good evening everyone i'll ask that we all stand for the pledge to the flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all ask the clerk to call the role mr callahan present miss Grampy Smith present miss Quitech present miss Leair present miss Leon present miss Wilhelm present and Mr cologne mr cologne will not be joining us this
evening uh the mayor will be joining us as he can he is at a UNESCO World Heritage Designation meeting we have a few citations on the agenda for this evening we'll start off with Robert
Brooks whereas the residents of the city of Bethlehem have been served by a dedicated diligent and talented member of the Bethlehem Fire Department for 20 years and whereas Robert Brooks who started with the fire department in 2005 and retired in 2025 has during the
course of his employment provided the utmost in reliable and outstanding service to the fire department and the residents of the city of Bethlehem now therefore be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that Robert Brooks be extended the gratitude of the city of Bethlehem which has benefited
from his two decades of service and the special contributions he has made to promote public safety and to protect the lives and the property of Bethlehem residents be it further resolved now that Robert is retired he can relax and enjoy all that life has to offer him and be it further resolved that Robert be
extended every good wish for a long and satisfying retirement adopted by council this 15th day of April 2025 do you want to say anything or Thank you very much very proud to be a firefighter city [Applause]
Thank you good job thank you congrats Bobby congratulations congrats and thank you nice good job enjoy we also have citations honoring Mark Carell Thomas Yanka and Thomas
Acriman i don't see them here this evening but we'll make sure that we get these to them okay moving on to the approval of the minutes are there any questions or comments about the minutes right the minutes stand approved
we're going to move on to public comment our first public comment which is public comment on things not being voted on a YouTube reminder if you're starting the stream after 7 p.m please make sure to scroll ahead so that the YouTube stream is current rather than a recording of an earlier portion of this
meeting if you're signed up to speak in person during the first public comment period on items not being voted on tonight I will call you up to the podium in the order you've signed up in this was the the only person I have signed up is Arty Keratollah
hey how you all doing i'm Arty Curata 813 Lawford Street Betham Pennsylvania south side of Bethlehem uh this may be the last time I'll be coming to city council meetings i've been coming here for over 40 years to city council meetings when uh when uh
uh Saborski was here and Sabinski and all the others that were around back then and uh it took a long time for me to get them to put cameras in the lights that are traffic lights so tickets would
come into the mail so the police officer don't have to chase them chase the people they did it in Philadelphia they didn't do it here but I also was after surveillance cameras being all over the city at 2017 and the crime rate went
down in Bethlehem but I don't see the beginning anywhere with the city council so I'm not going to come in here anymore i I'm going to spend my time to be with my anti-Semitic church choir which is
Catholic so I'm going to spend my time there of course I got to wear comb my hair back and I can't can't wear a hat i can wear a hat here and all the Jewish synagogues that I've been at for all my friends that passed away that were Jewish but yet city council had two
years to go ahead and clear up this anti-semitic garbage that was pushed on about me with the press that had me on the front page as being considered anti-semitic but most of my friends were
Jewish uh for 20 years Jerry Dryben right next to the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia we had a creative sound studio he was Jewish the people at the owned Warwick were Jewish and I booked all the
entertainment and performed there i went with my I at the Betham Club here in Bethleam it was run by Jewish people i perfor I had the all night the girls night out comedy clubs shows going on there for almost two years i performed
there for my then Jewish attorney who was Jay Sherine very good friend of mine at for his 50th birthday party at the Betham Club on New Street right around the corner i also was at his
funeral and also was at the funeral for Sandra Ezra Mohawk Harpets in her pine box next to me she was Jewish i gave an apology for for her she
was a very good friend of mine my other attorney friend J uh what's his name uh Dave Shatenstein he said he didn't mind if I mentioned his name we went out to Vegas together to
see some friends of mine that were also Jewish and one of them was Ryan Jeremy who claims that he had more women than I had well I dated more women than
he did not that I did anything sexually no but the thing is I dated more women and most of them were Jewish but I'm anti-Semitic and you never cleared it with the press also with Arts Quest i'm
a racist but I perform in most Mexican restaurants all over the tri-state area but because I said a certain statement a a a joke I was considered racist but no Arts
Quest gives you a lot of money i don't get you that much money i only gave $500 to the state of Pennsylvania this year but that doesn't count and my taxes were over $1,000 that don't count i'm not a
taxpayer i'm anti-Semitic i'm a racist so I don't need to be here where I'm not wanted and thanks to that statement a lot of people that were Jewish backed out with working with me
