Wildlands Conservancy Takes Over South Whitehall Township

When the Wildands Conservancy placed the son of their Chief Financial Officer as park director about a decade ago, they never imagined that they would actually officially take over the township.  At that time the township was still being professionally managed, and positions were filled by job searches.  In the ensuing years, mostly under the leadership of Tori Morgan,  loyalty and obedience replaced professionalism.  When one director moved on, his assistance was moved up. When that person moved on, perhaps his secretary would then be appointed director.

Former park director Randy Cope, who morphed into public works director, is now the new township manager.  His father's Wildlands Conservancy was given the Greenway Project contract.  Their  deceitful backchannel communication with the state, trying to condemn Wehr's Dam financially,  has turned that $50k repair into an unnecessary $750k capital project. Cope never defended the dam's structural integrity, although he knows how massively overbuilt it is. In my world, rather than being promoted, he should have been fired.

I was hoping that with a couple new commissioners, and more to come, that South Whitehall was turning the corner from the Morgan era.

A new facebook friend on Allentown Chronicles suggested that I befriend both candidates for Allentown mayor, in order to help my WPA advocacy.  Although the advice is sound, she doesn't know me or this blog very well.  Likewise, although I was encouraged about the new faces on the South Whitehall dais,  their poor decisions will be front and center here.

ADDENDUM: I'm shown above at Wehr's Dam in 2014, when I started the fight to save the dam. At that time the commissioners were more than willing to accommodate the Wildlands Conservancy and allow them to demolish the historic dam,  which was already a destination for over 100 years and the reason that Covered Bridge Park was created.  That 2014 fight resulted in the 2016 dam referendum, which the commissioners never expected to pass. It took me five years to get the Morning Call to write about the damn dam story, and then rather than report what really happened, they instead whitewashed what had occurred.