Allentown (Water) Goes Private... Anonymous Comments Now Accepted

Tomorrow morning at 11:00am, Mayor Pawlowski will announce the sale of Allentown's water and sewage departments to a private operator. The sale is being conducted to satisfy the pension obligations incurred by the police and fire contracts. Two well placed sources have provided this blogger with two versions of the announcement. In the first version, the systems have been sold for $150 million. In the second version, the systems will be put out to bid. In this city, it's very possible that both versions are true; It will be formally put out to bid, but he has a predetermined buyer at the 150 price. The buyer would assume control of both the plants and distribution systems, and be responsible for every aspect of operation. A former city worker insures me that the quality of service from the water department will certainly suffer. Blogger Bernie O'Hare contributed to this post.
UPDATE: The Morning Call apparently felt compelled to issue a statement, and posted their announcement of the pending sale two hours after this post.  They quote an unnamed source saying "If this done right, this will solve the pension problems overnight, but we must install proper oversight and control."  Allentown has no experience with doing things right, or with oversight and controls.  We are in trouble.
UPDATING THE UPDATE:  Our local LCA might well be a bidder (or the bidder) for the Allentown systems.  The current project through Cedar Park interconnects the systems, and will expand their capacity to deliver treated water to western Lehigh County. If the Lehigh County Authority is in fact the buyer, the consequence of selling this prime Allentown asset would be tolerable. Allentonians could expect responsible stewardship and reasonable fees.

building the water works in 1928

above reprinted from July of 2012 

UPDATE JANUARY 28, 2022: When the FBI started to scrutinize the Pawlowski administration in 2013, the water and sewage sale was already a done deal. Allentown had a large capacity for both water and sewage because of Lucent's silicon wafer production, which was water intensive. The water/sewer systems were Allentown's golden goose, always profitable, with the promise to remain that way. A decade has passed. The Morning Call's golden boy Ed Pawlowski, always promoted and never scruntized by them, is in the pokey. Allentown is still in financial trouble, but no longer has its profitable water component.