Office Of The Mayor
Thomas M. McMahon


Mayor’s Report To City Council
October 9th, 2006

City-Wide Trash Program

On November 7, voters will make a decision as to whether we keep the current system, which I believe has failed us, or move to a city-wide system where we can begin to clean up the city.

We are now evaluating bids submitted last week; first to review the terms and conditions by our purchasing department and then a technical evaluation by public works to see if the bids are responsive to the request for proposals. This process is under way and will take a few more days until we have a good cost figure for the average household.

Our intent is to secure the best service for our citizens, and to have a system that is affordable for all our citizens, especially our seniors who occupy their own homes.

I continue to attend neighborhood meetings every evening so that I can tell the story of why we need to change to a city-wide system. Not only can we cut down on the number and destruction of trash fires, but we can also begin to stabilize property values, remove health hazards and create safe play areas for children. We fully expect the costs to be competitive to what most people are paying now, and because of the size of the city, to have lower trash removal costs than surrounding municipalities.

Crime Reduction

We held our third crime forum on Monday Oct 2 and that was the only date that was available in my calendar due to commitments for trash meetings. In essence, we provided the same information that was presented to council at the last council meeting, and gave the 75 or so attendees the opportunity to volunteer to help in various areas, such as recreation, mentoring, education, neighborhood organization, and crime watch groups. I want to thank those that attended and those who brought displays.

Special thanks to Carolina Tejada, Tito Rivero and Crystal Edwards who organized the crime forum and did an outstanding job of recruiting agencies to be at the information kiosks.

We tried to accommodate the city council meetings that night, and we understand that some members of council were detained at meetings in city hall. I regret that happened and in future events of this nature, we will make every effort to be sure that the meetings do not overlap.

One of the requests that was heard most often in the crime forums was the need for more police officers on the street. As you know, we were awarded a $250,000 per year grant for three years, to support the hiring of five new police officers. For the following three years, we are committed to fund these positions through city resources.

Chief Heim and I, along with a representative of Senator O’Pake’s office met with Colonel Miller, the head of the Pennsylvania State Police, to ask for more resources of state police for traffic and bar checks. He was receptive to our requests and we expect to see many more state police and liquor control enforcement officers in Reading over the next several months.

Together with the state police and sheriffs department, we conducted two weekends of successful safety inspections in September where we wrote close to 80 citations for driving without a license, and many other traffic related citations.

Chief Heim will be following up on many more of the initiatives suggested at the forums including the feasibility of reinstituting the K9 dogs; more technology such as camera systems, visibility of officers on bike patrol, etc.

We will also continue to work with the county on ideas like the quality of life court, more sweeps with operation night light, gang prevention sessions and inter-municipal cooperation.

Other activities:

1) Congratulations to Reading Area Community College on the opening of Schuylkill Hall, the former administration building for Penske as part of the expanding campus and adult education programs.

2) Also, congratulations to Alvernia College on the opening of the new O’Pake Science Center, which recognizes the many fine contributions that our Senator has made over the last 30 years to our community. The new center will enhance the science course offerings of Alvernia.

3) Among other kudos this month: The new Planetarium at the Reading Public Museum is state of the art and continues to be the best planetarium between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; a successful first year for the Professional Bull Riders seen by over 500 million people in about 80 different countries; the movie madness this week in the first ever Berks Film Festival by the Berks Arts Council and organized by Alan Shirk. We presented a key to the city to Michael Constantine who has brought us a large number of wonderful movies, such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding and we are so proud of him.

4) Thanks to the Berks Conservancy and the Pennsylvania Migrant Education Summer Mural for the beautiful mural at the 6th ward community garden on Buttonwood Street. The 2006 mural is entitled Por Qué Vinimos, Why We Came, and is a product of our local talent under the direction of Mike Miller.

5) I want to note the third successful Riverfest this year. Even though the weather was threatening, we had a good crowd, and the fireworks over the Penn St bridge were nothing short of spectacular. Thanks to all who helped, especially Cindy Kaufman, Dr. Gust Zogas and the entire committee. We have great ideas to make Riverfest even better next year.