Sierra Club Opposes Privatization

 The Lehigh Valley Sierra Club urges the City of Allentown to not rush to privatize its municipal drinking water and sanitary sewer system. The Lehigh Valley Sierra Club has several hundred members residing in the city, with 1,400 members living in the Lehigh Valley. The Sierra Club is the nation’s oldest and largest environmental organization, with almost one million members, 24,000 of whom live in Pennsylvania.

            Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski is proposing leasing Allentown’s municipal water and sewer system to a another, possibly commercial, entity for 50 years, in exchange for millions of dollars that could help shore up the city’s teetering employee pension fund. This seems at first blush like a lifeline to a city struggling financially but in actuality may be a recipe for disaster.

            Not only are water rates to residents projected to double under any leasing scheme but privatization would put Allentown’s jewel of a park system – much of it along the Little Lehigh Creek, the city’s prime drinking water source – under the control of a private entity that could exploit that watershed without concern for environmental damage that could result. Opportunities to market Allentown’s plentiful water to others would pass away from the city to an entity not controlled by Allentown’s citizens. In what condition would the system and its watershed be returned to the city after 50 years of private exploitation?

            The national Sierra Club recommends any municipal water system privatization follow five necessary steps before adoption:

            -- full public disclosure of all the details of the lease before approval

            -- evidence that privatization would not cost more than continued municipal control

            -- guaranteed continued and effective oversight by the municipality

            -- sufficient time for a vigorous public debate before privatization

            -- a public vote by the citizens on whether to undertake privatization.

            The current proposal to privatize Allentown’s water and sewer system includes none of these safeguards. Until this proposal follows these essential steps, Allentown should not blindly jump to hand off its water and sewer system to another entity. 

Sierra Club press release courtesy of Lehigh Valley Ramblings

A Picture Postcard

Hamilton Street once had three large five and dimes. which sold many  souvenirs of Allentown, including a  large assortment of postcards. Many of cards featured Allentown's picturesque park system, known for it's idyllic streams, weeping willows and iconic WPA stone structures. The card above, from 1948, shows the double sided stairwell in Lehigh Parkway, by the Little Lehigh.  The stone constructions, now over 75 years old, are in desperate need of some budget attention. A new philosophy of stream bank management has compromised access and view of the water, while not meeting the goals of it's advocates. The current administration, unlike the willow trees, doesn't have many roots in Allentown. You are welcome to join a group of citizens,  endeavoring to protect our parks' traditions, while tastefully merging the system with current demands. We will be meeting this evening in the lower level of The Allentown Library, at 7:00pm.

Park Defender Meeting

Tomorrow evening, Tuesday August 14, the Allentown WPA Association will once again meet in the lower level of The Allentown Library at 7:00PM. Although the group was originally started to cast light on the deteriorating condition of the WPA structures throughout the park system, we also discuss other issues affecting park users in Allentown. Regardless of your interest in the park system, or your point of view, you're most welcome to join us. The meeting will end promptly at 8:00pm, because of summer hours at the library.

The steps at Fountain Park connected the children of city center with the park, and their fathers with work at Mack Truck

Better Park Days

A Guest Post
My walks with my dog along the creek in Cedar Creek Park between Ott and Cedar Crest Blvd. have been some of the best times of my life. I have met many nice people and dogs in the past twelve years. I have seen and spoke with many people picnicking, reading a book, or just relaxing to the gurgling of the water while laying on a blanket along this beautiful creek. None of my dogs through the years, nor I, have ever had any ticks in this park until recently. All of this is gone now, along with many friends who will no longer come here because of the decision to "save" this creek (the clearest, cleanest in the area) by allowing weeds to grow along it, outwards of 20-30 feet or more. Please tell mayor Pawlowski and the park department to end this nonsense. No one at the park agrees with or likes the weeds, but say that there is nothing anyone can do about it. General Trexler intended for this land to be enjoyed by people, their children and pets, not to deny access to the creek. Please people speak up and demand that these weeds be cut. It will not take long for the ticks, mosquitos, snakes and vermin and the deadly diseases they carry, lyme disease, west nile virus, etc. to spread out from the park to the homes and neighborhood surrounding it. No one would tolerate their neighbors to have weeds growing next door to them. Please do not allow the city to destroy the beauty of this park any longer.
Tony Martin

The WPA and other park defenders will meet this coming Tuesday evening at 7:00p.m. in the lower level of The Allentown Library 

photo of park in 2008, when the creek was still accessible

Weitzel's World

The homepage of the Playworld Systems website features a picture of Allentown's Cedar Park Destination Playground. A close examination of the picture reveals that it shows less equipment than what Allentown actually installed. Weitzel shoved so much equipment into that playground that it exceeded the company's recommendations and best practices. An artist was employed to airbrush Weitzel's excesses out of the picture. Cross Ott Street, follow the yellow brick road and you come upon the LifeTrail senior exercise stations, which cost  $10,000 apiece. These stations are also produced by Playworld. Playworld, centered in Lewisburg Pennsylvania, also installed the new playground equipment at Franklin Park. Did I mention that Weitzel came to Allentown from Lewisburg?  They say that there's a framed picture of Weitzel on the boss's desk at Playworld.

No View Zone

Recently, a former park user contacted me through a Morning Call reporter. For many years he took great joy in taking his dog to Cedar Park, where he could play in the stream. That tradition ended last year, when both he and his dog couldn't access the creek without getting ticks. For those who haven't been to the parks in a few years, let me explain. We now have No Mow Zones and riparian buffers. The uncut brush is supposed to prevent herbicides from the surrounding neighborhoods from entering the water. In Allentown's case, the zones and buffers are just for show, because our storm sewer pipes empty directly in the streams, bypassing the buffers. Why would our former park director deny the public both view and access to the water? He teamed up with Abigail Pattishall from the Wildlands Conservancy, another grantmeister, to take advantage of a current grant buzz word, riparian. They're even allowing the six feet between the reflection pool and the creek to grow up. In addition to ticks, the thick underbrush encourages snakes. Did I tell you that Abigail is a trained herpetologist, specializing in water snakes? The water is now only seen from three bridges which cross the creek. Traditionally, the stream banks were stabilized by willow trees. I would like to see both new willow trees and children return to the stream banks in our beautiful parks. The Allentown WPA Association will meet on Tuesday August 14, at 7:00 p.m. in the lower level of the Allentown library. If you also have concerns about the park system, please join us.