Author Archives: admin

About admin

Born and raised in Lower Macungie Township in the village of East Texas. B.A. in Political Science from Slippery Rock University. Co-owner of Bar None Weddings & Entertainment. I love and care about my hometown and frequently blog about local issues that I think are important.

LMT BOC Agenda preview 11/21

Posted on by

FYI – This is a practice I started and will continue as a member of the BOC. With these previews while I may indicate a voting inclination, it in no way means my mind is made up on any issue. Back during a critical hearing for the Jaindl issue, a Commissioner once spoke before public comment outlining he was voting to move forward the project regardless of what people said during public comment. That was wrong.

My hope is this opens the door for conversations before public meetings. One of my biggest issues with the Jaindl debacle was people didn’t truly understand what was happening until it was “too late”. I plan on doing everything I can to make sure residents have background information and my thoughts on issues before they come to a vote  in front of the board. This is one mechanism to do that. I hope people find it useful. 

11/21 Agenda with detail

Executive Session – Clerical Union Contract review. I believe Bruce Fosselman and Ryan Conrad (chair of budget and finance committee) are the designees to negotiate. I think this is a strength of Conrad’s and I’m happy he has this responsibility.

Hearings and Approvals – None

Communication
Letter from  resident William Mayo which I think sums up the thoughts of most township residents regarding the police issue. Mr. Mayo’s position, which I agree with was supported by the recent police services study. Mr Mayo doesn’t think we should deviate from our current police protection arrangement. I agree and think the crime stats presented recently support that position.

Here are articles overviewing the presentation held last week:
LMT releases police services analysis online 
Presentation of Police Services Study Draws a Crowd

Planning
Grant application to update Southwestern Lehigh County Comprehensive plan. Lower Macungie will be applying for grant money to pay for our portion of the SW comp plan update. The plan is a non-binding document created 7 years ago by Emmaus, Alburtis, Macungie, Upper Milford and Lower Macungie.

This original Plan was funded a County grant and in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Land Use Planning Technical Assistance program.

This Comprehensive Plan is intended to establish overall policies for the development and conservation of the Southwestern Lehigh County Region over the next 15 years. This Plan is not by itself a regulation, but is intended to provide the policy direction for changes to the municipalities’ development regulations.

Recently there have been discussions on updating the plan. This was largely necessitated because Lower Macungie has significantly deviated from the plan. The biggest example of course was the Jaindl development debacle and rezoning of 700 acres of ag protected land to Industrial, Strip Commercial and Residential.

Committee Reports:
Public Safety Commission has 3 terms expiring. VOLUNTEER HERE
Audit Advisory Board has 2 terms expiring. VOLUNTEER HERE
Environmental Advisory Board has 2 terms expiring. VOLUNTEER HERE
Planning Commission has 2 terms expiring. VOLUNTEER HERE
Zoning Hearing Board has 2 terms expiring. VOLUNTEER HERE

Discussion with EAC regarding tree-tender committee: TreeTenders AD-Hoc committee. I support this in lieu of a shadetree commission. I attended the tree-tender training and think it’s an excellent program.


2013 LMFD SANTA CLAUS RUN SCHEDULE!

Posted on by

A Lower Mac tradition since the late 70’s! Here are the dates for Santa’s tour of the township on a Big Red Fire engine! I fondly remember the Santa tour from when I was a kid growing up in East Texas!

Photo courtesy LMFD

FYI this is a question I’ve gotten before that Chief Nosal answered the other day on the LMT facebook page. Someone asked “Why doesn’t Santa come to my development?”. Here is the answer:

 Lower Macungie Fire Department The reason the LMFD has not come thru your neighborhood with the Santa Run is traditionally we refrain from those developments that are under construction and have not been ‘turned over’ to the Twp. The philosophy is; those types of developments under construction typically have basic roads (no top coat, not flush with the manhole covers, not maintained or cared for by LMT…etc). Additionally, in those situations you also have construction equipment and/or dumpsters lining the roads and you also can find small construction debris that can potentially flatten tires, etc. With that being said, however, in you particular case I know your development has been in existence for quite some time and I made a special trip out there this morning to see how it looked. While I won’t take the trucks thru the southern portion of the development where they are actively building, I think running Santa thru the area north of the development shouldn’t be an issue. Please check our website in the next 10 days or so and we will have the specific street by street routes up. Dave Nosal – Fire Chief
Stay informed with Lower Macungie & surrounding issues:
Lower Macungie Township issues or concerns? Contact me here!
Ron Beitler – Commissioner Elect Lower Macungie Township

