The Bethlehem City Council held a finance committee meeting April 15, in which the committee voted 2-1 in favor of voting May 6 on a proposed citywide hiring freeze. Fire, police, EMS and seasonal employees will not be affected by the proposed freeze.

In Mayor Robert Donchez's quarterly report to council, he reported that the city has a cash-on-hand balance of a little more than $1 million. "That is normal for this time of year," he said. "We came into 2013 with a little over a million on hand, too. At this point we have a lot of cash on hand, but we need to watch ourselves carefully as we move through the other quarters."

Donchez reminded council that cash-on-hand will be reduced as debt payments and pensions come due at the end of the fourth quarter.

Donchez also reported that he recently returned from a city management retreat.

"We spent our time talking about finding dollars and how to implement change," he said. "At the end of June we will present our six-month review and our five-year financial plan. That plan will be well instituted by our managers and administration."

It was also reported to council that the particularly snowy winter of 2014 caused a large increase in snow and ice removal costs for the city. Budgets for snow removal are based on the average amount of snowfall received over the past five years. The winter of 2014 saw snow removal costs rise to more than double what was budgeted.