right now, a study is being done on Church Street, how it would need to be converted, and it is part of our plan to convert it at certain point within the conversion of Linden Street and Center Street.

Okay, so that funding is rolled into those two.

In a way, at least for now, the study of what needs to be completed, it is part of the Linden Street project right now.

Okay, um, and then for the stormwater um drainage and swales and all that.

Uh are there the changes that are being worked on?

Um, are these made with historical data only, or are we also looking at projections uh as precipitation changes and climate changes and development happens and there's more runoff and all that?

Are we looking ahead as we um work on those projects to try to get ahead like ahead of some of that?

So when we started when they started doing the study for the program in 2020, they definitely put a future plan for those projects, which we're still utilizing at the same time.

We use new data and what we see through the years for a higher priority project that they're coming up, depending on development on any changes happening.

We adjust accordingly as we go.

What where we see priority, we prioritized the project that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

It's not just what has been planned four or five years ago, it's with the changes exactly to what you're saying.

This is how we change the plan, and one of them is the Eastern Avenue to Stefko Boulevard uh storm sewer system upgrade in that area.

It's all gravity flow.

Uh we are trying to put a system in there.

We're doing a study for the this whole area, and we see how we can improve it.

This was not with part of the plan four or five years ago.

This was just added recently.

Where we see that and something we need to address, we are addressing it.

Okay, um, and I assume that that would also include like we're looking at volumes being held in the different areas as things are more extreme.

Um in either way.

Okay.

Uh that was it.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments from council?

We'll continue with the remaining public works items.

All right, we continue with facilities.

Uh capital improvement for facilities where we do major improvement and support to all the city facilities.

We usually put the million dollars for every two years.

We continue doing the same.

Uh we have 519 carry over, adding to it the million for the next two years.

Additional project has been happening.

Um through all these projects, we're always looking for efficiency and part of our climate action plan.

How we can address and install more efficient equipment.

The Eastern Avenue Forestation.

This is just a study for an extension for the Eastern Avenue Fire Station to make a to let a big apparatus fit in that building and store it there.

Right now, there's no area for it to park it.

So hopefully, by extending that building, that building engineering is looking into it, and we'll see how we can improve that.

The under ground storage tank, we were working to complete that project this year.

We are installing a new generator at City Hall.

Because with it was not delivered yet.

That project might be carried over to 2026.

The city hall chiller replacement happening in 2026.

This is also gonna be a high efficient chiller replacement and then mechanical room water pump replacement on the grounds.

Similar to the our facilities, capital improvement, we have the ground capital improvement to cover all the city properties, all the park in the city.

We usually put 400,000 for every two years.

Those for all our repairs at all our parks.

Also, some of this funding is utilized to do improvement and major improvement at park based on the 40 and 10 park study.

Rose Garden Improvement.

This project has started a few weeks ago.

Uh, we completed the trail.

We're just waiting for the for the light bulbs and the benches and the receptacle to be delivered, and they'll be installed.

Most likely it will be completed this year, but it's still on here just in case some of the items carry over into 2026 and it will be completed.

The tree inventory assessment we have to do for our cap and the forestry master plan.

We have to do every five years in an inventory for our tree.

This is will be completed in 2026.

Recreation, we have the general pool improvement.

We usually put 100,000 for every two years, 50,000 a year.

We have some rec fee.

This direct fee money was transferred into this account when we did the improvement at Stark Pool when it failed and we had to repair it quickly before the summer and reopened this summer.

Similar, if anything like that comes up, we utilize this money for all the improvements.

The ice rink, we usually put 100,000 for every two years, similar to the pool.

And this is all for the improvement at the ice ring that comes up that like unanticipated issues that comes up at those facilities.

The 40 and 10 park and recreation master plan, as Kathy has mentioned earlier.

We're looking to put two million to spend two million dollars on this improvement of the park in the next 10 years.

As you can see, there's two million foot each year for the next five years.

Under others, bridge repairs.

We have 10 bridges owned by the city.

As you all know, there's some bridges in the city owned by the city, and some of them are owned by the state.

We maintain 10 of them.

