Tatamy Car Show - Sunday

Want to thank the reader that forwarded to me info that the car show in Tatamy is on Sunday:

This is their 15^th year and they attract around 150 cars

New Route 33 Interchange - Good or Bad?

The Morning Call has a story on the proposed interchange in Palmer Township for Route 33 and discusses the pros and cons of it (read the article here).

Palmer Twp recognizes they have a tremendous potential for financial gain from the project. Upper Nazareth, at least the supervisor quoted, is more concerned with the potential cost.

There is undoubtedly commercial growth around highway ramps. Look at the recent development along route 33 from 248 south for proof. The question really is which school district will benefit from that development, and at this point it seems the Chrin plan is all about development in Palmer, with minor development in Tatamy, so Easton will be the primary beneficiary.

Library Priviliges Update

Apparently the initial post on the boy from Tatamy that lost his Nazareth Library privileges was a part of "breaking news" and a follow-up in print (available here) clarified some points.

The Nazareth Library did not call the family, the Easton Library made the call.

The root of the problem is that the Borough of Tatamy is assigned to the Easton Library system. Further, since Tatamy Borough does not make a municipal donation to the Library (instead it reimburses residents who purchase a library card), residents can only use the Easton Library.

Library Priviliges

The Express-Times has a story on a 7 year old boy from Tatamy who had received a library card, and later, when a library employee found out the boy lived in Tatamy, the card was revoked (read it here).

The reason for the revokation is that Tatamy is zoned with the Easton Library system, not Nazareth. Nazareth and Easton have no control over this as it is set by the state.

It would only make sense to align libraries with school districts, but this is bureacratic state-level, government, and one can hardly expect it to be practical and/or logical.

I feel bad for the parents and kid along with all the people in Tatamy who attend Nazareth schools, but can't use the Nazareth Library, but if they need to complain about the situation, they should be directing their attention to their state representative and senator about the situation, because that is the cause of the problem.

Traffic Signal Work

Could it be possible that the traffic signal work at the corner of 8th and Main Streets in Tatamy has begun? It would appear so. I'll try to verify, but they've definately started digging holes for what I'm assuming are to be the foundations for the light standards. Now that the spring weather has arrived, I'm guessing that this work will begin in earnest.

It also looks like they're going to be installing lights at the corner of VanBuren and Main (Tatamy Rd).

Tatamy Candidates

Sorry, in my haste to post and run, I missed the Tatamy candidates:

• Council, Hazel DeReamus
• Council, Robert Fisher
• Council, Robert Hayes
• Council, Michael Racz
• Mayor, Luke Duignam

Stockertown and Tatamy Bridge Project

For the second time in recent weeks, the Steaming Cup of Joe on The Express-Times' web site, has highlighted a road issue in the Nazareth Area. First it was Prologis Parkway off route 248, now it is the rebuilding of the bridge connecting Stockertown and Tatamy (read the post here).

His point is well-taken, with all the talk of stimulus cash flowing into road projects, why isn't this one on the list - the bridge has been out for years.

According to his post it is mostly due to local officials who would prefer one less access through and thereby less traffic, regardless of the inconvenience to others.

In a sense this is a not in my backyard issue, on the other hand, is the lack of a bridge really that big a problem or would funding a new bridge be a waste of money (not that money won't be wasted in the millions in the name of stimulus)?

What do you think - should the bridge be rebuilt?

2009 Proposed Tatamy Borough Budget

The proposed 2009 Tatamy Borough budget is available for public inspection through December 15, 2008 at the Borough Office - 423 Main Street - Tatamy between the hours of 9AM to 5PM Monday through Friday daily.

The proposed General Fund budget = $527,354.00
The proposed Highway Aid budget = $32,504.00
The proposed Refuse Fund budget = $146,148.00

The proposed 2009 Tax Rate is 11 Mills.

Tatamy Borough Council will vote on the budget at a special meeting on Monday, December 15, 2008 at 7:30PM at the Borough Office.

Nazareth Area Drug Ring Bust

Police from four departments made arrests of 11 people charged with selling drugs including: methamphetamine, cocaine, hallucinogenic mushrooms, marijuana and Ecstasy, according to an article in the Morning Call (read it here).

