Township Council Approves Funding for Bethlehem Library

After , township council unanimously approved the budget at its Nov. 16 meeting.

The township's contribution to the 2012 BAPL budget will be $183,467, which is based on a $17.03 per capita charge that all participating municipalities are being asked to contribute.

Council vice president Tom Maxfield, who had requested the delay in approving the agreement, told council that after receiving information "of a personal nature" he was prepared to vote on the matter.

Council president Glenn Kern asked Maxfield if he wished to share that information with council, but Maxfield declined.

Maxfield also stressed that the township is "not under a contract anymore with the library," which he said ceased to exist two years ago.

Citing a Nov. 5, 2009 letter to the Bethlehem Area Public Library, Maxfield said the township withdrew from its contract and that it was never renegotiated.

Council solicitor B. Lincoln Treadwell verified that assertion, stating that "they never responded to the renegotiation request."

"Technically you are not a party to the agreement anymore," he added.

Maxfield said that since the township opted out of its contract with the library, the deadline for approving the 2012 agreement--which was given as Nov. 15 at the Nov. 2 meeting--was actually an artificial one.

"As long as we're not under a contract, the dates don't really apply to us," he said.

Councilwoman Priscilla deLeon said she did not recall the township opting out of the library contract in 2009, and asked that meeting minutes verifying that decision be pulled.

Before council voted on the budget agreement, several meeting attendees requested support for the Bethlehem Area Public Library for another year.

Among them were Saucon Valley Library Task Force and Saucon Valley School Board member Michael Karabin; former Bethlehem Area Public Library board member and township resident Margaret Opthof; and township library board member Allan Johnson.

Later at the meeting, Johnson was unanimously appointed to serve as an alternate member of , which is currently examining the township's participation in the Bethlehem Area Public Library system.

The township has been a party to the BAPL system since 1979, but is considering becoming a part of the system.

"The task force is continuing in their duties," Maxfield reported.

He added that he expects the task force to remain "right on schedule" and issue a library services recommendation to council next summer.