While lacking some of the locally historically relevant events of the previous year, 2025 was still one of change, especially to the downtowns, which lost familiar structures to gentrifying accommodations.

2025 also marked the 21st year of the Bethlehem Press’ production, the seventh time we won the Sweepstakes at the Pa. News Media Awards, and the 10th annual Year in Review by yours truly.

Here’s a look back at some of the highs and lows from the last year as covered by your weekly hometown newspaper.

JANUARY

• Actor and Bethlehem native Danny Roebuck returned to participate in the city’s 56th annual Advent Breakfast.

• Avian flu is found in local snow geese, and spreads to wildcats, specialists warn.

• Dream Boyd Theatre Apartments opens on Broad Street downtown; the old venue’s marquee the only physical reminder of 85 years of entertainment.

• A Gorman & Associates auditor finds nothing amiss in the current operations of the Bethlehem Area School District; a vast improvement from a decade earlier when the district was deeply in the red.

FEBRUARY

• Renovations finally begin at Trinity Episcopal Church on Market Street after a destructive water main break in December 2023.

• Lehigh Valley police officials, including city Chief Michelle Kott, speak during a panel at DeSales University about modern law enforcement challenges and the constant truism that consistent contact between officers and community members builds relationships and trust that matter.

• An ongoing series discusses changes and expectations about the leveling and replacement of the Southside’s longtime arts center The Banana Factory, including the whereabouts of its many paying studio artists.

• With last year’s Moravian Church World Heritage status set, Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites announces new and improved tours of its now world-famous facilities.

• The Freezer Ministry grows its service, community connections and prepared meals for the needy and homebound through local Moravian Churches and beyond.

MARCH

• After 48 years, the Boutique at the Rink cancer fundraiser moves from Bethlehem’s Municipal Ice Rink to South Whitehall Township, and its name changed to “Boutique for Hope.”

• Downtown stable Darto’s restaurant serves its last breakfast and lunch dishes after 41 years. Facing a new lease, owners Stephanie and Mike Dartouzos are ready for retirement.

APRIL

• Area barbers discuss the future of their trade and the rarity of much-sought ‘scissor cuts’ in an age of electric clippers.

• City police approach the Minsi Trail Bridge-area homeless camp at Charlie’s Clearing about trash leavings, initiating months of concern and arguments between residents and property owner Norfolk Southern Railroad. By year’s end, the camp was demolished and the homeless were forced from the area to seek shelter elsewhere.

• Saucon Park, renovated and improved, reopens entirely for the fist time since a destructive flood in 2021.

• Bethlehem earns the USA Today poll for Best Main Street in America.

MAY

• A rooftop blaze engulfs a number of homes in the new Five 10 Flats luxury apartments on East Third Street. Bethlehem’s Fire Department was joined by at least three other departments to combat the four-alarm fire. First-floor restaurants suffered severe water damage and were closed for repairs for several months.

• The Historic Architecture Review Board approved a plan to build additional stories atop Main Street’s iconic 1930s Woolworth Building.

• The $1 million restoration of the Miller’s House in the Colonial Industrial Quarter is completed and open to the public.

• The Lehigh Valley Autism Society brings its community together for the first Autism Walk and other activities at Saucon Park.

• Two retired State Police officers open The Green House Tea Room in Fountain Hill, a 1920s-style décor house with comfy sitting rooms for tea and snacks.

JUNE

• Yosko Park dedicates a bench in the memory of Richard “Bucky” Szulborski, a former city council member and Northampton County controller, who was a resident and proponent of the Southside who belonged to many local organizations.

• Amid an increase of federal ICE activities, arrests, and deportations nationwide, we begin a multipart analysis of legal rights of immigrants – citizens and residents alike, who might be caught up in sweeps. During this time, ICE reveals details of a June 11 Southside raid, which involved the FBI, about which Mayor William Reynolds said local police had little information and no control, and who do not participate or consider immigration enforcement their affair.

• Following an audit of Gracedale Nursing Home, Northampton County Council confronts Executive Lamont McClure about an unaccounted $5 million in pandemic-era employee retention funds. Further contention arises whether it was an error of overextended overtime bonuses or if the audit itself was politically motivated. Despite this, the county’s economic future is considered “robust.”

