Lwv Lehigh County Voter

League of Women Voters Volume 66, No. 6 of Lehigh County March 2018 LWV LEHIGH COUNTY VOTER PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE MARK YOUR CALENDAR! Dear League Members, March From the almost daily news about the donated $150 each toward the cost of 4 Sun Legislative Inter- impact of the League of Women Vot- printing will appear on the back cover views due ers, et al., v. The Commonwealth of of the Directory: Keystone Consulting 8 Thurs Deadline to re- Pennsylvania, et al. - 261 M.D. 2017 Engineers, Inc., the Lehigh County serve for Hot concerning the 2011 congressional Medical Society and the Lehigh Valley Topics lunch map, to nearly fifty members and Chapter of ACLU Pennsylvania. These members of the public attending our names and logos also appear on our 8 Thurs 4 pm Board Meeting Hot Topics luncheons, this year has website and Facebook page. 12 Mon 11:30 Hot Topics Lunch, been one to watch. Articles inside this am Superior Restau- issue share more information about We know that personal contact works rant these initiatives and how they affect us better than cold sales calls. We appre- in Lehigh County. ciate Bill Erdman and Jay Hudson for 15 Thurs 4 pm Naturalization their role in securing the support of the Ceremony first two organizations. We also want to Hot Topics Luncheons 21 Weds Candidate with- The Hot Topics Luncheons are consis- thank ourselves. drawal date tently more popular than ever! The Luncheon on February 12 attracted 43 The LWV Education Fund will also be people in total, including the speaker, listed: that’s YOU! We want to recog- Milagros “Milly” Canales. Half of the nize and thank the many members INSIDE THIS ISSUE: attendees were members while the and at least one non-member who do- President’s Message 1 rest were non-members. Some non- nated to the fund for this and other Board Notes 2 members, like Allentown School Board purposes. I should also mention board members Molly Faust, Margie Dunn FDPA Support 2 member Phoebe Harris and State Rep- resentative Michael Schlossberg, knew and Mary Erdman who updated the Feb. Hot Topic Report 3 Milly. Pam Fleck, Assistant Director of solicitation letter that we then mailed March Hot Topic Intro 3 Student Affairs, Penn State Lehigh Val- to the nearly 90 businesses, associa- March Membership 4 ley, responded to our publicity by bring- tions and societies identified by Mary and Bill Erdman and Cecilia Birdsell Election Dates 4 ing three students with her. Eight attendees were walk-ins. Ten attendees last December. FDPA Update 5 were men. Thirty-nine attendees ate Government Directory 5 lunch leaving four who did not. Kudos At the meeting in January, the board New District Map 6 to everyone who made this attractive voted to offer the business community the opportunity to support us finan- Legislative Interviews 6 luncheon possible and known to the public. cially on an annual basis. So, this Fall, Naturalization Dates 7 we will send letters again offering the Annual Meeting Invite 8 Inside this issue there are articles by opportunity to be listed on the back Delaware Basin Report 8 Program Chair Mary Erdman about this cover of the Government Directory and the upcoming Hot Topics Lunch- published in early 2019. Please let me eon topics. know if you can recommend a business or organization we should con- See inside for invitation to Government Directory tact. We would also appreciate your LWVLC’s annual meeting— willingness to make a follow up phone Thank you, thank you, thank you! Saturday, May 12, 2018. call. These companies and organizations (Continued on page 7) Page 2 Volume 66, No. 6 BOARD NOTES The Board of the Lehigh County League of Women Voters met Thursday, February 14, 2018 at the Woodlands Per- sonal Care Home. Here are highlights of the meeting. The board reaffirmed its intention to continue to publish our local Voters’ Guide in conjunction with The Morning Call newspaper in addition to publicizing the state league’s VOTE411 site for candidate information. Barbara Williams, Treasurer, presented financials for the month of January. The balance for the month ending January 31, 2018 was $19,564.31. She reported that our league membership now consists of 57 individuals, 11 households and 2 students for a total of 69 members. She noted that the budget committee will meet February 21, 2018. The board decided to work with DeSales University to develop student internships to work as website coordinator and newsletter editor. Molly Faust Secretary UPDATE ON FAIR DISTRICTS SUPPORT We have been very successful with resolutions from our It is has become difficult to update our progress, accu- local municipalities. We have two pending right now: Lynn rately, because things have been changing almost daily Township and