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Valentine's Day will be here before you know it, and a fun place to take your date is The Melting Pot in Bethlehem!
Manager Nikki Adams and server Collin Rowe dropped by to share some of the restaurant's favorite dishes.
Fiesta Cheese Fondue
4 oz Beer Base
2 oz fresh salsa
5 oz Starched Cheddar Cheese Blend
Jalapenos to your preference
Black Pepper
Blend together in fondue pot.
Dip different types of bread, such as baguette or honey wheat, apples, and vegetables.
Mojo Cooking Style
Start with vegetable broth,
Add Various Caribean Spices
1 Demi Fresh Garlic
Juice From Quarter Lime
Juice From Half Orange
Top with Fresh Chopped Cilantro
Combine and dip steak, chicken, lobster, shrimp.
Love Martini
1.5 oz Malibu rum
1.5 oz peach Schnapps
2 oz cranberry juice
Garnish with strawberry hearts
Chocolate S'mores Chocolate Fondue
Melted milk chocolate
One spoon marshmallow fluff
Flambé with 151 Rum
Top with crushed graham crackers
Dip strawberries, pineapple, Rice Krispie treats, pound cake, bananas, marshmallows, brownies.
Can also add Grand Marnier or Bailey's Irish Cream to the fondue.
Sunday better weather hot cl Wilson things over >>> jaciel cordoba: It's Friday.. so the kitchen is ready to go! This morning, we're welcoming back the Melting Pot of Bethlehem. Eve is in the kitchen right now with manager Nikki Adams and one of the servers Collin Rowe///so let's see what they have in store for us..!Good Sports. >>> jaciel cordoba: It's time to head back over to the kitchen this morning, where we're joined by the The Melting Pot of Bethlehem.>> eve tannery: Manager Nikki Adams and server Collin Rowe are in the kitchen with Matt now.. let's see what they ahve for us this time.. good morning guys! >> birthday Hey guys good morning things are much welcome are you Are you guys are good work him up on only one ear year biggest holidays, Valentine's Day right So why not do an entr?e shall we are right Because it finds a way is it yeah And it is telling i came in every single one is is is is not about one other night a and day and i think is an like it is a need in a room is the day and ain and i know you as Him so restaurant week that suck him in the end of the month right menu of specials for that type of thing you and i will And he Are a band ho can quickly and in eighteen and daring and is 18 and and is helping anything else In any and you and me and are right that you failing to come i is an eleven a.m. start on the money you and then Valentine's Day talk about that event from some of you and your reservations absolutely need to Write in it and i is hand in hand as now ingrained in him and as i is a lightning in a way to go all-out to the data handling and gate angling and get a drink and fruitful tournament in there before so like you said before the server will explain how many minutes to cook each thing right yet owns the basic rule of the logo motto is that owns the land significance and you are
Some fun is rolling into Allentown this weekend.
The Auto Mania show opens Friday at noon and runs through Sunday at Ag Hall at the Alllentown Fairgrounds, 302 N. 17th St.
It's Pennsylvania's largest indoor, heated swap meet.
Auto enthusiasts can buy, sell, and trade auto parts, memorabilia, and more! Over 100 vendors are set up with everything from rare car parts to vintage signs.
There will also be dozens of classic cars on display and for sale.
Admission is $10 for adults.
For hours and ticket information. visit the Auto Mania website.
the highlights next in sports. >>> jaciel cordoba: Some weekend fun is driving into Allentown.>> eve tannery: Auto Mania will be set up at Ag Hall... That's where WFMZ's Melanie Falcon is live this morning with a preview of the event.. Melanie?>> melanie falcon: ((sorry, no script in Bethlehem >>> jaciel cordoba: Car enthusiasts... get ready to rev your engines this weekend. >> eve tannery: The huge car event "Auto Mania" roll into Ag Hall in Allentown later today. WFMZ's Melanie Falcon is live there right now with a look at what you can expect.. Melanie?
