Sixteen Northampton County municipalities will be receiving $710,747 thanks to the Sands Casino. At its Sept. 23 meeting, Northampton County's nine-member Gaming Authority chose these local governments among 35 applications for a slice of gambling pie. Each was limited to one application for a maximum grant of $50,000. Placing a priority on public safety, the Board voted to spend most of the money on police functions.

Northampton County's Gaming Authority is an independent body that has the responsibility of dividing slots tax revenue from Bethlehem's Sands Casino among the county's 38 municipalities.

This year, approximately $1.6 million was available. Table tax revenue is administered by the county.

Under state law, the board is required to give first priority is given to what are called impact grants. Those are limited to Bethlehem, Northampton County and the five municipalities surrounding that city. Those grants were awarded in April to deal with the problems caused by gambling, from increased traffic to helping people with addiction problems.

This latest round of grants was open to the entire county, with no need to show impact. All municipalities, with the exception of West Easton and Upper Mount Bethel filed applications. There was also a combined application for a regionalized police department from Wind Gap, Pen Argyl and Plainfied.

Each of the 35 applications received a numerical rating by each board member.

The sixth highest rated application was the combined request by Wind Gap, Pen Argyl and Plainfield for $150,000 to help establish the Slate Belt Police Department, a new regional police force. This project had the support of Northampton County Council member Scott Parsons, who was President of Wind Gap Borough Council. But Ken Kraft, the Northampton County Council non-voting liaison, argued that application should be rejected because Wind Gap mishandled a previous grant award in 2012.

Executive Director Karen Collis explained that the previous grant award to Wind Gap "fell within the scope of the entire project." She added that Wind Gap did file a late compliance report, but did return unspent grant funds.

Kelly pointed out that Wind Gap's noncompliance was made known to all board members before they rated each project, and still came in at number six. "It finished fairly high in the overall ranking of the projects," he said.

By a 7-2 vote, the Gaming Authority voted to fully fund the 16 most worthy grants, as opposed to partially funding each municipal request.

Bethlehem Township Commissioner Tom Nolan, whose township's request was rated 30th, advocated a distribution to each grant applicant, where "everybody goes away with something." Freemansburg Mayor Gerald Yob, whose borough's application was rated 28th, joined Nolan in voting unsuccessfully against fully funding the highest rated projects.

Joe Kelly, representing the City of Bethlehem, countered Nolan's argument by noting that that some municipalities would lack the resources to fund the difference between what is needed and a pro rata award. Chairman Jay Finnigan agreed, saying Tatamy in particular had warned "they are pretty strapped for money." Joining Kelly and Finnigan in voting to fully fund the 16 most worthy projects were David J. Heintzelman, David Willard, Tony Pristash, John Dally,Jr. and James Pennington.

The highest rated projects, in order, are as follows:

·Stockertown - $30,000 for a new police vehicle and accessories

·Bangor -$47,461 for emergency response police vehicle and equipment

·Bushkill - $50,00 for two new outfitted police vehicles

·Forks - $36,531 for new outfitted police vehicle

·Washington - $45,971 for Ford Expedition police vehicle with four-wheel drive

·Pen Argyl, Plainfield and Wind Gap - $150,000 to establish Slate Belt Police Station

·Roseto - $50,000 for fire company breathing apparatus and portable police radios

·North Catasauqua - $28,415 for updated in-car cameras

·Upper Nazareth - $10,625 for thermal imaging equipment in search and rescue operations

·Hellertown - $47.985 for new police vehicle and forced entry equipment

·Lower Saucon -$9,398 for 16 security cameras at township complex

·Hanover - $39,000 for two radar speed signs

·Lower Nazareth - $49,431 for traffic signal battery back-ups

·Tatamy - $28,058 for road crew truck and police computer work station

·East Allen - $42,897 for security cameras at three municipal locations

·Palmer - $48,965 for computerized accident and crime scene mapping software