This meeting so we'll all rise for the pledge to the flag.

Yeah.

And to report for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

We're going to start with citations.

I'm going to turn to the administration for a citation for roll call.

Thanks, Mike.

The clerk will call the roll.

Mr.

Raymond.

Present.

Mr.

Callahan.

Present.

Mr.

Cologne.

Present.

Ms.

Daniels.

Present.

Ms.

Que Tech.

Present.

Ms.

Laird.

Present.

And Ms.

Leon.

Uh turning to the administration for a citation honoring Lynn Rothman.

Yes.

We have a citation here honoring the retirement of Lynn Rothman.

And before I read from it, I just want to say I think I like a lot of people in this room have had the honor of knowing Lynn for a long time.

And Lynn has been uh with us, not just from the beginning of the climate action plan, but in all the years leading up to when we had the conversations at EAC meetings and uh personally about what the value of a climate action plan would be, the focus on sustainability.

Uh the idea that focusing on a sustainability manager in the city in City Hall was a good idea.

And I would I'm gonna read this um from about Lynn, but I just want to say is like Lynn truly represented this idea that she was a part of something, and she still is a part of something that it was bigger than her individually.

She did not come to any meeting looking for credit.

She didn't come to meeting because she wanted to be about herself.

She really wanted to do this thing for the community.

And it is um it has been an honor to work with her.

Um, and I will read from uh this uh citation here.

Uh for more than a decade, Lynn Rothman has exemplified dedicated public service and principled environmental leadership through her work on the Bethlehem Environmental Advisory Council.

Uh, first appointed in 2014 and serving as chair since 2016.

Ms.

Rothman has guided the council with clarity, professionalism, and a collaborative spirit that is both strengthened its effectiveness and its relationship with city councils, city staff, and the broader community.

An environmental scientist and former former EPA professional, Ms.

Rothman brought deep technical expertise and a balanced perspective to her leadership, one that respects environmental protection while thoughtfully considering development and property rights.

As chair, she led efficient, well organized meetings.

It's not always easy, fostered respectful consensus driven dialogue, and presented recommendations in a clear, constructive, and non-confrontational manner.

Her leadership style emphasized preparation, documentation, and mutual understanding, earning trust across departments and governing bodies.

Ms.

Rothman played a pivotal role in advancing Bethlehem's sustainability goals, most notably by spearheading the research, documentation, and drafting of amendments to the city's solar ordinances.

These reforms enacted in 2022 remove barriers to solar adoption by allowing solar installations as permitted by right use in most zoning districts and introducing greater design flexibility, significantly advancing the city's commitment to clean energy.

She also led environmental reviews of development proposals and authored formal EAC correspondence, advocating for more sustainable building practices as a city standard.

Throughout her tenure, Ms.

Rothman has been instrumental in shaping and updating Bethlehem's climate action plan, promoting sustainable land use policies, engaging the public on environmental issues, and ensuring continuity through thoughtful leadership transition planning.

Her service reflects an unwavering commitment to the long-term environmental health and resilience of the city of Bethlehem and her legacy will continue to inform the city's sustainability efforts for years to come.

And I would just finish by once again saying is like she truly was a model for being involved in the community in a positive facing way.

She didn't come out because she was angry about something in her neighborhood.

She didn't come out because she thought that there was something that was going to be in for her.

She came out understanding that you need people to work as a team to move things forward.

Um we all have a lot to learn from Lynn.

I told her this the other day throughout America, this idea that when you sign up to be about something, when you go to a meeting, it's about the grind of progress and not about looking for credit for yourself.

And you know, we've said it many times.

There's a difference between helping people and feeling like you're helping people.

And Lynn was about helping Bethlehem.

And uh, you know, we're honored um to have worked with her.

Um, and we wish her nothing but but the best moving forward.

But as Lynn says, she's still gonna be involved in true Lynn fashion.

Um so just on behalf of uh the administration in the city, we want to say thank you to Lynn Rothman.

Thank you.

And I I know Lynn is watching tonight, and also I would like to express counsel's deep appreciation for all the work that she has done as well.

She truly is a stellar member of the community.

Um, we also have a citation for Charles Scripp, who is uh not here with us, but we will make sure that we mail it out to him.

And we're thanking him for 30 years of service with our wastewater treatment plant.

So thank you to Charles Script for all of your work with the city.

Moving on to the approval of the minutes.

Any comments on the minutes or anything?

Okay.

Uh first I have signed up is Keith Dow.

Keith.

It's actually the second.

Good evening, everyone.

Good evening, everyone.

Uh my name is Keith Dow.

I live live at 350 West Lehigh Street, and I work at Lehigh University.

A little over a month ago, I emailed many of you about an issue that I'm passionate about.

And based on your feedback, it seems like a lot of you are as well.

And it's not so important that I'm just passionate about it, but everyone I've spoken to cares the same way.

And that is the lighting over at the steel stacks, or to be more specific, the broken lighting over at the Steel Stack site.

So I'll just read for you the message that I had sent to get into the record, and then hopefully rally some support to have something done about it in the future.

Dear mayor and members of the council, either by carrot or by stick, can you please encourage Wind Creek to restore the lighting of the steel stacks at the Bethlehem Steel site?

The stacks on their own represent the rich industrial history and cultural history of Bethlehem's past.

The lighting of the stacks represents our present celebration of that heritage, our commitment to transformation and the artistic marvels that are ArtsQuest, Music Fest, Chris Kindle Mart, and more.

Please continue this celebration for years to come by having Wind Creek make good on their obligations to this community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Dell.

Second signed up.

I have Mark Will Webber.

Thanks.

Mark Weber, 66 West Elizabeth Avenue.

Um, here to talk about water apps.

I know you're surprised by that.

Uh just want to keep um the issue visible until you know we the haze in the barn.

I uh recently communications with uh councilwoman uh Laird.

Uh leads leads me to indicate that she put language in the bill that was passed that it seems to be that uh we'll have downloadable water apps.

My interpreting that correctly at some point, or that's the goal.

Uh and I hope that's the case.

Um that would be fantastic.

It's it's uh it's long overdue, and I hope it does happen.

Uh for from my perspective, I'm still in kind of Ronald Reagan mode, like uh with the Russians.

Let's trust but verify.

And um, this is weird for me, but I actually trust council because I've seen council ask the right questions that needed to be asked.

Um and and they deserve a lot of credit for that.

Um I still am leery of it because we don't have a timeline, which had this uh these water apps been part of the project from the beginning with the smart meters, like they are in thousands of other places.

It's not like an afterthought that gets interjected halfway through the project.

They're a cornerstone of the project to begin.

Uh and that's probably why there isn't a timeline.

And then it feels like things are gonna be done on the fly.

Uh sometimes you gotta play the hand that you're dealt.

And if the end result is we have a downloadable water app uh that benefits the people of the city with early leak detection and the ability to save water, which is gonna be good for the city.

Um, then I'm all for that.

So hopefully that's in fact what happens.

Um I'm I'm leery because he could get up here six months from now and go, well, you know, we got this glitch, we got that glitch, and uh it may not happen this year, it might be next year.

And the whole time that that happens, people are vulnerable, especially um the people that are already challenged economically in this city.

When I got jacked up for 600 bucks, I had it.

Uh and one of the awful days was calling into that office and hear this voice on the other side.

Would you like us to put you on our payment plan?

Night and it that really hit me hard.

I thought, I wonder what that's like when you have to call in admit to these people that you don't have four or five hundred bucks to pay your water bill, and you have to go on their uh Mr.

Boscola's payment plan for two or three years.

So that's a great thing that the app will do.

It's gonna keep people off payment plans, okay?

And we should all be on board with that.

And so hopefully that happens.

Uh as I said, the financial benefits to the consumer citizen are going to be great.

They're gonna they're gonna detect leaks early.

Uh studies from Riverside, California.

