Happy New Year, Northampton! I hope you had a very celebratory introduction to this new year, and I wish you and your family all the best this upcoming year. Yes, 2024 has arrived - and hopefully, you’re off and running toward bigger and better goals.

With the second half of my four-year term as your mayor now underway, I’m cheerfully looking forward to continuing with the initiatives in progress, along with a game plan for those I look to accomplish in the upcoming months.

As a businessman, I learned early on that making a checklist of your goals and objectives provided a nice road map to successfully completing those initiatives. It gave me a look ahead to the finish line and what preparations, adjustments and timing I needed to successfully complete those goals.

That said, I want to share some of the initiatives I have for the mayor’s office this upcoming year.

First and foremost, as the chief executive officer of our fine police department, public safety is my No. 1 job. I am continually working with Chief Kadingo to plan and ensure we have the most well-trained, well-equipped and cohesive force possible.

I feel strongly our police force should not work in a vacuum and should have a public presence outside of the normal patrol shifts. To that end, my 2024 initiatives for the NPD include the first-ever Mayor’s Bike Run, a fun, family bike ride led by our NPD bike patrol on the D&L Trail in early June; a night out at Hampton Lanes bowling with the officers; a miniature golf night at Hillside; and our first National Night Out this August.

I’ll certainly provide more details and timelines in future articles and on my social media pages, too.

The social media phase of the Northampton Hometown Heroes project is moving along nicely with our high school students continuing their interviews with the family members of our honorees. The students have been thrilled with the conversations and the joyful responses they’ve been receiving.

I will be opening up the project for new applications one last time March 1-31, with the goal to have all of the banners hanging by Memorial Day 2024.

Needless to say, my continued work along the entire Canal Street Park pathway, in conjunction with our outstanding public works department and my dear trail friends at the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, will take center stage this spring. We already have two monarch butterfly way stations on the books for planting in early spring, along with the riverfront garden initiative.

I’ve been looking at the intricacies of opening more areas along the pathway for flower gardens, tree plantings and opening a dog park within that general area. I’m very optimistic that, with the help of our 4th Ward council members, these are very attainable goals in 2024.

Along with naturally beautifying the park, I will be pushing to get the welcome center construction underway this spring. Since I mentioned this project a few months ago, I’ve been working with our legislators, the Chamber of Commerce and D&L staff to make this trailside respite a fun and informational place to visit.

My checklist for the upcoming months includes visiting nearby businesses to ensure they are spotlighted at the center and to lay out their roles in serving the anticipated travelers along the trail. It’s important to me that I make sure those traveling on the trail are aware of our business community so they can come off the trail and into town to patronize these establishments.

To that end, I’ve always been a huge proponent of “Buying Northampton.” As the former president of the Northampton Area Chamber of Commerce, a local businessman and a resident, in a business economy that favors the online ease of shopping, it’s essential that we, as a community, support our local businesses at every turn.

It’s these entrepreneurs who increase our quality of life and bring our community together by providing many of the day-to-day resources, goods and services we rely on. I will continue to do all that I can to promote these businesses and encourage you to patronize them as best, and as often, as you can.

Lastly, I wholeheartedly plan to and look forward to working with the entirety of our borough council and borough Manager LeRoy Brobst to put the welfare of our Northampton residents first and foremost in our thoughts and actions. Though there’s still much work to be done in this new year, we, as a borough, have much to be proud of. Let’s not stop now.

Look around your home and neighborhood asking, “What can I do to make Northampton a better place to live, work and thrive?” Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem, in 2024.

For me, that’s one block on my checklist that I’ll be successfully checking off every day, for sure!

Happy New Year, my friends!