Union Men To The End

No one could ever accuse Pawlowski or Schlossberg of abandoning the unions. According to The Morning Call, at Pawlowski's news conference today, which I did not attend, the mayor said that the sale/lease of the water department is the only hope for the city to avoid bankruptcy, which he wouldn't consider. Bankruptcy is the only vehicle which allows the city to escape the pension obligations, in which former mayor Afflerbach allowed early retirement at salaries above those actually earned. Schlossberg, on his way to Harrisburg come November unopposed, said he has several non-negotiable concerns: "that water and sewer employees keep their current benefits..." I cannot mentally juxtaposition the construction of a hockey arena with our municipal finances in such dire straits. I don't know where the news conference was held, but the middle of The Hole would not have been an inappropriate location.

Allentown Goes Private

Tomorrow morning at 11:00am, Mayor Pawlowski will announce the sale of Allentown's water and sewage departments to a private operator. The sale is being conducted to satisfy the pension obligations incurred by the police and fire contracts. Two well placed sources have provided this blogger with two versions of the announcement. In the first version, the systems have been sold for $150 million. In the second version, the systems will be put out to bid. In this city, it's very possible that both versions are true; It will be formally put out to bid, but he has a predetermined buyer at the 150 price. The buyer would assume control of both the plants and distribution systems, and be responsible for every aspect of operation. A former city worker insures me that the quality of service from the water department will certainly suffer. Blogger Bernie O'Hare contributed to this post.
UPDATE: The Morning Call apparently felt compelled to issue a statement, and posted their announcement of the pending sale two hours after this post.  They quote an unnamed source saying "If this done right, this will solve the pension problems overnight, but we must install proper oversight and control."  Allentown has no experience with doing things right, or with oversight and controls.  We are in trouble.
UPDATING THE UPDATE:  Our local LCA might well be a bidder (or the bidder) for the Allentown systems.  The current project through Cedar Park interconnects the systems, and will expand their capacity to deliver treated water to western Lehigh County. If the Lehigh County Authority is in fact the buyer, the consequence of selling this prime Allentown asset would be tolerable. Allentonians could expect responsible stewardship and reasonable fees.

building the water works in 1928, The Morning Call archives

Whose Parks Are They?

photocredit: Denise Sanchez/The Morning Call

Shown above, Luciana Martucci, with her Barbie fishing pole, teaches her daddy how to fish in an Allentown park. Luciana is concerned that the Trail Network Plan will encourage many additional bicyclists, going much faster, which will make watching her daddy more difficult; He tends to wander when they walk on the paths. She doesn't understand why the paths are going to be dug up and paved to accommodate one particular set of users, at the expense of all others.

The parks are a nationally recognized heritage of all Allentonians, from one generation to the next. No one Administration, or set of Trustee's, is entitled to impose irreversible changes in its design or use.


reprinted from April 10, 2010

The Money Pit, The Sequel

For we of little faith, the hole on Hamilton Street is a huge money pit. The NIZ legislation makes cost no object, and the real projected cost of the arena project has never been disclosed. If the arena is not enough to suck Allentown dry for the next few decades, let us contemplate the Neuweiler Brewery, located in the riverside portion of the NIZ district. The City of Allentown has hired Cornerstone Consulting Engineers, fee unknown, to evaluate the building for conversion into "a mix of office, apartments and retail space." molovinsky on allentown has commissioned the former caretaker of the property, John P. Chapkovich, to share his actual experience, after spending years on site.

  The Neuweiler property has many many secrets hidden within it that the City does not know about environmentally... I remember a few years ago, as well as in the ‘80s, that they City made the comment about just tearing it down. I made myself a little phone call to them and needed to inform them that if they would demolish the building that they would have to completely rebuild the roads around the building and regrade the property seeing as the building is holding them up. Since they took over have they done anything to alleviate the code violations that exist? Lead by example. The City actually took the property via eminent domain as the original site of the arena project. for some reason, their sights were then changed (no pun intended) to the Center Square one. The developer of the Arena fronted the near $1M to purchase the 16 W Liberty St property, the rear parcel, in the form of a loan to the Redevelopment Authority.... I personally showed at least 20-30 real estate developers through this property(front brewery portion) in the almost 5 years that I was involved in it, most of them sent through City Hall or the county... There is no way with the amount it would cost to just renovate the building and convert it into anything,... the rental that would be required to fund the project would be too high.. This is without the environmental issues. My question is, how is the City going to make this happen?.... I also just took a look at the “study” that was done by cornerstone for the property and just right off the top of my head I find it very shady. There are parts of the building that were obvious issues that were omitted or made to be less than what they are...I also reviewed the environmental cleanup plan for the property that is posted on the City's webite and just to clean the debris out the preliminary estimate is $900K-950K. They said the actual cost could (key word here) be lower. The plan also goes on to say that this is not including any remediation because of building materials on the building such as lead paint, the asbestos that is the ceilings in the front of the building (that isn't plaster my friends)... Once again, this is an issue of City hall telling people what they want to hear to get what they want....

Our mayor is going Hollywood with this project. There's a movie company interested in the property, because of it's NIZ status. They specialize in science fiction and horror flicks. Any title suggestions?

Allentown Library's Exclusionary Policy

The Allentown Public Library discontinued renting it's meeting rooms last spring, to formulate a new policy, and ended up failing it's own stated mission. The purpose of the Library's meeting rooms is.... to champion the principle of intellectual freedom by providing a forum for the free exchange of ideas, and to fulfill the Library's role as a community center...This morning, when I attempted to rent a room for the Allentown WPA Association, I was given a 7 page packet. Among the new requirements, I would have to produce a certificate of insurance, showing that my group has $1 million dollars in coverage. It seems the free exchange of ideas is no longer free. I'm not too worried about my park group not being able to use the library. I suspect that the Director would rather pay our fees herself, than be submitted to more of me. I am concerned about other groups, with less of a voice, looking to raise the community's awareness on one issue or another.

What Will Arena Complex Really Cost

We read in the paper that the arena complex will cost $220 million dollars, but that figure was actually created by yours truly, back in April. I simply rounded off the arena from 158 to 160, added 20 for the office addition, and another 40 for the hotel. Although The Morning Call was quick to adopt my math, City Hall has remained silent in regard to any correction; That may well mean that the project will actually cost more. It is my belief that the real cost will not be known until they float the bonds.