They they studied uh three and a half thousand uh people that had these apps, and they say six percent water from the people that didn't have the apps.

So you're gonna see a savings with at least six percent.

Big users, probably closer to twelve percent.

That's not good for his cell line, but uh I don't care about that.

It's about time that the people got protected uh from these getting ambushed by a big quarterly bill.

And uh, you know, if we're gonna talk about sustainability, let's start with uh, I think clean access to clean affordable water should be part of that, right?

Affordable being the important thing.

Affordability and sustainability.

They may not be the same thing, but they're kissing cousins in my book.

So we should the mayor should be on board with this too.

Uh as I said, there are mayors around that that really push this project.

I mentioned uh Toby Barker from Hadesburg, Mississippi.

I mentioned um Sean McCaskill from South Lake, Texas.

Uh Cherry Wood from South Salt Lake City, Utah, for a female mayor of that place, big proponent of the apps, is often on her Facebook page saying to her fellow citizens, please load download these apps.

I'd like to have a mayor that does that too.

Uh so let's do it.

Uh thanks very much.

I'll I'll uh fold my tents when I'm sitting in an airport somewhere, going to fly to see my uh two-year-old grandson, and I have Aqua Hawk on my phone and know that I'm not getting uh stabbed in the back while I'm on vacation.

Thanks.

Thank you, Mr.

Willeber.

That exhaust list of people signed up to votes or signed up to comments.

So gonna open the floor for anyone to comment on things not being voted on this evening.

Is anyone in the center?

Mr.

Shire.

Back from Wisconsin.

Um I was gonna talk about the post office tonight and how they treated me while I was gone, but there's so much negativity these days.

I decided I want to say something positive to start off the new year, and that's snow removal.

I want to compliment the city for my positive experience.

I live as you know on Eaton Avenue, and it's an unnumbered state route.

I understand.

I don't know if that makes a difference or not, but because Homestead Avenue behind me is purely a residential side street, and that seemed to be doing better too.

Uh in days gone by the snow plow would come along, push snow up against the side of my car, push snow in the back of my car, and push snow in front of the car, and I would be tasked then with not only cleaning off the car, but the side of the car as well, and uh digging out the front of the car so I could get out, and then when I would come home, I would parallel park.

I don't have to do that anymore.

There's no snow against the side of the car.

There's no snow, additional snow behind the car, and no additional snow in front of the car.

All I have to do is clean off the car and drive away.

Thank you very much.

Bye bye.

Thank you, Mr.

Shire.

Anyone else in the center wants to speak on things?

Uh I I saw Mr.

O'Hare first.

Hello, everyone.

Good evening.

Congratulations to all those on council.

Um, the new council people as well.

And uh just wanted to talk tonight a little bit about the Bethlehem Co-op.

Still not open after five years.

In November of 2019, the city council uh voted to award 105,000 to the Bethlehem Co-op in July of 2021.

The co-op was awarded 2.9 million dollars in a federal grant that was administered as a pass-through by the city in September of 2022.

Another 100,000 dollars was awarded by to the co-op as a state grant.

All of this is public money, taxpayer money, and the co-op is still not open.

It was supposed to open originally in 2022, and now they report that they're in significant debt.

And the latest uh I read was that uh they're not going to declare an opening date, as if that's a good thing.

They're not gonna uh guarantee that at all.

So uh the co-op in 2026 is still not open.

Uh they recently pledged not to uh have an opening date.

Uh none of this would really matter to me because I don't really shop at a co-op.

I shop at a regular grocery store, but this is all public money, it's all taxpayer money that was used to help support this organization.

It's six years late.

There's no uh there's no projected date of it opening, and uh I think city council has an obligation to at least start the process of finding out what's going on.

Uh I'm sure that they're all good people, they're trying to do the right thing, they're trying to get this thing going, but they need some help.

I think they need, I think the city maybe has some expertise that they could loan to the co-op to find out.

I'm reading about the refrigeration, they can't get that hooked up for some reason.

I'm sure there is lots of expertise in the city that may be able to lend some ideas to the co-op to help them, or if that's not possible, is it is it uh an idea that should be just dismissed and maybe use that space for another purpose?

It's cold out, it'd be great to have a warming shelter in the city for the homeless to go to.

Right now, they have to go to the Bethlehem Public Library to warm up, and I was there today, and that's not always an easy task for the people in the library.

So maybe there's another per another purpose for that for that space, beautiful space that's not being used, and uh thanks for your time.

Thank you, Mr.

O'Here.

Anyone else in the center that would like to make Mr.

Hans Alex Stephen and Alex 77 Ridge since my comments at the last meeting were recently supported by a strong letter to the editor, which appeared in two local papers.

Also, since the last meeting, I received new information, which I will share with you.

Was called out to assist on a fire in a third street apartments.

He then was required to stay on duty to complete a second 15-hour shift.

Could this firemen's ability to be impaired by lock of arrest and thereby resulting in a serious incident?

Because of farming staff reductions by the last administration and contained by the president, a supervising officer of the of the force while on duty is required to be in two places at the same time.

If an incident occurs at both places at this at the same time, could this officer's absence at one of these sites result in an incident because of lack of supervision?

Here's what's got concerned me.

Could these incidents possibly result in the loss of life?

And could a city be liable through staff negligence for these losses for not meeting established guidelines for our department minimum staffing?

The president of council has recently stated her selecting the late Miss Kaske as a role model.

Those who knew Miss Kaske would agree that Miss Kasky would be a heartbeat would in a heartbeat put public welfare and safety well above revenue.

Council presidents had recently voted against the replacement of the Fordis Fireman, but voted for to approve a budget, which would permit the Department of Community Economic Development to permit the economic development to hire two coordinate co-enforcement officers to roll, which would increase revenue.

Clear votes that this president placed revenue over public welfare.

Might the president now emulate the late Ms.

Kaskey by presenting a motion to replace the fireman and hold funds that would compensate the code enforcement officers.

If the president fails to make this motion, this might be a golden opportunity for one of the two newly elected council members to do just that and demonstrate to the voting public that they made the wise choice by having elected them to office.

Remember, as a council member, you do not belong to a select club with its own agenda.

Remember, you're not an extension of the administration.

Remember, you ask us to select you as our public servant, repeat servant and not master.

What a time to shine assure your independence.

Uh in a public meeting, proper decorum for the public to hear is for people who use the microphone to be heard, to have the microphone at a minimum of three inches from their local source.

That way we all can hear what they have to say.

And uh it is a public meeting, which implies that everything should be heard by those who are responsible to the public to let us know what's going on with the city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Ans Alex.

Anyone else in the center want to make public comments on things not being voted on this evening?

Turning to the right.

Moving on to public comment on ordinances and resolutions to be voted on this evening.

I don't have anyone signed up, so I'm going to turn to the center.

Does anyone want to make public comment on things that are being voted on this evening?

Anyone to the right?

That concludes public comment.

Moving on to old business.

Do any council members have old business that they would like to address?

Okay.

Moving on to new business.

Before I open it up to council, um, the committee of the whole will meet on Tuesday, February 24th for ethics training provided by the state ethics commission.

This training session will be open to the public and will meet city article 104.

The meeting will be for informational purposes only, and no actions will be taken.

So again, that's February 24th.

Do any council members have any new business that they would like to address?

Councilman Callahan.

Thank you.

Um Chief, can you you got a minute?

Yeah.

During during the during the budget hearings, we I guess we're talking about possibility of um charging Lehigh students and raving students in the city, uh like a $50 set fee, you know, for um services rendered, you know, from the city.

So I had some firemen that I was talking to, and apparently I don't know if this is true, so if it isn't, I apologize, but can you start giving us like uh a monthly uh list of the calls, you know, just the number of calls that are going to Lehigh and Moraving on a you know monthly basis?

Is that possible without doing a lot of work?

We can certainly try to do that.

Unfortunately, a lot of the addresses associated with both universities aren't necessarily on university property, so there would it wouldn't be an exact science, but we can work on getting you some of those numbers, yes.

