City Council Meeting Audio 08/09/06

A two hour meeting.

Our Councillors and Mayor spent about an hour pretending all was right in Easton. The ice was shattered by the realities of drugs and threats on the 300 block of Berwick St.

Mrs Pat Gibson (FOR THE THIRD TIME IN TWO MONTHS) brought her concerns to the City bosses. This time she brought her neighbors. The issue was the hour of "real" meeting.

Curt Eally's comments were notable.

Audio (14.5Mb)

City Council Meeting Audio 07/26/06

Here's last week's Council meeting audio. The main topic was the proposed lease of the City's water works. The proposal was tabled pending public hearings on the issue. The audience commentary was exceptional. Mike Krill and Mike Fleck both presented excellent points.

Audio (13Mb)

An EUPSA

Denizens of the EUniverse,

I am sure you all have noticed the trickle in activity on the blog. This is by NO MEANS an indication that we are dissolving. We are calling it our summer schedule. And we are making big plans for season two of Easton UnDressed.

So stand by and look for season two to kick off at the End of August. We are working to make the EUniverse even more robust and informative.

And always remember; EU is a growing library of Easton information. Tell us what documents and meetings you want accessible, and send us what ever you have and we will add it to the library.

Your Neighbors

Corporate Donuts are OK

Easton Girl I did a little research based on my travels; I hope this information eases your mind.

Reprinted from 2004 Great American Main Street Award™ Winner .


Westfield, New Jersey
In the 1970s, family-owned stores began closing as Westfield’s shoppers headed to malls. Movie-goers deserted the downtown theater in favor of a multiplex in a neighboring community. By the late 1980s, downtown Westfield was on a downhill slide. The store vacancy rate steadily rose, reaching nearly 40 percent in the early 90s. Poor traffic flow hurt downtown. Commuter parking at the train station was outpaced by steadily increasing demand.

Recognizing the need for action, former Mayors Bagger and Boothe, formed a committee of property owners, business leaders, and residents to investigate downtown’s problems. The committee recommended Main Street. In 1993, Westfield became a New Jersey Main Street community. With the passage of a city ordinance in 1996, Downtown Westfield Corporation (DWC) was born. It has brought 29 new retailers and 25 new restaurants to downtown. Many of these new businesses are chains, ranging from the GAP, Trader Joe’s, and Williams-Sonoma. Despite the mushrooming of chains, DWC has worked to balance them with independent stores, which still make up a majority of downtown retailers. The downtown occupancy rate has risen to 98 percent and the sales have skyrocketed from $60 million in 1993 to $200 million.

DWC, working in partnership with the building owner, rallied media attention to instigate a public campaign that saved the Rialto Theatre, a 1920s movie house, which was expanded and renovated. DWC is not only working to improve the appearance and function of downtown, it also seeks to promote the district through “Destination Westfield,” a bulletin that describes opportunities downtown; “Talk of the Town,” a newsletter covering current happenings; and a “Shopping Directory” that promotes each business.

Downtown’s appearance has received equal attention: 75 of the district’s 200 buildings have undergone major renovations; half of the 200 offices on upper floors currently remodeled; and 75 of the downtown’s 175 apartments are now renovated. A façade incentive grant program has leveraged more than $100,000 in private improvements to downtown storefronts. DWC also worked closely with the New Jersey Department of Transportation to revamp the town’s historic train station. The $6 million project ensured that Westfield remained the number one commuter stop on the N.J. Raritan Valley Line.

Unfortunately, bolstering its role as a commuter town exacerbated the parking problem. In 2000, a study of the downtown parking revealed that demand exceeded supply by 20 percent. In 2001 the community took action. Mayor McDermott established a citizen’s committee, which conducted a commuter survey, studied traffic flow, and conducted a financial analysis. After many years of parking studies and debates, the town council is in the process of approving an innovative public-private partnership for construction of two parking decks, for shoppers, commuters, and employees. Current plans call for mixed-use: retail space on the first floors combined with residential units.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded Westfield a 2004 Great American Main Street Award and announced the award on May 10, 2004, at its annual National Main Streets Conference held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Other 2004 Great American Main Street Award winners are: Burlington, Iowa; Encinitas, California; Paso Robles, California; and Rogers, Arkansas.

For more information about Westfield contact Downtown Westfield Corp. at (908) 789-9444, scronin@westfieldnj.com, 105 Elm Street, 2nd Floor, Westfield, NJ 07090 or http://www.westfieldtoday.com/.

Anoter notable town I've visited that has a very good mix of chain and local storefronts and a solid respect for heritage is Annapolis, MD.

