Office Of The Mayor
Thomas M. McMahon


Mayor’s Report To City Council
March 26th, 2007

Public Safety:

I want to give recognition to the patrol officers and supervisors, and to our entire police department for the excellent cooperation with the Pa State Police and the Office of the Attorney General. As you know, I reported at the last council meeting that we rounded up members of a very significant drug ring which was distributing about 600 kilos in Reading and other cities on the Route 222 corridor.

Within the past two days, our officers assisted by the VIPER unit, made another series of arrests, and there will be more to come. Thanks once again for a job well done. It is making a significant difference in the area.

As was reported in the paper yesterday, this is an opportunity for people with addictions to get the help they need. There are a lot of references in the Reading Eagle article on Sunday and I believe that Councilwoman Goodman-Hinnerschitz can also comment on assistance that is available.

Chief Heim is away attending a seminar on advanced crime fighting technology, but wanted me to remind you of the good progress we are making in reducing the crime events in the city. We believe that, together will stronger enforcement of codes and housing laws, we will continue to make significant progress.

The anti gang effort along the Route 222 corridor is active and contributed to the cooperative effort for the drug bust.

Crime status meetings are happening monthly to bring command staff, platoon lieutenants, along with supervisors and officers together to discuss crime and disorder issues.

We also want to reinforce the need for a camera system in the central business district initially, with later expansion to other parts of the city. As mentioned earlier, this is part of the overall plan to make Reading a safer place and we hope that council gives full support.

Recent Events – 17th Annual First Energy Berks Jazz Fest – another successful year with 10 full days of Jazz, closing yesterday, and a production of the Berks Arts Council. The town was jumping with the sounds of Jazz all over Greater Reading with about 130 separate performances, drawing about 50,000 people to our area who not only enjoy the music, but also support our hotels and restaurants. Thanks again to all who supported this and to the hundreds of volunteers who continue to come out every year to help.

Upcoming Events: The first annual cherry blossom festival is scheduled from April 8-22 with a large array of activities starting with a Japanese tea ceremony at the Pagoda following the Easter dawn service on Easter Sunday at 6:30 am.

There will be many events over the two week period, including a sushi and sake ceremony on Friday, April 20 and a canoe flotilla on Saturday, April 21. The entire festival is sponsored by Riverplace Development Corporation and the Greater Reading Convention and Visitors Bureau, and is being spearheaded by Doug Fisher of Pagoda Printing and the Discoveries Gallery on Penn St.

I want to congratulate Central Catholic High School for winning the PIAA Class A championship over Dubois last week. They did an outstanding job and many of them will be here two weeks from now so we can give them the proper recognition and honors.

I spoke to DuBois Mayor Herm Suplizio earlier in the week, and we made a bet on whose team would win. If we lost, we sent him a can of pretzels, if he lost he sends us boxes of chocolates. Now even though Reading Central Catholic won over DuBois Central Catholic, I have decided to send the mayor a tin of Pretzels as a consolation prize and told him we are hoping to have both teams get together again next year.