NorCo Seeking Parking Alternatives For Employees While New Parking Deck Is Under Construction

At tonight's meeting, Northampton County Council will consider a $1,250 license agreement with Shiloh Baptist Church for 150 parking spaces during the 18 months it will take to raze and build a new parking deck at the courthouse campus. This parking deck is on Easton's south side, so a shuttle will also be needed to ferry employees and jurors from there to the courthouse. 

The county has also requested Easton to expand the maximum time for metered spots around he courthouse from three to 10 hours. 

When the parking deck was repaired in the past, the county rented a parking lot from nearby St Anthony's Church, which is only about two blocks away and would require no shuttle. It would make sense to consider entering into a lease agreement with St. Anthony. In addition, this shuttle should also stop at the Easton parking garages, which are never full on weekdays. The county should probably also consider a lease arrangement with Easton for some parking spots. 

NorCo Elections Comm'n Votes 3-2 To Continue Pop-Up Voting Despite Elections Failures

At Northampton County Council's May 21 meeting, Executive Tara Zrinski reported that the Spring Primary went "smoothly," In reality, there were a number of problems. Before the election, some voters received ballots for the wrong party while others actually received duplicate ballots. As a result of redistricting, some party committee members were incorrectly listed in the wrong district while others were completely omitted. And on election day, epollbooks showed that voters were eligible to vote in person even though they had previously sent in mail-in-ballots (MIBs). These kinds of errors undermine public confidence in the elections process and need to be addressed. Northampton County's Elections Comm'n, however, is going to continue doing exactly what is causing this problem by requiring elections workers to do too much. 

The Elections office is already statutorily tasked with conducting what amounts to three elections every cycle.  There's in-person voting at the polling place, mail-in ballots and ballot-by demand. Last year, the county also decided to add a satellite office on Bethlehem's south side for four weeks so that people could either apply for MIBs or vote ballot by demand. Two people had been diverted from their usual duties to make it easier for people to vote. "That was not well attended," admitted Voter Registrar Chris Commini.

In addition to the satellite office, the county decided this year to stage "pop up" elections at Lafayette College (31 votes) Northampton Community College (3 votes), Upper Mt Bethel Tp Municipal Building (handful) and Lower Saucon (handful. To run these four pop-up events, elections workers had to be diverted from their usual duties. 

I understand and fully appreciate the importance of engaging as many voters as possible. But before conducting pop-ip elections or establishing satellite offices, county officials should be able to demonstrate that they con conduct the elections they are statutorily required to conduct with ease. Based on the past few elections, it's pretty clear that they need to focus on what they are required by law to do before branching out. 

At yesterday's meeting of the elections commission, nine people (elections judges and Republican party members voiced their concerns. What they had to say was summed up best by Matt Flower, who said that the elections failures fell into three categories - redistricting failures, training failures, and election system failures.

Redistricting failures. "Election registrar Chris Commini testified 4 times that no elected office would be impacted by redistricting.After the petition circulation period had already begun, they issued an email acknowledging that elected offices had in fact been affected. The consequences were real.In Upper Nazareth Township and Forks Township, both municipalities affected by redistricting, candidates appeared on the ballot in precincts, where they did not reside and were omitted from precincts, where they were legally eligible to hold office. In other cases, elected officials had their positions extinguished with no individualized notice.

Training failures. "In Wind Gap, poll workers were observed allowing voters to choose either party's primary ballot regardless of voter registration status. This procedural defect allows members of opposing parties to influence each other's primary elections. In Bath, the judge of elections was observed instructing that individuals who already voted would not be permitted back into the voting area, and that it did not matter whether they possessed valid poll watcher credentials. A clear violation of election law.

Election system failures. "Electronic poll books were not updated before the polls opened to identify voters who had already cast mail-in ballots. As a result, voters who already voted by mail could still appear eligible to vote at the polls, and the primary safeguard against duplicate voting was not functioning for a substantial portion of the election day.

These are not isolated mistakes. They are part of a pattern. Election integrity is measured by execution. Accurate ballots, accurate poll books, properly trained election workers. These are the core functions of election administration. When election administration failures become recurring events as they have in Northampton County, public confidence begins to erode. ... The voters of Northampton County are not asking for perfection. We are asking for competence.

Based on these issues, GOP Comm'n members Scott Hough and Shawn Welch suggested that the county suspend any pop-up elections in November. But they were outvoted by Democratic Commission members Sharon Gavin-Levy, Richard Groff and Becky Bartlett. Groff said the county could simply hire more people to help run elections, but the reality is that it takes several cycles for a temp or even a full-time worker to understand the system. 

