No Grandstanding

The public meetings on the Water System Sale(lease) are being conducted using Pawlowski's tried and true, dog and pony method. After the public is made to suffer through a PowerPoint presentation, survivors are allowed to submit a written question. Since City Council must approve the plan, Jeanette Eichenwald has called for a public input meeting. Pawlowski's not thrilled about that format. At the Pawlowski controlled information meetings, the public is not allowed to speak, or directly ask the mayor a question. The City Council format allows a citizen to speak for up to three minutes. Pawlowski believes that leads to grandstanding.  Although Council must approve the lease concept, it has not been determined if they will be allowed to vote on the actual contract. Another Council, in another era, would have automatically voted NO the first time, to insure they get to approve any contract. This post is based on an article by Scott Kraus, which appeared in yesterday's Morning Call, buried on the obituary page. I have been unable to find the story on their website, or provide a link. The streams which run through our park system provide water for the water filtration plant, and are called The Watershed. Control of these streams would be part of the lease to a private company.
Those concerned about the sale/lease of the water system are welcome to express their displeasure by joining us, when we plant a weeping willow on the bank of Cedar Creek, time and date to be announced.

The Sign Of Delusion

When I first saw the new street signs in Old Allentown, I gave them about a year. I must now downgrade that lifespan to about 6 months. The old green and white signs are going on 60 years of use. Generations of boys did pull ups on the old sign at 12th and Turner; This sign will support one pull up by one boy. The Allentown planning office told Morning Call reporter, Dan Hartzell, that the antique looking signs are to enhance the historic nature of Old Allentown. Hartzell thought that it's wonderful that the Old Allentown yuppies get something, because they Walk the Walk. He did not report that the signs have no structural integrity, are too short and are junk. Although Hartzell took the above photograph only one week ago, the Turner has since broken off the sign. In truth, we do not have an historic district, we have a poverty district with a few yuppies and a city hall deluding itself. In the City Without Limits, we wasted another half a $million dollars.

A New Tree For Cedar Park

The storm last year was devastating to the old willows of Cedar Park. To the members of our group, the weeping willows symbolize the finest aspects of our park system. This year the park was dug up while the Lehigh County Authority laid a new water main from Cedar Crest Blvd. to across Ott Street. The pipe then turned north, was dug under the creek, and up Ott Street under a new sidewalk. As noted in the post below by the Sierra Club, if Mayor Pawlowski has his way, the stream banks may soon be controlled by a private company with no ties to Allentown. Before that happens, our group will plant a symbolic willow tree along the banks of Cedar Creek. Although there is some debate on the appropriateness of riparian buffers in our park systems, it is agreed by all that the current No Mow Zones are not riparian buffers, but actually just No Maintenance Zones. Under the guidance of a riparian consultant, 20 feet of creek bank will be cleared to host the new willow.

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