Bernie,Thank you for the kind words. I am grateful for the support and confidence the electorate has placed in me and I pledge to work hard so that I do not let them down. Our city will have a bright future. It will be bright because we will open the doors of city hall to any individual that wants to help us make our city better. We pledge not only an open door policy but an open mind policy as well. I also want to remind my friend Billy [Billy Givens] that the vast amount of additional land and property sold by the city to the county was after my two terms as Mayor and not during.Thank you again to all of the voters and our more than 300 volunteers for the trust they placed in our campaign.
Update: On my way to the courthouse this afternoon, campaign signs from victors and vanquished still decorated Easton. But Panto's red, white and black signs were not among them. He's removed them all, just as he said he would.
11 comments:
Sal is good friend of mine for decades and a very class act! My only advice is (not needed), don't take any calls from Boss Long! He will try to call and suggest Sal needs to cater to him as he is the D Party Chair. Sal is too smart to fall for that nonsense. Seems some others have fallen for Boss's power plays. Go figure.
Sal had 300 volunteers last night. I suggest he use some of them to fill out his administration, and none of the bossman's cronies. Those are real Easton people.
The phrases "two rivers" and "twin rivers" as descriptive terms for the city of Easton are significant - terms that do not apply exclusively to Two River Landing and other commercial enterprises, but terms that also apply to the beauty and water-quality, per se, of those two major Pennsylvania waterways as well.
I congratulate Sal Panto, my friend of 20 years, on his mayoral victory yesterday, but out of principal I have no choice but to oppose his embracing the ill-advised Riverwalk project - or any other project that detracts from the God-given glory of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers, and Bushkill Creek as well.
This vow extends to the Delaware River in particular, since much of it boasts the national designation of a wild and scenic river.
This is a designation that Paul McHale when he was in Congress tried to obtain for the Lehigh River as well, but was unable to because of that stream's high level of pollution.
Yesterday was not only election day in Easton, but also the day the Congress overrode President George W. Bush's veto of the multi-billion dollar water bill - an override that would have been impossible without the votes of 150 or so Republicans joining their Democratic colleagues in the override.
If I could have convinced enough of my readers that the site of the Sands Bethworks Casino LLC in Bethlehem's South Side neighborhood was inundated all the way from the Lehigh River to 3rd St. by Hurricane Diana in 1955, the casino project would never have gotten as far as it has today.
It would have been bottled up, just as the Riverwalk project is dammed up today.
The Riverkeeper Network and the Littoral Society are already in court contesting the Riverwalk project in Easton, and the citizens of Philadelphia's Fishtown neighborhood are in court fighting the SugarHouse Casino and the Pennsylvania Gambling Control Board of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, state Sen. Vince Fumo, and the former PGCB chairman Timothy "Tad" Decker, whose returned to his position as managing partner of the Philadelphia branch of the Cozen O'Connor law firm - the position Decker held before Rendell appointed him as chairman of the PGCB.
My long-standing friend may be right, that most of Easton's land was sold to Northampton County.
Certainly this was true of the art deco City Hall building at 650 Ferry St.
It was Sal's successor, Tom Goldsmith, that sold that property to County Executive Bill Brackbill - for the purpose of demolishing this architectural gem to make room for erecting the architecturally intrusive, ungly-duckling Juvenile Detention Center that, like the prison for adults, is already overcrowded and in need of expansion.
And like the courthouse expansion with its cost overruns, the Juvenile Detention Center's construction manager/general contractor was Alvin H. Butz - complete with the same cost overruns under a cost-plus contract.
support Sal and get a grip on life!
What the hell are all the other comments here? I'm from Bethlehem but also care about Easton, Allentown and entire LV! go figure. Sal and Paul McHale are my friends of 40 years and "out of principal" I usually trust their judgement. larry@kisslinger.com
Larry,
The federal Office of Management and Budget (OM&B) kicked Newark out of the New York City-Northern New Jersey-Eastern Pennsylvania and extended that MSA to include the so-called "Lehigh Valley," whatever and wherever that is!
This five-card Monte reshuffle means that the "Lehigh Valley" yuppies - many of them NYC and Northeastern NJ transplants - will be getting more goodies from Uncle Sugar in the form of grants and other subsidies and Newark will be getting fewer.
