Fountain Hill Gets Casino Grant for Road Upgrades

The and Fountain Hill Borough were awarded $90,000 from Lehigh County’s portion of gaming host fees from the  in Bethlehem, Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham announced Wednesday.

Both municipalities will use the money for costs associated with increased traffic from the casino, officials said.

“Fountain Hill and Salisbury are the most impacted among Lehigh County’s municipalities, because they are closest to the site,” Cunningham said.

Fountain Hill will receive $61,748 from slot machine revenue, which will go towards about $1 million in upgrades to Delaware Avenue to handle the increased traffic, said Fountain Hill Borough Council President Larry Rapp.  The money will help pay for curbs, sidewalks and handicap ramps, Rapp said.

Fountain Hill will receive $12,025 from table game revenue to cover the training of an additional police officer, he said.

“Under the unique host-fee sharing structure that we negotiated here in the Lehigh Valley, Lehigh County’s municipalities have an opportunity to recapture some of the money that they spend in maintaining adequate safety and infrastructure for the increased demands created by gaming,” Cunningham said.

Salisbury Township will receive  $15, 447  from slot machine revenue to help pay for traffic safety enforcement along the casino corridor --- E. Emmaus Avenue, E.  Susquehanna Street and Broadway --- in the eastern part of the township.

Salisbury Police Chief Allen Stiles said the money will help pay for police officers to monitor and enforce traffic laws in that area, which should cut down on accidents. He said these are high accident areas.

"In the past year and a half, we have seen an increase in traffic along that corridor," Stiles said.

“We are so busy that we don’t have time for the traffic enforcement we should be doing, " he said.

The money will also be used to help pay for an LED traffic sign they can place in various areas, Stiles said. The sign would  "tell people to slow down and to inform them it is a traffic safety corridor to help prevent some traffic crashes, speeding and other unsafe conduct," he said.

In previous years, Stiles said, he had to pay overtime to his officers to provide the needed traffic enforcement.

Last year, Salisbury received $6,800 from the casino host fee grants.

"Because it was pretty successful last year, we asked for more funding this year to help pay for overtime and to do more," Stiles said.

"We couldn't do additional traffic enforcement without additional funds. It would be impossible."

Stiles said while they have not conducted traffic studies at the intersection of the three roads, "it is just very obvious to us because of the way traffic backs up at certain times of the day."  He said traffic backs up between 6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

"We believe a large amount of traffic is going to the casino through those roads. It's definitely having an impact on us and the Fountain Hill Police Department," Stiles said.

Cunningham said Lehigh and Northampton each have their own processes for disbursement.

A committee was formed, consisting of Cunningham, Director of Community and Economic Development Cindy Feinberg, Commissioner Dean Browning and Commissioner Glenn Eckhart, to discuss how the money should be distributed.

It was decided that those in closest proximity to the casino would apply for grants and be approved based on the quality of the grants.

In addition to Salisbury,  last year Fountain Hill received $49,000 and Coopersburg received $1,300 from casino host fee  grants, according to Browning.

The grants annonced today are recommendations that must be approved by the Lehigh County board of commissioners after two public readings.  The first reading was completed at Wednesday night's commissioner's meeting.