Weisenberg Township. If you live in either and mostly in a positive way. Just a year ago, we would see one, you may want to contact those townships and encour- spotty coverage of the gerrymandering issue; but in the last age resolutions from each. few months this topic has catapulted to national promi- nence! Pennsylvania has been in the news, statewide and The complete list of Resolutions supporting HB 722 and nationally, almost every week since about October. SB 22 are as follows: The main goal of Fair Districts PA is to promote the debate 10/16 – County of Northampton and discussion of HB 722 and HB 22 and to call for a vote 2/17 – Whitehall Township no later than June 30, 2018. That would be the first step in 2/17 – City of Easton moving towards a constitutional amendment which would 2/17 – County of Lehigh place the responsibility of redrawing districts after the next 4/17 – Lower Macungie Township US Census in an independent citizens’ commission and out 6/17 – City of Bethlehem of the hands of politicians. To that extent, we have been 4/17 – Bethlehem Township visiting local legislators and municipalities in securing 7/17 – South Whitehall Township (created a letter to more co-sponsors and resolutions backing this important legislators, not a resolution) legislation. 9/17 – Williams Township 2/18 – Upper Saucon Township State-wide we now have 109 co-sponsors for HB 722, 2/18 – Upper Milford Township which is record-breaking support for any legislation in a single session. That is a majority of the State Representa- Still on the calendar to be discussed are: The City of Allen- tives. We have 36 Republicans and 71 Democrats, with town, 2/21, and North Whitehall Township, 3/5. more expected. On the Senate side, we have 18 co- sponsors: 7 Republicans and 11 Democrats, with only 7 Please take the time to thank our supporters and contact more to go before reaching support from 50% of the State legislators who have not yet endorsed more fairly drawn Senators. All of our local senators are in support of SB 22: districts. Please visit our website, fairdistrictspa.com, to Pat Browne (R), Lisa Boscola (D) and Mario Scavello (R). stay updated on all we are doing. We welcome your sup- Unfortunately, three of our local (Lehigh) legislators have port and volunteerism. been very solid “no’s” and we encourage you to contact your legislator if they are one of the following: Gary Day Mary Erdman 187th, Ryan Mackenzie 134th, and Zachary Mako 183rd. Action Chair, FDPA Liaison Page 3 Volume 66, No. 6 FEBRUARY HOT TOPIC: MINORITY INCLUSION Our February Hot Topics luncheon was a very honest look into how “minority inclusion” is seen by minority populations. “Milly” Canales, an advocacy worker, community activist and resident of Allentown, gave us an insight into how we ap- proach and embrace our minority neighbors. Milly challenged us to learn about our different minority neighborhoods; their culture, their beliefs about family and neighbors; and not to judge what we do not know. She humorously described her own Hispanic culture as one which likes loud music, dancing and sharing food in celebration. Milly advised us to acknowledge the differences in minority cultures when attempting to embrace a population different than what most are used to in our eve- ryday life experiences. Her advice also included showing a sincere interest in her community and others by actu- ally coming into the community and talking and listening to: needs, concerns, problems and solutions. Milly’s frustration with politicians that just show up during election time and then disappear after they have been elected is very disheartening to her community and other minority communities. She expressed that her culture believes in neighborhood members looking after each other, but that government can go a long way in helping with the many issues and problems that plague an urban set- ting. Milly shared stories which showed hope in the future especially in a number of programs with which she has been involved, like her Snow Angels program where young kids from the city mobilize and shovel snow for over 100 seniors who cannot shovel their own sidewalks and walkways. Milly invited us to “come into her community” and learn, talk, share and celebrate her culture and her people. A true eye-opening address that challenges us to embrace our minority neighbors openly and honestly, from someone who truly practices what she preaches. Our sincere thanks to Milly for her thoughtful words and suggestions. Mary Erdman, Program Chair MARCH HOT TOPIC: IMPACT OF DEVELOPMENT ON BIRD POPULATIONS Have you ever noticed how many of our newer high-rise town Allentown development in relation to the local bird office buildings are being constructed with almost all-glass population.

Load more