Use the Easton Parking Authority garage in the 300 block of Pine Street with caution.

The garage may be in a worse state of disrepair than that reported in today’s The Express-Times article “Price tag for garage maintenance: $482,435.”

This caution is supported by an earlier Express-Times article, dated December 11, 1995, titled “Easton Ponders garage warning.”

The article is reproduced as follows:
“The Easton Parking Authority will soon decide whether to have consultants study a possible structural problem at the South third Street parking garage - a problem the city was warned of 20 months ago.

“Some of the steel-cable tendons that run crosswise through the garage’s concrete decks have snapped, and some now protrude through the concrete.

“The authority’s solicitor [Philip Lauer] said the problem doesn’t appear all that serious.

“But a consultant said there might be more damage hidden in the decks.

“‘I’m not concerned that this (a collapse) could happen tomorrow morning, but there’s an issue of ignorance here,’ said Michael dimitri, president of Ramp Associates in huntington Station, N.Y.

“‘We really don’t know what the status of these tendons are.’

“Dimitri said he has repeatedly asked the Easton Parking Authority to investigate the possible problem.

“‘We’ve done everything we could to urge them to look into this but the wheels grind slowly,’ he said.  ‘It’s something that must be looked at.’

“The 21-year-old, four-story garage has 554 parking spaces and about 14,000 square feet of commercial space.  It’s expected to be used more in 1996 and beyond as tourists flock to the Two Rivers Landing visitors center and city offices move into the Alpha Building.

“Ramp Associates first suggested studying the tendons in April 1994, and the authority at that time told its solicitor, Philip Lauer, to look into it.

“Lauer said, ‘We had the architectural firm that designed the garage come in and evaluate the situation, and they pretty much concluded that there was not an emergency of any kind they could see.’

“Lauer said the architects told the authority other garages of similar design had suffered similar damage without causing any major problems.  But the architects also suggested the authority survey the condition of the tendons, he said.

“In its May 1995 annual report, Ramp Associates noted a new broken tendon and evidence of leakage around others.

“‘We strongly urge that the Easton Parking Authority and the City of Easton proceed with the recommended investigation to ensure that the structural integrity of the parking garage is maintained,’ the report says. ‘It will not be possible to allow tendons to continue to break without taking some remedial action.’

“Dimitri said if a bunch of tendons right next to each other all snap, it could lead to a localized collapse.  In easton’s case the tendons known to be broken are ’scattered widely throughout the building,’ he said.

“But those are just the ones the ones visible because they’ve snapped through the concrete in which they’re embedded, he said.  Others might be damaged but unnoticed.  If there is a problem, it must be found and corrected, he said.”

When I requested the minutes of the meeting at which this warning occurred from City of Easton Clerk Tom Hess, who is also secretary to the parking authority, he told no such meeting had ever taken place.

Hess did not take kindly to my asking questions at City Hall.  In 2003, he filed a charge of harassment against me when I went to the clerk’s office seeking the copy of a letter Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli had written City of Easton officials urging them to approve a Keystone Opportunity Zone tax exemption for Developer Abraham Atiyeh’s Cinema Paradiso.

I reciprocated by alleging that Hess had harassed me.  Nazareth Distruct Justice Elmo Frey, Jr., heard both charges and dismissed both.

Then, on April 16, 2007, in the Acopian Room of the State Theatre, City of Easton Police Captain Michael Vangelo physically attacked me in an effort to remove me from Easton Mayor Philip B. Mitman’s “State of the City” presentation.

Easton Democratic mayoral candidate Sal Panto approached me, told me I had done a “good job,” which I knew I had, and with that I agreed to leave.

I knew I had done a “good job” because I had exposed the truth about another Easton Parking Authority project in Easton, RiverWalk and its companion project, “Bushkill Village,” of which RiverWalk is an integral part.

After leaving the State Theatre, in the company of William “Little Bear” Brennan - who with Tom Jones and others had witnessed the scene in the Acopian Room -  he and I went to the Easton Police Station where pictures were taken of my injuries and where I filed a complaint.

Little Bear then accompanied me to Easton Hospital where I was treated for my injuries and released.

The Easton Police took testimony from Little Bear, Sal Panto, Lafayette College Executive Assistant to college President Daniel Weiss, Gary Evens, but not from Mayor Mitman or J. Michal Dowd, who, like Evans, was one of the presenters at the evening’s affair.

The Easton police refuse to release copies of the report of the evening’s incident to me or the public.