It’s one of the biggest events held annually in Lower Saucon Township, but Steel City only has an added police presence during the Freemansburg Motorcycle Hillclimb & Bike Show because township taxpayers are paying for it.
Councilwoman Donna Louder on Wednesday questioned why the Bushkill Valley Motorcycle Club–which owns the property on which the event is held–doesn’t reimburse the township for thousands of dollars in overtime accrued by the officers who work at the climb each June and September.
Louder is a Steel City resident and her husband is a township police officer.
Steel City is the most densely populated area in Lower Saucon Township.
“The Steel City Hillclimb does not pay for our police department,” Louder said at a council meeting, asserting that they are the only organization that doesn’t do so voluntarily for a major event.
Township council solicitor Linc Treadwell said that in essence the club doesn’t pay for an added Lower Saucon Township police presence on the perimeter of its event because they don’t have to.
“People voluntarily pay for our police department,” he said. “The Hillclimb doesn’t do that. They don’t hire us.”
“There’s no way for us to charge them unless they agree to hire us,” he added.
“This is a Catch 22,” Louder said. The township’s choices are not to pay for extra police and create a traffic situation that is unfair to the residents of Steel City–who only have one primary route in and out of their neighborhood–or to pay for police overtime, which is a cost ultimately borne by township taxpayers.
Treadwell said that in previous conversations with the motorcycle club, the club’s position has been that extra police aren’t needed for their event.
“Their position is ‘don’t send anybody,'” he told council.
The event is held on private property and no permit is required because the township doesn’t have any rules or regulations that would require a permit for a mass gathering held on private property, Treadwell said. He added that some townships do.
“It’s $20 to get in there,” Louder said. “I think it needs to be addressed again with Bushkill.”
Township manager Leslie Huhn said Police Chief Tom Barndt is planning to meet with representatives from the motorcycle club prior to the next Hillclimb, which will be held in September.
The Hillclimb as an annual event has been going on since the 1930s.
It attracts thousands of spectators to the Bushkill Valley Motorcycle Club’s large Riverside Drive property to watch American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) pro riders traverse a 500-foot hill that ends in a nearly vertical incline, according to information published on the Freemansburg Motorcycle Hillclimb website.
A Facebook page for the nationally-known event has nearly 8,200 followers.
Watch video footage of the June 2017 Hillclimb in the YouTube video below.