According to the article those charged are:

Kyle Peterson, 21, of 327 S. Main St., Nazareth; $15,000 bail.

Daniel Reda, age not provided, of 705 Nazareth Pike, Lower Nazareth; $5,000 bail.

Kevin Schmalzer, 20, of 812 S. Mink Road, Moore Township; $50,000 bail.

Matthew Steinmetz, 30, of 747 Nazareth Pike, Lower Nazareth; $20,000 bail.

Cori Tibbetts, 32, of 747 Nazareth Pike, Lower Nazareth; $7,500 bail.

Jerome Avante, 19, of 520 Main St., Northampton; $25,000 bail.

Jermaine Schaadt, 21, of 505 Ashwood Drive, Bushkill Township; $15,000 bail.

Nancy Difrancesca, 28, of 256 N. Seventh St., Tatamy; $5,000 bail.

Cory Kunsman, 18, of 7404 Tall Oak Lane, Nazareth; $7,500 bail.

Peggy Colaviti, 50, of 20 S. Broad St., Nazareth; already in prison.

Police also charged Kyle E. Graff, 19, of 3761 Mangrove Drive, Lehigh, with selling mushrooms and marijuana. Graff is free on $10,000 unsecured bail.

Police said three others are being sought:

Ryan Dunwell, 20, of 710 Palmer St., Easton.

David Shields, 19, of 487 Club Road, Moore Township.

An unnamed juvenile.

New Tatamy Website Almost Ready!

Copied from the Tatamy Blog, but worth mentioning here as well.

It's almost ready folks - the new Tatamy Borough Website is almost finished. Thanks to the feedback that I have received from a lot of you, I've been hard at work and made a lot of changes. You can get a sneak peek here. If you check it out, please email me and let me know what you think. I'll announce the official domain name hopefully later this week.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Wrestling & Cheerleading Sign-Ups

NAZARETH MIDGET WRESTLING (GRADES K-6) & CHEERLEADING (GRADES 1-7) SIGNUPS

REGISTRATION FOR ALL CHILDREN LIVING IN OR ATTENDING NAZARETH AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT OR HOLY FAMILY

NAZARETH BLUE & WHITE

INTRAMURAL PROGRAM: FOR YOUNGER and INEXPERIENCED WRESTLERS

MONDAY, SEPT. 22nd & TUESDAY, SEPT. 23rd, 2008 FROM 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM AT NAZARETH BOROUGH HALL (CHURCH & E. CENTER STREET)

FEE: $50.00 FOR 1ST WRESTLER/CHEERLEADER, $80.00 FOR TWO, and $100.00 PER FAMILY

FUND RAISER: $10.00 PER PARTICIPANT AT SIGN-UPS FOR RAFFLE TICKETS

For more information call:

• Matt Seifert – President – 610-759-8321
• Tim Sutter – Vice President – 610-759-5890
• Brian Stout – Asst. Vice President – 610-297-8214
• Dan Beers – Treasurer – 610-759-8301
• Brenda Zemenack – Secretary – 610-614-1114
• Laurie Morgan-Cheerleading Coordinator – 610-365-2883

Tatamy Borough Website

Ross had a really good post a while back concerning the websites for some of the local municipalities. I'm happy to report that progress is steadily being made and on the new Tatamy Borough Website and I'm close to finishing. If you want to take a sneak peek at what it might look like, click here and have a look around. Please email me with feedback and let me know what you think.

The official announcement will come soon (I hope). Stay tuned!

Thanks!

Clicking on Cob Webs? Not here.

The Morning Call has a story on Municipal Web sites and specifically mentions Lower Nazareth Township's lack of information or highly outdated information and quotes Joe Greene, who created a public site for Lower Nazareth with current information as a result (read the article here).

It got me thinking about the state of our local municipalities sites. To date, as best I can tell, Tatamy and Stockertown have no municipal site, however, Chris Moren of Tatamy started a blog on municipal affairs in March and has made postings since then to keep residents updated (visit his site here).