and my and since the library is run by Jewish people my book was refused to be in the library in my city library that I've been paying taxes for i've been living here since for uh I'm having my birthday
on the 7 my 77th birthday coming up but my book was rejected and a lot of people from Betham contributed to make that book being there but because that wasn't cleared up I'm not I'm not permitted to do
things in the city so running for mayor forget about it i'm not going to be elected because they consider me anti-Semitic also that's the end of your time well my time's up thank you very
much god bless you all thank you um I'm going to go around the room for first public comment not on anything not being voted on anybody on the left does anybody have anything they would like to address with council center
billsire Billire 1890 Eaton Avenue i want to put in a plug for radio station WLVR 93 no no I always make that mistake it's
91.3 FM um I doubt I'm that we make a grant this we being the city make a grant to them but I think we should they're losing money and it's a precious resource it's
kind of like the library in a way in the library you uh get information for free all you need for WLR is a decent radio that has FM and you have access it's not 247
because they do have a few music shows but it's just such a rich array of information about current affairs history science uh and also analysis and discussion and I want
to do a special plug for the show called Left Right and Center everyone in this room would I think enjoy it it's uh Friday nights at 9:00 p.m it's three people sarah is the
conservative Mo is the liberal and the moderator is David a journalist a professor and a lawyer in reverse order uh they are all very intelligent thoughtful articulate and
sometimes humorous that sometimes they laugh at each other's jokes it's clear that they like each other and it's just just a marvelous marvelous show a former member of council started listening at my behest and says the show is
magnificent and a current member of council is also a devote at the end of each show they each get a rant and a rave and um oh but I got to say one thing about Sarah the best she's just delightful and very
sharp and quick she said that and she never mentioned critical race theory but that's of course when when there's a imbalance among the races in a certain group that cause for concern maybe
investigation she said Donald Trump has critical trade theory that if there's an imbalance a deficit with a particular country that's not only cause for investigation it's a problem so that was her well that wasn't
her rant i have a rant tonight and it's not about Garrison Street or the Woolworth building i'm going to have a at least a temporary moratorum on such issues since my views on development and the character of Bethlehem are at such
divergence from those of the council as a whole my uh rant concerns curbside recycling and the fact that I came home one day and my blue can was in the traffic lane uh it was last Tuesday when it was
windy even windier than today I think and the lid was off as it always is after the guy has been there and the wind blew it into the traffic lane well this is not good not a good thing uh the
can was not damaged uh the car there was no accidents that I'm aware of the cars were going around it but that shouldn't be the lid should have been put back on the can firmly so that the wind wouldn't catch the can and blow it into the traffic lane so there's two
possibilities here one is it's not specified in the contract that they shall do this that they that should be firmly put back on if not it should be because contractors when they contract from the government if it's not
specified they don't do it because it costs them money to do anything more than what's in the contract the other possibility is that it is in the contract and my guy at least doesn't obey the contract either way something should be done about it it should be put
into the contract if it's not there and if it is the contract should be enforced uh the final note is I've been told by a number of people to tell everybody I won't be here for two months i'm going out of state for cataract
surgery but I'll see you in July thank you thank you Bill uh before we continue with public comment um the following agenda items have been pulled from the agenda just in case that's going to affect how anybody speaks tonight um agenda items 6E 10E and 9A have been
pulled from the agenda so again just for anyone listening 6E 10E and 9A does anyone else in the center have any Oh sorry i saw Harry first and then I'll come to you steve
Harry Faber and uh while we were talking about things we like to consume I just want to also make some recommendations two really good books uh The Dawn of Everything by David Greyber the late David Greyber and David Wenro um really good and Western Marxism by Dominica
Leroto translated by Gabriel Rockill an incredible Villanova professor really like the work um but the things I want to talk about today oh Harry Faber I don't know if I said my name um is on April 5th Donald Trump posted footage of an air strike that claimed to be
targeting Houthy militants gathering and planning an attack on US ships in reality it turned out to be a group of unarmed Yemeni tribes people celebrating Eid alfit the ending of Ramadan posted this massacre on social media yesterday
trump his administration and the president of El Salvador NaBuk spoke together and were asked if he was going to return the mistakenly and illegally deported legal US resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the mega from the mega prison
