Easton Police Dominate 2013 List Of Highest-Paid City Employees

English: Skyline of Easton, PA from Lafayette College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Eight of the 10 highest-paid Easton city employees last year work for the police department.

Much of their pay came through overtime, although the mayor said the city is doing much better with overtime budgeting.

Sgt. Sal Cucciuffo topped the list for the second year in a row, making $117,524 and topping his 2012 earnings by a little more than $6,800.

The city’s overtime fund has dropped significantly from $460,000 in 2008, down to $260,000 in 2013, Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said. Panto said the city came in under budget on overtime costs in 2013.

Read more: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/easton/index.ssf/2014/03/third_party_soruces_help_with.html

Easton City Council Looks At $17 Million Bond For New City Hall

English: Skyline of Easton, PA from Lafayette College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If things go as scheduled, Easton will float bonds for its new City Hall in two weeks.

The bonds total $17 million, most of which will go toward the new City Hall, with a small amount for other projects. The amount of debt the city plans to take on for its new headquarters is 50 percent more than officials proposed a year ago, but plans have changed.

Easton was going to solicit a private developer to build out for the three-story, 45,000-square-foot building along South Third Street the city plans to erect in front of a 370-space parking deck. Earlier this year the city chose to take on the entire project and move City Hall to the new building and sell the Alpha Building.

The change in plans meant the city needed to borrow an additional $5 million to complete the project.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-city-council-introduces-bond-20130925,0,5236996.story#ixzz2g0cuXS79
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A New Dawn For Downtown Easton

English: Skyline of Easton, PA from Lafayette College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  Dear Bobbleheads on Pottstown Borough Council, please notice Easton is not salivating over Section 8 housing projects and cheap townhomes.  There is job creation, shopping, dining, entertainment and population growth in the coveted 25- 35 y/o demographic and the seniors with disposable income segment. MARKET RATE HOUSING is attracting people with jobs!  Easton had 26,800 people as of the 2010 census so we are talking a Pottstown-sized community. Take a field trip!

“We threw every zoning and land development regulation away,” Bradley said. “We opened the frontier to the investment that happened after that.”

Diane Haviland and her husband, Ken Greene, are empty-nesters who found Easton’s downtown by accident. Preparing for their retirement years in 2010, they bought 4 acres in Harmony Township, N.J., to build their 3,500-square-foot dream home, complete with a pool, library and bar.

They’d rented an apartment in Easton while they built what they assumed would be their last home. The designs were drawn and building permits issued, but as they stood on the empty lot ready to turn the bulldozers loose, Haviland and Greene had a joint epiphany.

“We looked at each other and thought, why would we leave Easton? We love it there,” Haviland said. “So, now I have plans for a beautiful home and 4 acres for sale.”

The couple bought a vacant three-story building on Centre Square.  After a more than $1 million renovation, they’ll rent out the first floor and live out their years in the floors above.

Read more:   http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-downtown-boom-20130601,0,4168076,full.story

Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem Table Games Boom Benefits Easton

English: Skyline of Easton, PA from Lafayette College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  Great to see this money benefit the taxpayers of Pennsylvania!

The city was left out of the local share of taxes on the casino’s thousands of slot machines, but came away with a 25 percent cut of local table gaming taxes. The games — poker, blackjack and more than a dozen other options — remain a fraction of the tens of millions poured into Sands’ slot machines, but the casino’s tables are the most popular in the state and show no sign of slowing down.

The city budgeted $560,000 in table games money this year, a slight uptick from 2011’s $530,000 haul, yet Easton could see more than $700,000 if the boom in south Bethlehem continues. Through the first two quarters this year, Sands shunted $336,000 into Easton’s coffers and the table games at Sands remain the state’s highest grossing.

“We are definitely getting more than we expected,” Easton Finance Director Chris Heagele said.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-sees-windfall-table-games-revenue-20120824,0,5728945.story

Easton Pays McDonald’s $300,000 To Vacate Two Rivers Landing

English: The official logo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There will be no more Egg McMuffins, Golden Arches or Happy Meals in Centre Square.