City Council Meeting Audio 07/12/06

A 45 minute meeting crammed into 2 hours. No mayor and very little public discussion. Donchez was hired (wasn't there). Audio (13.4 Mb)

As an aside, I went to Lebanese Heritage Days today. It was nice to chat with the Governor and Charlie Dent. Hopefully, tomorrow I will bump into some prominent Eastonians at the festival.

RHIP – RHIR

Rank hath its privilege – Rank hath its responsibility

Note:

Please do not take the slow down in blog activity as degeneration. It’s not. It’s just summer time and that’s the way of the world. Council suspends Tuesday meetings, Congress recesses, the State House vacations, and the bloggers spend more time outside. The fall will be season two of EU, and the podcast will be back and better.

Your neighbors

Home Rule Charter Commission Meeting Agenda

Thanks to Mike Fleck for giving us an agenda for the Home Rule Charter Commission meeting for Saturday June 24, 2006, 10AM in City Council Chambers (5th Floor Alpha Building).

Your Neighbors

Council Meeting Audio 06/14/06

Hey Neighbors,

We are so sorry for the longer waits for postings. Keyboard time is not as plentiful when the weather is pleasant.

The meeting is 3 hours long. The first hour is the public hearing for the anti-discrimination ordnance. The meeting was later dominated by (you guessed it!) police issues. Or to be more specific, the re-chiefing of Larry Palmer. Lots of comments. Mayor Panto and Mike Fleck both exercised their right to publicly comment.

Get it here. (20 Mb)

Your Neighbors

Easton-American Graffiti

History, Heritage, Hypocrite

Our mayor’s string of scofflaw incidents have a lot more in common than the embarrassment they have cast upon him, the city, and his constituents. The all share the disturbing trend of red-handed apologies.

The simple fact that our mayor never initiated the airing of any of these violations of the building or third class city codes to the residents on his own should not be ignored.

And when he used his city owned phone, email, and city employed executive assistant to facilitate the sale of his personal property, he committed a misdemeanor with a pretty stiff penalty.

Paragraph 912 of the Third Class City Code states:

City Property not to be Used by Officers for Gain; Penalty. No portion of the property of the city shall be used for private gain by any officer of the city, councilman, agent or employe of said city, or any department thereof; nor shall the same be willfully used or injured, or be sold or disposed of in any manner by any officer, councilman, agent or employe, without the consent of the council. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or to undergo imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, at the discretion of the court. Upon such conviction, the party offending shall be forthwith removed from his office or employment, and shall not thereafter be eligible to election or appointment to any place of profit or trust under said city, or any department thereof.

"I made a number of important and dumb mistakes,"1 I trusted and voted for him.

(This commentary ran, somewhat edited, as a Morning Call editorial on Sunday, June 11, 2006)
1 Mayor Mitman offered the quote in response to the indiscretions chronicled in June 7, 2006 Morning Call article.

Council Meeting Audio 05/24/06

Hear it all for yourself. The whole meeting (12Mb).

Sgt Charles McMonagle reading a letter from Carin Sollman.

Paragraph 912 of the Third Class City Code states:

City Property not to be Used by Officers for Gain; Penalty.
No portion of the property of the city shall be used for private gain by any officer of the city, councilman, agent or employe of said city, or any department thereof; nor shall the same be wilfully used or injured, or be sold or disposed of in any manner by any officer, councilman, agent or employe, without the consent of the council. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or to undergo imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, at the discretion of the court. Upon such conviction, the party offending shall be forthwith removed from his office or employment, and shall not thereafter be eligible to election or appointment to any place of profit or trust under said city, or any department thereof.

For more on section 912 forward the meeting to 1:23:10.

A Joke?

A woman walks in to a City Council meeting...
She gets recognized by the Chair and humbly approaches the podium.
The woman is frustrated but hopeful as she presents her testimony.

It seems that the woman’s block is under siege by disrespectful and dangerous drug dealers. She tells Council of her efforts to stop their activities. She also tells Council how her activities have caused her to be threatened by the criminals, and ostracized by her also fearful neighbors.

She asks her distinguished community leaders for help, because she is helpless and fears for her well-being.

The distinguished President of City Council replies, “Have you considered starting a Block Watch?”

Brilliant

We offer our hands; you slap them. We ask for your hands; you tell us to start a block watch.

Unsatisfactory

Unprecedented Precedent

We refuse to bang our heads against walls; even though our frustration increases constantly. To us, nothing is happening if our problems are not getting resolved. The list of ills sickening our home is not getting any smaller than when we started this eight months ago. We have endured many more embarrassing, frightening, and sad events since EU began.

One by one our problems pile up, and each time the citizens/voters/taxpayers of Easton are treated like children and left in the dark. We know almost nothing of the few issue “resolutions” Council and the Administration claim to have developed. And the ones we do know of sicken us.