Legally, MSA statistics can be used for planning purposes ONLY. The newly minted MSA is breaking the law because its movers and shakers are making decisions that impact taxes and other matters crucial to the everyday lives of the Lehigh Valley's taxpayers.
Anthony Salamone in the Express Times of June 21, 2005, quoted former LVEDC Executive Director Ray Suhocki as saying he "would like to see a form of 'tax-base sharing.'"
Only municipalities have the legal power to tax, not private organizations like the LVEDC, and therein lies the illegality.
Billy,
I appreciate your opinion like all others who identify themselves here. However, many times I don't know what your comments have to do with the price of tea in China! I'm lifelong from Bethlehem and maybe don't understand Easton as much as I should. I do know LV is in "prevailing wage" area with Philly costing us millions of dollars with any public building projects. Anything we have to do in concert with NJ must be more cumbersome, I agree. Don't blame Sal or Paul McHale is all I suggested. larry@kisslinger.com
Larry,
John Stoffa, John Kingley, and NC council are getting ready to drop another MOAB (Mother Of All Bonds, not the U.S. Air Force's Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon, the devastating successor to the "daisy cutter" killer deployed in North Vietnam) - this one for $30 million for a second-generation expansion of the Juvenile Correction Center, where the beaux Arts Easton City Hall building at 650 Ferry St. used to stand before the city and the county agreed to demolish it to make room for the children's jail.
I was impressed with the Panto campaign - the number of volunteers, the vision plan that was presented with goals and objectives, the new initiatives, their marketing materials. Everything they did was first class.
His kicking butt even in his opponents home ward that he constantly reminded us about was a solid vote for any Mayor.
We heard two things from his opponent -- West Ward and that he is a recruiter. Sal knows the West Ward better than his opponent and how can you claim to be a recruiter when you can't even a dozen of volunteers to work the polls on election day.
Sal will be good for Easton -- it is an exciting time and as a West Ward resident the first thing Sal should do is an audit of the program his opponent oversees.
The rest of you get over it --Sal received 65% of the votes - an overwhelming majority.
I did not stab Sal Panto in the back, as some are saying.
If anything, Sal, however unwittingly, may have stabbed me in the back.
On April 15, in the Acopian Room of the State Theatre, from which Easton Police Captain MIchael Angelo on orders from Mayor Phil Mitman was physically attempting to oust me, Sal approached the two of us, looked at me, and said"
"Okay, Billy, you've done a good job," implying that I should stop resisting Captain Vangello's abust of physical force and leave the building, but under my own steam.
And Sal didn't have to tell me that I had done a "good job." That was self-evident from the fact that Mitman and J. Michael Dowd, who was at the podium chairing the meeting when Vangello approached and man-handled me, inflicting physical harm, but not citing any ordinance or other law that I had violated.
The next day's two msm newspapers made Sal look like a hero, though he was not the only person present who came to my aid.
One of those was South Side resident William "Little Bear" Brennan, who accompanied me first to the Easton Police Station to file a formal complaint and then to Easton Hospital for treatment of my wounds.
So I was not surprised when both msm papers later endorsed Sal over his Republican opponent, West Ward resident Gary Bertsch.
The Easton police took pictures of my wounds and then interviewed both Brennan and me.
Not once did the interviewing officers indicate in any way either to Little Bear or to me that the report when completed would not be made available to the public.
Now, since the Easton police also interviewed Sal, but neither Mayor Mitman nor J. Michael Dowd, I'm asking Sal, my friend of 20 years, upon becoming Mayor to order the Easton police to make the report public.
Meanwhile, I am requesting that as long as Phil Mitman remains mayor of Easton that he issue no building permits for the Arcadia Properties-Northampton County-LANTA-City of Easton-Easton Parking Authority Riverwalk project, the immediate cause of Captain Vangello's physical assault on my person, planned for constuction in the flood plain of the Delaware River and Bushkill Creek.
The matter is now in the federal courts and no further action should be taken at least until such time as the courts hand down a final decision, including all appeals.
Today's edition of The Express-Times attributes incumbent Easton City Councilman coming in third behind challengers El Warner and Jeff Warren in the November 6, 2007, election to fill three seats on council to his yea vote for a "Certificate of Appropriateness" for the Riverwalk project
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