Walter Belinski

Bethlehem's Belinski wants third term
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Belinski said she has spent her two terms fighting for "residents who are unintentionally and inadvertently victimized by the city's statutes, regulations, rules and bureaucracy."

First drawn into city politics in a losing battle to stop the city from selling its landfill, Belinski said she has spent four years fighting to protect the 23,000-acre Poconos watershed that supplies the city's water, ensuring that new developments are compatible with nearby neighborhoods and encouraging the right projects for the former Bethlehem Steel site.

She said she is taking a particular interest in the BethWorks Now proposal, a 120-acre entertainment and shopping project that could feature slot machines.

"I think what we do with that land is our biggest challenge," Belinski said.

Belinski will vie for one of four seats in a crowded Democratic race.
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While many city officials laud the project for getting a vacant property back on the tax rolls, Belinski said she feared the development would bring more traffic to Route 378, endangering the children attending Nitschmann Middle School.

In addition to the Durkee vote, Belinski said she has taken a particular interest in the watershed.

A couple of years ago, she drew attention to reports that there was illegal logging in the watershed and trespassers who cut unauthorized trails and dumped garbage there.

She said she first opposed then-Mayor Don Cunningham's plan to start a $5 million timber business in the watershed as a way to pay down debt.But she now applauds how the idea evolved into a land management plan with a scaled-down venture for logging.The Bethlehem Authority is finalizing the logging plan that could begin on a limited scale this year.

"This is a plan I can live with," Belinski said.

Belinski, 70, of 1846 Watkins St., is the chairwoman of council's Parks and Public Property Committee and serves on council's Finance and Community and Economic Development committees.

She is council's liaison to the Bethlehem Parking Authority and Bethlehem Area Public Library Board.Belinski is a member of the Murska Sobota Sister Cities Association.

Belinski hosts a monthly radio program, "Belinski's Bethlehem," on station WGPA 1100 AM.

She also has served on the Bethlehem Area School Board.

Belinski graduated from Bethlehem Catholic High School and received an associate degree from Northampton Community College.She taught in elementary schools in the Allentown Catholic Diocese for three years.She directed one-act Catholic Youth Organization plays for 33 years.

Belinski is the widow of Richard Boligitz and Walter Belinski.Belinski is the widow of Richard Boligitz and Walter Belinski.