Modern Day Butz Mill Property

For this week’s update we decided to go a different direction; we decided to learn about what is currently going on at our site. We figured this would give us an even better idea of how much the site has changed over time.

Butz Park-a passive, neighborhood, public park. It is 1.62 acres. It is a preserved parcel adjacent to state route 22. The park is so steep no recreation features exist in the park; it is basically a remainder parcel from highway construction.
www.easton-pa.com/rec/openspace.pdfwww.easton-pa.com/rec/openspace.pdf

Safe Harbor arose from two roots, a program for the city’s poorest residents started by the Easton Drop-In Center in 1983 and a demonstrated need prompted by Lafayette College students in 1988. Soon a group was formed, 400,000$ were raised in a capital campaign, and a permanent facility was built by 1990-Safe Harbor. Government grants provide much of Safe Harbor’s funding, as well as donations from other groups and organizations. Safe HArbor is a two-story building with of housing capacity for 22 men and 14 women overnight. Safe Harbor is an emergency transitional shelter, providing clean housing for up to 120 days while residents reclaim their lives and acquire life skills needed to gain employment and permanent. In addition, during the day Safe Harbor also serves as a safe place where low-income and functionally disabled adults may receive two meals a day and social rehabilitation services. Safe Harbor serve approximately 275 homeless single adult men and women each year; 80% from Easton, 15% from Warren County, NJ, and 5% from Lehigh County. Last year over 44,000 meals were served at the center, and visitors also have access to medical checkups and testing as well as a clothing closet.
https://safeharboreaston.wordpress.com/ourhistory/

Public Works is the largest and most diverse department with roughly 100 staff members that provide and manage a wide variety of programs: wastewater treatment, sewage collections & conveyance systems, highways and roads, engineering, parks and recreation, garbage, and recycling, public buildings maintenance, parking facilities, street and traffic lights, and public motors fleets (this explains some of the stuff we saw the other day while capturing the site). The specific Public Works building by our site is the municipal complex and recycling drop-off center.
http://www.easton-pa.gov/pwabout.html