The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners met Jan. 14. to discuss the pressing concerns pertaining to health care, ICE and the county’s seed farms.

The first item on the agenda was voting on the approval of the Dec. 18, 2025, regular meeting minutes, as well as the meeting minutes from the Jan. 5 organizational meeting. Both minutes were unanimously approved by all nine commissioners in attendance.

Moving into the chair’s review portion of the meeting, Lehigh County Commissioners Chairman Geoff Brace addressed topics of correspondence the board has been engaging in before the evening’s meeting.

During this address, Brace commented his belief that “the federal government changes were intentional in trying to get people disqualified for medical assistance. They’re going to succeed. The federal government will get their desired wishes out of that.” However, Brace clarified the county has resources to help ensure people who are eligible for medical assistance and SNAP will maintain that eligibility when the state is forced to implement the requirements set forth by the U.S. Congress and the president.

Particularly, the county has trained volunteers ready to assist during Medicare open enrollment. Additionally, the board and Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel have pledged to improve the communication infrastructure and use of social media for messaging around this and many other topics.

During citizen’s input, there was a large showing of individuals from the Withstand Coalition who commented their gratitude to the board and simultaneous frustration with the federal government for its recent actions around health care.

Citing Pennsylvania’s own data, one coalition member identified “24.1% of Lehigh County residents rely on Medicaid and nearly 9,900 residents are expected to lose coverage under these new requirements.”

Additionally, several Lehigh County residents took to the podium to express their personal stories of how federal health care and food assistance programs have changed their lives, poignantly noting how the loss of these programs will affect their future alongside thousands of others in the local community.

Several residents also came to share their support for the county’s seed farms. Advocates and farmers actively working within the program spoke about their fears on the future of the incubator program given the current lack of personnel and dwindling funding. They provided examples of how integrated many of the farmers are into the community through supplying locally grown goods to both the plant sales and farmers’ markets across the county. Additionally, emphasis was placed on the importance of strengthening the local network of farmers to ensure food security as COVID-19 proved reliance upon outside sources can be severely impacted and logistics chains can break.

Brace said there will be future updates in upcoming Lehigh County Board of Commissioners meetings, as well as directly from the administration to the farmers, but they are fully aware of the time sensitivity as the growing season is quickly approaching.

Joe Welsh took a moment to comment on the homicide of Renee Good and the unlawful action by ICE in Minneapolis. He cited his count of 20 violations in the actions by ICE agents at the scene, in the failure to render medical care, etc. With this example, Welsh asked for the “immediate suspension of all ICE enforcement actions in the county until a full, transparent and independent investigation of Renee Goode’s homicide is completed and the appropriate corrective actions are implemented.”

Welsh left the podium stating he would return in two weeks at the next meeting to elaborate further upon his position and plea.

Moving onto the legislative items for the evening, an affirmative vote of confidence was unanimous in support of the appointments to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. With terms expiring Dec. 31, 2030, Craig Beavers, Gary Fedorcha and Phillips Armstrong as a citizen representative were approved.

Several motions for the evening were also voted on and approved. The 2026 commissioner committee assignments were approved and can be found open to the public outside of the public hearing room and on BoardDocs.

The motion for Commissioner Sarah Fevig to serve on the Lehigh County Retirement Board was also unanimously approved.

The motion to approve Change Request No. 005 with Skanska USA Building, Inc., for Cedarbrook-Allentown Senior Care and Rehabilitation additions and renovation project was not met with any opposition. This was put to a vote given the change will add an excess of 15% on top of the originally agreed upon amount.

Resolution 2026-01 approved a professional services agreement with the Center for Humanistic Change, Inc. to provide educational programs to the Lehigh County Jail.

Resolution 2026-02 approved a third amendment to the professional services agreement with Noelker & Hull Associates, Inc. which revised the termination dates, scope of work and compensation.

The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners will meet 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 for the second bimonthly meeting in January.