Help Alburtis Fire Dept. win new imaging camera

Posted on by

From Alburtis Fire Dept. FB page:

Please take a minute and vote for the Alburtis Fire Dept to win a new TI Camera from MSA. If voting from a computer this link should take you right to the page. If voting from your phone click view and vote and our pitcher is #41, It will be on the 4th page. Just look for the below photo. Once on the page click love it. Thanks It appears that you can vote once a day so please go on every day and vote.
Macungie Fire Dept., Alburtis Fire Dept., Lower Mac and in fact all our local fire dept’s all work together to provide coverage from our area. Equipment benefiting one benefits us all! According to the FB post the departments current thermal imaging camera is older and unreliable.
How to help:
1. Login to Facebook
2. Find Alburtis Fire Dept. Page by clicking this link
3. Follow directions!
Takes 10 seconds. You don’t have to sign up for anything.

CEPTA to present speaker on public pension reform

Posted on by

Last month I attended the inaugural LV Smart Growth Summit. The most valuable seminar I participated in was unfortunately sparsely attended. This wasn’t a reflection on the quality of presentation which included Gerry Cross from PA Economy League, Easton Mayor Sal Panto and Tom Baldridge. But rather the fact it was going against a program called “The Biz of the Niz”. NIZ of course still remains the hottest of hot button topics in the LV. (Today over at LVR Bernie writes about the NIZ)

The presentation was “Seeing Red: PA Municipalities & Maintaining Local Gov’t Services”. Dealt with long term fiscal sustainability of municipalities. Bottom line fiscal health of our places is why I feel so strongly about smart growth. Under our current model, it’s not a matter of ‘if’ but rather ‘when’ a municipality becomes distressed.

The overarching problem is two-fold and the presentation addressed both:

1. When tax base increases do not keep up with increases in liabilities. This is “Dumb growth”, the chasing of ratables and doubling down on the growth ponzi scheme are a huge part of this.

2. And equally important is the public pension issue.

Together they’re 1 and 1a in terms of issues facing PA gov’ts. Often in PA municiple personnel costs are upwards of 70% total expenditures. PA with our 3,200 individual local gov’t pension plans accounts for 25% of all plans in the nation. 2/3 of plans have 10 or fewer members. Most alarming is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Tomorrow night (Tue Nov. 18th) at 7pm CEPTA will have Simon Campbell speak in a presentation entitled “Public Union Reform”. This is an important conversation addressing concern number 2. Public pensions are always a contentious topic since here in the commonwealth so many benefit directly and indirectly from them. It’s institutionalized here in our state. It’s why it’s so hard to “fix”.

I am un-familiar with Campbell and I’m looking forward to hearing his thoughts on solutions. Here is the overview from the CEPTA website:

Mr. Campbell will discuss the expected increases in taxes due to the rapid escalations that are expected to replenish the underfunded public pension funds. The most recent account of the state’s two major pensions shows they are underfunded by a combined $47 billion, and this assumes the funds will grow by 7.5% annually. Funding these pensions will cause increases in all taxes, including school taxes, just to start to close this gap. Eventually every dollar of school tax increase may go just to fund pension obligations and teacher contracted raises and benefits.

Simon Campbell thinks he has a solution to the ever growing tax increases due to public employee contracted obligation. If you think your taxes are too high and want to find out how you can help control them come out and listen and ask questions of our presenter and see for yourself if it’s possible.

 

Interested in PA’s the public pension issue? Here is some more materials:

Devolving Hamilton Crossings a concern…

Posted on by

Last night did nothing to alleviate concerns I have with the Hamilton Crossings project slowly but surely transforming into a typical run of the mil box project.