A Monroe County man is facing charges as police say he sexually assaulted a minor girl.
Joseph Roselli, of East Stroudsburg, was arrested Wednesday and charged with aggravated indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, sexual abuse of children, corruption of minors and indecent assault.
State Police say the victim is a 14-year-old girl, and the assaults happened at the Winonna Lakes Development in Middle Smithfield Township in May and June of 2014.
Roselli is in the Monroe County Correctional Facility on $100,000 bail.
Police said he was currently on bail for other sexual assault charges in Stroud Township.
Emmaus officials took a big step Thursday night to consolidate borough hall and the police, fire and ambulance stations in one new location on the northeast side of town.
Borough council voted 6-1 to purchase the former headquarters of Rodale, Inc. at 33 E. Minor St. for $2.95 million.
Council members took that vote fully aware that:
Emmaus built a new police station less than a decade ago;Trains on railroad tracks behind the Rodale building may delay fire trucks and ambulances from reaching some parts of town;Some residents object to borough operations moving out of the center of town.
The borough plans to spend at least another $2.5 million to upgrade the Minor Street building for its new uses.
That project could take five to 10 years to complete.
“We’re not looking at moving everything tomorrow — it’s not a mad dash,” said borough manager Shane Pepe during Thursday’s special council meeting.
Pepe predicted the project can be completed without raising taxes on borough property owners.
Some of the 10 residents who addressed council before the vote expressed skepticism about the plan — and several asked tough questions — but only a few outright opposed it.
“As a long-term resident, as a taxpayer, I would really like you not to purchase the Rodale property,” declared resident Ed Iobst.
Resident Mark Heimbach suggested the borough “stay downtown” and improve Town Hall. He acknowledged it’s an old building but said it has a lot of character and “it’s nice having it here.”
Town Hall, which was built in 1938, is at Fourth and Jubilee streets.
Pepe said the proposed new borough hall will be less than a half mile away, but acknowledged people like it being in the middle of town.
The former Rodale headquarters covers 58,376-square feet— most of it on one level — on a five-acre property with a 104-space parking lot, near the intersection of Minor Street and Klines Lane.
Some residents were most concerned about losing
Central Station, which is the home of both the Emmaus Fire Department and Emmaus Ambulance Corps. That building, located at100 N. Sixth St., was built in 1980.
The police station along Jubilee Street behind Town Hall was completed in late 2006 for $2.5 million.
Iobst was skeptical about borough officials suggesting that eight-year-old police station is “under-sized and antiquated.”
If true, he suggested a couple of current council members who were serving when that station was constructed lacked foresight.
Jeff Shubzda was the only council member to vote against the building purchase, with no explanation during the meeting.
Shubzda later explained he is most concerned about the borough coming up with at least $2.5 million to renovate the building.
He also voted no because of the train tracks and the borough taking the Rodale building out of the tax base by buying it.
Shubzda said he was undecided when Thursday’s meeting began and wanted to hear what the public had to say.
“Future focused”
Nathan Brown and Brent Labenberg were the only two council members who offered the public an explanation for why they support the project before the vote.
Brown said council is being “future focused.”
Council members knew about the plan to purchase the Rodale building since late August, when it went on sale.
But residents who packed council chambers in Town Hall Thursday were hearing the first public presentation of the plan, just before borough council voted to approve it.
Some residents complained the process was moving too quickly.
Pepe explained council had to act Thursday night because Rodale gave Emmaus only 30 days to make a decision from Dec. 19, when Rodale and the borough agreed on a price for the sale.
Council member Roy Anders asked if the vote could be delayed until council’s next meeting on Monday night, to give the public more time to digest the information.
“Due to our 30-day time period, we need to make that decision tonight,” said council president Lee Ann Gilbert. “Our 30 days are up on the 19th.”
Labenberg said since Dec. 19, others have made offers to Rodale for that building, “and we know some of those offers were several hundred thousand dollars more than what we locked in.”
