{"id":290265,"date":"2026-09-20T12:29:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T12:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/290265\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T12:29:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T12:29:04","slug":"hellertown-remains-in-talks-with-lower-saucon-fire-rescue-saucon-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/290265\/","title":{"rendered":"Hellertown Remains in Talks with Lower Saucon Fire Rescue \u2013 Saucon Source"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hellertown Borough Council opened its Sept. 8 meeting with a short statement from Council President Lynley Solt that the borough is still in active negotiations with Lower Saucon Fire Rescue<\/a> over expanding fire protection services inside Hellertown.<\/p>\n

Solt delivered the fire services update immediately after acknowledging council had just met in executive session for \u201congoing negotiations and potential purchase of property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solt added the borough \u201cdoes continue to engage in discussions with Lower Saucon Fire Rescue regarding the potential expansion of fire protection services within the borough of Hellertown,\u201d and said \u201cthe negotiations are ongoing and no final agreements have been reached at this time.\u201d She said the borough is \u201cworking collaboratively with all parties involved, including Dewey (Fire Co.).\u201d<\/p>\n

Solt concluded, \u201cWe appreciate the community\u2019s continued interest and patience as we discuss the progress amongst the parties involved and will provide additional information when it\u2019s appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Full-time Police Officer OK\u2019d<\/p>\n

Council unanimously authorized advertising for a new full-time police officer \u2014 a slightly retroactive vote, Solt noted, because the borough\u2019s second August meeting had been canceled.<\/p>\n

Council also authorized transferring $4,000 to match for a police desktop computer grant. Chief James Baitinger said the department\u2019s desktops are more than 10 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only have one operating computer in the squad room. We\u2019re really in desperate times here with the operating system that\u2019s on them,\u201d he told council.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chief: No Flock Cameras in Hellertown<\/p>\n

Prompted by online chatter, Mayor David Heintzelman asked Baitinger to address whether the borough has installed Flock automated license plate readers.<\/p>\n

Baitinger\u2019s answer was blunt: no.<\/p>\n

The chief said the department examined Flock ALPRs during a brief trial period which was cut short after the equipment did not perform as the vendor had described. Four cameras were installed at proposed borough entry and exit points, and he ordered them removed when the trial ended. One near the diner at the south end of Main Street was inadvertently left in place until it was flagged to him online. It was pulled down shortly thereafter, Baitinger said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any Flock in the borough itself,\u201d Baitinger said. \u201cNot saying they are not in Northampton County. There\u2019s quite a few,\u201d he added. \u201cA promise was made that they couldn\u2019t deliver on, so we pulled out of that deal with Flock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hellertown cruisers do carry vehicle-mounted license plate readers used for traffic enforcement, the chief said, and courts have consistently ruled that a license plate in public view is not private.<\/p>\n

Halloween Parade Update<\/p>\n

Heintzelman said the annual Halloween parade is set for Sunday, Oct. 18 at 2 p.m., with no rain date. A post-parade community gathering at Dimmick Park will proceed rain or shine. The parade route is a loop that includes a portion of Main Street between Water and Walnut streets. The event typically draws thousands of spectators and features a wide variety of floats, bands, street performers, police and fire trucks and more.<\/p>\n

The mayor said he can no longer chair the parade after decades of running it, and that despite three residents offering to help, no one has stepped forward to on the role of chair. He plans to issue a more detailed announcement at the next meeting.<\/p>\n

The next Hellertown Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. at Borough Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hellertown Borough Council opened its Sept. 8 meeting with a short statement from Council President Lynley Solt that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,16129,120466,109866,74808,7232,204,79590,108764,10495,206],"class_list":["post-290265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-borough-council","tag-dewey","tag-fire-services","tag-flock","tag-halloween-parade","tag-hellertown","tag-license-plate-reader","tag-lower-saucon-fire-rescue","tag-meeting","tag-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}