Jan. 28, 2026
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
The Bethlehem Co-Op Boondoggle needs money to open.
It also needs money not to open.
From Monday’s Boondoggle board meeting:
“The more time that goes on the more at risk we are that we’re going to need more money,” Boondoggle board Chairman Todd Mertz said.
So the Boondoggle needs money to open, and not to open.
Algebra informs me that the statement can be reduced to this: The Boondoggle needs money.
I admire the candor. I wrote about this earlier, but the statement about needing more money, open or not open, is worth repeating.
I know nothing about opening or running food co-ops, but then, neither do the Boondogglers behind the Bethlehem Co-Op Boondoggle. They have spent more than $4 million, announced opening dates starting in 2022, and still don’t even have a complete refrigeration system.
What they do know how to do is raise money, most of it public money, for an unused retail space at 250 E. Broad St.
The Boondoggle is not a grocery store serving the public. It’s an endless fund-raising campaign, with more than $3 million skimmed from the taxpayers. We were never asked if we wanted to contribute, but Susan Wild, Lisa Boscola and Bethlehem City Council threw our money away.
They made mistakes, though nobody has admitted that. Can’t anybody just stand up and say, yes, we were wrong to give taxpayer money to a private operation? I’d accept an apology, but I don’t expect one.
Even more so, I’d like to hear somebody say they’ll be more careful the next time somebody tries to roll the taxpaying public for a few million dollars.
Does anybody in Bethlehem City Hall care about the spending, about the delays, about the stated change in the Boondoggle’s mission?
More on that later.
Until then, Boondoggle On!
Editor’s note: The Bethlehem Boondoggle refers to itself as the Bethlehem Co-Op Market. It does not operate, so it’s not really a co-operative, and it’s not a market, but its unused space is indeed in Bethlehem.
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