CO or CEO in El Salvador which is notorious for its human rights violations and brutality when asked if they plan to return Kilmar to the US he said quote and this is uh Na Blay how can I smuggle a terrorist in the into the United States i'm not going to do
it." End quote without any evidence nor due process Kilmar along with hundreds of others are labeled terrorists or MS-13 gang members or anything else that justifies this violent and barbaric kidnapping in the minds of the masses trump was also um caught saying
homegrown are next the homegrowns you got to build about five more places it's not big enough and this prison CEO uh holds over 40,000 40,000 people in the most inhumane conditions got to build five more places it's not big enough because we want to ship our own
population American grown American born between March 18th and April 9th the UN verified 36 cases in which Israeli strikes have killed only women and children there were also 23 instances of Israel forcing civilians to evacuate to safe zones and then bombing the tents in
those same safe zones on Sunday April 13th Israel launched an air strike and destroyed part of Al Ali Arab Baptist Hospital the last fully functioning hospital in Gaza City if anyone remembers this was the same hospital Israel claimed ferociously
last October it didn't bomb uh in reality this was the fifth time Alali hospital was bombed since the beginning of the onslaught also one thing I didn't mention um I just came across uh the other day um Tulsi Gabbard tweeted on
March 29th quote "President Trump is the president of peace he is ending bloodshed across the world and will deliver lasting peace in the Middle East." End quote and I saw someone's um take on this uh Caitlyn Jstone their their quote is "So far this president of
peace has started a relentless bombing campaign in Yemen reignited the Gaza Holocaust and shifted more US war machinery to West Asia in preparation for war with Iran all while getting ready to announce the first ever trillion dollar Pentagon budget and I'm not even going to mention all the insider trading market manipulation
stuff that went on with the tariffs because at the end of the day it doesn't matter." And the reason I'm bringing all this up is one so again you guys have full accountability you're aware of the things going on and every day every week every meeting you guys don't say anything don't you know call for change
call for action um again you are complicit i also say this considering um how the last meeting went where we decided to spend $33,000 um inreasing our security and surveillance over our own population
opposed to actually helping them it's clear to me that Bethlehem City Council really does not care i wanted to talk about um in things that are being voted on uh the guy who gave the presentation about um uh what was it uh 8th Avenue Martin
Court um I hope that you guys will bow next time because it's clear you only care about the landowning class and you prove it time and time again with your actions uh stand with the people stand against genocide i really I cannot say it enough i mean Bethlehem is named after Palestine take a stance
i'm sick of it does anyone else in the center have Steven and Alex 77 Ridge there's a very subtle and undercurrent animosity existing between
two groups city council and the public and we're hearing it tonight and reliable and dedicated citizens i can't remember her last name i think Mary
Joe very dedicated person stopped coming because she sensed it felt she was not listened to and ignored over the number of meetings and with the upcoming election i'm trying to
create a scenario what it was like in Bethlehem when city council and the public were one and acted that way it does not exist anymore
so I have here a document to prove my point this will never happen again it's dated December 13 1993 and is composed by James Delgraso
president of city council and it's addressed to a private citizen unheard of and it's responding to a comment that citizen made at a public meeting and after that statement at the
public meeting there was intense discussion and the president of council obliged to confirm that by saying "Thank you for your time you took to addressing city officials at December 7 1993 since city council
meeting with carbon copies to the mayor and council it will not happen today how will it change to get some of you out of your office when not
reelecting that's the only way to change and the gentleman has to carry an anti-semitic label because of a comment made by a member of council i've been attacked by council by
a member of council so other people this is not town council standard type of [Music] government it's an adversarial form of
government and who suffers the city of Bethlehem so who can best evaluate people on console the press can't do it it's the people who come here to watch you and they were given a form to tell
what they think of console back then calvo Ursam Lawrence Lupus Moore and Sorski were council members if they were voted on by the public they would all get B's arrays
but this last vote of members of the public who voted rather who submitted forms gave two members of council s that's unheard of why do we have to have people rated F by the public on console whose best
interests are served clearly the member of the council not the city something drastic has to happen but I don't see how it will for Bill Shards make comments like he has that's unheard
of because I've heard Bill speak many times sad very sad thank you Steve does anybody else in the center have comment on something not being voted on
anybody to the right we're going to move on to public comment on things being voted on this evening i have nobody signed up but I'm going to go around the room does anyone on the left have comments on something being voted on this evening anyone in the center want to make public comments on something being
