Latest News:
Don Cunningham's State of Lehigh County Address
Cunningham Proposes “Safe Streets” Program to Put Community Police on the Streets in Lehigh County
Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham Kicks off Courthouse Renovation and Expansion Project
Cunningham: Taxes To Remain Unchanged Through 2011
Lehigh County Awards Grant to City of Bethlehem – May 1, 2007
Lehigh County Awards Grant to Borough of Catasauqua – April 30, 2007
Lehigh County Awards Grant to City of Allentown – April 24, 2007
Lehigh County Awards Grants to Municipalities – April 23, 2007
Military tax rebate remarks to LVMAC – April 18, 2007
Vision 2010: Don Cunningham's 10 Point Plan for Lehigh County
- Convene Vision 2010 Countywide Planning Summit with our local government and business officials.
- Coordinate road, bridge and transportation planning to promote growth, revitalize cities, enhance downtowns and preserve greenfields and open space.
- Institute a County Main Street/Elm Street program and assign a coordinator to channel state and federal grants to improve and stabilize neighborhoods and downtowns.
- Create a high-level position in the executive office to focus on Inter-Municipal planning and Shared Services to help communities define opportunities for sharing services, reducing costs and creating efficiencies.
- Encourage the use of Council of Governments, which can adopt multi-municipal plans for city and township services.
- Create Development Zones in conjunction with state and municipal efforts that will aide developers and encourage economic investment in key commercial districts.
- Provide a voluntary "Smart Growth Template" that local governments could adopt within their planning and zoning codes to promote smart growth and open space preservation.
- Promote implementation of a "Conservation Overlay" in conjunction with municipalities along South Mountain to protect our mountainside and Lehigh River valley.
- Create a Greenway Belt along the Jordan Creek to connect the Allentown Park system with the Trexler Game Preserve.
- Work to make Route 22 safer and more efficient while also making mass transportation options part of the Lehigh Valley's long-term planning.
More On the Issues
1. Restore Fiscal Responsibility
- End deficit Spending
- Don't balance budgets with cash reserves and borrowed money
- Hold Discretionary spending increases to no more then the rate of inflation
- Institute County's first Five Year Fiscal Plan
- Drive a Quality Management program to improve business practices, reduce waste and create efficiency instead of just cutting employees
2. Put Basic Needs First
- Capital Spending to focus first on bridges, roads, prisons, and nursing homes and not on government office buildings and zoos.
- Invest capital dollars in regionalizing and upgrading crime fighting efforts and coordination among county public safety departments.
3. Economic and Community Development
- Change economic development focus away from big box warehouse and distribution centers that use large areas of land, create few jobs and put a tractor trailer traffic burden on local roads and instead focus on redeveloping, revitalizing--and helping small business
- Coordinate road, bridge and land use planning around revitalizing cities, small downtowns and brownfields and preserving greenfields and enhancing open space.
4. Vision 2010: Regionalization, Land Use and Planning for Future
- Lead a Joint business/government effort to implement practical, regional plans that save money create efficiency and improve service but don't erase political boundaries *Stop the selling of county-owned government land for commercial development
Stay Tuned! More specifics of the Cunningham Plan to come. Join the Cunningham campaign because It's Time for a Change in Lehigh County.
Phone:610-997-8182 :: Email:info@doncunningham.org :: Vote Don Cunningham for Lehigh County Executive