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.

Allentown City Council Pays Tribute to Recently Deceased Controller Jeff Glazier

Blogger's Note: This site has been a safe haven for those of you who want to rip elected officials or wannabes of every stripe and persuasion. Don't get me wrong. I do it myself all the time. It's great sport. We have nicknames like Lamont McClueless, Pee Wee Tuerk, Crooksy Brooks, Bullhorn Zrinski, Me-Me Gerlach and, my personal favorite, "Fed Ed" Pawlowski. But many if not most of the local officials I know actually try very hard to make their communities better and serve the people who live there. 

Glazier, you may recall, became Allentown City Controller because his predecessor resigned after being charged with a conspiracy to deprive the good people of Allentown of honest services. As a member of City Council, he was a reliable Fed Ed ally. But that's only a part of his story. In a well-written news release, City Council Public Affairs Officer Genesis Ortega presents a far different picture of Glazier than the one I drew. 

I like her version better.

May 27, 2026 — Allentown City Council is mourning the passing of City Controller Jeff Glazier, whose decades of service helped shape the city he loved so deeply.

Jeff dedicated much of his life to public service in Allentown, serving on the School Board, City Council, and as City Controller — but to many who knew him, he was more than a public official. He was also a steady and familiar presence in the community.

He believed in public service, and he carried that belief without pretense. Jeff held firmly to the idea that government should be honest, careful, and accountable, even when the work was difficult or went unseen. That conviction shaped the way he served and the way he led throughout his career.

As City Controller, Jeff was responsible for overseeing the city’s finances and ensuring transparency and accountability in government operations. He approached that role with care and discipline, earning respect across city government for the seriousness with which he treated the public trust.

Those who worked in City Hall will also remember the small, everyday moments of his presence, including his dog, Artemis, who was a constant companion. She was often by his side in his office or walking through the building, familiar to many who worked there. Jeff also brought warmth and personality into the workplace through his love of music. Colleagues also knew his office for the sound system and endless music collection he kept there and was always eager to share.

Beyond his official duties, Jeff’s kindness showed itself in quieter ways. He spent years helping provide beds and furniture to children and families in need across Allentown. Much of that work was rooted in his family’s furniture business, and he never made a point of talking about it; he simply believed it mattered and did something about it.

Council President Santo Napoli said, “Jeff Glazier loved this city and served it with a level of integrity and humility that set a standard for all of us. He cared deeply about the people of Allentown, and his absence will be felt across this community in ways that are both public and deeply personal.”

“I worked alongside Jeff for over a decade, during that time he became both a trusted colleague and a friend,” Vice President Cynthia Mota shared. “He carried himself with kindness and thoughtfulness in every setting, and he never lost sight of the people he was serving. His passing is deeply personal to me and to many of us who knew him well. May his memory be a blessing.”

Councilwoman Candida Affa said, “There are some people whose presence becomes woven into the life of a city itself. Jeff Glazier was one of those people. His fingerprints are on decades of public service, but his true legacy is something deeper: trust earned, lives touched, and a community strengthened by his goodness.”

In honor of Jeff’s memory, and to allow members of Council and staff time to grieve, tonight’s scheduled Council meetings will be rescheduled.

All the members of Allentown City Council extend their deepest condolences to Jeff’s family, his friends, and all who are mourning him across the city.

Allentown is better because Jeff Glazier chose to serve.

SNAP Enrollment Down 7.5% in Pa, Down in Every State

One result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is a reduction in the number of people receiving SNAP benefits, sometimes known as food stamps. According to Governing, there's been a 7.5% decrease in participation between July '25 and Jan '26. 

This Act imposed work requirements because, at least in the eyes of the Trump administration, there was too much fraud. OBBBA expanded a work requirement to formerly exempt veterans, the homeless, people who’ve aged out of the foster care system, caregivers of children ages 14 or older, immigrants who are human trafficking victims and adults ages 55-64.

Has there been a concomitant 7.5% drop in unemployment claims? Not in Pa. Unemployment here has actually increased from 4.3% to 4.4%.