Yeah, because I mean they're they're they're telling me some what they're telling me, they're there every single day, sometimes two to three times a day in in you know, smoke alarms, you know, a variety of things, you know.

But so I I would just appreciate if we got some some real data on it on how many calls uh on a monthly basis are going, how how many times we're being called up to Lehigh or the Lehigh students, you know, even if they're off campus.

Um off-campus is going to be slightly more difficult to calculate and get those numbers for you because we don't keep track or or know who the tenants are in those rental properties based on the physical address in the city.

But I thought we tracked that though through uh community and economic development.

We track uh regulated rentals, yeah, but there's no guarantee that that's one for one as far as necessarily a regulator rental being associated with just Lehigh.

I mean, if you had a property and you were renting to more than three unrelated people and that becomes a regulated rental, it's not like a regulated rental, it's not like every regulated rental is a Lehigh University related off-campus housing.

There's obviously some overlap there.

Um, but it's uh I mean, like we could we could look into it as far as trying to determine what it is, but we can't just look at like where they're regulated rental properties because you have Raven kids, you got the sales kids, and you just have people that are just living there that are 25 or 30 years old or older.

I think I I think the ones I'm talking about are the ones that you know they're they're very identifiable with the with the signs out front, you know what I mean?

You know, what you know with the student housing, the they're owned by Amicus, yeah, but not all of those properties are rented just to Lehigh students.

They've been branded with those terrible signs where it's like you know, Myrtle Beach and like you know, Cancun and whatever the heck they say in them, but they're not all they're not all Lehigh students.

So I mean, it is one place that we could take a look at.

Um, but it's not once again, I'm just being honest, it's not as easy as just going and counting their like 400 properties, yeah, because they've rent they've started to rent some of them to people that are not students as well.

I mean, if if it's I mean, at the bare minimum, the number of times that we're being called up to campus, you know, the you know, to the dorms and a variety of things, absolutely that information is easily attainable.

We can run reports to get you that information.

Uh, when we step off the footprint of the campuses, it gets a little more difficult.

Yeah, but campus-wise, I can get you that information, yes.

Yeah, and and if there's any way that we can identify um the the ones that are off campus, which are Lehigh kids, because I mean, my my main goal here is I'm starting to do I just want to do a little bit of research.

I want to find out uh the legality of it, and but I want to get the number of calls of because if they're if their students are using our city services on a a daily basis, which I'm being told they are, sometimes two to three times.

That's what I was told by firemen, uh not one, but several firemen that they're up there on a regular basis every single day, and sometimes two to three times a day, and that kind of shocked me.

So I just think if they're if they're using their services, they in and again, I don't I don't know if there's a another way if there's another way that we can also, and maybe this is from the mayor's office, find out um what are what is Lehigh providing to the city in in lieu of fees, you know.

So we can we can definitely put together a list of kind of what they've contributed to Southside Arts District, the ambassadors and things like that.

I would say just on one more point about the properties is like the idea of a payment in lieu of, or the idea that like they're not paying property taxes as you know, it would extend then to other non-profits as well, because under the same idea, the same legal concept, and I'm not a lawyer, but I've had enough conversations about this topic over the past 19 years, is this idea that like it would also the same concept as far as like Lehigh not paying property taxes, which is the main source of what pays our firefighters, it would extend to the school district, it would still extend to Moravian, it would extend to NCC, it would extend any nonprofit that doesn't pay property taxes, and the people that are living in the off-campus housing, those properties are on the tax rolls, so those property owners are paying taxes.

So, like if you're renting to five Lehigh students, and if there weren't five Lehigh students living there, and there was just a family living there, you still would have the property owner still would be paying property taxes that goes to pay for it.

So I do think the framing, and like I said, we certainly can put together kind of a kind of an explanation of what you know Lehigh has helped to contribute, but I I do think as far as the framing of the conversation, like from a legal point of view, it comes down to like non-profits that aren't paying property taxes rather than people that are living somewhere in the city that might be associated with a nonprofit.

So, but we can we can like I said we can put together what information we have, right?

And then the other concern was too is that uh Saint Luke's and Fountain Hill, we're going up there, police and fire sometimes.

No, sir, that hasn't been happening for a number quite a number of years.

What for fire for fire fire does not respond to St.

Luke's.

I can't speak on behalf of police, but police does from what I heard.

So that's those are not I don't know why we would be going up there.

Uh that's in it's in Fountain Hill.

So the Fountain Hill police.

I mean, if we're going up there, that we should be getting some type of um uh a call log uh every time that we're being called uh outside the city because it is outside the city limits, and someone has to pay for that.

I mean, I don't know why we're going up there anyways.

It's uh it's in Fountain Hill, Fountain Hill Police Department should be in if they can't handle it and they need us to go up there, then there should be some type of a fee.

I mean, I I want people that are using our services outside of our taxpayers.

If you're paying tax in a city and you're using it, I have no problem with that's that's what you're tax paying.

But if you're if you're outside of the city limits, uh or uh a non-profit and you're using on a regular basis our city services and you and paying zero, I that's gotta be researched and looked in it.

And the other thing that we were talking about during the budget season is that in Oklahoma, they started charging the insurance companies of cars that were in accidents that needed fire and police services.

We they started and it went through the legal process in I guess I don't know if it went to the Supreme Court, but it went to the state supreme court, and I and it's something that I would like to look into.

If you're in an accident in the city of Bethlehem and you are a city resident, you shouldn't have to pay.

But if you're outside the city and police or fire are being responded to an accident that you were at fault for, then uh in Oklahoma and I'll get you the information for it.

But they they were charging the insurance company for the call.

So all I'm trying to do is I'm trying to generate money for the four firemen, hopefully, right?

And next year's budget.

And I want to start now.

I don't want to wait till the end of the year.

I want to start uh generating the money now or trying to come up with a way to generate the money to $500,000 for four more firemen.

That's what that's my goal.

And I want to I don't want the people that are already paying tax in the city paying for it because they're already paying their taxes.

I want the people that are using the services and aren't paying anything that are that are in a city of Bethlehem.

And I'll get I'll send you the information.

I'll I'll send it to Tad and I'll Tad send it to you.

But there's uh uh um uh a law now in Oklahoma where they're they are now charging people uh that live outside of the of their limits and their tax base that are need, you know, if you get in an accident and it's your fault and you need fire police to respond, you got to be paying for that.

And that's my goal.

So if you can just start getting us as much information once a month, I will work on starting to get some of that data together, yes, sir.

Thank you.

And Mr.

Kelly, just to add to that.

If you remember, like uh we pay that LST, the local services tax at $52.

So for those people that work in the city, like you that lives in the city and works in the city, you pay your $52, and I think city gets 47, and I believe five dollars goes to the school district.

Is that correct?

And you probably remember it was about 20 years ago.

I think it was about 2005 when that was that used to be $10, and that was raised to $52.

So theoretically, people that work at some of the nonprofits.

So if you work at Lee had to work at Moravian, work at any nonprofit, but you're in the city, and I think the exemption is like 10 or 12,000 dollars, like you pay that 52, which is why it's called the local services tax.

Now, where am I going with this?

Is that there's a movement in Harrisburg, not just because of Bethlehem, but because of other cities as well, to raise that $52.

And I have Mr.

Evans looking it up, and I think we get somewhere in the two 1.9.

So we got 1.9 million dollars in that.

And you've heard me talk before about how like we're limited by earned income tax because we're in a better financial position, so we're not able to raise it like other places are.

Um, so but like there's a movement in Harrisburg, and now just last week, um, I took over as the president of the Pennsylvania Municipal League, and one of the priorities of the Pennsylvania Municipal League is allowing Harrisburg to authorize cities to be able to go above $52 because it hasn't been changed in 20 years, and other municipalities have a similar problem.

