The Farmers and the Cowboys Should be Friends

February 6th , 2004

You remember the song “The Farmers and the Cowboys Should be Friends” from Oklahoma. Well, I’d like to change the titled to “The Hellertonians and the Lower Sauconites Should be Friends.” The century old animus between the two communities has now gotten very silly and worse, very expensive and destructive. It is time for it to end now. And dare I say it, it is time for Hellertown to become part of Lower Saucon and abandon its independent borough status.

The advantages of such a merger are the following:
From Lower Saucon’s prospective, it solves a zoning problem that has resulted in disastrous over building in the township. This overbuilding not only effects the quality of life in the area, it vastly increases property taxes for all taxpayers in the Saucon Valley School District. The reason is that almost all new construction in Lower Saucon is likely to be populated by one or more children. Off the top of my head, I would say that two is average. The rough cost of educating each child in the district is $10,000 without considering capital costs (i.e., school construction). The taxes likely to be developed from each new home, at the present tax rate, are likely to be an average of well under $5,000. Accordingly, each new house in Lower Saucon is likely to cost the school district an additional $15,000 a year. The only way the district can bear that expense is by raising taxes.

The reason Lower Saucon’s Council permits such overbuilding is that essentially they can’t do otherwise.. Yes they can slow down the process by putting builders through the hoops, although the Council will never admit to doing so, but in the end they have no choice. State law requires the township to provide zoning for high density areas and even, are you ready for this?, trailer parks. Fortunately nobody has tried to build one yet.

And here is where Hellertown comes in. If the two communities were merged, Lower Saucon would already have a high density area (Hellertown) and could then zone for much more open land than is now possible.

From Hellertown’s prospective, it must first be realized that Hellertown is entirely land locked so that it has no possibility for increasing its tax base. In an era where costs are ever increasing, Hellertown must sooner or later raise taxes in the borough beyond the ability of their taxpayers to pay or go bankrupt. Neither prospect is inviting.

The fact is that a merger with Lower Saucon would result in considerable savings for Hellertown and, not incidentally, Lower Saucon as well. A combined police department would result in a net saving and no less police protection for both communities. The same could be said for maintenance and roads. There would be no need for two water authorities nor the various commissions that are duplicated in both communities. And savings would be realized in the structure of government from government bureaucracies through political officials to the cost of government buildings. Obviously, too, Hellertown’s tax rate would be lowered reflecting the savings achieved by the merger.

Why hasn’t this happened before now? In the first place, for historic reasons Hellertonians often thought that they were looked down upon by people in Lower Saucon. Or they may simply have been jealous When Bethlehem Steel was in its heyday, the executives tended to live in Lower Saucon and built their exclusive country clubs there. The Hellertown steel workers were seldom in the executive ranks at Steel. Whatever the history, some of this attitude still exists in Hellertown although it is probably fair to say that is pretty much confined to the older generation.

Second, Hellertown residents have considerable pride in their borough, and rightly so. It is hard for them to give up their separate identity even though that may be the wisest course. But if I remember my bible correctly, pride goeth before destruction.

Third, some council members in both communities have been reluctant to seize the idea. In part that is due to the political risk of failure. In part it has to do with the reluctance to give up or share control and the danger of being left behind in a new political structure.

The reality, of course, is that the politicians are not in charge of this situation. The voters are. Under the law as I understand it, in order to effect a merger between two adjacent communities a number of citizens in each community must petition the court to put the matter on the ballot. Once placed on the ballot, a majority of voters in each community must vote for the merger if it is to take effect.

Before such a petition should be filed or a vote taken, there are numerous problems that need to be worked out. Some of those have to do with what the new government structure will be. Is it to have a governing council which appoints a manager, as both Hellertown and Lower Saucon do now, or is it to be a government headed by a directly elected mayor who has real power and who works with an elected council much as the president does with congress. And how can each community be assured a proportionate share of the council? Perhaps rather than voting for councilmen at large as Lower Saucon does, a system of councilmanic districts could be instituted. Others have to do with the location of facilities and services. Whatever the problems, work needs to begin on resolving them.

The only way a merger will ever happen is if a group of citizens get together to spearhead the effort. They will have to choose a leader who is willing to devote the time and energy to assemble to tackle the problem. If anyone wishes to volunteer for such a committee, please contact me. I am not the person to serve as leader, but I would very much like to help form the committee.

The time to begin is now. This will not happen overnight, but the consequences of it not happening soon will be painful indeed.