City and Moravian Dispute Land Ownership

Bethlehem City Council and Moravian College officials will hope to settle an on-going dispute over ownership of a parcel of land where the college hopes to build new dorms at tonight's City Council meeting. The agenda is here.

The land is situated north of Lehigh St., west of City Hall, south of Church St. and east of Main St. It is currently home to the Moravian College Band Shell and is the former Kuntsplatz site during Musikfest.

Moravian wants to tear down the band shell and build a dorm there.

Councilman Joseph Leeson has other ideas. He correctly believes that a deed is erroneously recorded in the Northampton County recorder of deeds office and that the City actually owns the land. City Solicitor Chris Spandoni and Moravian Attorney Bill Matz agree.

The Express-Times has the rest of the story here.

Here is my take:

First, I enjoy seeing open green space in downtown Bethlehem. I hope that the City does in fact own the land and decides not to sell it or transfer it to Moravian.

Second, Moravian has had a history of being greedy with respect to the land in question, and even forced Musikfest off the land. So I am glad that they had a wrinkle in their plan.

Third, I do not want a dorm in downtown Bethlehem. I think it would eventually ruin the uniqueness of the downtown area.

Fourth, I believe most of the deeds for downtown Bethlehem go back to two or three deeds, which are handwritten grants of land from the Moravian Church. So I can easily believe that something is recorded erroneously. ( I am sure Bernie O'Hare can comment on the deed issue.)

Finally, I applaud City Councilman Leeson for his efforts to find out the true ownership of the land and not to just hand it over to Moravian College. If they want it, make 'em earn it.

Blogger's Note: Reports of my demise have greatly been exagerreted. Sorry I have not posted in a while. I have been on vacation and had to deal with Musikfest for 10 days.

Quick Hits for Wednesday

Back from a few days at the beach with a few quick hits for Wednesday.

1. The July 5th Morning Call tells us Council quietly enacted the new recreation fee at the July 3rd meeting.

2. The July 5th Morning Call also tells us that Council President Schweder and Councilman Leeson criticized Mayor Callahan for swapping his older Chevy Impala for the a new one that was approved in the budget, but was designated for the city inspector. The problem, according to Leeson, was that City Council did not authorize the Mayor to get a new car.

My view: City Council authorized a new car, after that it is up to the director of public property to decide who gets it. Who knows who needs a new car better than the man in charge of the cars. This is just overly critical of Leeson and Schweder.

3. District Attorney John Morganelli prematurely announced his intention to run for Attorney General, again.

My view: He is running for Attorney General, again. Move over Lou Barletta, Morganelli will be running on the immigration reform platform.

4. I hate getting into school board business, but the Bethlehem Area SD School Board has decided to continue a policy of not allowing students at Freedom and Liberty receive credit for volunteering at Musikfest.

My View: This stinks. The whole idea of mandatory community service stinks. Bethlehem needs to reevaluate the whole program and establish better definitions, according to Director Charlene Koch. I agree. I also think that volunteering at a community festival that brings lots to the city is community service.

5. Councilman Leeson already has a plan to spend the new recreation fee money. He wants to keep one of the City's pools open year round. I like the idea, but think the money should first be used to modernize and clean up the parks and pools in the city currently. This idea coming from the fiscally conservative Leeson surprises me, I guess someone in the Leeson household likes to swim.

6. Finally, new Morning Call Blog, Bethlehem Daily Star, informs us today that Councilman Robert Donchez has retired from the Allentown School District and is working in State Rep. Steve Samuelson's office, alongside council candidate J. William Reynolds. Word on the street is that Donchez is actually working in State Rep. Joe Brennan's southside office.
UPDATE: The article has been corrected to state that Donchez is working for Brennan and not Samuelson.

My view: Donchez is a good public servant and his working for one of the State Reps can only help Bethlehem and the surrounding communities.

First Look: 2009 Mayoral Race

Is it ever too early to look ahead to the 2009 Bethlehem Mayoral Election? I did not think so.

Yes, believe it or not, Mayor John Callahan is able to run for another term as mayor of Bethlehem. Callahan was elected in a special election to serve the remainder of Don Cunningham's 2nd term, and was later elected to serve his first term, the current term of his adminsitration.

This blogger believes that Callahan will seek re-election and will face a challenge in the primary.

Here are the list of potential primary challengers:

J. Michael Schweder- rumor has it that he will be retiring from his post at AT&T soon, and is looking at a 2009 run. Schweder is the current council president and one of the strongest critics of the Callahan administration. Mr. Schweder could receive the backing of some very influential Democrats like TJ Rooney.

Joseph Leeson, Esquire- current member of City Council, local attorney and puppet of Schweder. If Schweder does not run, expect that Leeson will, with Schweder's strong support. Leeson was the top vote getter as a candidate for council in 2005 and could a tough opponent for Callahan.

Dana Grubb- former city employee and candidate for city council. Frequent critic of the current administration. Probably does not have the support to win, but may run just to cause trouble for Callahan. Probabaly would not run if Schweder or Leeson ran.

Anthony Rybak, Esq.- local attorney and former mayoral candidate. He does not like Callahan and that may be motivation enough for him to run, again.


There it is folks, my short list of challengers to Callahan in the 2009 Mayoral Election.