Happy New Year, and welcome to 2023!

I hope your new year is filled with many blessings, good health and much peace and prosperity. For me, I look forward to all the opportunities ahead as your mayor, continuing to build an even better Northampton and engaging with as many of you as possible throughout the year.

So, let’s begin the borough’s year in a most revolutionary way.

As it’s often been said, “All politics are local.” Now, your borough is unveiling a dynamic tool to assist you to more easily and enjoyably take an interest in your local government and the issues that affect your day, your neighborhoods and your wallet.

Starting with the borough council meeting Jan. 5 and every meeting after, you will be able to join the meeting in cyberspace, thanks to our newly installed livestreaming site.

After a two-year wait, I am glad to finally say, “We’re ready to go!” That’s right, you’re now able to bring each council meeting into your home, office or any mobile location, assisting you to join in our country’s much-hallowed “democratic process.”

Now, what’s the big deal with this livestreaming, and what does it mean to you as a resident? First and foremost, as you may know, I am a huge proponent of transparency in government, that citizens should be well aware as to how their council members provide them with the representation they voted for and how their tax dollars are being spent.

Given the many, onerous time restrictions placed on you that may have been keeping you from attending council meetings or staying in touch with the local issues, you now have every means possible to witness that transparency to all the agenda items that affect your lives.

Be it with an in-person visit to a meeting or via livestreaming, you have reasonable means to observe how the borough council representatives you voted for are performing on your behalf. “Representative government,” right?

To view the meeting on your computer, tablet or smartphone, simply go to our borough website, northamptonboro.com, and click on the link or visit YouTube and search Northampton PA Borough Council Meeting. Both of these sites will take you live, in real time, to our meeting.

Borough council meetings are held every first and third Thursdays of the month, beginning 7 p.m. These meetings are also stored, so you can view them at a later time, at your convenience.

When you do tune in, you’ll be treated to three different camera angles overlooking council chambers: two cameras on borough council members to better capture their comments and voting record, along with one camera focused on those public speakers wishing to address council.

Though you’ll be able to check into the meetings, you will not be able to send in comments. For that, you will still have to come to the meeting and address council in person.

I want to thank Assistant Borough Manager Brian Welsko for spearheading this project and the overt support of Councilman Ron Glassic in bringing this asset to completion.

I wholeheartedly encourage everyone to check in on these meetings as often as possible as I know you’ll find it interesting and enlightening. After all, it is your borough, your government.

Happy New Year!