Allentown Raises School Tax 38%

You won't read this headline in today's  Morning Call, it simply says that we are rehiring five gym teachers. My post yesterday concentrated of the consequences of living within our school budget. Although the post was concise, as per my style, I had done my homework. Conversations with Armstrong and Zimmerman revealed that they would not support any rehires, while we faced an 8.5% tax increase for the next four years. Last night the remainder of their peers voted to bring back the elementary level gym teachers. It is reasonable to expect even more rehires will occur when the State Budget reveals a few more dollars for Allentown. By not applying the found dollars to the general fund, the School Board is ensuring that the full tax increases will be levied. This approach in four years will yield an effective tax increase of 38%. The suburban school tax increase this year averaged 2.8%. Although yesterday I tried not to stake out a position on the rehiring, I can tell you that unabated tax increases will have dire consequences in the sought after middle class home market. While we are diverting close to a $Billion Dollars in state income taxes to gentrify Hamilton Street, we are squeezing the joy out of both our children and homeowners.

UPDATE: Rolf Oeler wonders in a comment if Scott Armstrong will be reelected.  On a Facebook page I visited today,  an administrator at a local charity called Armstrong a troll and useless.  A teacher from Dieruff called him a stupid ass.   I suspect that with the 8.5% tax increase, he will be reelected if he articulates his position to the taxpayers.  In a few years, when the increase reaches 38%,  his positions will be appreciated even more.  However, I doubt that he will tolerate the abuse for that long.

Allentown School Board

Allentown School Board picked up another $350,000 this week, and at least two members, President Bob Smith and board member Joanne Jackson, want to bring back at least five laid off teachers. Smith favors bringing back elementary level gym teachers. Jackson, a former teacher herself, needs no convincing. Usually, by the time the state budget is finished at the end of June, there are more funds available for the district. With a school tax increase of over 8% this year, some board members instead favor applying the additional funds to decrease the rising homeowner burden. Board member Scott Armstrong believes that bringing back a few teachers is only a temporary false reprieve, and not facing fiscal reality, which is an 8% increase each year, for the next four years. Member David Zimmerman would also not rehire any teachers. Hiring back teachers, who have already received their pink slip, actually only increases and complicates the long term pension obligation. The school situation is dire. We face more layoffs, increasing taxes, and school closings. One wonders why we built new buildings in this financial climate? Both the federal and state governments impose essentially unfunded mandates in both testing and performance. A state takeover would provide no benefit, there's no magic in Harrisburg. I personally know both camps on the school board. Although they have different approaches to our problems, they all have a deep regard for the students of Allentown. I believe that those students will continue to find dedicated teachers that provide a quality education even under these difficult conditions.

Allentown Meat Packing Co.

My grandfather lived on the corner of Jordan and Chew, and butchered in a small barn behind the house. He would deliver by horse and wagon to his customers, corner markets. The house is still there, the barn, long gone. My father, and one of his brothers, acquired the H.H. Steinmetz packing house in 1943. Operating as Allentown Meat Packing, by 1950 they closed the slaughter house, and converted the front of the plant into a meat market open to the public. That continued to 1970, when it was leased to an operator who sold meat by freezer full packages. In 1975 the building was torn down, as part of a long term lease agreement with A&B, who wanted the space for parking. The photo was taken just prior to demolition.

reprinted from January 2011

Abandoned West Channel Of The Lehigh River

I made an inquiry to Allentown Public Works about the history of the river abandonment, and they were kind enough to research the topic and return my call. They located the map from 1964, which indicates the planned abandonment, apparently approved by the State. Coincidentally, the map partially shown above, was my father's copy, with added markings. The map key, not shown, indicates that parcel 1* is owned by Molovinsky. This was the location of my father's meat packing business, which I will discuss in a separate post, in the near future. Although Public Works agrees with my speculation that the channel was eliminated to protect the sewage plant from flooding, no document was located to verify the reason. The map does mark the former western lower channel of the river as part of the creek, and clearly shows how this project altered the confluence of the creek and river.

*Parcel 1 on Union Street, Molovinsky (Allentown (Meat) Packing Company),  is to the immediate right of the added inked area, also marked 1. At the bottom of the inked 1, the current entrance road to the treatment plant is also indicated in ink.  Click map to enlarge.

A Changing Confluence

Future cartographers will locate the confluence of the Little Lehigh Creek and the Lehigh River as south, and slightly east of the current LCA sewage plant. Historians will know better. Up to forty years ago, nature joined the Little Lehigh with with western channel of the Lehigh, halfway down the side of Kline's Island. Around 1970, the City of Allentown decided to reclaim the river channel north of the confluence, ending Kline's status as an island. What is now the last section of the Little Lehigh, was previously the Lehigh. The map shown was produced in 1900. Also gone from current geography is the man made harbors, shown north of the Hamilton Street bridge. The new google map shows that the

former bridge to Kline's Island still stands, crossing the now reclaimed former west channel of the Lehigh River. Also visible is the footprint of Allentown's former gas tank.

Allentown's Syrians of The 6th Ward

When my grandfather first arrived in Allentown, he lived in the Ward, on 2nd. Street. It was around 1895 and the neighborhood was full of immigrants. Some groups came from the same area in the old country, most noticeably the Syrians, from the village of Amar. They were members of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, a Christian minority in a Muslim country. The congregation of St. George's Church on Catasauqua Ave., largely is descended from those immigrants. Well known names in Allentown, such as Atiyeh, Haddad, Hanna, Makoul, Koury and Joseph are among their members. They were among one of the first groups to organize, and those organizations still exist. The photo above was organized by the Syrian American Organization in 1944. Note that Jewish, on the left, is treated as a nationality.

click on photo to enlarge

UPDATE: This post is reprinted from March 2010, then titled The 6th Ward. An article in today's Morning Call describes the dilemma and concern the current conflict in Syria is causing the local Syrian community. I know from my Syrian friends that supposedly Assad's father's childhood nanny was Christian, and that Christians were protected under the Assads. It is not the purpose of this post to speculate on the current conflict in Syria, but to wish the relatives of our Syrian community safety.

Smell The Roses

Friends of the Allentown Parks will host an accessible tour of Allentown's famed Malcolm Gross Rose Garden, tomorrow morning, Saturday June 15, at 10:00a.m. Leading the tour will be none other than Paul Pozzi, caretaker of the garden. Take the time, smell the roses.

vintage postcard from Allentown's traditional park era