Here WFMZ’s Randy Kraft does an excellent job summarizing: Lower Mac planning commissioner not happy with how Hamilton Crossings is evolving

I hope any County Commissioners on the fence take the time to examine concerns planning Commission has regarding this project. There is real concern about quality. County Commissioners need to take this into account when re-considering TIF. I want this project to move forward. It makes sense from a planning perspective. This represents “smarter growth” even only in terms of getting more return on investment building where significant infrastructure improvements have already been made. This is the appropriate location for retail. Yes, I prefer more neighborhood centric. More “Main Street” in character, but fundamentally this makes sense here as opposed to building a shopping center in some cornfield out on the fringe ala the typical “Jaindly” blueprint. But I want the project we were sold. I did have issues with TIF financing, but  moving past that if it is to move forward it absolutely must be what we were promised. County Commissioners have a duty to do their due diligence we’re getting what we were promised if they choose to move forward funding. I trust they are.

Pictures say a thousand words:

Tone we were promised: This represents a “Promenade esque” walkable town center. Looking down the streetscape you see shops and attractive facades. You see a place where people can mingle, shop and relax. We were sold on the new “Gateway to the township” that we could all be proud of as a community. This is what we were promised when the developers were “selling” the project for TIF financing.

This is the rendering used to win the “hearts and minds” of residents when the developer was making a pitch for public financing.

Here is the current Costco rendering….. It’s a box. One that has been described as “cheap looking”, bland, boxy, generic.

Proposed Costco rendering for Lower Macungie Township

There are MUCH MUCH nicer Costcos as I’ve outlined in previous posts. For some reason we’re getting a “cheapo” one. We shouldn’t accept that based on what we were promised when the developer was seeking funding.

3 important township meetings this week – Get involved!

Posted on by

1. Tonight Nov. 11th 6pm Parks & Recreation Comprehensive plan presentation. Municipal Building – 3400 Brookside Rd.

The Township currently owns approximately 1,000 acres of park and open space land that contain 26 municipal parks of various sizes and types. Township staff, a volunteer task force, members of the Parks and Recreation Board and EAC, and a consultant team has been working together for a year to prepare a Comprehensive Recreation, Parks and Open Space Plan.

The draft plan is now available for review here on the Township website. Please take the time to read through the document to see what is being planned for our parks! Tonight at the workshop the public will be given an opportunity to offer suggestions for improving our parks and recreation offerings. The meeting will be held at the Municipal Building, 3400 Brookside Road in the Commissioners’ Meeting Room.

2. Nov. 12th 7pm Planning Commission – Hamilton Crossings Land Development. This meeting will be held at the Wescosville Recreation Center.

The land development process is the publics final chance to weigh in on the proposed mega shopping center. I have been supportive of the plan but still have huge concerns we are “getting what we were promised“. The quality of our local shopping centers directly reflects the desirability of our community. This shopping center can either knock us down or raise us up a peg. It will be the “gateway” to the township. If funding problems are worked out we must ensure we are getting what were promised and not a watered down strip mall version.

3. Nov. 12th 7pm Community Center (Library) – Police Protection Study results. 
The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the completed Analysis of Option for Police Services. The public is encouraged to attend.A preliminary memo was posted with some baseline data projections. Whether or not to move forward with another policing option is one of the biggest issues we face moving forward.

In today’s Morning Call I participated in a point counterpoint regarding police protection.

Thoughts on any of these issues? contact me at ronbeitler@gmail.com 

Youth movement in Lower Macungie Township

Posted on by

The average age of myself, Brian Higgins and Ryan Conrad is 35. This will bring the average of the Lower Macungie Board of Commissioners to around 45 along with Doug Brown, 55 and Jim Lancsek who will be the elder statesmen at 60.

The previous composition of the board averaged nearly 60 in age. Ron Eichenberg and Roger Reis the outgoing incumbents were 67 and 70.

There are at least 4 township volunteers serving on the EAC, Parks and Public safety boards under 40 who have applied and were appointed over the last year or so.

I think this is great and I’m excited to be a part of a young forward thinking board. The current age composition is much more in line with our demographics where the median age is 41. It would be nice to have a little more diversity on the board. I know one woman I hope runs in two years. The best person for the job regardless of gender, age or race should win elections but diversity is never a bad thing.