JULY

• The Valley Forge Rug Braiding Guild hand makes old-fashioned rugs for Revolution-era historic sites such as the Sun Inn, at which revolutionaries such as George and Martha Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis de Lafayette spent time after fleeing Philadelphia.

• The new Fountain Hill ES breaks ground. The $62 million project is expected to take two years, during which time students will be bussed to the former Lehigh Valley Academy Charter School in Hanover Township.

• Lehigh County corrections officers voice their frustration with severe staffing issues and the secession of a temporary wage hike, for which they were grateful but didn’t want to do without.

• We outline a lengthy guide to state and local savings programs for seniors facing a Social Security crunch.

• The Hotel Bethlehem is nominated best historic hotel in the country for the fifth consecutive year. It eventually wins, as its mural gallery also earns historic acknowledgement.

• The Chemo Bag cancer assistance and fundraising program marks its ninth successful year.

AUGUST

• The always colorful Southside gets a new mural, Harmony with Health, in the 300 block of Broadway.

• Musikfest enjoys its 42nd year, and we delve into a nonmusical attraction: The food. From decades-long staples like Theo’s Gyros to newcomers such as Pat’s Pizza and the Slide on By food truck, local vendors are key to keeping up one’s energy between all the free concerts.

• Services and budgeting decisions are crippled across the commonwealth as Harrisburg’s state budget is delayed more than seven weeks. Counties and school districts fret and make backup plans while the impasse continues until Nov. 12.

SEPTEMBER

• Local Ukrainians gather at Payrow Plaza to celebrate the 34th anniversary of the country’s independence, even as Ukraine battles through its third year against Russia’s stalled conquest.

• BASD Superintendent Dr. Jack Silva explains a new mobile phone policy for the district, keeping kids free of devices during the school day.

• It has been 60 years since the Colonial Industrial Quarter downtown was founded, preserving the now-historic old structures along the Monocacy Creek.

• Lehigh County Commissioners are divided over member Zach Cole-Borghi – a city of Bethlehem employee who had recently been arrested in a wide drug sweep. Cole-Borghi maintains his innocence, but was fired from his job and decided to remain on the county board.

OCTOBER

• About 100 members of the Freedom and Liberty HS classes of 1968 meet at Green Pond Country Club for a collective 75th birthday celebration.

• Local merchants and vendors are feeling the pain as the presidential administration’s sweeping international tariffs increase costs and delay deliveries.

• Promoting harmony and reconciliation after a wave of shootings across the country, a vigil for peace and healing is held at St. John’s United Church of Christ in Bethlehem Township. Weeks later, about 5,000 people marched downtown to Payrow Plaza in a peaceful No Kings rally, part of a same-day effort estimated at 7 million attendees at 2,700 events nationwide.

• ArtsQuest announces the 15th annual Oktoberfest was a smashing success, with about 48,000 people visiting during the two-weekend event.

NOVEMBER

• Mighty Pawz, a Stefko Boulevard doggy day care with its own animal rescue section, earns Astound Business Solutions’ nationwide Community Impact Award. A month later, however, the small company is in dire straights due to constant roadwork cutting it off from clients and performing rescues.

• Northampton County Council votes against a TIF that would have supported plans to finally redevelop the Dixie Cup plant. Those voting against said it would represent too great a financial risk.

• Tucker rides for the last time. For 15 years Tucker’s Toy Run has brought hundreds of motorcyclists to St. Luke’s Hospital facilities bearing gifts for pediatric patients across the valley.

• The East Hills MS band is invited to march in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day parade.

DECEMBER

• Current and retired city firefighters and their Local 735 question city council about safety concerns, offering data showing too few firefighters on duty in recent years is affecting response times and operational safety.

• The new Walnut Street Parking Garage opens, replacing a decades-old and poorly maintained predecessor, though not without neighborhood concern for the new building’s size, commercial uses and fewer parking spaces offered.

• At the annual Linny Awards in support of local arts, the youngest of the evening’s winners is 16-year-old Jada Amirah Lewis of Bethlehem Township, Volunteer of the Year.

• Bethlehem Municipal Band Director Donald Kemmerer retires after wielding the baton for 36 years.