voted on and anyone to the right you didn't read it but just Right that's going to conclude our public comment portion all right moving on to old business i don't have any old business
and does anybody from council have old business moving on to new business does anybody on council have anything to Councilwoman Quez thank you um this is our only time to talk during the during the evening on um matters that aren't on the agenda so I'll just take this
opportunity to say that while we don't use carbon copies anymore I can assure you that many many residents uh have received emails from me i've set up uh meetings facilitated uh all kinds of things um with department heads um and
uh I find it um very frustrating to sit here and and uh I mean you know it's it's my job so I will sit here obviously but to be uh accused of uh not doing my job is very very frustrating i want to assure you and everybody here that
despite what some people think I am actually doing my job i want to thank Chief Cot uh and Mr i'll call for agreeing to a community meeting uh in West Bethlehem that's coming up next week um that I was happy to facilitate uh with neighbors who are concerned about their safety after things like
that recent high-speed uh pursuit by the Pennsylvania State Police that uh ended into uh cars being total the the neighborhoods very concerned and so I really want to thank you guys for taking some time out of your schedule to to uh attend that meeting it means a lot to
the people on Market Street um there was a wonderful event did we talk about this no we haven't talked about the Choice Neighborhood Festival right there was a great festival um at Pemroke uh at Marvine Pemroke um was
that last weekend before they're blurring um and uh it was a great opportunity for people in the neighborhood to take a look at the Choice Neighborhoods uh plan the planning grant draft plan and um offer their input on it uh and there was also
great food and there were um uh the coalition for appropriate transportation was there they uh gave away a couple of bikes um I believe that um the police department or the fire department maybe it was just fire I can't remember um were there um all in all a great event
um really glad that uh there are neighborhood ambassadors um involved at that project who have been just tremendous uh assets to the project as well and uh very excited about the the way that that project is moving forward
um with the goal of uh not just replacing outdated housing but adding more housing and adding um a mix of housing so that uh people can find their way um perhaps out of uh the public housing and into something uh that you
know is the next step um in terms of you know earning income and what's really special about this project um is that it's not just about the housing it's also about the neighborhood and the people it's very uh it's a very specific uh type of project that um housing and
urban development funds and so in addition to talking about what the housing would look like it's also about the resources for the people who live in the neighborhood um helping connect them to things um it's about um improving the infrastructure around the neighborhood
so that StephCo is safer and Pemroke is saf safer overall it's just a an amazing project and um very excited to see the planning part of it come to its fruition as we're winding down uh the grant um and that's all I really wanted to talk
about thank you thank you does anybody else want anybody to Okay thank you um so I had a question um that is fresh um it's tax day as we all
probably know um and it appears that not just for Bethlehem but um that the Keystone Collects site that many local municipalities rely on for earned income tax filing um has been down for most of
the past 24 or more hours um I was able to get a hold of someone at their office and they said yes they did not anticipate the website traffic on tax day uh um and the site is
crashing continually um and their official suggestion was to keep refreshing the page and trying and if you couldn't get through to file your taxes to uh print off a form which you can't do if the website's crashed and
mail it in um so I was wondering if the city received any different guidance um because I'm sure I just talked to like an you know level one uh support person and what people should do if they cannot get their uh taxes filed by midnight uh
Keystone Collections handles all of our as a third party um all of our local collections and they actually collect for all of the municipalities in Northampton County as well as a number of other counties it's a large organization they did have we
did reach out to them we understood that um we we were also receiving feedback that the site was up and down intermittently over the last 40 days sun it was working Sunday night it was a little bit of a problem yesterday and again today so uh we do have on our website the forms that are needed the
some people came in we supplied the the documents they needed when they came to the tax office which is on the third floor so if they come to city hall they can collect them if you also go to our our city website under in the center where the where there's government there's departments center of our
homepage is where our government functions are and then there's our tax page there's also a tax a quick link on the homepage to our tax and if you go there all the documents are also waiting for you now that puts it on the paper version to mail in to get a postmark so you're not able to download direct from
there but the hope is that they're back tomorrow so we yeah we had a couple calls in ourself we'll follow up tomorrow as well to find out what exactly what happened and how soon it will be fully corrected um do you anticipate there being any sort of extra grace period with the postmarks since
