Resident urges one-way alley, says stop sign ignored and livestream audio inaudible
Summary
A Northampton resident told council that vehicles regularly run a stop sign behind 20 First Street and asked the borough to make the alley one-way; he also said the council livestream audio is often inaudible, raising transparency concerns.
George Fetchko, a resident of 20 First Street, told the Northampton Borough Council on Sept. 2 that drivers “just blow through” the stop sign in the alley behind his home and asked whether the borough could make the alley one-way to reduce speeding and unsafe conditions. “How can we go about making that alley a 1 way to keep the cars? Always like 4 or 05:00, the cars come flying down,” Fetchko said during the public-comment period.
Fetchko also told council members he watches meetings online but cannot hear the meeting audio clearly on the livestream. “I usually watch it on on the video, but I can never hear nobody…I think you we we can't read lips, and I think you're trying to pass stuff without us knowing because we can't hear,” he said.
The concern about alley traffic followed other remarks in the meeting about truck and cut-through traffic from multiple council members and staff, who referenced alley use and a broader need to study traffic patterns. Council did not take a formal vote or direct staff to take immediate action on the alley during the meeting; Fetchko’s remarks were recorded during the public-comment portion. Council members later discussed sending staff to traffic-related training offered by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission to seek strategies for handling truck and alley traffic.
Council did not announce a specific follow-up timeline or assigned staff contact on the alley one-way request during the meeting.
