By Doug Miller
"I believe that on the heels of an outrageous 25 percent tax increase, which may not have been needed, the taxpayers cannot afford and do not want to pay for a $15 million loan," said Jim Hennessy, a Republican councilman. "And the fact is, we don't need to borrow the money to begin the work."
The bond would have raised $6 million to rebuild some of the worst streets in the city, including Barnes Street north of Pine Street, the 700 block of West Chester Street, the 600 block of East Penn Street, Connecticut Street south of Beech Street, Armour Street north of Pine, the 700 block of West Penn, the 300 block of West Fulton Street and Harmon Street north of Pine. Residents of each of those blocks packed the meeting, and throughout the public hearing portion they chided the council for its paralysis.
The bond also would have funded improvements to the sewer systems throughout the city, the purchase of vehicles for several city departments, and repairs to the West End firehouse and the bulkheads on Reynolds Channel throughout the city.
It also would have bought a new sewer lift station for $2 million. The existing station in the West End, City Manager Ed Eaton said, stopped working to its capacity about five years ago.
The bond needed four votes to pass, and the stated reluctance of the two coalition councilmen to support the measure made the very act of proposing it a way to call out the Republicans.
"This bond may fail to materialize, but I don't want any of you up here, or the Herald, to call me an obstructionist, because it's not accurate," Hennessy said in a prepared statement before the vote. "I support doing these projects, and I support doing them using the money we already have in the bank; and we should move immediately to do them. And by immediately, I mean at the next City Council meeting."
But City Council President Leonard Remo said the vote was a significant setback for the city. "It became apparent early in the meeting the bond was not going to pass with the four votes needed," Remo said Wednesday. "It did not come as a surprise to me so much as just a huge disappointment. Now we have to do this piecemeal, and many needed projects will take too long to address."
The next council meeting was pushed back to Wednesday, Nov. 8, because the first Tuesday of the month is Election Day. At that meeting, Remo said, his team will present a revamped and smaller bond issue that he said would address many of the city's top priorities. "It's probably going to focus on the most urgently needed streets, which means the other streets are going to be ignored for the time being," Remo said. "And possibly it will include some of the engineering so we can get a head start on that."
Comments about this story? Dmiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