Easton City Council agreed Wednesday night to pay McDonald’s $300,000 over three years to terminate the remainder of the burger chain’s lease at Two Rivers Landing.  The deal paved the way for a 10-year commitment from Crayola to lease the entire facility, putting the building back on tax rolls and effectively paying off the mortgage.

Mayor Sal Panto Jr. laid out the major terms of the two pacts, highlighting a $2.2 million boost in revenue over the next decade before the payments to McDonald’s.  Crayola, which will invest millions to revamp its Crayola Experience attraction, plans to generate much larger crowds, reconfigure its store and pump more money into the downtown, Panto said.

“The amount of dollars we are investing,” Panto said of the McDonald’s buyout, “will be returned many, many times.”

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-two-rivers-landing-lease-resolved-20120822,0,5083955.story

Easton Moves Forward With Commuter Tax

English: Skyline of Easton, PA from Lafayette College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Easton City Council approved a commuter tax Wednesday, raising the earned income tax for more than 10,000 people who work in Easton but live outside the city an average of $127.

City officials estimate the new tax will generate $1.35 million, which Easton can use only toward offsetting a $1.8 million increase in pension obligations. The commuter tax, which takes effect Jan. 1, raises the earned income tax for non-Easton residents from 1 percent to 1.75 percent, the same rate city residents pay.

Council’s 6-1 vote came after an impassioned debate between Mayor Sal Panto Jr. and Councilman Jeff Warren, who wrote a recent op-ed piece opposing the commuter tax. Panto accused Warren, the only council member to vote against the tax, of political grandstanding.

“You keep saying you’re against this but you haven’t laid out any alternatives,” Panto told Warren. “What are you coming up with? What is your solution?”

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-commuter-tax-vote-20120808,0,1762718.story

Easton Mayor Applauds Crime Reduction, Economic Development

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Editor’s note:  Will we ever see a headline like this with POTTSTOWN in it?????

Mayor Sal Panto Jr. believes there is much to applaud in Easton, Pa. — a falling crime rate, promising redevelopment projects — but also much yet to do.

Panto outlined his vision for 2012, and mentioned some of the successes of 2011, in a “state of the city” speech Wednesday night before City Council, noting an 11 percent drop in crime overall, and a 37 percent drip in violent crime since 2006.

“Easton is becoming safer for families,” Panto said.

It is a theme he has stuck with in the march to redevelop the downtown into a place to work, eat and live, not just visit from time to time. Panto talked in the speech of a 24/7 downtown, which he said can only happen with new development drawing in full-time residents.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-state-of-the-city-20120222,0,5829329.story

Easton mayor: Intermodal Project Costs Rise By $5.8 Million

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The price tag for Easton‘s proposed intermodal center and future home of the National High School Sports Hall of Fame Museum leaped by nearly $6 million, according to Mayor Sal Panto Jr.

In a presentation to City Council on Wednesday night, Panto said the complex, which would house a Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority intermodal hub, retail space, offices and at least one restaurant, would cost $25.8 million, considerably more than the $20 million budget approved by council last year.

Panto said the additional costs reflect needed extras like an urban park, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, a third-floor with open office space, and improvements to the look and feel of S. Third Street.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-council-intermodal-20120208,0,5894861.story

Easton Going Another Year Without Tax Hike

Easton City Council on Wednesday approved a budget that holds taxes steady while taking on the burden of funding community revitalization programs abandoned by the state or struggling for self-reliance.

With no increase in the levy, the 2012 budget represented an easy victory for Mayor Sal Panto Jr., who had a like-minded council behind him and in November won a second consecutive term — and fourth overall — promising fiscal austerity.

Council unanimously approved the $28.8 million financial plan, which member Jeff Warren called a conservative budget for maintaining the tax rate at 24.95 mills

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-city-council-adotps-budget-20111214,0,1169263.story