Easton Finds Funding For Ambassadors

Lafayette College, Crayola will help fund Easton's struggling Ambassadors program.

Easton's downtown will continue to stay clean now that the program that sweeps its streets has some more green. Mayor Sal Panto announced Friday afternoon that two groups have stepped forward to provide more than $50,000 to fund the Ambassadors program. Panto said Lafayette College will contribute $30,000 while the Crayola Experience will kick in $25,000 to keep the people wearing red jackets that you see in the downtown cleaning up and providing other duties for the city. "You won't see the Ambassadors program go away under my watch," the mayor said. Still, though, Santo stressed that the program has a funding shortfall of between $60,000 to $75,000. "It's not doomsday. But we're looking for contributions. Next year's budget for the …

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Amend Wun

9:46 pm on Friday, March 30, 2012

Gotta love the peanut gallery and it's empty "advice".   more ›

Economic Development Easton's Highest Priority, Panto Says

In the state of the city address, Mayor Sal Panto said continued economic development is his administration's highest priority.

Furthering local economic development, especially attracting new residents and job-creating businesses that will help grow Easton's tax base, is at the top of the city's to-do list, said Mayor Sal Panto, presenting the annual state of the city address to city council Wednesday evening. "Economic development – the retention of jobs, the creation of jobs and expansion of the tax base must be the highest priority of the City. We must be a best place to do business," Panto said. Panto kept the tone of the address positive and noted the number of improvements, completed projects and ongoing initiatives that have taken place during his administration, saying that  "clean and safe," a platform he campaigned on four and a half years ago, is still …

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5 Things to Know Today, Feb. 20

City meetings, how to claim listings, and more...

  1. Easton's zoning hearing board meets tonight at 7 p.m. on the sixth floor of city hall. City council meets Wednesday night at 6 p.m., in the same place. Mayor Sal Panto is expected to give his State of the City address. 2. Easton's Main Street Initiative will present a talk on "The Future of Main Street" Wednesday at noon at the Nurture Nature Center. 3. Do you own a business in the Easton area? Find out how to claim it in our directory, and what that means for you. 4. I'll be doing my office hours this week on Thursday, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Easton Area Public Library.  5. Today in February 20. It's the 50th anniversary of John Glenn orbiting the earth. Sidney Poitier is 85. Kurt Cobain would have been 45 today.

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GEDP Gets More Funding For Easton Main Street

The Greater Easton Development partnership has received a $57,000 county grant.

GEDP Says Ambassadors, Main Street, Will Continue

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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Downtown Easton Property Owners Reject NID

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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Take Our Poll: Easton's NID

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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Jon Geeting

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 ›