Lower Nazareth: As noted in the article Joe Greene has a site and he also has a blog where residents can comment on issues (visit the site here). The municipal site (available here) is close to worthless in terms of information. They do list when meetings are held (first Monday, etc), but the events calendar is from 2005. They have a list of parks, but not linked to maps to show where they are. The township officials page which is a phone and email list is the most informative page on the site. Citizens who wish to be informed should be thankful for Joe's site.

Bushkill: The home page (visit the site here) has a holiday calendar from 2006 and key news from summer of 2007. The list of officials only has names, no phone or email and the contact us page is a form you fill out and submit. There is some general zoning information, but it is reasonably generic. A phone list page has very generic information. Similar to Lower Nazareth, Bushkill's site is virtually worthless.

Nazareth: Nazareth re-launched its web site last year and so far has done a good job of keeping it updated (visit the site here). They include the most recent agenda and minutes from Council meetings and on the home page is a list of calendar items from a variety of groups and organizations. I do hope they will take the next step as Upper Nazareth has done and begin to include information on zoning, permits, utilities and information that people need to know. All-in-all much better than the other sites viewed so far.

Upper Nazareth: Launched last year, I made a post at the time for reader feedback. While some thought the design and layout was 'old HTML' and not very current, the township surprised me with the value of its content (visit the site here). For instance, the New Residents page has information (detailed) on permits, ordinances, filing complaints, voting, drivers license, tax information, utilities and more. Planning Commission and Zoning have their own pages with information - outside the supervisor meetings, these are often the most important ones. While the budget for 2008 has been posted, I noticed the Agenda page is for 2007. Hopefully they will keep the site updated as it is the best of those in the NASD region.

So that is a round up of the municipal sites. In Nazareth constant questions about the site by residents eventually led to the redesign. Today's technologies make it so easy for multiple people to post content without having any html experience or knowledge that it shouldn't be difficult for our local government bodies to create places for residents to get the information they need to know now.

Would like to know what you think of these sites and most importantly what information should they have that they don't currently? What is most important for residents?

Tatamy Borough Council Wrap-up - 3/4/2008

FYI - this is also posted at the Tatamy Happenings blog.

Hi Everyone -- here's a summary of the latest happenings and last night's Council meeting. Please keep in mind that these thoughts are mine only and are in no way to be interpreted as "official meeting minutes". Your thoughts, comments, and suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

1. Sidewalks. We (borough council) have recently formed a sidewalk committee to address the less than desirable condition of the (existing) sidewalks in town. There is a sidewalk ordinance, however, you're right - for the most part it's not enforced, and the time has come (long since passed?) to take some action. We are currently looking for guidance from neighboring communities to assist us with the process. With the warmer weather fast approaching (wasn't it great yesterday), I'm hopeful that things will begin progressing on this front. The goal right now is to get the EXISTING sidewalks (and I stress the word EXISTING) that are in really bad shape (e.g. broken, significantly heaved up due to frost/tree roots, etc.) into "compliance". We just need to determine what compliance means. Of course, there will be issues, the biggest one for most folks being $$$, which will need to be addressed somehow. What's the right answer? I don't know. My hope is that we can all work together as a council and community at large to come up a solution that everyone can live with and get this problem resolved. Stay tuned . . .

2. High Street Park. The grant has been received (the letter was read publicly last night at the council meeting) and construction should begin in a few weeks on the basketball and volleyball courts, along with the parking lot. I'm looking forward to getting that project finished, as it will be a huge asset to the community.

3. Technology Committee. Did you know that Tatamy Borough had a website? Well, it doesn't yet (it's under construction) but stay tuned. I'm actively pursuing that one and hope to have something online by June. What would you like to see available? Let me know your thoughts. It will be "your" website.

4. Police Committee. We hired an officer last night to backfill an open position that was left after the unfortunate incident last year. The officer that was selected will be a great asset to the department and the borough. Be on the lookout for him and say "hello" next time you see him.

5. Tatamy Hunt Lighting. We hope to have the street lights turned on in the Tatamy Hunt development as soon as we can. We're currently working with the utility to make the arrangements to turn them on. We recognize this is a critical safety issue and are working to resolve it quickly.