I understand why the Democrats voted as they did. But I believe the county should focus on doing what the law mandates before getting into things that would be nice to see. In November, when turnout is going to be much higher, these mistakes are going to grow. 

Our Mental Health Crisis

When Governor Ed Rendell decided it was a good idea to shutter most of our state hospitals in 2010, he unwittingly unleashed a Mongol horde of seriously ill people into the Lehigh Valley and rest of the state.  State funding was set aside to house some, but not enough, of them. As a result, homeless encampments have exploded for some. Others have found homes in our jails. Still more have ended up at Gracedale. In the meantime, Northampton County has just 13 beds at Wernersville State Hospital for the sickest of the sick. So what is county government doing to deal with those who suffer from mental illness? Cathy Kromer, Deputy Administrator of NorCo Mental Health Division, told County Council last month that her department is doing what it can, even though it may seem like little more than a finger in the dike to stop a flood of seriously mentally ill people from cascading into our community. 

Kromer started by noting a distinction between those with general mental health concerns (we're all a little nuts) and those with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. She indicated that approximately one in five people have a diagnosable mental illness, but funding limitations requires Northampton County Mental Health to focus on those with serious mental illness and those requiring intensive support.

She explained that most health services are funded through Medical Assistance (Medicaid). County mental health funding primarily supports the uninsured, underinsured, intensive services, residential treatment programs, psychosocial rehabilitation programs, drop-in centers and advocacy organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness. (NAMI)

She highlighted the importance of Community Hospital Integration Project (CHIP) funding, clarifying that this is not the children's health insurance program. Rather, CHIP funding was established when Pennsylvania began closing state hospital beds. The state's commitment was that funding saved from institutional care would be redirected to counties to support individuals transitioning into community-based treatment settings.

Despite operating with an annual budget of approximately $13 million, Northampton County Mental Health serves thousands of residents annually and receives a constant flow of referrals.

In Fiscal Year 23-4, her department did an intake 0f 1,341 individuals, 80% of whom have serious mental illness. In Fiscal Year 24-25, the intake was 1,078 people. From July through December of 2025, her department did an intake for 985 people. 

Council member Lori Vargo Heffner asked Kromer to provide a list of funding gaps that resulted from last year's state budget impasse and to provide an idea of what cuts are expected this year. 

I'll say this, based on both my own experience as well as studies. I know a number of seriously mentally ill people. This includes a lady who decides to start shouting a cursing around 11 pm every night. While she might be a tad annoying, she's harmless. Mental illness only accounts for 3-5% of violent crime. Those who suffer from mental illness are far more likely to be victims of violent crime.  

Having said that, it was a mistake to close most state hospitals. 

Zrinski "Continuum of Care" Department Hints at Using Gracedale Campus For Assisted Living

In a close, 5-4 vote at NorCo Council's May 7 meeting, Executive Tara Zrinski's request for a completely brand new county department was granted. Supporting her were Council President Ken Kraft, joined by members Kelly Keegan, Jeff Warren, Theresa Fadem and Jason Boulette. Opposed were Lori Vargo Heffner, Dave Holland Nadeem Qayyum and Tom Giovanni.  Though a two-man Continuum of Care Department was created, which will costing $250,000 a year in salaries alone, a resolution approving the two positions was tabled. 

Zrinski argued that a separate department is needed to manage am 1,300-person workforce. More importantly, and in an opaque hint at her long-range plan, Zrinski said a separate department is needed "to coordinate the full continuum - nursing care, supportive living, and a future campus-based development reflecting the needs of the continuum of care across these 364 acres upon which Gracedale occupies." This suggests, at least to me, that the county is considering using some of its vast Gracedale campus to provide housing for seniors across the entire continuum of care spectrum.

This is certainly a much better idea than giving an out-of-town developer a tax break for luxury apartments. It would provide affordable housing to some of the county's most vulnerable residents. The county already owns the land but would need to borrow to build more housing. Like the county has done in the past for both open space and even keeping Gracedale, a question like this could be put to the voters.

So even though this creates a new layer of bureaucracy, I support the establishment of this new department. What I dislike about the positions, however, is that they are what the county calls "exempt" positions. This means that they are political hires who come and go with the Executive. 

For the first five months of this year, Zrinski has been unable to find a Director of Fiscal Affairs, a position sorely needed in a county with financial challenges. She has attributed this to a rather low salary, although she claims to have found one. I think the real challenge is that it's hard to attract a financial professional who is willing to tie his employment to the political winds.  

