Hello, The front page article on March 8 titled “Proposals Raise Concern” by Marieke Andronache has me concerned.

It contains several inaccuracies.

Firstly, the date of the referenced city council was not Saturday Feb 25, but Tuesday Feb. 21 - not a big deal.

The article continued on p2 with a reference to Paul Fondl’s petition of 2016 signatures. After checking with this group I found out that the petition was circulated in 2016 with a total of a little over 200 signatures – a bigger deal.

Most concerning is the sentence, “Mary Joe Markoul went straight to Reynolds with her cellphone to his face, discussing the plans under zoning consideration. Reynolds remained calm.” This is a big deal. After looking at the You Tube video of the meeting and conferring with several who were in attendance, this description is very inaccurate. It gives the impression that Mary Joe was aggressive toward Reynolds with a cell phone shoved in his face.

The video evidence shows that Mary Joe approached members of council and Reynolds to show them a picture on her cellphone. At no time did she put the cell phone “to his face.” She was not aggressive, but was very polite and mannerly.

This type of poor reporting is why people tend to dismiss the media and I expect better of the Bethlehem Press.

Respectfully,

Mike O’hare

Editor’s note: We apologize for the errors contained in the above mentioned story. Council met on Feb. 21, not Feb. 25. The petition mentioned in the story was done in 2016 and did not contain 2,016 signatures.

Mary Joe Markoul said in a phone call to the editor that she did not feel she invaded the mayor’s personal space but rather just wanted to show him a photo on her cell so she went close to him so that he could see it.

In a discussion with our reporter, Markoul also questioned information not on the You Tube video: “Fondl told The Press ‘that the biggest thing is that there is going to be too many apartments in too small of an area.’ He also expressed concerns of the height of the complex and equipment on the roof.”

That quote was taken from a recorded interview following the meeting and could have perhaps been more clearly stated that “Fondl told the Press in an interview following the meeting …”

Our intent is always to provide our readers with clear, accurate information.

George Taylor, Bethlehem Press editor