Pros and cons
Pepe presented both advantages and “serious” disadvantages of purchasing the Rodale building during a detailed Power Point presentation lasting more than an hour. (That presentation is under “council meetings” on the borough’s website: borough.emmaus.pa.us.)
He said an obvious disadvantage is: “It’s a change. And most people don’t like change.”
“The purchase is for the purpose of ultimately relocating all of our governmental operations to a central location adjacent to the public works facilities, which are located on Klines Lane,” explained Pepe.
He said that consolidation of operations will increase efficiency, save money on utility and maintenance costs and give borough government room for future expansion.
“You can do all your business with the government in one building,” he said.
Although resident Kent Fitzgerald said the Rodale building is in a “marginal location,” he got the best laugh of the evening when he said: “I like the idea of going down there, dropping off my yard waste, paying our water bill and bailing out Cousin Eddie — all in one stop.”
Concerns about trains
Pepe said the nearby railroad tracks are serious disadvantage of the Rodale building’s location, because freight trains regularly rolling through town block Klines Lane many times each day.
When that happens in the future, emergency vehicles leaving the new borough complex will have to go to Fourth Street, where a bridge goes over the two sets of tracks, or to 10th Street, where an underpass goes beneath the tracks.
Pepe said the greatest concern is the delays trains may cause fire trucks and ambulances responding to emergencies.
He said trains will have less impact on police response times because police cars are out patrolling borough streets most of the time.
Council member Labenberg said there is potential for an underpass to be installed on Klines Lane, like the 10th Street underpass. “It may not be five years, it may not be 10,” he said.
“There could possibly be future improvements at the railroad crossings,” said Pepe. “We’re not suggesting that’s going to happen.”
Fitzgerald, who identified himself as a member of the Emmaus Fire Department, said when passing trains close Klines Lane, emergency response times will go up by one minute, which he called a 50 percent increase.
At those times, said Fitzgerald, parts of Emmaus will be difficult to reach, including Harrison and State streets. He added: “That’s a very popular location for motor vehicle accidents and spills.”
He said getting to that area when a train is crossing will involve “going almost a mile in the opposite direction.”
But council member Brown said Emmaus, which covers less than three square miles, is blessed to have four-minute response times on emergency calls, compared to 14 to 16 minutes in some townships.
Fitzgerald argued the borough should keep the Central Fire Station, saying it was built because of its central location.
Former council member Michael Waddell questioned whether council considered consolidating borough operations at Central Station, by expanding into the park and ballfield behind it.
“We have not had that conversation,” said Pepe.
Seven Generations
The Seven Generations charter school currently leases about 20 percent of Rodale’s Minor Street building.
The borough manager hopes that lease will continue for many years, because it will generate revenue.
The borough only intends to use about 65 percent of the existing building, said Pepe.
He hopes the borough will lease additional unneeded space to others, including a second level in the middle section of the building, with access via an elevator.
Resident John Donches expressed concern about the safety of fire trucks, police cars and ambulances responding to emergencies on the same narrow streets used by school buses and parents picking up and dropping off their children at Seven Generations.
Donches and others also objected to the borough competing with private businesses by becoming a landlord.
The sale process
The borough already has spent about $11,000 on the building project, according to Pepe, to have Spillman Farmer Architects do a feasibility study and Raymond Geiger develop appraisals to determine the value of all the buildings involved.
The borough’s purchase of the Rodale building is being handled by Feinberg Real Estate Associates, which has been involved in “non-binding” negotiations with Rodale.
The next step in the process will be signing a purchase agreement.
Pepe said Rodale is giving Emmaus 120 days from the signing of that purchase agreement to secure financing and close the deal, although he said the borough solicitor may request a 60-day extension.
He said Rodale wanted $3.49 million for its building, which actually is a series of interconnected structures, the newest built in 1992.
Someone in the audience claimed the oldest sections are about 50 years old.
Geiger had advised council in a closed-door executive session that Rodale’s asking price was not unreasonable, but the actual value was lower.