you know obviously if somebody goes tonight they're not going to get a postmark today well we will ask for sure yeah that's what we plan to cover tomorrow we would expect that that that would the answer would be yes but I'll find out hopefully more tomorrow when we when we do make contact with them okay
yeah and and I do want to be clear I'm well aware it's it's not a Bethlehem uh specific issue it is I was seeing threads from central Pennsylvania and it's a big bad day for somebody yeah yeah i'm sure it was very frustrating for a lot of people on the la you know
on the last data when you have everything you need and it's the site keeps crash and so Okay uh we hope that that is rectified soon thank you thanks um and then the only other thing I wanted to mention today um is the um
Bethlehem Parks survey um so as I believe it was reported on in the mayor's report maybe at our last meeting um there's a really awesome uh master planning project looking at all 40 of the parks within the city um and right
now there's a great opportunity for public feedback um so if you um the project is called 40 and 10 but even if you just Google Bethlehem Parks survey you'll find it uh the survey is open until um the 26th so I wanted to make
sure that that uh word is you know out there again uh so that we can get as many people participating as possible so that the parks can really uh reflect what the community is looking for that's it thank you
thank you um I just want to say that I just want to extend um I don't want to speak for everyone but I'm I'm assuming everyone agrees i just want to extend my um support and condolences to uh Governor Shapiro and his family and the family that were with him on Saturday night Sunday morning when they were um
victims and traumatized by the arson and um whatever else that uh the person had in mind but I just want to say that um you know our country was built on religious freedom and I really hope um and will continue to do all I can to
move us forward so that all kinds of freedom can be um celebrated by everyone and um I hope that everyone can have a happy Easter happy Passover whatever they celebrate and that we can finally see a day when we don't have this kind
of terrible violence thank you thank you did you okay all right moving on to communications we're going to start with communications 6A march 27th 2025 memorandum and attached resolution from Lori Gillio grants administrator
for the Department of Community and Economic Development the Gillio seeks support to apply for a $300,000 grant through Northampton County this money would be used for trail uh gap construction of the Bethlehem Greenway
and resolution 10A is on the agenda communication 6B the March 10th 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from health director Kristen Winrich the memorandum seeks authorization to execute an agreement with Cedar Crest College Valent cost is $7,500 and the work is to
be completed by December 31st 2025 resolution 10B is on the agenda communication 6C the March 26 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from director of water and sewer resources Edward Boscola and public works director
Michael Alcohol the memorandum seeks authorization to execute amendment one to the sewer model updates engineering services agreement with Remington and Vernick Engineers Second Incorporated of Allentown the amendment is for the consultant to
provide professional engineering services to assist the city with programming and buildout of computer model of the city's storm water infrastructure cost is $22,500 uh will be added to the original contract price of
$60,12 for a total cost of $82,512 the estimated completion date is July 31st 2025 there are no renewals resolution 10C is on the agenda communication 6D an April 8th 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from
director of water and sewer resources Edward Bascola memorandum seeks authorization to execute an agreement with NTECH Engineering Incorporated of Reading to provide professional services to assist the city water department with the service line inventory and lead
service line replacement planning in accordance with EPA and D regulatory requirements cost for the first year is $88,900 renewals are offered at $134,300 for each of years two and three
and $67,150 for a fourth year there are no renewals six proposals were received and Tech Engineering was determined to be the best value resolution 10D is on the agenda communication 6F an April 9th
2025 memorandum from solicitor John F spur Jr with an attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is Arts Quest and the event is the 2025 Levit Pavilion Concert Series concerts will be held Thursdays through Sundays May 15th
through September 13th from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m permit duration will be Thursdays through Sundays from 3:00 p.m to midnight with road closures on Fridays and Saturdays between 5 and 11 p.m premises will include First Street from Founders Way to the Eastern Terminus
resolution 10F is on the agenda communication 6G an April 9th 2025 memorandum from solicitor John Burke Jr with an attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is Arts Quest and the event is the 2025 Steel Stacks Summer Concert Series concerts will be
held on May 13th July 27th August 20th and September 28th from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m permit duration will be each of those four stated dates from noon to until midnight premises will include First Street from Pulk Street to the Eastern Terminus and Founders Way
