City of Easton Honors Outgoing Lafayette College President

By Christina Georgiou

About 40 city and college officials, joined by a few members of the community, gathered at the Grand Eastonian's Gold Room Tuesday evening to honor outgoing Lafayette College president Daniel Weiss.

Weiss, who has led the College Hill academic institution for the past eight years, is credited with leading a push to establish a closer relationship between the Lafayette College and Easton communities.

Outgoing Lafayette College
president Daniel Weiss
watches the presentation
by the City of Easton
to honor him Monday
evening.

Both current Easton mayor Sal Panto and former Mayor Phil Mitman were on hand for the event, and thanked Weiss for the college's support of local initiatives, such as the Third Street improvement project and development of the Silk Mill rehabilitation project along North 13th Street, as well as the institution's backing of the Easton Ambassadors.

Mitman said he clearly remembered when Weiss came to the city eight years ago, and suggested the Ambassadors program be started.

"It's an expensive program, but it's worth it," Mitman recalled Weiss saying.

"Your investment in the community is important, and we trust your successor will do the same," Mitman told Weiss.


Outgoing Lafayette College president Daniel Weiss watches
as a print of a painting depicting Easton's Centre Square
by local artist Preston Hindmarch is unveiled.

"The freshman handbook used to say, 'Do not go to Downtown Easton,'" Panto said. "We've come a long way since then. And it's not because Easton is a great city, but because Lafayette is a great college."

Panto also said he has faith the college will continue to cooperate with the city in community initiatives, but that he will miss Weiss.

"I know the trustees will continue the town-gown relationship, but I don't think your successsor will be able to fill your shoes," he said. "You're a true personality."

The mayor also issued a proclamation, naming Monday, May 20, 2013 "Daniel Weiss Day" in honor of the college president.

"I give a lot of proclamations, but I've only given this one seven times," Panto said of the naming of a day in honor of a specific person.

Weiss was also presented with a print of a watercolor painting by Easton artist Preston Hindmarch, which depicts Easton's Centre Square.

Weiss said he'll miss Easton and has immensely enjoyed the eight years he and his family spent in the city.

"I can't describe how much a part of Easton my family has felt," he said. "We were moved by this community right from the start. Partnering with the city was an obvious move from the start. I've worked with two mayors that were committed to the city and its wellbeing."

Weiss noted Lafayette College's long history, which spans nearly 200 years, and said the college plans to continue its academic tradition for "hundreds more". Working with the city should be part of the future too, he said.

"I don't think this is about a destination, but a journey we should travel together," Weiss said. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate your appreciation and support."

Weiss will step down as Lafayette College president after eight years of leadership with the end of this academic year. He is scheduled to take the reins of the presidency of Haverford College beginning July 1.



Alison Byerly
Photo courtesy of
Lafayette College

Alison Byerly will replace Weiss at Lafayette College, becoming the higher learning institution's 17th president and the first woman to lead the college.



Byerly comes to Lafayette from Middlebury College, where she's served in leadership roles  for the past 13 years, most recently as provost and executive vice president. She is credited in a media release issued by Lafayette as a "thought leader" on the role of technology in higher education, and has been a  visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Oxford University.

Byerly is set to take office at Lafayette on July 1.

Numerous Officials Celebrate Groundbreaking of New City Hall & Transportation Center

By Christina Georgiou

The project to build a new bus terminal has taken more than a decade and been passed along through the terms of four Easton mayors, but Easton's intermodal complex project is finally a "go", as 20 shovels were wielded by people who have played a part in making the project finally become a reality on Friday afternoon.

More than 100 people gathered on South Third Street to witness the groundbreaking ceremony for Easton's new City Hall and Transportation center complex.

The crowd, comprised  mostly of local and state officials of both government and area NGOs, braved a chilly wind as a small batallion of speakers praised the project's finally coming to fruition, after more than a decade of planning, changes and hurdles overcome to make the bus terminal a reality.

Full of praise for the final incarnation of the project, which will be built on the sites of the former Perkins restaurant and Marquis movie theater, one by one officials took to the podium.

