Lehigh County will build on successes of 2023
Editor’s Note: This is one in a series of articles by elected Lehigh Valley officials looking back at 2023 and forward to 2024.
As we close the books on 2023 and move into 2024, it’s time to reflect on our past successes and look forward to what the future holds for Lehigh County.
I am proud to say that prudent fiscal management and tightening our belts when necessary throughout 2023 has allowed this administration to present a balanced budget with no tax increase for the fifth year in a row, despite costs and expenses rising exponentially. We look forward to a spectacular 2024.
We reopened the Wire Mill Bridge that connects Allentown’s South Side to its vibrant Center City. We completed renovation of Lehigh County’s award-winning historical courthouse and are making continuing upgrades to our 911 Center and Cedarbrook nursing home.
Through the American Rescue Plan Act we completed the issuance of $10 million to Lehigh County small businesses that struggled during the pandemic, as well as $3 million to nonprofit organizations that helped people through the pandemic and recovery.
We began a program with grant funding to help our residents stay safe on poor-air-quality days, which was particularly helpful through the Canadian wildfires last summer. It is also a requirement to access many federal funding opportunities that we didn’t have access to submit for previously.
We have continued our commitment to preserving farmland, with 28,000 acres and 350 farms preserved. We have invested $2 million into mental health support for children and for residents of our jail.
Since the end of the pandemic our public defender’s office has sponsored regular community outreach days, where a number of agencies and organizations provide needed services, information and resources to the public. Our residents have received information about legal services, mental health, housing, drug and alcohol treatment and employment, and are offered free legal services from the public defender’s office on license restoration and criminal record-clearing, including expungements and pardons.
In fact, this year through the cooperation of the district attorney’s office, clerk of courts and other county organizations, we have begun a pardon project with a goal of giving second chances to nonviolent, low-level offenders to aid them in getting employment, housing and education. Lehigh County’s public defender’s office will be the first in the commonwealth to include a pardon coordinator position in the department in our next budget.
In 2023 Lehigh County received $17 million from a $26 billion nationwide opioid settlement with major drug distributors and pharmaceutical manufacturers. We have worked hard to put that money to good use in the prevention and treatment of opioid addiction.
We created a plan to provide an opioid treatment center in the northern section of our county, family counseling to support addicts seeking recovery, medically assisted treatment programs for addicts in our jail, and we are increasing our detox facility from 34 beds to 50 beds. We are also creating a youth advertising plan to help deter school-aged children from becoming involved with opioids.
I am proud to serve on the executive board of the County Executives of America. I was chosen to represent four states at the national regional council that reviews federal legislation that affects counties each year. My service with that elite organization has brought back great benefits to Lehigh County.
These great accomplishments didn’t happen alone. They happen because of the great work of our more than 2,000 employees and the great partnership we have had with our commissioners, row officers and judiciary. I am honored to serve as Lehigh County executive with these fine people.
Looking ahead to 2024, we have put funding in place for a Lehigh Valley Housing Equity Plan that will provide our residents with a plan to meet rising housing demands. In addition, we will partner with a national expert in housing development to organize a multiday workshop with key government, nonprofit and private-sector professionals to develop strategies to locate more housing where it is most needed. It critical that we continue to put forth efforts to close the income/housing mismatch that continues to grow.
It can be tempting to think that affordable housing is someone else’s problem. Many of the people who read this are reading it from the comfort of a home that they have owned for some time.
But what about our children and our grandchildren? That’s why affordable housing should be important for all of us.
We will always focus on people, purpose and impact. I can assure Lehigh County residents we are working together to ensure Lehigh County continues to be an excellent place to live and work.