As I was completing the latest issue of Saucon Shenanigans on Monday, Ken Solt, president of the Hellertown Area Library board, released a proposal that the HAL board had sent to the Lower Saucon Township council on Monday for their consideration. However, the council has refused the Library’s request to be put on the agenda for the upcoming March 16 meeting. Therefore, as of this writing, this proposal will not be on the agenda and any public comment on anything regarding the Library will be relegated, once more, to the very end of the meeting.
It is IMPERATIVE that as many people as possible attend Wednesday’s meeting to make public comment on the need for the Council to respond affirmatively to this proposal before the deadline of March 21.
What You Need to Know
- You can find the entire proposal here as published in Saucon Source.
- There will undoubtedly be quite a lot of gaslighting about how the Council can’t respond that quickly, can’t meet in time, yada, yada, yada. That’s baloney. They could have put it on the agenda for Wednesday and chose not to. In addition, the proposal only requires a written response from the Council as to whether they intend to negotiate the proposal into an agreement or whether they don’t intend to negotiate the proposal, in which case it will be withdrawn. If they can’t make that simple decision in 7 days, they have no business claiming to operate in the best interests of the Township.
- This is a good-faith offer on the part of the Library to provide a stabilizing agreement for the remainder of 2022. It is more than the Township has produced to resolve the problem.
- The contents of the proposal are basically in line with the conditions in the prior agreement. There are no hidden “gotchas”.
- It provides for revision of the Library’s by-laws to add one more Lower Saucon member to be appointed by the LST Council, bringing the total number to 3.
- It requires the Township to rescind its threat of a lawsuit.
- You will probably be ignored. That doesn’t mean you don’t have the right to speak.
I urge you to read the proposal in its entirety so that you aren’t hoodwinked by deliberate misinterpretations of it at Wednesday’s meeting.
As of 11 PM Monday, March 14, the Council agenda had not been amended to include discussion of this proposal. If that changes, I will update the information here.
I will also, as a public service, livestream the meeting on Wednesday, March 16 on the Saucon Shenanigans Facebook page. However, I implore you to attend in person if at all possible to show your support for at least this interim agreement.
The regular issue of Saucon Shenanigans will be out on Tuesday reviewing all the nonsense from the February 16 meeting. Don’t miss it!
Saucon Shenanigans 