This department, like Emergency Management, should be completely apolitical so that it attracts people who have the right expertise and who are willing to make it a career. 

Pa PUC Vice Chair Kim Barrow States Proposed Data Centers Should Bring Their Own Energy Generation

I recently attended a presentation concerning a proposal to build a data center campus in Lower Mount Bethel Tp. Every member of the public who spoke were opposed to the idea While we all rely on data centers to store our Amazon orders or our Facebook pictures, we'd rather not see them. 

Now Northampton County has nothing to do with data centers. But Council member Jeff Warren would very much like to be State Rep. Jeff Warren. He can see which way the wind (hope it's renewable energy) is blowing. So he invited Kim Barrow, Vice Chair of the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) to make a presentation last week. She went on for 30 minutes before Council President Ken Kraft asked her to wrap it up. She went through a lengthy recent history of energy use in Pennsylvania. Her basic message is that any proposed data center should bring its own energy generation. 

Barrow said that Pennsylvania’s electric system is undergoing a dramatic transformation focused on reliability concerns, rising demand forecasts, aging infrastructure, and the pressure being created by extremely large data center projects tied to artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

She began by explaining that Pennsylvania is part of the PJM Interconnection, a 14-state regional transmission organization responsible for coordinating electric supply and reliability throughout much of the eastern United States. Pennsylvania historically has been one of the strongest electricity-producing states in the region, exporting roughly 25% of the electricity it generates.

For many years, Pennsylvania enjoyed relatively flat or declining electricity demand while maintaining a highly diverse energy portfolio that included natural gas, nuclear, coal, hydropower, oil generation, and renewable energy. Because of this diversity and excess generating capacity, Barrow stated she long believed Pennsylvania had excellent “resource adequacy” and strong reliability.

However, she explained that several developments have converged to create what she described as a “perfect storm” of challenges.

Among the major issues discussed were increasingly severe weather events, aging infrastructure, power plant retirements, supply chain disruptions, workforce shortages, cybersecurity threats, and the electrification of transportation and other sectors. She noted that stronger storms are becoming increasingly costly for utilities and more difficult to recover from operationally.

A major turning point in her concerns came during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022. Barrow described the storm as a near-catastrophic event for the eastern electric grid. During the storm, PJM reportedly lost approximately 47,000 megawatts of generating capacity due to failures across multiple energy sources, including coal, natural gas, and renewable systems.

Coal piles froze, gas compressors malfunctioned in extreme cold, and renewable output declined due to weather conditions. She emphasized that the failures were not isolated to one type of generation resource but occurred across nearly the entire fleet.

According to Barrow, the region came within less than 1,000 megawatts of potentially severe cascading outages. She called it “a miracle” that widespread long-term blackouts did not occur.

One of her strongest messages was the importance of maintaining a balanced energy portfolio. While supportive of renewable energy growth, Barrow stressed that reliability requires maintaining all available resources, including nuclear, natural gas, coal, hydropower, and renewables, particularly during periods of extreme weather stress.

The second major portion of her presentation focused on the rapid rise of hyperscale data centers. Barrow explained that traditional data centers historically consumed between 50 and 200 megawatts of electricity. However, the newest AI-driven facilities are now requesting 1,000 to 2,000 megawatts each — amounts comparable to the output of entire nuclear power plants.

She specifically referenced the restart of Three-Mile Island through agreements tied to Microsoft and discussed Amazon Web Services’ arrangements involving the Susquehanna nuclear facility.

Barrow expressed concern that these enormous new electricity demands are arriving much faster than new generation and transmission infrastructure can be constructed. She warned that if data center growth proceeds unchecked, the grid could face serious reliability risks during future extreme weather events.

She cited PJM capacity auctions as evidence of growing stress within the system. Capacity prices reportedly jumped from approximately $35 per megawatt-day to over $300 per megawatt-day within a short period, creating an estimated $13 billion impact on ratepayers across the PJM region.

Barrow stated that these increases are being driven largely by forecasts of future electricity demand, especially from data centers, and not solely by current consumption levels.

A central theme of her remarks involved protecting residential customers, small businesses, and traditional commercial users from subsidizing the infrastructure costs associated with massive new industrial electricity consumers. She repeatedly stated that hyperscale data centers should “bring their own generation” by financing or constructing additional power sources rather than relying entirely on existing grid capacity.

She explained that the PUC recently issued a “large load model tariff” intended to ensure that large new electric users pay the true costs associated with serving their facilities and do not shift expenses onto ordinary ratepayers.