Where essentially you have there's other, you know, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Lancaster, Scranton, they have huge parts of their city where they have nonprofits.

So one way to be able to capture revenue from that is without getting in the way of their kind of like federal tax status is the idea to be able to raise that local services tax.

So then our money would go up as well.

But I mean, if you adjust for inflation, whatever is and so on and so forth.

So one of the things that we are pushing this year, and I mean, they shouldn't look at it this way, but people look at even allowing cities the authorization to be able to go above $52 as they're gonna get hit with some level of like I'm raising taxes or not.

Um, but the point though, that that's a number by which people that work in the city that don't necessarily um are they're not paying property taxes, their earned income taxes going back to whatever their home municipality is, it's really a potential source, and there's different talks that could give cities the authorization to be able to raise that to $80 or $90 or $100 or phase it in or whatever that might be, but even going from $52 to like $75, which would work out to you know, uh 50 cents a week or something would give us another like you know, million dollars.

So it's one of the priorities that we're gonna work on to be able to allow us this opportunity to capture some of these people.

So we'll see what happens, but I just wanted to put that out there.

And at some point, I may ask, I may ask us to weigh in with our own local elected officials to be able to give because like I said, the state hasn't done that in in 20 years, and we only have so many, as we've talked about before, revenue options.

Yeah, I appreciate the information, but I'm just trying to get get the ball rolling in in and trying to find out where we can come up with the additional money for people that are using the services who aren't paying anything for it.

That's what I want to do.

So if you can get us like maybe once a month, whatever you can get us, and Mr.

Reynolds, if you could check in in and maybe find out um no rush, um, what what services Lehigh is providing to the city uh in you know in Louis fees.

Yeah, I I will I like I said, I think it's I think it's obviously Lehigh is the biggest one, but I think to be fair, we should be looking at some type of standard of nonprofits above a certain amount because like I said, it's not it's not different than the school district owns a lot of property from Ravian or other people that are nonprofits as well.

So I will think about that part and we'll get back to you.

Um, but we will try to put together um and try to ask for it as well, because I'm just making this part up a little bit, but like there's things that we don't know that people are investing into the community that are also kind of indirect benefits that then save us necessary money and things like that.

So it might take a little while, but we can try to put together something.

I appreciate it.

Yep.

Uh Chief, thank you.

And and the last thing, Mr.

Anders, can you just check with um Win Creek and find out what's the the gentleman that was bringing up the lighting?

Yeah, because I'm that lighting's been out since uh I think music fest yeah earlier.

And and I we can, and we're having a little conversation here is that between Mr.

Alcall and Mr.

Spurk, who were obviously here when the original TIFF and everything went into place, and those kind of agreements were passed 20 years ago.

And like we don't believe there's anything that forces them to keep them on, like we don't think anything was written in, but we can take a look at it.

Um, I will say that you know, the costs associated with fixing that system, as we've talked about, like I thought it was a little bit of um when some of the lights went back on.

If that was last year, two years ago, um, I thought there was a little bit of a just kind of community-wide, like this was fixed in a way that can be sustainable moving forward.

When I just thought the infrastructure costs associated with that lighting system on the wind creek side, and we have told them that this is your responsibility, this is something you should do, this is a promise that you made.

I I think that we should keep our expectations kind of minimal right now until we get a better idea of what the actual long-term financial cost is, because getting some of the lights to go back on sometime over the past two years has only raised expectations that somehow there is an easy fix to what was a lighting system that was installed there that has had a lot of problems from the beginning.

So this has been a priority for us, uh telling them to like when you're looking at the rest of redevelopment around the site, like it's important by starting by keeping the promises that you made to our community.

Like there's only so many carats and six that you have when they do when it is their responsibility to be able to force them to do something when we don't have a lease or anything from the original agreement that way, but it is something that we will continue to push because I think everybody agrees that not having them lit is a negative for the city of Bethlehem.

I think too that uh I I think uh last year when the lights went out.

Um I forgot the name of the electrical firm that went down there that does a lot of work down here, but they actually went down here and they got a majority of lights on for less than five thousand bucks.

And I think they they they sucked up the cost, they didn't charge wink ring anything.

So um so yeah, it was like a continuum on the percentage of how many lights were on.

So if you were going from like 20 or 25% up to like 45% or 50%, but it just like I said, I've been it it it was they were on and off, like and this was nothing against them, it was nothing against them.

It was just it's it wasn't a it's not a long-term infrastructure fix.

That's good, that's gonna take a lot more.

And like I said, everybody appreciates the fact that they volunteered to take on whatever kind of minimal maintenance they could do in the short term.

It just wasn't it wasn't it's it was never gonna be a long-term fix.

So, but we're after them to have to come up with one.

Mr.

Spurk, I I think you were the uh Slicers the time.

So uh from what I understood though, in the written document, they were they they had ownership over it, but they were also uh according to to what I'm being told, they had to maintain the the steel stacks.

And I think the redevelopment authority building the Hoover Mason trestle did a document with the Sands, I think an easement that sort of allowed access to the property, and I think it was something in there.

I think it was in the redevelopment authorities contract or easement with the sands to maintain that's my best recollection.

Yeah, I'm not sure if the city was a party to it or not.

I don't know.

Can you check on that for us?

Yeah, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

And then it just becomes the legal conversation about whether or not maintaining involves keeping lights on or not, which is not it's it there's not probably not a lot of you know case law about maintaining including decorative lights, which just becomes part of the challenge.

Yeah.

I I don't know um what the relationship is with between you and the owner or the president over there, but I think a phone call would just yeah would help.

We meet with them regularly to talk about redevelopment over there and and potential ideas and plans and Ms.

Collins, who's in all of those meetings as well, and Mr.

Ziller, um, we very much talk about the idea that like if you're going to look for some type of public support, whether or not it's state support, federal support, local support for anything that's going on here as far as redevelopment, it's going to start with keeping the promises that the SANS had made 20 years ago.

And a big one is about lighting steel stacks.

And it is it is it is at the forefront a lot of those conversations.

Um, and I don't want to speak for them, but I think it is something that they understand and that they've talked about and are thinking about how they can roll that into other development there to be able to pay for it because look to take it to a next step, like the lighting obviously is important, but we also want the literal maintenance of those to stay up.

Like if you didn't have those anymore, the Hoover Mason trestle suddenly wouldn't be too too too nice to walk on.

Right.

So, like it is a larger conversation, not just about the lights, but it's about destructional integrity for a long time.

And you know, we've we've basically said to them is like that's where the conversation needs to start with a commitment, and they say, which is fair is like there's gonna be a financial cost, so we need to figure out how to pay for that in a way that's not going to be cheap over the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years.

Um, so it is, but it is absolutely one of the things that we talk about on a regular basis.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

That's it.

Thank you, Mr.

Callahan.

Any other councilman Clone?

Thank you, President Luna.

I I would just for a little bit of a history lesson, ask Mr.

Miller to grab, I believe it was the first council meeting in December of 2012, council passed a resolution supporting uh then the administration, I believe council passed unanimously at the time a resolution to seek a payment in lieu of taxes from nonprofits in the city.

So I think just if we're gonna this is the second time I've heard it brought up on the floor, if we're gonna continue to have these conversations, it's important to know kind of what conversations were had in the past.

Uh so I would ask Mr.

Miller to share the minutes from that meeting along with the resolution that was passed, um, just for everyone to reference as we look at at that.

I mean, this is a very nuanced conversation.

We can't apply a discussion from almost a decade and a half ago, but I think it is relevant too.

If we're going to bring up some of the same things that had been uh advocated for previously, we might also revisit some of the reasons that you know it was hard to implement a program like that uh at the time.

So while definitely each conversation has its own nuances, this is something that had been brought up before, visited before.

Um, Mr.

Miller, yeah, if you could pull the resolution and then the minutes from that meeting to share with full council for reference as we move forward.

Thank you.

And I will turn to uh Silicon go ahead.

