The Little Bridge That Could

When I was a boy growing up on the south side, going to the doctor near the current YMCA, meant going over Schreiber's Bridge. Being built in 1828, the bridge even back then was over a hundred years old. When the 15th Street (Ward Street) Bridge opened in 1954, who would imagine that it would come and go, while the stone arch bridge continued providing passage over the creek. The Little Bridge That Could took quite a beating during the last couple of years, while constructing the new 15th Street Bridge. Trucks smashed the northern entrance walls no less than three times, turning on to Martin Luther King Drive. Although it is understandable that the City will wait until this Spring to repair the walls, there exists a more urgent matter. From the extensive use caused by the detour, and this harsh winter, the roadbed is badly cracked over the bridge's arch. These openings allow water to enter and seep down into the stone arch. Perhaps the city administration could give the historic bridge some special attention yet this winter, it certainly has earned some consideration.

Rich Fegley and the DTE Contract

To say that Rich Fegley is upset about the Delta Thermo Energy Contract is an understatement. This arrangement, already approved by city council about two years ago, allows DTE to mix our trash and sewage into some concoction that they will burn to make energy. This precise process has not been done before anywhere in the country. Rich doesn't think that we're innovators, he thinks that we're chumps. He believes that Mayor Pawlowski and DTE outright mislead city council on the projections to continue conventional trash collection.

On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 Rich Fegley  wrote: Members of City Council, At the last three Allentown City Council meetings I brought something to your attention that I feel  is very important. As I have stated three times before, the contract that the City signed with Delta Thermo Energy  was based on false and misleading information. Here are excerpts from the PWIA 12-12-2013 letter (attached) to PA Department of  Environmental Protection: Delta Thermo made a number of materially false statements to the public regarding  their proposed project and the waste disposal industry as a whole. Delta Thermo's continued use of false environmental marketing claims Delta Thermo's representatives claimed that landfill tipping fees have increased  7% a year over each of the last ten years. This is false........... The PWIA in this letter continues to point out further FALSE and MISLEADING information  that Delta Thermo Energy and ultimately Mayor Ed Pawlowski and PMF (Scott Shearer)  provided to City Council and the Public. I am stating that we were told information that was fabricated and false. At the last Council meeting I asked Council to look into what research was done by PFM and Mayor Pawlowski on LANDFILL COSTS in the Lehigh Valley. How did PFM and Pawlowski come up with this $90.48/ton cost? This new analysis show that the City will lose $113,000,000. This is a real number based on the "real" numbers that PFM and Mayor Pawlowski presented to City Council and the public. I hope that we can discuss this at City Council this Wednesday. Thank you for your attention, Rich Fegley I wish Fegley well on his endeavor. Approval of the Delta Thermo Contract was a circus, complete with trade union members from out of town packing the council chamber. New council member Cynthia Mota voted no, and then changed her vote, after being taken on a field trip by Delta Thermo. I would think that negating the contract at this point would be more complicated, requiring more motivation, than this council has ever displayed.

Pawlowski's Back, First Snow Emergency

Residents on Tilghman Street learned the expensive way that Pawlowski is back to mayoring in Allentown. Whether you're towed during a snow emergency, or ticketed at a meter, center city residents are the ones who are fined and inconvenienced by the traffic regulations. Community activist Ce Ce Gerlach wonders on Facebook, This is like the 5th snow of the season and now, all of a sudden we are in a "snow emergency". Hundreds of residents were towed, including mine. A city of poor and working class people now have to pay at least $250 to get our cars back. Perhaps Mike Fleck could have hired some canvassers to knock on doors and give the residents some heads up on the towing, like Pawlowski did to get votes back in November.

UPDATE: Mayor Ed Pawlowski claims that 89 cars were towed during the snow emergency  Monday morning, which was instituted with a three hour warning. Police used sirens and loudspeakers to notify residents on both Chew and Tilghman Streets, but the notice given to Walnut Street residents has not been verified.

Time, Money and Cheap Locals Keep Pawlowski Here

Unless Rob McCord becomes Governor, Allentown is probably stuck with Pawlowski for at least the next four years. Seems as if his pesky city responsibilities helped keep Ed from devoting enough time to fund raising.."Every time I sat down to make fundraising calls, another issue would come up that would require my attention," he said...Stepping down will allow me to focus all of my energy on the job that I really love: being the mayor of Allentown,"I didn't know that anybody twisted his arm to run for governor. Also the locals contributors here seem to lack the vision necessary to properly fund one of their own. McCord traveled here in the snow to receive Ed's endorsement. I'm not sure which part of Pawlowski's announcement today should offend Allentonians more, but one thing is clear, his heart clearly isn't here. I did not attend the news conference, this analysis is based on local news sources.

The Morning Call Slow Pitches To Mike Fleck

In today's profile on Mike Fleck, The Morning Call says that the political consultant  plays hardball, indeed he does. Although Fleck may play hard, the paper treated him with kid gloves. In the recent City Council race, Fleck had hired a local attorney to intimidate a candidate into withdrawing. The court ruled the action violated the election code, and the candidate, Kim Velez, was reinstated on the ballot. Not a word of that shenanigan appears in the article, although at the time, the incident was covered by the same reporters. The slowest t-ball pitch in the article concerns the notion that there is a firewall between Fleck's business consulting and his political consulting, here in Pawlowskiville? Although they mention the teenage marketing company Ruckus, they omit the fact that they secured yet another extension from the ACIDA on their Neuweiler option, even though they have resorted to now trying to solicit investors from the internet.

UPDATE: In the comment section a reader suggests,  "Let the city R's pay their volunteers if necessary to get the job done and get out the vote."  Is this the direction Allentown should go in?

Tom Muller's Conversion Complete

It was suggested this past November that Muller was a Republican at heart, but had converted to the Democratic Party only to save the county from the radical inclinations of Scott Ott. The other day Lisa Scheller had an excellent letter in The Morning Call. In it she argued that the county pension contribution should be lowered from 5.5% because CD'S haven't paid that much in years. She also opposes the conflict of interest on the pension board, where most of it's members will receive the pension on which they are setting the rate. According to published reports, I didn't attend the meeting, Muller resorted to dragging Scheller's personal wealth into the debate; "I seriously doubt Commissioner Scheller has any of her wealth in CDs, or much of her wealth in CDs," Apparently, between being elected in November, and starting office in January, Muller must have been sent to Chicago for a workshop on class politics and divisive rhetoric. Although only a few months ago Muller's campaign literature featured him as a conservative businessman, yesterday he seemed like a union boss, while attempting to vilify Scheller in front of a room packed with county employees. Muller knows only too well that CD's are an analogy for conservative investments, and that insolvency caused by public pensions is the crisis of the decade. Muller won the pension board vote yesterday, but it was Scheller who had the taxpayer's back.