WEB EX: Grant To Help Bethlehem PD

WEB EXCLUSIVE -- After getting approval for a justice assistance grant, Bethlehem City Council laid out its plan to help the police department Tuesday night.

The grant, to be shared with the City of Easton, totals $59,000. Bethlehem will receive more than $36,000 to be used by the police department for upgrades to its equipment.

?We?d like to split the money in half to purchase new hardware, software and computers,? said Bethlehem Police Commissioner Bedics. ?The other half will help us replace aging firearms that our officers are carrying.?

The council voted 5-1 to reallocate its community development budget. While the budget grew to a total of $6.1 million, some cuts were also made.

Improvements to South Side streetlights were removed from the allocation, while funds for lights on 4th street were significantly reduced. Reconstruction projects slated for Mountain Drive and Perry Street will also see a decrease in funding.

Increases in the budget went to the Greenway on Bethlehem's South Side, which was allocated more than $200,000 in additional funding, as well as three new projects: Main Street parking, South Bethlehem parking and improvements at Elm Street Park.

The Main Street plan will introduce nine extra parking spaces to the lower end of the street by the Hotel Bethlehem and the historic area.

Opponents of the plan called on the council to eliminate the back-in angle parking already located on Main Street and to discontinue the plan to go forward with the new spaces.

?Maybe we should challenge the members of council to go down to Main Street and try to back in to one of these spaces on the first try,? said city resident Peter Crownfield.

They cited options of parking on the Hill-to-Hill Bridge as well as conducting an archaeological dig of the historic area before going ahead.

?The [committee] was given a tough job in coming up with this project,? said councilperson Dolan. ?Maybe we can?t do all of these things and get extra parking spaces while building a gateway that?s complimentary to the Smithy and the Pottery building. If you have a truly historical downtown, people will walk the extra block to get there. Thirty years from now, I don?t want to be the councilwoman who destroyed the history we have here.?

The city is also considering increases in fines for parking violations in time for this year's Musikfest event. The ordinance adds $10 to illegal and overtime parking in the city where violations with a citation will now carry a penalty of $65 and $50 respectively.

The penalties would remain at their current level if paid within the allowed two weeks.