Traffic control overtime pay up for debate

City, PPL Center disagree on who should foot bill for workers during popular events

Allentown and PPL Center disagree on who should foot the bill for traffic control during popular events at the downtown arena.

City Council last week approved a series of budget adjustments, including $8,500 in overtime for members of the city’s public works staff who help direct traffic for special events, including those held at PPL

Center.

The 8,500-seat arena recently attracted acts such as Imagine Dragons, Lamb of God, Megadeth and Morgan Wallen. But the popularity of its events creates traffic headaches for those coming to and from downtown, particularly on Seventh Street.

The issue is exacerbated by the arena’s parking lot, which has just one entrance and one exit point.

Public works employees help put out traffic cones and direct traffic during PPL Center events. The overtime payments are a drop in the bucket of Allentown’s $125 million annual budget, but city officials wants PPL Center to handle traffic control itself.

“It wasn’t budgeted for, we weren’t planning for that, but we had to step in and do it because we are the only ones who can,” said Leonard Lightner, the city’s chief operating officer. “We can’t continue to do this, but it’s our streets.”

Lightner said PPL Center should consider hiring a traffic contractor to handle the situation.

Council member Ed Zucal questioned the overtime during Wednesday’s meeting.

“Unfortunately, the taxpayers are being made to pay for all that extra security,” Zucal said in an interview.

Lightner said the city is negotiating with PPL Center management.

PPL Center Operations Manager Gunnar Fox said the center is fulfilling its obligation to manage traffic. BDH Development is the master leaseholder of PPL Center, and pays the Allen

town Neighborhood Improvement Zone Authority, which owns the center, around $10,000 monthly for general services; that includes traffic control.

“At this time, we would not be looking to hire an outside contractor to manage [traffic],” Fox said. “Since the building opened, it’s always been a collaboration between the entities, and we all work together to make the best experience possible for customers.”

City officials said the traffic situation became harder to manage toward the end of last year, when the Allentown Parking Authority declined to renew a contract with PPL Center to manage the center’s parking deck.

Allentown Parking Authority chair Ted Zeller said the authority could not agree on a rate with PPL Center, so PPL Center now manages the deck.

“We had extended [the contract] in good faith, and then it just got to the point where we no longer — it had expired, we were unable to negotiate a new rate,” Zeller said. “So our services there terminated.”

PPL Center was completed in 2014. The $177 million arena was partly funded by taxes generated in Allentown’s Neighborhood

Improvement Zone. The center is home to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms hockey team, and hosts an array of concerts and events throughout the year.