The shame that our Administration and Council blanketed the city in is unconscionable. What we have done to Carin Sollman and her two small children is ugly and heartless. Our elected Council only exacerbated the dwindling of public trust by making the decision to only pay $5,000.00 of the $20,000.00 funeral expenses. And they did so with no explanation. But they did not do so without inflicting the vicious insult of an inane caveat. In an effort to avoid establishing a precedent of paying too much for employee funerals a resolution was passed. Council resolved that any one who ceases to live while working for the municipality will receive funeral compensation not to exceed $5,000.00. The vote was 4 to 1 in favor; Councilman Corpora cast the dissenting vote.

The precedent we should be striving not to establish is the precedent of killing people on the job. We see significant savings and moral enhancement in that endeavor.

Our leaders are doing an extremely poor job of problem solving. Nothing is getting better. And to expect us to be grateful for anything while people are being shot and killed, our children have fewer resources, and our neighbors are allowed live like pigs while their landlords ignore their bills and liens is expecting too much.

Council Meeting Audio 05/10/06

During this meeting a good friend of ours displayed some behavior that we do not look upon favorably. Our friend became upset and had an unprofessional outburst. Not acceptable.

The meeting began with a public hearing on the reallocation of $138,904.00 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. The reallocation is in a 30 day public comment period that we assume began May 10, 2006.

A Pool Picnic report was given. And the Mayor chose not to attend or comment on the event.

The volunteers are getting restless. (21 Mb)

The first 30 minutes of the March 22 meeting has finally been recovered and the podcast is updated. Thanks Spike! Audio 03/22/06 (9.4 Mb)

Your Neighbors

Pool Picnic Update

The pool picnic fundraiser at Eddyside Park on May 6, 2006 was an OVERWHELMING SUCCESS! The Friends of the Easton Community Pools owe a great deal of gratitude to everyone that donated and attended the picnic. The band, raffle donors, Chris Miccio, Julie Donovan, and Gary Bertsch made our picnic the most well attended event of an event-laden day.

In only 3 hours we were able to raise $2,510.00 for the city pools. We have also raised over $500.00 in sticker money, and we thank Mr. Peter Koehler for that!

We will post list of all of the raffle donors in the next couple of days. Pictures will be posted soon too.

Merri, Diane, Kristin, Laini, and Terrance also thank Dave Hopkins, Carl Schumacher, and the Easton Public Works crews for their exceptional support.

And we all give thanks for neighbors like Merri Cuadra, because she was the mastermind of this magnificent event. Thank You Merri!

Eddyside Pool Picnic

The pools’ fundraising picnic is at the Eddyside recreation area in the grassy area between the pool and the main parking area. The event is on Saturday, May 6, 2006 from 5pm until 8pm. The cost is $5.00 ($4.00 if you are wearing a Citywide Clean-up bracelet).

There will be a raffle of over 40 items from gift certificates of city establishments to a foursome of golf to a bicycle from Genesis. Raffle tickets are $1.00 & $5.00 and ONLY at the picnic. There will be live music and a clown. There will be volley ball. There will be fun. There will be no rain.

WWW.EASTONPOOLS.ORG

?Questions?
contact :
Terrance Hand thand@eastonpools.org
Merri Cuadra mcuadra@eastonpools.org
Diane Miller dmiller@eastonpools.org
Kristin Mernitz kmernitz@eastonpools.org

Sincerely,
The Friends of the Easton Community Pools

Council Meeting Audio 04/26/06

With this meeting we continue our series of "Councilpeople Behaving Badly". In this episode the mostly eloquent and sometimes overly-sympathetic Councilwoman Heffley loses her cool. We just have one thing to offer-- UNACCEPTABLE. We are adults and professionals; forgetting this is not an option. Here's a suggestion don't apologize; just don't do it. Listen for yourself.

What he said.

Her reaction.

The meeting was dominated by the Officer Sollman funeral expense dispute. In attendance were the Widow Sollman, her two small children, Officers Maracini, McMonagle, Lt Reilly, retired Lt Orchulli, and Attorney John Karoly. Lt Reilly's comments (first comment session) of the meeting were thought provoking; to say the least.

Audio

Canned Worms

Tomorrow evening 6:30pm at the Christ Lutheran Church on 11th & Ferry Streets the Mayor will be holding a Town Meeting.

Where do we even begin with this? It’s been more than a month since I received personal assurance from the Mayor that a State of the City address was to be, but thus far we haven’t heard a word about it. I read somewhere that the Mayor is entertaining questions at tomorrow’s meeting. Now I think to myself, “Self, how is he going to keep this meeting in order?” With all of the unanswered or insufficiently answered questions we have posed to the administration; this meeting could easily last for days.