Oh, I was gonna say there is an article on Lehigh Valley Live that I was able to pull up by a very respected journalist named Sarah Satulo.

Uh I recommend everyone if you just Google Bethlehem payment in lieu of you could read the article that Mr.

Tulo had wrote at the time.

And and again, there's certain things that I think are cyclical to a degree, not that's uh a one-to-one comparison or conversation, but there's definitely in different avenues or ways, as the mayor shared.

There's already conversations about looking at you know, one of our handful of Act 511 taxes that we're looking at raising that revenue line item given um by giving us greater power, how to do that.

So I think just more information is important for everyone to have as we talk through it.

Um, especially if we're gonna lead up to the end of the year, I think uh a challenge is that we get to the end of the year, then we're trying to educate ourselves or bring all these moving pieces together.

So might as well start getting some of that information together now.

Yeah, and to that point, I will turn to attorney steward because we did have a couple of questions presented to the solicitor during the budget season.

And I believe the question about the $50 kind of payment um was brought up.

So if you could uh recap uh your answer to that question, please.

Yes, generally the question uh regarding whether a charge um can be levied upon a particular institution or individual.

Um, my response was that while fees may be charged uh for a particular service for use of that service, uh, the assessment of a fee to a person or entity absent the use of a service would be an illegal tax.

And there's a lot of case law on that.

The other thing I wanted to mention um that uh councilman Callahan brought up was Oklahoma, um, here in Pennsylvania, because that's a that's a really interesting idea here in Pennsylvania.

Many of the municipalities have fire service recovery fee ordinances whereby they charge insurance companies for the costs of equipment and personnel after an emergency response.

So that is something I'm familiar with.

It's something I've drafted those ordinances.

Um and I can provide further information should you be interested.

But but that's for non-residential people, right?

We wouldn't be doing that to residential people, right?

That's yeah, for emergency response for non-residents.

Right.

Okay.

So uh thank you for that, attorney Stewart.

I guess the whole point of that is just like um, although there are certain things that are not available to us, there are other avenues, and I think we as a council are more than willing to entertain other avenues that are going to generate that revenue in order to cover the cost that we need for emergency services.

Um does anyone else on council have councilman Larry?

Uh yeah, just to add a couple more legal questions to look up.

Um is it it might I I thought we looked into this during budget season, but I I do want to continue the conversation, so the information would be good to have refreshed.

Um is it legal to charge for a fee to only certain nonprofits, uh, as the mayor mentioned, and if not that, is it where is the line?

Like, can it be charged?

Can you charge a fee for something to a class based on size, based on type like residential versus non-residential or um for nonprofits?

Like, where are the break points that you can apply?

And I hear what you're saying also about you can't charge for something that's not used.

So um, you know, it will be a nuanced conversation.

But if we could just look at like where those categorical lines are, um, that would be helpful.

Um also I is it I wasn't sure if it's actually legal to charge.

Like sometimes when we've had this conversation, it's been institutional conversation.

Sometimes it's been like, oh, charge the student or the person.

Um, and I wondered about the legality of charging a person for an individual for emergency services.

Um there's I also have a lot of thoughts on like the ethics of of that, but uh legality-wise, I I wondered where that stands.

So um, I don't need those answers right now.

But if you're looking into things and we're gonna continue the conversation, I'd appreciate that.

Thank you.

But I mean, broadly, I will say that there are situations where say a non-resident is charged a higher park rental fee or something.

There are there are circumstances where you can differentiate differentiate fees, but it is it's a very narrow line.

So we we can talk more about um what you might be interested in and the nuances of those particular situations, I think outside of here.

Thank you.

And the other two business from members of council.

Councilman Callan.

Uh Mr.

Alcal on the uh so um I'm um looking at the weather reports, and I guess on Sunday they're expecting uh one uh weather association is expecting 12 to 15 inches for the Leah Valley, and then Monday another seven inches.

Are we gonna um make any announcements with the downtown residents as far as the the parking garages or anything?

Well, it's gonna be a it's gonna be a longer conversation.

Mr.

Alcohol and I were having this conversation about whether or not we declare a snow emergency.

So then if it became clear that we were gonna have a uh that level of a storm, um, we've not had to declare any snow emergencies.

Mr.

Alcall and I had this conversation today that we actually don't think we've had to declare one in all four years that I've been here.

Um, but with the amount of snow that we have, and also if you take a uh look back, if you just give me a second to help explain the storm from last week, um, you know, when we have a snow emergency, we um our streets workers, it's basically mandatory that they have to come out to be a part of this the operation.

Now, you don't want to just declare a snow emergency because people got to move their cars, they got to get off the main roads, you got to handle that.

So it's like not a singular situation.

Um, but the challenge, as we had last week, as in a couple of days ago, and the guys that took the call that came out, like they did a great job.

Our main roads look great and stuff like that.

But it is absolutely part of the calculation that Mr.

Alcall and I were just talking about actually before the meeting.

Was you know, if we believe there is to be a substantial storm, the ability to call the snow emergency as early as possible is helpful, but you also don't want to pull the trigger if you don't think that it's going to be something, and it ends up with like three inches, and then everyone has to remove the cars and things like that.

But it's something we're gonna we're gonna continue to talk about for the next uh next couple days.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Is that all from the members of council?

That was my biggest question is where are we going to be pro how proactive can you be about declaring a slow emergency to get vehicles off the road and into the parking decks?

Um, but it seems like the conversation's already being had.

Yeah, and it it is, you know, it is a balancing act because I think a lot of us know this.

So we either live in those neighborhoods or you know, moving everybody moving their cars off the snow emergency route is not an easy thing for people to do.

People don't have garages, they don't have places, so then it just puts pressure on those arterial streets.

So it is it is a conversation we'll have, but as soon as we have clarity there, and I think we all know it's going to get colder over the next couple days.

So the areas that were not able to be plowed, because once again it's voluntary for us to get many as many people out as possible in the when we when there's not a snow emergency, those areas are going to get packed down, and even though it's going to get up to like 40 on Thursday, we still will have some limitations as far as like how much snow is there with a potential storm on Saturday into Sunday or potentially Monday to come.

But you know, we're we're on top of on top of that.

Thank you.

And my last one was this is three, so I'll make it your last.

No, I know.

I no, I I wanted to say this also, but I it's it's on cheap.

Chief, uh, the the uh situation that Mr.

Antalyx had talked about what with the firemen with with that specific fire.

Is that is that true, or is that uh as far as the amount of hours that was I'm not familiar with the specifics that were referenced tonight.

Uh no, I'm I can't say one way or the other.

I'd have to research that.

All right, thank you.

All right, if there's nothing else from council, we're gonna move on to communications, communication six A.

December 18th, 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from business administrator Eric Evans.

Mr.

Evans recommends an agreement with Lehigh Valley with Love Media of Bethlehem to serve as the city's information officer and provide communication support.

Cost is $18,000 per year, and the contract would run from January 1st, 2026 through December 31st of 2029.

There are no renewals.

December 17th, 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Edward Boscola, Director of Water and Sewer Resources.

Mr.

Boscola recommends an agreement with CHA Consulting Incorporated of Bethlehem to provide engineering and inspection services associated with replacement of the wastewater treatment plants, primary digester PD3 membrane gas cover.

Cost of 66,700.

Work is to be completed by December 31st of 2026.

There are no renewals.

Resolution 10B is on the agenda.

Communication 60.

December 23rd, 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Laura Collins, Director of Community and Economic Development.

Ms.

Collins recommends an agreement with Collabo Planning and Design of Chicago to collaborate with other agencies to prepare and submit a choice neighborhoods implementation grant application by March 9th of 2026.

The cost is not to exceed 40,000.

Work is to be completed by June 30th of 2026, and there are no renewals.

Resolution 10C is on the agenda.

Communication 6D.

January 5th, 2026 memorandum and proposed resolution from Edward Boscola, Director of Water and Sewer Services.