between First and Second Streets resolution 10G is on the agenda communication 6H an April 9th 2025 memorandum from solicitor John Spurke Jr with an attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is Kaleidoscope Collective LLC with subpermites named as
the redevelopment authority of the city of Bethlehem and Christmas City Spirits LLC the event is the Steel City Fair which will take place between 1 and 6:00 p.m on May 3rd permit duration will be from 11:00 a.m until 7:00 p.m on May 3rd
state of premises is Nevin Place right ofway and specified West Walnut Street street parcel both of which are adjacent to the Sunin Courtyard resolution 10H is on the agenda communication 6 I an April 9th 2025 memorandum from solicitor
Johnsburg Jr with an attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is Star Bethlehem Festival with subpermitity of Clever uh Girl Winery the Colony Metery LLC Groverdale Winery Stone Farm Seller
and Vineyard LLC and Stone Lake Winery LLC the event is Christmas City Wine Festival with event times and dates at 5 to 10:00 p.m on May 16th 11:00 a.m till 4:00 p.m and 6:00 p.m to 10:00 p.m on
May 17th and noon to 400 p.m on May 18th the duration is May 14th to 20th and the premises is the Earl E schaefer Ice Rink resolution 10 I is on the agenda communication 6J an April 9th 2025
memorandum from solicitor Johnsburg Jr with an attached use permit agreement and resolution permit is the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce and subpermmites are Lost Tavern Brewing LLC Franklin Hill Vineyards Incorporated Social Still LLC and County Seed Spirits
LLC the event is the 2025 Live in the Garden Concert Series concerts will be al all Saturdays between May 10th and June 28th from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m the duration will be 3 to 8:00 p.m on each of these dates and the
covered premises will be the Bethl Rose Garden and Banshell resolution 10J is on the agenda communication 6K an April 9th 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Laura Collins director of community and economic development memorandum seeks authorization to execute an
agreement with Kston and Associates Incorporated of Philadelphia to provide a citywide complete streets plan and bike infrastructure feasibility study cost is $249,883 and the work is to be completed by August of 2026 nine firms responded
to the city's RFP kdston Associates scored the highest of a committee review and resolution 10K is on the agenda communication 6L a March 24th 2025 memorandum with proposed ordinance from health director Kristen Winrich recommending an addition of funds to the
general fund the adjustment reflects $1,800 received from property owner to reimburse the city for on-site sewage work that exceeded the standard services provided by the city account number 001A
30800 return and allowances will be increased from $311,500 to $313,300 and account number 0302-42060 other expenses will increase from $7,020 to $8,820 adjustment will amend the total
general fund budget from 113 thou million8,37 to13 million9,937 and resolution or ordinance 9B is on the agenda communication 6M an April 7th 2025 memorandum with proposed ordinance from Laura Collins director of community and economic development Collins
recommends an addition of funds to the general fund budget The adjustment reflects $110,000 transferred from the city's recreation fee fund and will spent as part of the Pemroke Choice Neighborhoods project account number
001A 30904 escrow will increase from 290 I'm sorry 293,851 to $438 fraction 43,851 and account number
0304-42198 choice neighborhood will increase from $298,313 $13 to $48,313 the adjustment will amend the total fund budget from $113,9,993 to $113,19,937 ordinance 9C is on the agenda moving on
to president's report the only thing under president's report is a council manic appointment to the Bethlehem Human Relations Commission tad if you want to read that councilman appointment of Karen D.Davidson to the Human Relations Commission the resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss Leairard
any discussion on the appointment council just uh comment that um I have volunteered alongside Miss Davidson for many many years um and am really uh pleased that she's chosen to serve the
community in this new way uh so uh many thanks to her for being willing and I'm glad to see her her name before us tonight any other discussion counciloman well I'll go one further our children were in um
elementary school middle school uh and then college together and uh I also am delighted that she's going to be serving on this commission if not if there's no further discussion clerk please call the role miss Leairard I miss Wilhelm I mr callahan I miss
Grampy Smith I miss Quitech I miss Leon I motion passes 6 uh turning to the mayor for mayor's reports does the mayor have any reports tonight awesome right moving on to
ordinances for final passage an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehi and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as mended known in as the zoning ordinance of the city of Bethlehem Pennsylvania by amending the city zoning map bill number
20 2025 is sponsored by Mr cologne and Miss Quitech any discussion right the clerk will call the role miss Leard I miss Wilhelm I mr
callahan I miss Grampy Smith nay miss Quiet nay and Miss Lam i that's uh one two three four four two does that give us the right number motion passes uh 42 moving on to ordinances new
ordinances um the clerk will read bill number 22-2025 an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehi and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund for 2025 bill number 20