"I know we've been accused of rushing things, but I don't think 12 and a half years is rushing things," said Easton Mayor Sal Panto, adding that "doing over" the Perkins site make him happy.

He noted the suburban style of the restaurant's architecture and site plan didn't fit in the city, but that doesn't mean more modern styles like the one that will grace the intermodal center's facade aren't a good idea.
 

 "As you walk Downtown, you can see we built according to the era," he said.

Fred Williams, a former Easton councilman and now LANTA's treasurer, praised the project and noted that change is part of the city.

"Believe it or not, this is the fourth groundbreaking I've been to on this street. I go back a long way," he said. "This is a great project of the city."

For bus passengers, the new terminal will be an improvement over the current one and allow them to be safer when waiting for transfers, Williams said.

He also noted the cooperation of officials over a long period of time to extend grant funding to make the new transportation center, which will also house Easton's new city hall, the National High School Hall of Fame, and a yet to be defined commercial space, a reality.

Planning for Easton's intermodal complex has spanned across
the terms of four Easton mayors. From left to right, current
Mayor Sal Panto, former Mayor Phil Mitman, former
Mayor Tom Goldsmith, and former Mayor Mike McFadden.

"It's not easy to get the right combination, to get local and state and the federal government to work together," he concluded.

One by one, state and local officials echoed that sentiment. The project, envisioned near the end of former Mayor Tom Goldsmith's term, was passed along through the terms of Tom McFadden and Phil Mitman too, to finally be inherited by Panto.

"It was quite a puzzle. As each mayor took office, he had to make the pieces fit. And now they're finally glued together," said Vice Mayor Ken Brown. "The complexity of our city has changed. Development is happening. Easton is changing."

Representing the Easton Parking Authority, which will run the new parking deck at the complex, Skip Fairchild said more parking is necessary to support the growth of tourism, business investment, and new housing in the city.

"I'd like to take the opportunity to say how excited the parking authority is to get this project off the ground, or into the ground, rather," Fairchild said.

However, site preparation construction won't begin in the first week of April as was  recently announced--rather it will more likely start at the beginning of May due to the geotechnical survey reports for the site just being completed now, Panto said.

Now that is done, the city needs to put the site prep work out for bid, he added.

Former mayors Tom Goldsmith and Mike McFadden, Easton
Councilwoman Sandra Vulcano, former Easton Mayor
Phil Mitman, Vice Mayor Ken Brown, and Easton City
Controller Tony Bassil prepare to wield shovels at
the groundbreaking ceremony for Easton's new City
Hall and Transportation Center on Friday afternoon.

The concrete footers and parking deck slabs were to be installed in late June or July, the mayor had previously said, and meeting that milestone is still being anticipated, Panto said.

"We think we'll still be on schedule for site work," Panto said.

"It's taken a number of years, but the that, the building has come full circle," Joseph Biondo of Spillman Farmer Architects. "Imagine this thing rising out of the ground in the next few months...It's going to be a civic building unlike any others seen in the Lehigh Valley."

"In many ways, spring symbolizes rebirth, and this project will be the catalyst to revitalize this neighborhood," said State Representative Bob Freeman, noting the street's past as home to the city's Lebanese community. "Unfortunately, mistakes were made during urban renewal."

Freeman said the project will bring opportunity back to the block.

Either in person or via representatives, State Senator Lisa Boscola, former State Senator Bob Mensche, Congressman Matt Cartwright, and others, echoed the sentiment that the new complex will be good for the city and aid in its economic development.

City Planning Director Becky Bradley and Easton
Councilman Jeff Warren smile broadly after taking
part in the groundbreaking ceremony Friday
afternoon.

"The Easton Intermodal Transportation Center is breathing new life into a city filled with vacancies by spurring new economic development that will draw people back to the downtown corridor," said Federal Transportation Authority administrator Peter Rogoff in a press release.  "This facility will also make it easier than ever for commuters from Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton to save money on gas by taking transit to jobs in Western New Jersey, Newark and New York City."

And then, the dirt of the "first" shovels to break ground on the site flew.