Most of the building apparently has been vacant for at least a couple of years.
Some residents also expressed concerns about the loss of tax revenue by the borough buying the building.
Parking lot and home included
The $2.95-million sale price includes a parking lot, which has at least 35 spaces, at 10 E. Minor St. — directly across the street —and a stone house next door at 151 E. Minor.
Pepe said the borough was not pursuing getting that house, but Rodale offered “to throw it in with the deal.”
He said the 1,250-square-foot Cape Cod-style house could be rented, sold or torn down to make way for another entranceway serving the new borough municipal campus.
“Stick to the plan”
Pepe said Emmaus can pay off the Rodale building in 10 years from the date it is purchased, and not impact taxes, “if we stick to the plan.”
That plan involves using rental income to pay the mortgage on the building and selling other borough buildings — including Town Hall, the police station and Central Station —to pay for necessary renovations to the Rodale building.
Pepe said the borough could sell one of its buildings at a time and use that income to pay for the next phase of the project.
“If it takes 10 years, it takes 10 years,” he said.
Pepe shared one possible scenario where borough hall would move into the building in May 2016 and Town Hall would be sold by January 2017.
Under that scenario, the police station might not move until 2020 and it would take at least another year to sell the current station building.
“I’m not saying these are the dates or the order,” stressed Pepe.
He explained the mortgage will be paid by rental income from the charter school, by renting additional space in the building, by selling or leasing the house and by selling other unneeded properties owned by the borough, including 18 acres outside town.
Pepe said the borough also will seek grants to help pay for the renovation work.
Renovating Rodale building
Spillman Farmer’s representatives determined renovating and upgrading the Rodale building for the borough’s use will cost more than $3.4 million.
But Pepe said that construction cost can be reduced to $2.5 million by having borough public works employees do much of the work rather than paying private contractors.
“We have the skilled carpenters, the electricians, the plumbers; we have the guys that can do the cement work and the brick work.”
He acknowledged having borough employees do the work will take longer.
A projected $1.6 million of that renovation cost will be to add garages to the building for fire equipment, ambulances and police cars.
It has not yet been determined where those garages will be attached. They will expand the size of the building by nearly 11,000 square feet.
Restrooms in the building will require major renovations costing an estimated $200,000, because they “are very tight” and don’t meet requirements of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
Another $165,000 will be spent to create a new borough council meeting room and community rooms.
Town Hall problems
Pepe said Emmaus Town Hall has too many employees crammed into offices.
“Town Hall staff would move tomorrow if we’d let them,” he said.
He indicated the building lacks insulated windows, which means every office needs space heaters, which means fuses in the building frequently get blown.
He said the basement furnace was built for a home, not an office building,
He also said the building needs ADA improvements, a new section of roof and a security system — although an old jail cell still is in the basement.
Pepe said renovations to upgrade Town Hall would cost $382,500 to $396,500.
He said estimated costs to improve the existing police station range from $74,000 to more than $1 million.
The second estimate would be to expand the police station, either by closing an alley and connecting it to Town Hall or by building a second level on it.
Improving Central Station would cost an estimated $105,100, according to Pepe.
He also included $27,000 in improvements needed at the Weight Room, a borough building next to the baseball field behind Central Station. He envisions that building, which serves as a gym for borough employees, also being sold to help pay for the Rodale building renovations.
The industrial museum in the works in Northampton County needs additional accountability safeguards going forward, according to the state attorney general.
Kathleen Kane released the results Thursday of her office's review of the planned National Museum of Industrial History (NMIH) in Bethlehem.
Kane said her office has filed a decree for court approval to provide increased accountability and more safeguards after the museum raised funds for more than 17 years but still has not opened to the public.
In January 2014, a Northampton County grand jury that investigated the museum recommended Stephen Donches should resign as president, CEO and director of the museum or be fired.
After more than 17 years and up to $19 million in contributions, the museum has not been built.