correction bill number 22 2025 is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss Leairard any discussion clerk will call the role miss Lair I miss Wilhelm I mr callahan hi Miss Grampy Smith hi Miss Quiet i miss Leon i
motion passes 6 the clerk an ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehi and Northampton Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the general fund for 2025 bill number 23 2025 is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss Leairard
discussion on 9C councilman Quick thanks um I just um Miss Collins could you come up i just thought it would be helpful for folks to know what the early action uh project is for the Choice Neighborhoods Grant i think it's a it's a pretty cool project
i agree it's a very cool project um so as part of the um $500,000 grant that we got from HUD for the Choice Neighborhoods Planning um project uh HUD has asked that we invest 150,000 of that
grant into physical improvements in the district in the in the area or the catchment area and it's called an early action project the idea behind it is that throughout this two-year planning process as we're talking with residents as we're visioning for the future as
we're putting together this large implementation plan you know we're also going to in that planning phase do a demonstration project that shows you know not only are we listening and not only are we making um plans for the future but we also are investing right
now so there's placemaking elements that like are meant to give pride of place for the people who have been engaged in the choice neighborhoods project from the um Penrook public housing community um and also it's meant to be responsive to some of the main community needs that
we've heard throughout this um planning process and as you know um having been so involved in this process along the way um a few themes have emerged from residents and from stakeholders and in the steering committee um one being uh pedestrian safety around the Penrook
neighborhood it's just you know it's very difficult to get around there's a really a a there's dividing lines right with Stefco and with Pemrook Road um you know we know that traditionally public housing has been segregated and outskirts of community and that's been
built around infrastructure um and historic wrongs over periods of time so um improving pedestrian access is a big part of the overall plan and then as part of this demonstration project there are pedestrian safety improvements in this area of um Stefco Penrook and
Washington and then that park that sits in the middle which is called Ducko Park which I I didn't even know that it had a name but it is a park it's called Duckco Park um and there are additional um communitydriven improvements to that space additional pathways improvements
to the Atlanta bus shelter um separate from you know this uh 150,000 and then the money that we're asking to move from recreation fees we've also applied for a grant to do street art and some art um on the sidewalks as well to add some placemaking elements there um and then
there's a few like play pieces as well that would go into the park um so that's sort of the overall vision for this part of the project we're really excited to be here you know we started the planning in 2023 and we're coming up on the end of the two-year planning period so in
addition to this um early action park improvement project uh we also as you mentioned uh Councilwoman Quitech had this um event at Boys and Girls Club where we were talking through the preliminary uh draft plan and then just last night the housing authority took
another really exciting step separate from the early action piece um in authorizing the housing authority to move forward with the selected um preferred developer who will take those resident driven housing concepts from the housing part of the plan um and turn
that into like a a full design for the site redevelopment uh the 425 units and then putting together the capital um stack as well and all of that is the last piece of the planning puzzle that will then help make actually building
those units a reality with that with that selected developer who who does have choice experience so um a lot of really great things happening with choice overall um but this early action project is one that we're we're particularly excited about
any other discussion on resol or uh ordinance 9C um so solicitor I have a quick question yes i'm quite honestly on the the BHA board um and I'm curious about
should I be abstaining from this vote or should I be recusing myself from this vote you don't stand to gain anything personally from this vote okay all right thank you all right if that concludes our discussion the clerk will call the role miss Leairard i Miss Wilhelm i Mr
callahan hi Mr gracy smith hi Miss Cleekch hi and Miss Liam I the ordinance passes 6 moving on to resolutions resolution 10A be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and
controller are authorized and directed to execute all application forms necessary to apply for a livable landscapes grant for Northampton County for trail gap construction of the Bethleam Greenway and the mayor and controller are authorized to execute such other agreements and documents as
are deemed to be necessary andor related there too resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss Leairard discussion clerk will call the role miss Leairard i miss Wilhelm i mr callahan hi mr crampy Smith hi miss Quitech hi miss Leam
i resolution passes 6 resolution 10B be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and/or such other city officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with Cedar Crest College to provide a community health
needs assessment the resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss Lair discussion the clerk will call the role miss Lair I miss Wilhelm I mr callahan hi miss Grahamy Smith i miss I and Miss Leon i