The money in here, and they are inspected by the state every other year in case we receive any issue or anything that comes up that's unanticipated.

That fine that money is to take care and repair those bridges.

The main street ramp improvement and spring street ramp improvement, these are part of the hill to hill bridge improvement.

The hill to hill bridge improvement new lead date is early August of 2026.

And we're looking to find funding for these two projects.

They are being they were designed within the hill to hill bridge design.

And hopefully, hopefully, the contractor who takes the hill to hill bridge can complete those construction.

They're not cheap.

We're looking at six million for main street ramp and two million for the Spring Street tramp.

Hopefully, we can find some funding or through Pendot or the state get some funding for it.

The 378 light replacement, it's a pendulum project.

They are managing that project, it's their project.

It is anticipated to take place in 2026.

This project design was completed.

It's going out to bid within the next week or two.

And construction will start maybe end of this year, early early spring, and will be completed next year.

South Bethlehem Greenway.

This project we sent out the RFP.

We got proposals.

I guess it was in front of you a couple of weeks ago to award that project for the design.

Right now we're finalizing the agreement and it will we'll start design again, anticipating construction to take place in spring summer of 2026.

This section will connect a 14 or 13.9 miles trail.

It goes all the way to Quakertown.

Connected to it is the first portion of South Bethlehem Greenway, right by South New Street and West Third Street.

It's behind like the Zest Building or between the Zest Building and the Garage.

This we're looking for we applied for a grant, and we're looking to complete that project also by end of 2026.

Gap Street, Gatter Street, those are uh sidewalk improvements where we support an area with low income.

We submit for grants, receive the grants, and we'll be working on those improvements.

And then lastly, we have the CED project, the non-congregated family shelter, congregated emergency shelter that and South Bethlehem Community Center, which Kathy already has mentioned and talked about.

Or if there's any question.

So we'll we'll open up to comments for the rest of the public works.

We'll close with the community and economic development projects.

But any questions or comments related to the last couple of public works categories.

Councilwoman Wilhelm.

I don't have any questions, but just to thank you for the presentation, but in particular for taking the time to sit with us prior to this meeting for an extended period of time and sort of talk through all of these in in detail.

Just yeah, thank you for putting it together and for your time in um walking us through it so carefully.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments from members of council?

I just had uh couple quick questions.

The first being for the 40 and 10 uh parks and recreation master plan.

What when do we expect that to be released?

Or or did I miss something?

It wouldn't be the first time.

So I don't want to pretend like I may not have, but when do we expect that to be made released and made public?

What the what the recommendations are going to be?

The end of the year.

We're looking at you know, late November into December, that time frame.

Okay.

Um we also are going to be having a community meeting on November 12th, where we will be um talking about it a little bit more in draft form before it's fully finalized.

So that's another opportunity to talk about it.

Okay, thank you.

And then I just had a quick question for Mr.

Evans for 2026.

Uh the plan we have uses 800, a little over 870,000 in rec fees.

Does that exhaust that entire account?

Or what can you give me a rough number of what is in the rec fees account?

I don't have the latest update.

Um that builds an escrow, the rec fees, right?

As are developed, they're putting the escrow as in the escrow account.

And anytime we wish to use them to match them, we'll bring them out of Estra, and we do that by coming to city council with a finance memo to add it to the budget.

So I don't have the latest.

I get that number.

Yeah, it's grown.

Sometimes it's six, seven hundred thousand.

Then as we as we apply to grants, you know, for grants, we apply, bring it to council, and it goes back down.

So I can um before the next meeting, we'll have the the exact number where it stands.

Thank you, Mr.

Evans.

Before I continue on, anything else for public works?

Councilman.

I forgot you brought up the 40 and 10.

Uh, one of the things I've heard the most from community members is about the state of our parks.

So it's just really good to see the reflection of like the investment that we're going to be making in the parks because it has been such a point of discussion.

So it's really good to see investment coming from the administration to really deal with parks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything else for public works.

Thank you.

Sure.

And then we'll we'll finish up with a couple community and economic development projects that are listed.

Sure.

So the three projects that you're seeing under community economic development are three projects we've talked about previously.