Mr.

Boscola recommends an agreement with Collier's Engineering and Design Incorporated of Allentown to provide engineering services to assist the city in evaluating the feasibility of upgrade to the waste wastewater treatment plant to improve the efficiency of existing steam boilers and the hot water circulation system.

Cost is not to exceed 59,900.

Work is to be completed within 100 days of the notice to proceed, and there are no renewals.

Resolution 10 is on the agenda.

Communication 60.

The January 5th, 2026 memorandum and proposed resolution from Edward Boscola, Director of Water and Sewer Services.

Mr.

Bascola recommends an agreement with Emerson Power and Water Solutions of Cranberry Township to provide software support to the city's water and sewer facilities.

The annual cost is 66,225.30 cents, which will be split evenly between the water and sewer fund accounts.

The three-year contract is for the period of January 1st, 2026 through December 31st of 2029.

Resolution 10 is on the agenda.

Communication success.

January 8th, 2026, memorandum and proposed resolution from Edward Basculah, Director of Water and Sewer Resources.

Mr.

Boscola recommends an agreement with Gannette Fleming, valuation of rate consultants LLC of Mechanicsburg to provide a wastewater rate study to project appropriate rate levels and charges for the next five years.

Study will form the basis for future sewer rate adjustments.

The cost is $19,000.

Work is to be completed within 180 days.

There are no renewals.

January 13th, 2026 memorandum with an attached resolution and associated intergovernmental cooperation agreement from city solicitor John of Spurk Jr.

Solicitor Spurk recommends amendment number two to the agreement already in place between the city and Hanover Township, Northampton County, involving the usage of the city's yard waste facility.

The amended agreement would run from January 1st, 2026 through December 31st of 2026.

Resolution 10G is on the agenda.

Communication 6H.

January 13th, 2026 memorandum with an attached resolution and associated intergovernmental cooperation agreement from City Solicitor John of Spurk Jr.

Solicitor Spurk recommends amendment number two to the agreement already in place between the city and fountain hill involving the usage of the city's water waste correction, city's yard waste facility.

The amended agreement would run from January 1st, 2026 through December 31st of 2026.

And resolution 10H is on the agenda.

Communication 6I.

A January 13th, 2026 memorandum from Mike Simonson, Chief Code Official.

Mr.

Simonson recommends amending Article 1701 to adopt the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code requirements 2021 International Code Suite as amended.

Ordinance 9A is on the agenda.

Communication 6J.

A January 12th, 2026 memorandum and proposed resolution from Michelle Saihki, Director of Human Resources, requesting the destruction of records from her department.

Ms.

Saih is reviewed the municipal municipal records retention act and the records listed on the exhibit accompanying the memo fall within the categories where destruction is permitted.

A resolution will be placed on the February 3rd, 2026 City Council Agenda Communication 6K.

A January 14th, 2026 memorandum and attached resolution and lease agreement from City Solicitor John F.

Spurk Jr.

Mr.

Spurk recommends approving the agreement to allow Bethlehem Tempo LLC to serve food and beverages, including alcoholic beverages to patrons of a hotel located immediately adjacent to the lease premises as shown on exhibit A and for use as a driveway area for the pickup and drop-off of hotel guests.

Term of the lease would be 50 years from the signing by the city.

Rent shall be 100,000 for the first 25 years and $4,000 annually for years 26 through 50.

Additional rates apply if the term is extended.

Resolution 10i is on the agenda.

Communication 6L.

A January 14th, 2026 memorandum and proposed resolution from Robert Vidoni, Housing and Community Development Administrator.

Mr.

Vedoni seeks authorization to execute an agreement.

Michael Baker International of California to provide technical assistance and professional services required for HUD administered federal funding related to the CDBG and home programs and other potential funding sources.

Cost is 112,409 dollars.

Two one-year renewal options are offered totaling 242,000.

Resolution 10J is on the agenda.

Moving on to reports.

Before I go on to other things, we have a couple of councilmanic appointments, but I will accept the motion and a second to consider 7A1 through 7A4 as a group.

I'll make the motion.

So second.

So councilman Callan.

Councilman Callahan.

Thank you.

So turning to or discussion on the motion.

Clerk will call the role.

Mr.

Heyman.

Aye.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Quietek.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

Clerk will read the appointments.

Item 781.

Councilmanic appointment, Megan Lysowski to the environmental advisory council.

Item 782, Councilmanic appointment.

Vibor Kumar to the Environmental Advisory Council.

7A3.

Mandy Tolino to the Advice Environmental Advisory Council.

And 7A4 Councilmanic appointments, Steven Olzewski as chair of the environmental advisory council.

All are sponsored by Ms.

Leone and Ms.

Kuyatec.

Clerk will call the role on the appointments.

Mr.

Raymond.

I.

Mr.

Callahan.

Mr.

Cologne.

All right.

Ms.

Daniels.

Hi.

Ms.

Queetec.

Hi.

Ms.

Laird.

Hi.

And Ms.

Leon.

Hi.

Motion passes seven zero.

Um, a couple of other things that I wanted to talk about very quickly.

Uh, council committee assignments and counsel liaison uh positions have been um given to council members, and they were also available online for anyone who wants to see who is going to be assigned to um what committee and the other the only other thing I wanted to talk about is um there's been a conversation about how stuffy city council meetings are, and I I do agree, but our agenda is our agenda.

So in order to have a space for more dialogue between council members, um, or at least the council president and the public, uh, the council president will be holding president hours, so to speak.

I'm not naming anything official right now.

For right now, it'll be the hour directly before a city council meeting.

So if there's anything that anybody wants to address, just with me and is uncomfortable coming to the podium.

I will be here from six to seven o'clock as long as the meetings start at seven.

Um, if a meeting starts at six, I will be here from five to six o'clock, and we'll test this out and see if this is something that the community needs or if there is another date and time that works better.

Uh moving on to the mayor's report.

Thank you.

Uh a couple of things.

One is I just want to uh thank everybody um who had participated yesterday in uh uh several of the great MLK events throughout the day.

Um we had the march uh in the morning, and then there was a great event over at uh Cathedral Church.

And it was just uh, I know there was an event at Moravian as well.

Um, and I'm I think Lehi did something as well.

Um, that it was just uh it it was a a real sign of uh where a lot of people are within our community.

Um I know I saw several people there.

Um, and I just didn't want it to go by without thanking those that organized those events because they're not easy to organize, especially in this day and age.

Um, and but they were a reminder of uh of uh uh of the message and also the purpose that we all have.

Um couple other things.

Um one is is on Thursday this week.

We have our next uh opening doors meeting at 6 p.m.

Uh, I think is when the doors open, I believe.

No pun intended, over at NCC.

Um, so we'll be giving some more updates on uh the progress that we have made where all those different initiatives are.

I also wanted to mention, I don't know if there, I think there had been an article about this, but uh we did um we were able we were awarded uh another 250,000 grant from DCNR um to help to pay for um the construction of the portion of the greenway there um uh off of New Street, uh kind of its terminus next to Comfort Suites.

So that area there between uh the new street garage and the uh current building that is there at third new, and then also the building that will be going up next to it.

Um we were able to we applied and we got another 250,000 from DC and R to be able to pay for that construction.

Uh, I think many of you probably remember when we had the uh community meeting after some of the initial designs and concepts were done.

I think we had that meeting of Venture X now a couple of years ago, probably it was, um, because our thought process there was the idea that we wanted to be able to go through that initial design with the community um uh input included.

So as the construction of the um hotel ended up going up, that we were able to create as efficient timeline as possible there um to make sure that once that was done, because that's gonna be the staging area for the hotel going up, it would then allow us the opportunity to start construction relatively quickly afterwards.

Uh that's been an area that I know several people in city council have asked over the years, like what is being done to clean that up.

Uh and the timeline's been a little bit clunky because you don't want to pay to improve that area until you know that it's no longer going to be upset by construction vehicles and things like that.