Police services study preliminary report

Posted on by

Below is the preliminary memo for the police services study. The full forum unveiling the results of the study will be presented in a public forum Nov. 12th at 7pm in the Community Center.

My detailed thoughts on this issue will be outlined in an upcoming Morning Call point counterpoint.

Pennsylvania State Police in Lower Macungie Townships primary provider for police protection.

Here is the memo:

TO: Lower Macungie Township
FROM: Gary Cordner, Consultant DATE: October 31, 2013
RE: Police Services Study

This memo is intended to serve as a preview of the police services report that will be completed by December 31, 2013. The consultant is still collecting data for the report and will participate in a public forum on November 12. Public comment at and following the forum will be incorporated into the final report.

The following “facts” and findings seem unlikely to change between now and the final report:

 

1. Lower Macungie Township (LMT) is unusual in not having its own police department. The township’s 2013 estimated population is 31,000, a 60% increase since 2000. LMT is the 22nd largest township (by population) in Pennsylvania. It is the 2nd largest township in the commonwealth that relies solely upon the state police for its police service.

 

2. LMT has a low crime rate. The 2012 estimated Part 1 crime rate of 1083.8 per 100,000 residents is about 1/3 the rate for Lehigh County and is 7th lowest among Pennsylvania’s 35 largest townships.

 

3. Over 80% of the Part 1 crimes in LMT in 2012 were thefts. Thefts increased 15% from 2010 to 2012.

 

4. The state police clearance rate in Lehigh County in 2012 (the percent of Part 1 crimes that were solved) was 32.9%. This exceeds the national clearance rate by a substantial margin.

 

5. State police activity in LMT increased from 2010 to 2012. DUI arrests more than doubled and traffic citations increased by almost 50%.

 

6. The state police do not routinely respond to a variety of types of incidents, such as parking complaints, animal complaints, lockouts, ambulance calls, and township ordinance violations.

 

7. LMT saves $4-5 million per year (about $150 per resident) by not having its own police department.

 

The “bottom line” is largely unchanged from previous police services studies. Lower Macungie Township has a low crime rate and a relatively low demand for police service, in spite of significant population growth and proximity to Pennsylvania’s third largest city. The police services currently provided are highly professional, albeit at a relatively low level.

A drawback of the current arrangement is that the residents and elected leaders of the township have little or no influence over the police services that are provided, since it is a state agency that provides those services. The benefit is that the township is not burdened with the cost of policing or the substantial administrative responsibility that accompanies a separate local police department. The final report will discuss additional options, such as a part-time police department, contracting for police services from another municipality, participation in a regional police department, and other hybrid models. All of these other options would entail some financial cost, of course. The report will not offer any recommendations, only options with associated costs and benefits. Fundamentally, the situation is one in which the township needs to decide (as it has in the past) what level of police service it wants in conjunction with how much it wishes to spend for that service. page1image20840

Call to local officials to attend fiscal impact analysis discussion.

Posted on by

I am so happy the presentation below is coming to Lower Macungie. Big thanks to our professional planner and staff for facilitating this. This is EXACTLY why I ran for office. I don’t like to pigeon hole myself by saying I have any kind of single agenda, but if I had to define one this would be it.

To me the fiscal sustainability of land development decisions IS smart growth. Smart growth is a big nebulous term. And people subscribe to it for different reasons. Quality of Life, Social Equity, Environmental. And yes, I think there is merit in all these conversations. But for me, none is more important for the Lower Macungie and the greater Lehigh Valley then the financial argument for smart growth.

Here in Lower Macungie that means conducting a cost benefit analysis to major development projects and all requests for rezoning of large tracts. Scattered, disconnected, low-quality sprawling growth is a wealth destroyer. The model we have subscribed to pushes off many of the liabilities of sprawl to subsequent generations. We have to break the pattern. It’s happening right now in Lower Macungie as we face the dedication of new roadways and storm water management facilities from the “growth boom”. We’re only now facing the problems of living off of one time revenue and windfall of growth without addressing financial sustainability.

The key for Lower Mac is “smart growth” on the Hamilton Corridor where we have already made key infrastructure investments and preservation of remaining open space tracts in the western portion of the township.