6. Annual Easter Egg Hunt - will be held in Braden Park on Sunday 3/16 (Palm Sunday). Come out with the kids and have some fun.

FYI - Borough Council meets the first Monday of every month at 7:30PM in the Borough Hall. Come, get involved, voice your opinion, see what's going on. The more the merrier! I look forward to seeing you there!

Grucela to Seek 6th Term?

The Morning Call reports (read it here) that State Rep. Rich Grucela is expected to announce he will run for a sixth term tonight.

Christmas Services

The Morning Call has a list of Christmas services (view full list here) and I've included those area ones here. Unfortunately it is a rather incomplete listing. Please add your churches services in comments for others to see.

• Bushkill United Methodist Church, 1330 Church Road, Wind Gap, 6 p.m. candlelight service Monday. 610-837-0935.
• Ebenezer Bible Fellowship Church, 3100 Hecktown Road, Bethlehem Township, candlelight services at 5 and 7 p.m. Monday. 610-868-5501.
• Nazareth Moravian Church, 4 S. Main St., Nazareth, 5 and 8 p.m. Monday candlelight services. 610-759-3163.

Generous Donation in Tatamy

For those who enjoy being scared, the Haunted Mill in Tatamy was a great place to go leading up to Halloween.

The Morning Call reports that the Tatamy Volunteer Fire Department recently received a check for $3,342.50 from Donald Johnson of the Haunted Mill. According to the article (read it here), "The donation will go toward the purchase of new radios for the fire department's trucks and personnel, fire company President Kim Albert said."

Election 2007 Results

We voted early yesterday so had little wait at St. John's Lutheran. I did hear that Upper Nazareth was rather crowded after 6:00 p.m. Of course this was nothing compared to what you can expect next year with a Presidential election.

So here are the contested results (from the Morning Call and WFMZ Channel 69) and articles on the results (sorry if I missed any):

• Nazareth Borough Council 3rd Ward - Charles Donello defeated Fred Daugherty (Express-Times article) 174-125
  
• Stockertown Borough Council 4 year - Susan Sklodowsky (R), Amy Richard (R), Jack Gatzinger (R), Cynthia Hower (D) were elected over Eric Wenzelberger (D) and Paul Zaboy (D) 93-92-90-83-76-72
• Stockertown Borough Council 2 year - Jason Martin (R) defeated Eric Wenzelberger (D) 90-70
• Tatamy Borough Council - Stuart Albert (R), William Belkey (D), Christopher Moren (R), and William Keifer Jr (D) were elected over Robert Lund (R) and Nathan Power (R)
  103-101-100-84-77-76
  
• Bushkill Township Supervisor - Howard Kostenbader (D/R) and Jason Smith (R) were elected over Paul Klotz, III (D) 884-714-355
• Upper Nazareth Townshiop Supervisor - Joe Emrick (R) and Michael Rinker (R) were elected over Eugene Kresge (D) and Jacob Groff Jr. (D) 481-438-300-281
  
• District Justice - John Capobianco (R) defeated Yvonne Falcone (D) (Express-Times article) 1,861 to 1,225.
• Nazareth School Board Region 1 - Ken Butz (D/R) and Lorin Bradley (R) were elected over Chad Cornell (D) (Express-Times article) 884-671-398.
  
• County Council At-Large - Peg Ferraro (R) defeated Tony Branco (D) 18,094 to 14,789
• County Controller - Stephen Barron Jr (D) defeated John Schimmel (R) 16,145 - 15,599
• County Council District 3 - Lamont McClure Jr (D) defeated Mark Schwartz (R) 3,985 - 3,897
  
• County Council District 4 - Ron Angle (R) defeated John Maher (D) 5,419 - 4,210
  

Skateboard Ban on Streets Only

Borough Council in Tatamy voted 5-2 to ban skateboarding on streets, but did not ban the activity on sidewalks (read the article here).

Tatamy to Discuss Ban on Skateboarding

The Express-Times reports (read the article here) that Tatamy Borough will be discussing expanding its skateboard ban from borough property to all public areas including streets, sidewalks, and alleys.