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| TandM's Greg Duncan is Bethlehem Township's stormwater engineer. |
On
June 15, 2015, in the middle of a Bethlehem Township Commissioners'
meeting, between four and five inches of rain fell over the course of just
three hours. Entire sections of roadway were washed out as the Township ran out
of barricades to warn passing motorists. The township spent $140,000 in
emergency road repairs.
Manager Melissa
Shafer fielded complaints from 37 different areas within the township. In
addition, there were 15 sinkholes. "Impervious areas, lack of stormwater
infrastructure in our older neighborhoods, undersized existing stormwater
facilities and the shrinking capacity of Nancy Run Creek all contribute to the
flooding issues," she later reported.
For years, raging
stormwaters have been mentioned at nearly every meeting.
After last year's
sudden downpour, Commissioners decided to make stormwater management their top
priority. They teamed up with Freemansburg for a gaming grant to conduct a stormwater
study. They visited Lancaster, which has a model stormwater management
program. And at their September 6 meeting, they voted 4-0 to hire TandM
Associates as their stormwater engineer.
TandM was the
unanimous choice of a committee that reviewed proposals from five different
engineering firms. As Shafer explained in a memo to Commissioners, T and M
"not only brings experience and understanding of the sophisticated
modeling necessary for the long term operations and maintenance of our system,
but they have an unsurpassed local and regional knowledge and existing data
already compiled on our watersheds. The Committee also felt that TandM rate
structure and fee proposal was very competitive."
Greg Duncan, who
is with TandM, will serve as the project manager. He will analyze the existing
system, create a Stormwater Improvement Plan, develop a Stormwater Operation
and Maintenance Plan and identify funding mechanisms to pay for the work.
In other business,
Commissioners approved an ordinance establishing new boundary lines for its
four wards. These changes will have no impact on this year's Presidential race
and will only take effect next year. The new boundaries create four wards that
range in population from 5800 to 6037.
They also voted to
create an abandoned property register. According to Planning Director Nathan
Jones, there are currently about 25 abandoned properties in the Township.
Finally, they
enacted an ordinance to regulate cell tower companies that straddle public
rights of way with minpoles to augment cell tower coverage.
Storm water problem?
ReplyDeleteWhat storm water problem?
Lawyers & engineers are bankrupting local governments brought on by the many many years of incompetent elected and appointed officials in their decision making.
ReplyDeleteBernie is this the same engineering company on the FBI list in the allentown case?
ReplyDeleteIs this the same T&M under investigation by the Feds in Allentown, Reading, and NJ?
ReplyDeleteDid Bethlehem Twp perform any sort of background check on them? If so, are they or will they be brought up on corruption charges that have consumed what is the city of Allentown? Did anyone question them last night? Rubber stamp?
ReplyDeleteIt is the same TandM. I believe the Twp is really pleased with Greg Duncan. There are no TandM contributions to any Commissioners. I checked.
ReplyDeleteEasy to see why they partnered with Freemansburg, they're going to redirect all that Bethlehem city and Twp runoff into the canal and then Lehigh River
ReplyDeleteI think in the near future you will see several Lehigh Valley municipalities implement a storm water sewer maintenance program, which will include a fee on landowners based on impervious coverage. Lancaster already has this, so I suspect that is part of what they looked at. Bethlehem City has had this fee in their 5 year financial plan for several years. Under state law, a separate fund would need to be set up much like a traditional sewer or water fund. I heard that most residential properties would pay around $50 per year, but large landowners like hospitals and universities would be hit harder, and since it is a fee the non-profits must pay.
ReplyDeleteYes. And when this was mentioned, residents had a fit. The ones complaining loudest are those who have been after the township for years to do something.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone check the known billable and reputation of this side show? Apparently not unless the grass I guess is paper and is passed easily
ReplyDeleteTurn the Nancy Run into a drainage ditch?
ReplyDeleteNot a good plan.
The latest Twp newsletter I received the other day has on the front cover, a young family walking through a pumpkin patch. It's false advertising as there is no such pumpkin fields in Bethlehem Twp. And, the print on several pages is a blur and unreadable. More incompetent behavior by unqualified officials.
ReplyDeleteYour comment is OT and has nothing to do with stormwater. You could post that to Opinions Online. If what you are saying is accurate, it is actually propaganda. But the Fall newsletter is not on the Twp website, and i don't believe disrespectful anons until i see it myself. I really get pissed by these anonymous OT slurs. They insult me and the work i did in putting together this story. They also insult readers who contribute and who can stay on a very important topic.
ReplyDeleteIt's true on the fall newsletter, covered with as you say, pumpkin patch propaganda. Disgraceful to say the least!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the excellent news coverage Bernie, some do appreciate your efforts.
Anon @ 6:43, please come to the next township meeting and make your feelings known. I think if more residents knew the township used a pumpkin patch on the cover of the fall newsletter and there isn't a pumpkin patch in the township, every commissioner, the township manager and whomever put together that newsletter would have no choice but to resign!! Or everyone at the meeting would get a good laugh. Either way, I'm good with that. Bernie, thanks for what you do.
ReplyDeleteIs that sort of propaganda criminal? Definitely miss leading.
ReplyDelete