Thursday, December 1, 2011
Only 4 council members vote in favor of budget, which means another meeting next week, or an automatic 9 percent tax increase.
After more than two hours of discussion Thursday night, Northampton County Council tried, but failed, to adopt a budget for 2012. Council had spent much of the night hearing from residents on proposed budget amendments, debating spending cuts and arguing over salary freezes and increases. But when it came time to vote, only four council members said yes to County Executive John Stoffa's $331 million budget. "Yes, we have no budget," Council President John Cusick said minutes after the vote. Councilman Ron Angle -- who lost the presidency to Cusick at the beginning of the year -- told Cusick he should have worked harder with the rest of council to get the budget passed. "It was your job to produce this budget. You have failed," said Angle…
40.68707
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Northampton County Government Center
669 Washington St, Easton, PA
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Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Results show longtime Republican councilmen losing to newcomer Democrats in Northampton County Council race.
Ron Angle, the outspoken Northampton County councilman, has lost his seat after 12 years in office. Angle, of Upper Mount Bethel, was defeated Tuesday night by Democratic challenger Scott Parsons, the Wind Gap borough council president who had campaigned almost solely on the notion of bringing a civility to county council that he claimed Angle lacked. Parsons took home 53 percent of the vote -- 4,817 -- to Angle's 4,171. Another Republican incumbent, Easton's Mike Dowd, lost a challenge to political newcomer Bob Werner. Werner, of Easton, had focused during his campaign on improving Gracedale, the county-owned nursing home that voters had opted not to sell in the May 2011 primary. Incumbent Councilman Lamont McClure held on to his seat in…
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Move had given funding to Slate Belt project, but now council wants more appraisals.
Last month, Northampton County Council voted 8-0 -- with one member absent -- to spend $260,000 on conservation easements to help preserve 130 acres in Upper Mount Bethel Township. That absent member? Councilman Ron Angle, who returned to council Thursday night unhappy with what had transpired. He said the county needs to focus on preserving farmlands rather than wetlands, which he argued can't be built upon anyway. Angle introduced a motion -- which passed by a 6-1 vote -- which halts last month's action until two more independent appraisals of the preserved land can be done. Angle had actually volunteered to pay for the appraisals himself, but Councilwoman Ann McHale suggested an alternative: let the property owners pay for it themselves…
Thursday, May 19, 2011
New resolution sets up fund for publicly-owned nursing home.
Northampton County Council wants to use nearly $1.6 million in unspent money from a 10-year-old bond to help pay to keep its nursing home running. Earlier this week, voters approved a ballot referendum preventing the county from selling Gracedale, the publicly-owned nursing home in Upper Nazareth. Because the county had planned to sell Gracedale, council had only budgeted enough money to fund it for the first half of the year. With the sale not happening, the county is now looking to try to improve Gracedale on its own. One of the ways to do that could be taking more than $1.5 million from the bond issue, declare the projects that money was supposed to fund as "unfeasible," and move it to Gracedale. A resolution introduced at Thursday's …
40.739129
-75.338312
29 Gracedale Ave, Nazareth, PA
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Wednesday, May 18, 2011
One option: Put money from the 2001 bond issue back into the nursing home.
Most of the money from the $111 million bond issue Northampton County floated in 2001 has been spoken for. But some members of county council want to use what's left -- close to $1.6 million -- on Gracedale, the nursing home voters have just decided needs to remain publicly owned. With that decision comes a dilemma: the county can't sell Gracedale as planned, but it also had only budgeted $3 million for the home for this year. "I don’t think it’s going to be enough," County Executive John Stoffa told council's finance committee Wednesday. He's at work on finding a new management company to come in and run the Upper Nazareth nursing home, but doesn't anticipate awarding a bid to someone to do that work until August. Stoffa said the county …
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-75.21676
669 Washington St, Easton, PA
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40.73827
-75.338169
2 Gracedale Ave, Nazareth, PA
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Chris Miller
8:29 am on Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Ron Maybe we can figure out a way to keep you on retainer so we will at least have you there to put the budget together every year. more ›