passes 6 resolution 10 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 are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with Remington and Vernick
engineers the second incorporated to provide additional engineering services to assist the city with programming and buildout of a computer model of the city's storm water infrastructure resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss Leairard discussion
go ahead no you go ahead um I was just looking for a little bit more information about the change in scope that is that that was this contract right um and like what was originally scoped versus what what will be I understand
that what we're getting now is a computer model of the system but what was the what were we previously getting the the sanitary model was what we've previously got and we're just doing a change order
to add and to do a model of our storm water um collection system okay makes sense so we can use it to do analyses and design improvements and got it so the full sewer system now not just park
thank you that was my question okay so if there's no further discussion the clerk will call the role miss Leairard I miss Wilhelm I mr callahan hi miss Grimson Smith i miss Quitech i and Miss
Leon i passes 60 resolution 10D be 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 NTEC Engineering Incorporated to assist the city with the
service line inventory and lead service line replacement planning resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss Lair discussion the clerk will call the role miss Lair I miss Wilhelm i miss Callahan hi Mr primy Smith hi Miss Quitech i Miss
Leon i resolution passes 6 we're going to be moving into our use permit agreements as previously we have done we'd group these together so if it is the will of council I would accept the motion in a second to group 10 F through 10 J which are the use permit agreements
together so moved second got that did awesome so if the clerk will call any discussion sorry any discussion comment that I'm going to have to recuse myself from 10J so I don't know if that impacts which we
can bundle what we can why don't we separate that one out right move just for clarity of the record right so the motion on the floor is to group 10 F through 10 I together well that's the motion that we should
entertain now so I would accept that motion and second unless there's anything else that needs to be removed so moved second can I do that okay all right any discussion on the motion to group 10 F through 10 I
together right the clerk will call the role miss Leairard i miss Wilhelm i mr callahan hi miss Grampy Smith i miss Quitech i ms liam
I motion passes 6 uh cl if you'll read all those things 10f be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller andor such other city officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute the use permit
agreement with Arts Quest for the 2025 Levit Pavilion Concert Series 10G be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller are and/or such other city officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use
permit agreement with Arts Quest for the 2025 Steel Stack Concert Series 10H 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 are hereby authorized to
execute a use permit agreement with kaleidoscope collective for steel city fair and 10i be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller andor such other city officials deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit
agreement with star of Bethlehem festival for the Christmas city wine festival resolutions are sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss Leairard any discussion on resolutions 10 through 10
I will call the role miss Leairard I miss Wilhelm hi mr callahan hi fancy Smith hi miss Guac hi and Miss Leon i passes 6 resolutions 10J be 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 use permit agreement with Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce for 2025 live in the garden resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss Lair
any discussion as a performer and participant in the series I will be recusing myself from this vote any further discussion clerk call the role miss Lair I miss
Wilhelm excuse mr callahan I miss Grampy Smith i miss I miss Leon I motion passes with five with one recusal moving on to
resolution 10 C 10K 10k 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 are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with KDson and Associates Incorporated to provide additional
engineering services provide citywide complete streets plan and bike infrastructure feasibility study resolution is sponsored by Miss Wilhelm and Miss Leairard discussion on resolution 10K i just wanted to say that um I was
pleased to see that complete streets really means complete streets and that means people with disabilities um the elderly small children it's not just about biking and it's not just about sort of able-bodied walkers um but really taking a look at everything about
um our streets and so I ple I was pleased to see that in the in the notations in the packet any further discussion please I just had a quick question are we um as far as a 10 million 10 10 million from Department of Transportation um is that
definitely guaranteed like have we received it or are we waiting on any of the funds or We are we are still waiting so this is the grant that we were awarded through the Safe Streets and Roads for All program it's part of the bipartisan infrastructure law um it was subject to an executive order and it's
still under review at the Department of Transportation so we have continued to move forward