Bethlehem’s Climate Action Plan on the move

(The latest in a series of posts relating to the environment, Bethlehem’s Climate Action Plan, and Bethlehem’s Environmental Advisory Council)

“There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil.
The triumph of anything is a matter of organization.”
(Kurt Vonnegut)

Councilman Reynolds has been the main driver in the formation of a local Climate Action Plan, dating back to his “Bethlehem 2017” report, which can be found linked on the Gadfly sidebar.

Here we are two years later, and Gadfly was pleased to attend the Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) meeting last night at Illick’s Mill at which members discussed proposals from four organizations to write a plan for the City.

The EAC is chaired by Lynn Rothman, and the members are Elizabeth Behrend, Elisabeth Cichonski, Kathy Fox, Brian Hillard, Brian Nicas, and Mike Topping. Nine other members of the public were also present.

As explained by chair Rothman, the EAC had input into the call for proposals and now was invited to make recommendations before the City made the final decision and awarded a contract to one of the bidders. The City has allocated funds for the project to begin this year, and it sounded to Gadfly that the project would take about a year to complete.

Next year we could have a Climate Action Plan!

Each of the four proposals was lengthy and densely packed with information. EAC members reviewed them beforehand and discussed them one-by-one at the meeting.

Gadfly is always proudly pleased to show our non-tax dollars profitably at work. Here to give you a taste of the meeting is the final section in which Council members ranked the proposals for their recommendation to the City. Most interesting in the later portion of this clip is a discussion of attention to underserved populations.

Nicely done!

It’s Friday, August 9, do you know where your local Climate Action Plan is?