City Keeping an Eye on River

Every Easton City Council meeting begins the same way: with the Pledge of Allegiance and a short prayer. On Wednesday night, while giving the invocation, Councilman Roger Ruggles prayed for no rain.

It doesn't look like that prayer is going to be answered. The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for Thursday morning through Friday, and its latest predictions show the Delaware cresting at 28 feet Friday evening.

"Twenty-eight feet, that’s normally where we start packing," Easton Public Works Director Dave Hopkins told council Wednesday.

That's because the city's public works garage at 500 Bushkill Street could flood at that level. A 28-foot crest isn't as significant as the floods that hit Easton in the previous decade, but still enough for the river to meet the city's roads.

This led to a discussion of the three New York City reservoirs, which are often cited as a contributing factor to flooding along the Delaware. Mayor Sal Panto said that with Pennsylvania and New York both recently electing new governors, it might be easy to change policies relating to the reservoirs.

Ruggles, who teaches civil and environmental engineering at Lafayette College and has studied the reservoirs, said they're not designed to release large quantities of water in a way that would allow them to drain fast enough to stop flooding.

"It takes a long time to get them into position to be effective," he said.

Also Wednesday, city Planning Director Becky Bradley said her department has issued citations against 49 landlords who failed to pay Easton's landlord licensing fee. She said the fees were due last August, and these landlords -- some of whom own more than one city property -- were given several notices that the fee was due.