Um, but once again, just very proud of uh uh Laurie and everybody that worked on that application with public works to be able to once again be awarded um uh that 250,000 dollars that will help with that construction for that that portion of the greenway.

So that's uh that's more great news.

Uh and I believe that uh concludes my report for oh, one more thing.

I know Mr.

Harrod asked about the co-op.

I would just uh repeat what I had said, I guess it was probably a couple months ago is we we do meet with them on a regular basis, trying to talk to them about you know, getting their doors open, about that they should announce an opening date that people have invested in the co-op for now going back, I think 13 years.

I think the first members actually joined in July of 2013.

Um, and you know, as I've said before, you know, we have both been working and we helped to be able to make sure that the grant was administered through the federal government.

Um, and that's basically all paid off.

If you drive by there, uh they do have a store that's essentially ready to go.

Um, they're working on putting their deposit down to be able to pay for the refrigeration unit on the top of the building that should allow them to then to set a date.

Um, and we have offered all of the assistance we can as far as our expertise is concerned with whatever we can do.

Um, but at the end of the day, they need to kind of make the leap and announce an opening date and have the community come up.

That is the co-op's model.

Um, that the support is there.

Um, I think a lot of people have seen their communications that they've asked for member loans, that they're looking to get to a number.

Um, we feel that they are there, that they should be willing to announce that they can set an opening date.

Um, but we're not the board.

And you know, despite what I'm not saying, Mr.

Hare thinks this is despite the fact that people think everybody just listens when we suggest something, they do not.

Um, so we will continue to have conversations about the idea that we think that it is time to be able to set an opening date and put down their deposit and allow the community to come shop at the grocery store.

Um, so we will continue to meet with them and we will continue to offer advice.

As I said last time this topic came up, sometimes that advice is taken, sometimes it is not.

Uh sometimes months later.

It turns out that that device probably should have been taken, which they have admitted.

Um, so we will continue to offer what we believe is the best advice as far as moving forward in this way.

Um, but we can only offer advice in many ways.

We can't make them take it.

They're a board that doesn't answer to us, they are a board that answers to their members.

Um, but it is not something that we have forgotten about or we're not on top of.

And we have several people that are working um with them to make sure that they close out all of their grants correctly and things like that.

And I think the good news is is if you talk to them or if you go there, they're really about 97, 98% there.

They just need to kind of get over this last last uh last hurdle to be able to get open.

But it is something that we are actively working on.

Um, and there is uh, you know, Ms.

Collins and Mr.

Venoni meet with them on a regular basis, as do I, uh, to try to help them uh get over the finish line.

And we are hopeful and optimistic, despite my comments.

Um, we think they're gonna get there, and we are hopeful that at some point, and I know we've heard this before, we are hopeful that in the next couple of weeks they will they will have some good news to report and we will get a date and we will be able to uh uh look at the finishing line for this.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to ordinances for final passage, ordinance eight day.

Ordinance of the city of Bethlehem, counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund budget for 2026.

Bill number 01 2026 is sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Wilhelm.

Discussion.

Clerk will call the role, Mr.

Raymond.

I Mr.

Callahan.

Aye, Mr.

Cologne.

All right, Ms.

Daniels.

Hi.

Ms.

Queatech.

Aye, Ms.

Laird.

Hi.

Ms.

Liam.

Ordinance passes 7-0.

Moving on to new ordinances 9A.

An ordinance of the City of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending Article 1701 of the codified ordinance is entitled Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code by adopting the 2021 Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code.

Bill number 02 2026 is sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Quiachek.

Discussion.

The clerk will call the roll.

Mr.

Raymond.

Aye.

Mr.

Callahan.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Quitek.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

Passes 7-0.

Moving on to resolutions, resolution 10.

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.

We're hereby authorized to execute an agreement with Lehigh Valley with Love Media to provide information officer and communication services.

Resolution is sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Quiet.

Discussion.

The clerk will call the roll.

Mr.

Raymond.

Aye.

Mr.

Callahan.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Queatech.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

Resolution passes 7-0.

Resolution 10B.

Be it 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.

We're hereby authorized to execute an agreement with CHA Consulting Incorporated to provide engineering and inspection services.

Resolution is sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Quiet.

Discussion.

Madam President, uh consistent with Bethlehem Ordinance uh 2022-24.

I will recuse myself from this vote due to a campaign donation in excess of 500 from an employee of this company.

Thank you.

Have you been given the recusal paper recognition?

Yep.

Any other discussion?

The clerk will call the roll.

Mr.

Mr.

Raymond.

Abstain.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Quietek.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

Passes 60 with one abstention.

Resolution Sensi.

Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller andor such other city officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor.

We're hereby authorized to execute an agreement with Collabo Planning and Design to provide grant application services.

Resolution is sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Queatech.

Discussion.

The clerk will call the roll.

Mr.

Raymond.

Aye.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Quiatec.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

Passes 7-0.

Did I say aye?

Aye.

Pass a seven zero.

Um.

Be it 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.

We're hereby authorized to execute an agreement with Colliers Engineering and Design Incorporated to evaluate the existing steam boilers and the hot water circulation system at the wastewater treatment plant.

Resolution is sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Queatech.

Discussion.

Clerk will call the roll.

Mr.

Raymond.

Aye.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Quiet.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

Pass a seven zero.

Ten e it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller andor such other city officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with Emerson Power and Water Solutions to provide licensed software support.

Resolution is sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Queatech.

Discussion.

Clerk will call the roll.

Mr.

Ayman.

Aye.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Quietek.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

Passes 70.

10F.

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 an agreement with Gannett Fleming Valuation and Rate Consultants LLC to provide a wastewater rate study.

Resolution is sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Queatech.

Discussion.

Just ask.

Council.

Are you still here?

Can you just give us the background?

I know that this was something we discussed during the budget season, but um, if you could just um explain what part of the process this is.

So uh the last time we did a sewer rate increase, someone council will remember was uh 2024, and at the time the council recommended that before we do the next sewer rate increase, um, that we do a deeper dive into how we set the rates.

Um there hasn't been a rate study on sewer side for many years, and the purpose of the study will be to take a look at our revenue stream, how we apportion the rates amongst our different rate classes, residential, commercial, industrial, and also how we charge our tributary municipalities because that was a big point of contention if you recall the last time.

So this study will help evaluate that process so that the next time we raise sewer rates, which is not proposed right now, but we're preparing for that um eventuality, and that's what the study will do.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

Any other discussion?

The clerk will call the roll, Mr.

Ayman, aye, Mr.

Callahan, aye, Mr.

Cologne, aye, Ms.

Daniels, aye, Ms.

Queatech, aye, Ms.

Laird, aye, Ms.

Leon.

Aye, pass the 7010.

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.

We're hereby authorized to execute amendment number two to the intergovernmental cooperation agreement with Hanover Township, Northampton County, involving use of the city's yard waste facility.

Resolution is sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Quiet.

Discussion.

The clerk will call the roll.

Mr.

Raymond.

Aye.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Quyatech.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

I pass a seven zero ten each.

Be it 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 or hereby authorized to execute amendment number two to the intergovernmental cooperation agreement with Fountain Hill involving use of the city's yard waste facility.

Resolution is sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Quietek.

Discussion.

The clerk will call the roll.

Mr.

Raymond.

Aye.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Quyatec.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

I pass a seven zero ten I.

It resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and the controller and/or such other city officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor or hereby authorized to execute a lease agreement with Bethlehem Tempo LLC.

Resolution is sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Quietch.

Discussion.

Councilwoman Laird.

Yeah, Ms.

Collins could I saw you getting your stuff ready.

I think you you knew I have questions.

So I I appreciate that we had some conversation about just like the plans that are uh in the works for this space.

And overall, like I said, I think the plans are looking great.

Um it it will be exciting to see that last portion of the Greenway finalized and some opportunities to activate it.

