Redistiricting of the 137th and 138th district
Upper Mount Bethel Township and Portland Boro in Northampton County should be part of the 138th district. They are part of an area called the Slate Belt because quarrying slate was how those towns etc. were formed. Geographically there is a strong connection there with shared services and the residents as a whole. To take those 2 municipalities and merge them in with the 176th district, which is Monroe county makes no sense if you were to live in this area you would see that. There is a geographic divide between the towns in the Slate Belt and Monroe County which is a mountain range. I can tell you as a resident of the Slate Belt, the residents and municipalities of Monroe give no thought to the residents south of that mountain range. They see that as a demarcation point. Representatives of the 176th District will have no concern for the Township of Upper Mount Bethel or the Boro of Portland. The fire companies of those two municipalities have mutual assistance agreements with the other towns and townships in the Slate Belt. Geographically that is workable. Over that mountain it is not. The reason is that mountain range. There is an ease of travel between all the towns of the Slate Belt that does not exist between the towns and townships and the 176th district of Monroe County. In order for the Township of Mt. Bethel and the Boro of Portland to be properly represented they should be included with the 138th district as you are proposing.