Um the first, the non-congregate family shelter, that is um the Packer Avenue project that we are working with Lehigh Conference of Churches.

Um currently the conference of churches owns that property.

Um, but we have committed our home ARP allocation and also secured an additional um home ARP allocation through the state um to fully fund that project.

And so the idea would be that the you know, the city would take ownership of the project.

Um, we've completed the environmental review that's required for the this um state and federal funding sources, and uh uh have drafted or in the process of drafting an RFP for final design and engineering and would be putting that out shortly um and then looking to start the work in 2026.

The second project, the congregate emergency shelter.

Again, we've talked about this a number of times, um working with Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering at the Christ Church UCC facility.

Um we are moving over from the general fund, the roughly $2 million that were previously in the um civic expense account for homeless initiatives, just indicating that that's money that is allocated for this project specifically.

Uh, we do have uh preliminary design for the total project costs.

That's the number that you're seeing there.

We are still working with BS.

There's plenty of fundraising left to do.

Uh, we have a pending RCAP application as well as um an LSA application to fill in some of those gaps, and BES is also working on um building a capital campaign um for the remainder.

And then the South Bethlehem Community Center, we completed our feasibility study earlier this year.

And you know, our next step we're looking for um uh preferred operator.

So we put out an RFP um about a month, a month and a half ago, and the deadline for responses for that is at the end of this month.

And so, you know, from there what we would be looking to identify that operator who would work um with us to put together um an RFP for you know final design and engineering and you know, simultaneously there's gonna need to be plenty of fundraising for that, you know, and a lot to be worked out in terms of you know what the relationship would be, and a lot of that's gonna depend on who responds and and what kind of structure you know we're talking about.

And a lot of that's going to depend on who responds and and what kind of structure you know we're talking about.

There's a number of different ways that that could go.

But um, you know, we wanted to put it in here as you know, we are anticipating putting you know, city dollars into that project.

Thank you, Ms.

Collins.

Any questions or comments from members of council about the few community economic development projects?

Mr.

Callian.

Ms.

Collins, is the is the site of the um South Side Community Center?

Is that finalized?

So there was a final recommendation, yes, in the plan.

So there were over you know a dozen or so sites evaluated.

Um and then ultimately the recommendation was for one of the uh mechanic street parking lots.

It's currently owned by the parking authority.

So it's still owned by the parking authority, but you know, the the proposal at this point is to move forward with that site.

Could be because I'm I don't know if you've heard it, but I'm just telling you, I've I've heard a lot of pushback on the on the suggested site that a lot of people on the South site do not like uh the site, preferred site of the administration.

So I don't know if you've heard any feedback or pushback on the site.

Yeah, I mean, so the the feasibility study was a uh a very um comprehensive community engagement um process that was involved in that.

We had a uh committee of stakeholders as well who participated in the development of the of the plan.

Um, and then ultimately, if you if you read through the plan as well, you can kind of see the analysis that went in both from like community engagement standpoint and also from site feasibility standpoint.

So um, you know, obviously it's not a hundred percent of people in across the city would agree with that site, but it is um you know, for a variety of reasons, the one that was ultimately recommended um through that study.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Councilwoman?

So it's more a comment than uh a question.

I my concern with with all of these except for the fully funded one, which is great.

Um, but is the general snapback of funding that we're seeing and the the toll that is taking on our nonprofit partners, and I'm concerned about the future of some of these um some of these projects.

It's good to still see investment in them.

These are all areas that we had shown interest in as a council with especially when it comes to the sheltering.

Um, so it's just the general sense of unease when it comes to um our nonprofit partners and what they can shoulder and what we can shoulder as a city.

Thank you, councilman.

Any other questions or comments from members of council?

Thank you, Ms.

Collins.

So before I adjourn, I will recognize anyone from the public who wants to make comment.

This comment period is strictly for this committee of the whole meeting about our uh capital improvement plan.

So I will no one had signed up, so I'll just go around the room.

Did anyone want to make comment about the capital improvement program?

Seeing none, thank you, everyone, for your presentations.

This meeting is adjourned.

We will get started in five minutes with full council.

Thank you.