Um we had talked about, and I was wondering where it landed by the end of business today, is in the lease if there's the opportunity to um guarantee in some way uh the ability for the public to still to use this drop-off area um for the equip occasional quick drop off.

Um, you know, I'm envisioning somebody's got their bike on a bike rack and wants to take a ride down to the other end of the trail.

Um, is there a way to say, hey, you're allowed to drop off here too?

It's not only for hotel guests since it is public land that we would be looking at leasing.

Sure.

So since we talked earlier, you know, we did speak with um the developer who's who's uh there's a representative here as well who has um confirmed that you know the area is not going to be signed with anything that says hotel guests only, it'll just say this is a drop-off area and no parking, and so they would enforce like nobody can park there, but they you know do intend, like if there's situations like that that arise, you know, somebody could certainly circle in through that that driveway area, and then also spoke with the law bureau about just what the language of the existing lease says and how that could be accomplished just to ensure that it's you know to council satisfaction.

Um, yeah, that that arrangement is reflected.

Yeah, I believe that there's nothing in the lease that prohibits that at all.

I think the lease allows for it.

Uh under purpose, it says the lessee shall control, possess, and use this area solely as a driveway area for pickup drop-off of guests at the hotel, solely for that now.

Later, there's another provision that says that the lesse will have the right to exclusive possession and control of this property, except as otherwise provided in the agreement, which in my mind refers back several paragraphs before to say they can possess it, but solely for the reason for use by hotel guests.

So we're excited.

No, because non-hotel guests can pull in and drop off.

Their exclusive use of this under this agreement is only for their hotel guests for that purpose.

The purpose is to accommodate their hotel guests, nothing with the city individual pulling in and dropping off is gonna interfere with their ability to use it for hotel guests.

That's the way I read it.

I sort of grabbed it enough.

Yeah, then the resolution that's proposed for you says that you'd approve the city to sign this lease and any other document related there too, that in the opinion of the city solicitor would be necessary.

So I'd be happy to have a subsequent letter agreement that I would give them that they could sign that.

But I don't think it's necessary under this agreement.

But it's not gonna hurt.

If it makes you feel better, I'm all for it.

The cynic in me uh would would love to see an additional lawyer in me doesn't think it's necessary.

Right.

But most lawyers are because we've seen things go wrong with documents.

Um, yeah, I just I you know it.

But that's my interpretation of the contract, and the representative of the hotel has the same interpretation of it.

So to the extent that your solicitor would tell you that contracts reflect meetings of the mines, these two mines are meeting.

But still, I'll do a one pager for you.

It would make me feel better just to uh you know, ensure to our our public that yes, we recognize the importance of this public space, especially where it uh joins to a significant road in the city.

Um, you know, a significant entrance point, like it will be the gateway of the greenway, right?

Like that's important.

Um, I mean a gateway of the greenway.

Yeah, a I would I I like A better because I think it's not built yet, but once it is, I mean the city owns property right there at Mechanic Street, right adjacent to the greenway as well.

That may well be the preferred place to drop somebody off, put a driveway there or something.

It's just not built yet, so I don't know.

But maybe they'll want to drop off there too, where you're suggesting, and I think they can, and we can make doubly sure.

Thank you.

And I suppose to make triple A sure, we've also um discussed even putting it as well in the developers agreement, which is you know, will be finalized before the land development process begins.

Great.

Um, and then the only other thing uh that we had talked about prior was uh looking at the drawings, which like I said, to me look really nice.

Um it went down to the detail of like flower pots, but there was nothing about uh bike racks, which is a pretty important mode of transit along that path.

Um, so that's for like the whole drawing, not just the the leased portion.

Um, so you know, as you revisit that, I'd I'd like to just remind uh that please include some bike racks down on that end of the the greenway.

Yeah, I I think that's a great idea.

The concept plan is pretty detailed to include even flower pots, but certainly as we go into like a final design phase, we can we can add bike racks into that plan as well.

Yeah, and that's I just checked with Mr.

Alcalls.

Like when we put out when we put together like the construction bid documents for that part of the greenway, that's an easy like add on.

Like if we feel that we want the contractor to do that.

But I think it's safe to say, and I would just say from the public's point of view, we probably are gonna want the bike racks on like continuous public property, um, like moving forward.

So it probably would be adjacent somewhere in that area.

But I think to Mr.

Spurks' point too, is like we can also look at where is the most effective place to do in this on this corridor of 200 yards and so on and so forth.

But yeah, absolutely.

Right.

It was just something that stood out to me looking at because it it did go into pretty granular detail, and I was like, wait, where is this?

So um, yeah.

I think that that was all of my questions.

And again, thank you for taking the time to talk about this, uh, even on uh a city holiday yesterday.

Well, a national holiday, but holiday yesterday.

Any other discussion on council?

Um, I will everybody's got a villain origin story, minus third and new.

Um, so I would like to see the project complete if if you feel like that language is strong enough um about the public private land and how that works out.

I have my feelings about public and private land and private land or public land for private development.

I have concerns about what we've already asked the business owners on third and new and fourth and new to um, uh, but I also think this is a really good project.

I've come a long way with this project.

I was initially not against not for two inches of a raise.

So um, in the spirit of that, like I don't want to hold this up.

It was my initial intention to at least ask council to consider to table this.

Um I will support it with a very strong encouragement to the administration to continue to have conversations with the property owner and the surrounding businesses to discuss how that development is not just gonna affect uh the greenway as it's known.

I'm on the greenway all the time.

It is heavily utilized.

It was jarring to see a fence along the greenway.

It is a space that is utilized a lot at night.

Um, there are Adirondack's chairs, so a lot of people stay there at night.

So I just with a strong encouragement to the administration to continue to have conversations with the property owner to discuss how their development is going to affect the surrounding properties and businesses.

Uh if there's no other discussion, the clerk will call the roll.

Mr.

Raymond.

Aye.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Quiet.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

Passes 70.

10J.

Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Bethlehem, the mayor and controller, and/or such other city officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor.

We're hereby authorized to execute an amendment to an agreement with Michael Baker International to provide technical assistance and professional services required to receive HUD administered federal funding.

Resolution is sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Quiet.

Discussion.

The clerk will call the roll.

Mr.

Raymond.

Aye.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Quiet.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

Aye passes seven zero.

I will accept the motion and a second to consider resolutions 10K through 10 M as a group.

So moved.

Oh for it.

Segue.

I think it was uh seconded by Council Laird.

Uh discussion on the motion.

The clerk will call the roll on the motion.

Mr.

Raymond.

Aye.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Quirtek.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

The motion passes seven zero.

The clerk will read resolutions and call the roll.

Certificates of appropriateness under the provisions of the act of the Pennsylvania legislature, Bethlehem resolutions are hereby granted for 55 East Church Street to construct renovations and additions to install an elevator and associated shaft within the existing rear stairwell, expand the rear porch, and install new copper gutters and downspouts for 441 Linden Street to install GAF slate line shingles in the antique slate color.

Install three sets of wood shutters on the Lyndon Street facade, Linden Street facing facade, and paint the front door and 443 Center Street to construct a 250 square foot raised bluestone and clay brick patio off the west side of the residence.

Install a two-foot high retaining wall around the patio that is faced with clay brick and capped with bluestone.

Install a 67 square foot bluestone and clay brick pad off the west side of the property and install new plantings in the rear yard.

The resolutions are sponsored by Ms.

Leon and Ms.

Queatech.

Discussion on the group.

The clerk will call the roll.

Mr.

Raymond.

Aye.

Mr.

Callahan.

Aye.

Mr.

Cologne.

Aye.

Ms.

Daniels.

Aye.

Ms.

Queatech.

Aye.

Ms.

Laird.

Aye.

And Ms.

Leon.

Aye.

The resolution passes seven zero.

That concludes our meeting tonight.

Get home safe, everyone.

Thank you.

I need I think it was.