Easton cuts back on funding for code enforcement, trees, and the Ambassadors.
Easton has cut back on its Community Development Block Grant budget, which is used each year to fund various projects around the city. According to the Express-Times, the city had to chop more than $127,000 from its CDBG plan after getting less money than anticipated from the federal government. Those cuts include:
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Despite NID's failure, group says public still supports Easton Main Street, Ambassadors programs.
Even though residents and property owners have rejected Easton's Neighborhood Improvement District, the programs that it would have supported will still continue. That's the message from the Greater Easton Development Partnership, which says it's committed to keeping the Easton Ambassadors and Main Street Initiative, despite the end of the NID. "While the proposed NID will not be a part of that funding plan moving forward, GEDP is committed to work with the City and other community partners to ensure that these programs continue," the group said in a news release. GEDP had hoped to use the NID to fund the Ambassadors -- the folks you see in red jackets cleaning up and doing other work Downtown -- and Main Street, which runs numerous …
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Eleven days before the deadline, 40 percent of property owners have registered their objection to the plan.
It's all but official—the proposed Neighborhood Improvement District has been rejected by downtown Easton property owners. Of the 488 affected properties, 198 had officially registered disapproval of the plan with the city clerk's office as of Thursday afternoon, City Clerk Thomas Hess said. By law, the plan is to be jettisoned if 40 percent of affected property owners, or in this case 195 of them, protest the move in writing. The deadline for such 'nay' votes is Dec. 12 and the city clerk's office will continue to accept and count objections until then, Hess said. The city had unveiled the NID at a public meeting in June, which revealed downtown residents and property owners were divided on the proposal. One property owner even led an on-…
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5:15 pm on Friday, December 2, 2011
Christina and Dennis, I apologize. You're right, sometimes it's too easy to be an idiot. I would challenge you though on your belief that the NID failed due to a flawed public process. I think it failed because the business and residential communities disagreed with you on the value of the NID. Disagreement is good, we can all grow from it. But we can't grow if we don't listen. I continue to … more ›
The fate of the controversial proposal will be decided in a few weeks.
The next few weeks will decide the future of the proposed Neighborhood Improvement District (NID) for downtown Easton. The NID would impose a 5-mill fee on commercial property owners -- 1 mill for residential owners -- to help pay for programs like the Easton Ambassadors and the Easton Main Street Initiative. Property owners who live -- or simply just own buildings -- in the section of the city that would encompass the NID have until Dec. 12 to file objections to the plan. According to the Express-Times, the city clerk's office had gotten 171 objections as of Wednesday. Under the law, the NID will fail if the owners of 40 percent of properties in the district object to it. So far, about 35 percent have objected. So what do you think? Take…
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10:34 am on Sunday, November 27, 2011
IMO, if Easton priced parking at market rates and replaced the property tax with a land value tax, that would achieve the same results people want from EMSI and the Ambassadors. Downtown probably isn't too far from being at a place where the demand for downtown land is self-sustaining. And at that point, you won't really need EMSI because the market will take care of attracting new businesses and… more ›
Speakers support Neighborhood Improvement District; opponents have 45 days to make their voices heard.
The next six weeks will decide whether Easton's proposed Neighborhood Improvement District lives or dies. That's how long opponents of the NID have to file their written objections to the plan, which assesses a yearly fee for property owners in much of Easton's downtown in order to help fund the city's Main Street Iniative and Ambassadors program. Some of those opponents spoke out Wednesday night as city council held its final hearing on the NID. Council also heard from people in favor of the plan, as well as those who had questions and trepidition about the NID. Members of the public walking into Wednesday's meeting were met with two people handing out flyers. One was a "Did You Know?" brochure listing all the accomplishments of Main …
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Tom Adams
2:02 am on Thursday, December 22, 2011
and that's exactly why people voted against this, they know that someone will bail them out so they don't have topay for the services they receive. more ›