At its Aug. 25 meeting, Northampton County's nine-member Gaming Board met for the latest round of grant applications for casino slots revenue. A few months ago, it approved grants limited to the municipalities surrounding the Sands Casino in Bethlehem. Those are known as impact grants, meaning they are intended to address financial needs caused by gaming.

This latest round is for everyone; all 38 boroughs, townships and cities within the county. There is no need to show impact.

Only one application per municipality is accepted, although three Slate Belt municipalities - Pen Argyl, Wind Gap and Plainfield - combined forces for a joint application to help fund a regional police department. The maximum grant is $50,000 per municipality, to be spent within the next year.

Thirty-five applications, each seeking a piece of $1.5 million, were reviewed. Only West Easton and Upper Mount Bethel failed to apply. Thirteen municipalities failed to send a representative. Gaming Board members were also advised by Executive Director Karen Collis that some unnamed municipalities failed to spend the grants awarded the previous year, or have failed to provide documentation indicating how the grant award was disbursed. This is a factor that will be considered by Gaming Board members in deciding whether to award an additional grant.

Board members plan to rate these grant requests individually before they meet again to decide on awards at their Sept. 22 meeting.

In the Bethlehem Press circulation area, the following grant requests are under review:

·Bethlehem City - $49,868 for three additional surveillance cameras along the Fourth Street corridor on the city's Southside. There are already 28 cameras along Third and Fourth streets enabling police to monitor activity in real time, funded in part by Lehigh University. Commissioner David Willard said this proposal, along with Lehigh University's commitment to pay for even more cameras to protect students and local businesses, has "great merit."

·Bethlehem Township - $43,380 to clean and restore the interior of the Archibald Johnston mansion, located at Housenick Park. Township commissioners have already hired the Spillman Farmer architectural firm to design ADA accessible restrooms on the interior of the home of Bethlehem's first mayor.

·Freemansburg - $50,000 for computer servers and other operational technology. Freemansburg has only 2,700 residents, and those are largely seniors or people of very modest means. Borough manager Judith Danko and two borough council members advocated on their behalf. Mayor Gerald Yob is also a member of the Gaming Board.

·Hanover Township - $39,000 for two radar speed signs, which shows individual speed of a vehicle to alert the driver if he is going too fast. The township will purchase another two on its own. "I understand you have a top score on one of them!" Gaming Board Chair Jay Finnigan joked to fellow board member Tony Pristash.

·Hellertown. - $42,995 for a police Interceptor, replacing an aging Crown Victoria.

·Lower Saucon Township - $9,398 to install security cameras in portions of the municipal complex.