The museum review began after the case was referred by the grand jury, and fell under the scrutiny of the Office of Attorney General's Charitable Trusts and Organizations Section.
The attorney general found "no criminal wrongdoing, or misappropriation or inappropriate diversion of the museum's charitable assets."
In addition, the review found the museum's directors acted in what they believe to be "the best interest of the organization and have personally contributed the bulk of NMIH's funding."
The attorney general's office determined that the museum is in a viable financial position to complete the museum in the near future.
The NMIH's board member have agreed to the following stipulations in order to keep the museum's continued viability:
* Cease the payment of any further compensation to the museum's former chief executive officer;
* Retain a new chief executive officer within the next year who is experienced and qualified in museum management;
* Open to the public as an operating museum within the next two years;
* Subject the museum's finances to heightened and ongoing oversight by the Attorney General through the completion of its construction and first two years of operation; and
* Seek the Court's approval to partner with outside charitable organizations or transfer its assets to an appropriate successor and dissolve, if the museum fails to open in the next two years.
According to a statement from NMIH chairman and interim president, Charles Marcon, "As we have maintained throughout this extended process, NMIH has demonstrated its compliance with Pennsylvania law governing the operation of charitable non-profit corporations.
"To the board, the most important part of the Consent Decree is the Attorney General’s indication that we can and should continue with our mission of building the Museum. To that end, we have already restarted construction with work on the first floor concrete slab and related underground utilities."
Marcon said bids for construction of the first floor will be received the week of January 26,, and should be completed by the end of September.
Work on installing exhibits will begin after that, with a target date for the museum to open by mid-2016.
Marcon said the search for a new executive director will start immediately, as outlined in the consent decree.
"We thank Steve Donches for his tireless commitment and dedication to our organization. Steve’s efforts and relationships were solely responsible for securing a $3 million grant to NMIH earlier in 2014, and additional funds prior, that will allow the organization to complete the Museum’s construction," Marcon said.
You can read Marcon's statement in its entirety on the NMIH web site.
An 18-year-old woman who plunged to her death while taking photographs from an eighth-floor window ledge in downtown Philadelphia has been identified as a first-year Temple University student.
Police say the student slipped and fell Thursday evening and landed on a pedestrian on the sidewalk outside an H&M store on Chestnut Street.
The 44-year-old pedestrian is hospitalized with broken vertebrae and missing teeth.
Police say the student fell as she tried to re-enter the window from the ledge of the building near tony Rittenhouse Square Park. She was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later.
Temple says it's deeply saddened. The university says it's making counseling services available to grieving students.
Police are investigating what happened.
thieves are facing misdemeanor charges. >>> eve tannery: a Temple University student has died after falling from an eighth-floor window in Philadelphia. Police say the 18-year-old was taking photos from a window ledge on 16th and Chestnut streets, when she slipped and fell. She landed on a pedestrian on the sidewalk, who survived with minor injuries. Authorities say the student was pronounced dead at the hospital. Police
Bundle up today as temperatures will feel in the 20s, and will drop into the single digits tonight!
Setting up for a sunnier start to the day with temperatures down into the lower 20s.
Most of the day look for partly sunny skies. Daytime highs will touch the mid 30s, but because of the wind it will feel more like it's in the 20s.
The dry weather will continue for the first half of the weekend.
On Saturday, mostly sunny skies with highs reaching the middle 30s once again.
Warmer on Sunday as high temperatures warm into the low 40s but some rain is expected to push into the area as a storm system, developing down from the south moving up the coast, affects the region, so have the umbrella ready to go!
Best chance will be afternoon and evening hours. Looks like an all rain event but we will be watching for some icy conditions if the storm arrives earlier.
Clears by Monday leaving a mixture of sunshine and clouds with a few flurries.
Today: Sunny to partly cloudy and becoming breezy. High: 37
Tonight: Mainly clear and becoming much colder. (gusty wind this evening will diminish later) Low: 8
Saturday: Mostly sunny and colder. Clouds moving in at night… High: 27 Low: 19
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