The quality of life case is obvious. But the fiscal argument is irrefutable. I hope this conversation gives us some more tools to start these conversations.

Nobody makes the fiscal argument better then Jim Bacon.

 

Join the American Planning Association, Pennsylvania Chapter, Lehigh Valley Section & Lehigh Valley Planning Commission for the fourth presentation in our Web/Audio Conference Series for Professional Planners, Municipal Officials & Interested Citizens

FISCAL IMPACT ANALYSIS AS A DECISION SUPPORT TOOL
DECEMBER 4TH, 2013
4-5 PM AT LOWER MACUNGIE TOWNSHIP, 3400 BROOKSIDE ROAD, MACUNGIE

DESCRIPTION:   Until recently, few jurisdictions prepared their own fiscal impact analyses to assist land-use decisions. But since the economic downturn, local governments have increasingly turned to fiscal and economic analysis as a decision support tool, particularly with an eye toward return on investment. This lecture concentrates on distinguishing between fiscal and economic impacts, understanding differences in local government revenue structures and how they influence the fiscal results from different land uses, and investigating how various communities use fiscal impact analyses to support planning and economic development decisions.  Experts from the American Planning Association will be presenting.

There is no cost to participate. To register e-mail Kathleen Sauerzopf  kms@lvpc.org or call 610-264-4544

 Hope to see you there!

 Becky Bradley – Executive Director of LVPC

Tue Nov. 5th is Election Day

Posted on by

Tomorrow, Tuesday Nov. 5th is Election day. It’s likely I will win a slot on the Board of Commissioners since the real battle was the primary when Brian Higgins and I knocked out two incumbents.

Despite outside interest money pouring into incumbent campaigns Brian and I prevailed. Moving forward into tomorrows election we need you one more time to help send a clear message. Residents are not happy with decisions made over the last 3 years. Frankly, I am tired of talking about the last 3 years and I look forward to moving on. But one last time it’s important people go to the polls with knowledge of poor choices incumbents made over the last 3 years.

To recap one final time. Over the last 3 years:

1. The incumbents including Ryan Conrad secretly negotiated a 700 acre zoning deal with developer David Jaindl. This obligated the township to assist Jaindl in building low employment warehouses, housing and low quality strip commercial. This will destroy the last great tract of prime farmland in the township.

I fought this every step of the way. I would not have engaged in the MOU. I would have fought to protect agricultural zoning that was in place for 2 decades. I would have accepted the small quarry over the Industrial, residential and commercial.

2. When the above deal was challenged, Commissioners refused to testify and justify their actions. This meant the residents would have had to subpoena the commissioners to learn the details.

I will always defend my decisions in the most public of forums. I will never hide from decisions I make.

3. The incumbents claimed to support smart growth… but approved another large zoning change requested by a developer to allow more than 200 apartments on a piece of land that fellow commissioner and realtor Ron Eichenberg is selling as the real estate agent.

I will completely and totally recuse myself from any conflicts of interest I may have as a commissioner. I will promote smart growth, not simply pay lip service to it or promote a watered down concept.

4. The incumbents inexplicably moved ahead with cutting a hole in the middle of the townships Kratzer farm property. They did this against the advice of the township recreation board, Environmental Advisory Council and Planning Commission. All 3 expressed concern that letting the house become privately owned could create future problems for a public park.

I will always take into account the opinions of our invaluable staff and volunteer boards. I also regularly attend all commissions above and beyond what I am required to do. I did this as a candidate and will continue as Commissioner. 

5. Took credit for preventing new taxes and paying down township debt in one of the fastest growing and richest townships in the state. We were able to do this not because of financial wizardry but because of one time windfall from 20 years of hyper growth. By not addressing financial sustainability until the township manager pushed, we actually dug a deeper hole. By waiting until we had to address a deficit budget Commissioners put us in a tougher situation.

I will not bury my head in the sand for political gain. This tax issue should have been discussed months ago rather then waiting for the township manager to force a reaction when faced with a deficit budget. I spoke of financial sustainability at meetings as far back as over a year ago. The community that fails to plan ahead, plans for failure.