Let’s just start with the cops…

Why did you try to hide the prospective Chiefmissioner’s backgrounds from your constituents? Why haven’t we paid for the public ceremony for Officer Sollman? Why is a homicide protected as a “personnel issue”? With the lost handgun being taxpayer property why haven’t you offered us resolution? Why did you create a manpower and leadership crisis in the police department through budgeting and contracting? Why did you fire the police chief without a plan? How much did the “Rat List” investigation cost? Is the City being sued by the “Rat” listees? Who were the six “community leaders” involved in the Chimissioner interviews?

Now let’s look at the rest…

When is the Early Intervention Program final report? What parts of the EIP report will you NOT follow? What happened to Chris Anzini, Miriam Huertas, Sue Coffin, Sheldon Smith, and Michael Gibiser? Is you email policy enforceable? What is the status of the uncollected sewer/water bills? Why haven’t you commented on the Bachmann debacle? Are you using “your extensive fundraising skills” to assist with the swimming pools capital campaign? Do you actively participate in city negotiations? Who is Dick McAteer? When is the State of the City? Are we on budget?

I’m sure I missed a few hundred. So, do me a favor; send your questions I will try to get them answered.

Your Neighbor

Council Meeting Audio 04/12/06

This meeting had serious tension in the air. The Mayor and Mrs Heffley ranted and joked about the public finding out the names of the Chiefmissioner candidates. Solicitor Murphy took a minute to defend executive session procedure. The Mechanical Devices tax is being amended and was subject to a bit of comment. The Mayor was somewhat aloof and did what he could to not offer any substantial information to anyone. He also made himself scarce for the public comment segments of the meeting.

Audio

Easton UnPlugged Audio Blog (podcast) #9

Sorry for the month-long wait. We're back and we're swinging for the fence. This podcast is split into two pieces because it was a two and a half hour marathon. We have a very special guest, Mike Fleck. The former Councilman, Mayoral hopeful, and never shy pundit does what he does, talk. This is a good session. Mike really stepped up and spoke out. And that's why we like him.

Fan O' Fleck or not, this is a must hear. This is hopefully the first in a long series of guest sessions.

The first part is our normal podcast format where we go over the current events, and the second part is Q & A.

Part 1 Podcast
Part 2 Q & A

Our friend TDR was the silent special guest working the cue cards.

Your Neighbors

Suspicious Fire ALERT!

DEPARTMENT OF FIRE
Office of the Fire Marshal

PRESS RELEASE ON SUSPICIOUS FIRES

Since the beginning of this year the Easton Fire Department has responded to eight suspicious fires involving rubbish or brush throughout the city. Below is the list of these suspicious fires. The fires have been determined to be arson. Although some of the fires appear to be small, in a few instances they have attributed to significant property damage. We are asking the public to report any suspicious activity in their neighborhoods and be especially vigilant on the night before trash is picked-up.

12:08am 02/21/06 1122 Jackson (rear) Rubbish
6:26pm 02/25/06 River Bank (Canal St) Brush
4:26pm 03/07/06 College Hill Reservoir Brush
7:41pm 03/08/06 326 Lincoln (rear) Rubbish
12:29pm 03/15/06 697 Ferry Dumpster
5:30pm 03/21/06 634 Northampton Rubbish
2:24pm 03/23/06 Railroad/Lehigh Drive Rubbish/Brush
5:18pm 03/23/06 1023 Spruce (rear) Rubbish



Below are the guidelines imposed by the City of Easton for Trash Removal

1) Place trash curbside the night before your pickup day no earlier than 8:00 pm.

2) STORAGE - Trash stored on your property must be held in solid, watertight containers out of view from public streets until it is placed curbside for pickup

3) CURBSIDE – Trash must be placed curbside in a secured manner (bags or containers with tight fitting lids) to prevent litter and clogging of storm drains.

4) Please remove empty trash receptacles from the curb on the same day that your trash is picked up

5) Each household may place up to five bags or two 30-gallon containers curbside per week. In addition, one bulk item per week may be placed curbside for pickup. Do not dispose of tires, hazardous wastes, batteries, liquid paint, motor oil, auto parts, chemicals, or any other unacceptable refuse.

*NOTE – items containing Freon must be serviced and secured with a maintenance tag and identified as being deactivated free of HFC’s and CFC’s before pickup as per Section 608 of the USEPA Clean Air Act. Also, all refrigerator doors must be removed for safety before being placed curbside.

Please do your part – unsightly and improperly prepared trash results in litter, complaints, and an overall poorer quality of life for everyone. The City may assess up to $300 for violations of trash ordinances.

For more information please call Deputy Chief John Bast at 610-250-6671.