Although other accounts of last nights meeting may indicate that the
Swimming Toward The Future plan was drowned by City Council, it's DNA lives in the new resolution. Council thinks that somehow, they must get something from the $80,000 study. It was not done in vain; Weitzel used it as part of his resume to secure his new job in Idaho. Mike Schlossberg wisely pointed out that a future Council may misconstrue the passing of even a revised resolution as essentially approving the contents of the plan. The Council will be changing dramatically. Schlossberg will be going to Harrisburg, with Schweyer not far behind. Julio Guridy, and his protege Cynthia Mota, indicated pleasure with Weitzel's Water World. Francis Dougherty is the mad scientist who will nurture the DNA, until which time the monster can be resurrected. Dougherty is both the former and current Managing Director of Allentown. During his first term, he is the one who brought Weitzel to Allentown.
The politicized Trexler Trust is still on board with Water World. Weitzel's plan was his most ambitious to date. The destination water park would fill the entire section of the park near the Ott and Hamilton Street intersection. That plan should be formally rejected. A new plan should be created which simply indicates that Allentown will conform with ADA regulations, and strive to open and operate our five swimming pools in a clean and safe fashion.
both pictures from Swimming Towards The Future presentation
MM -
ReplyDeletePlease explain to me the wisdom of building a water park at Cedar Beach, only miles away from one of the largest water parks in the area (Dorney Park).
i pointed that out last night to city council. i cannot understand why council ever tolerated the ambitions of weitzel. can you imagine spending $80,000 on a consultant for a $11 million dollar water park while fountain park pool has been closed since 2009. can you imagine taking up the entire open space west of the destination playground for a destination water park? weitzel simply made a fool of allentown to enhance his resume. shame on council, shame on the trexler trust.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a neat plan. Why not place it at 7th and Hamilton?
ReplyDeleteWow. I am stunned. I cannot believe those pictures are actual representations of what Weitzel endorses at the corner of Ott and Hamilton.
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely ridiculous. I am just shaking my head in horror at the stupidity of these so-called leaders.
This is how it happens. This is how the government sneaks past the public. Instead of formally rejecting this study, it was acknowledged. Somewhere down the road, when the dust settles, it will be acted upon. Then the people in neighborhood with the lower paying jobs will be without a pool. These are the people who would benefit from a municipal pool the most. They do not have the means or cannot afford to go to Dorney Park or to travel all the way to the other side town to make use of the municipal pool. In effect, the government is not only stealing from it citizens, it is stealing from its most vulnerable citizens, the poor and the children. And it is "rewarding" one of its most affluent with a "destination" park. Shame on you. And you graduated from Moody College. Mr. Mayor, you must have missed the classes pertaining to morals. You didn't learn a thing at Moody Bible College. You are just self-centered and self-preserving. I don't know why I am venting? He probably doesn't even read this blog. Because we know he doesn't really care about the people. But he will care when the lawsuits come around. He is scrambling now like the rat that he is, to shout down these lawsuits. The only hysteria is saw, was Fleck acting like an idiot on television. Thanks for your tireless effort Mr. Molovinsky. You are the champion of the voiceless. You are truly the Mayor of the People.
ReplyDeletefran dougherty put a full court bluff on city council. they were told that unless the plan was acted upon; the pools wouldn't open, the federal government would levy fines because of ADA, and grants would be lost. council responded by creating a revised resolution, which states that each component of the plan must have three public hearings, etc. etc. they should have voted no for weitzel's plan, and instead instructed the park staff to write a simple new plan, acknowledging the ADA, and to work toward keeping the five existing pools operational. nothing would prevent the city from using any aspect of the weiztel plan in the future; we paid, and paid dearly, for those ideas. btw, city hall does read this blog.
ReplyDeleteExplain to me how city council can be so incredibly ignorant. Do they plan strategy at quilt making retreats with the Trexler Trust while eating handfulls of Oxycontins? How can one group of people be so benign to the realities of daily life and call themselves stewards of Allentown?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry much about Guridy and Mota. Guridy barely won reelection in 2009 and Mota couldn't beat Frank "Walking Dead" Concannon in a primary. Look for the Dems to put up primary challengers next year.
ReplyDeleteThe numbers don't lie, the Hispanic community isn't invested politically in the city in a way that matters.
And there is enough blame to go around on that one.