March 3, 2026
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
The Bethlehem Co-Op Boondoggle might celebrate its 15th birthday by becoming an operating boondoggle, not a mythical boondoggle.
No matter what, it will still be a boondoggle.
The boondoggle still hasn’t set an opening date, but the 250 E. Broad St. boondoggle may be moving forward. It started in 2011, so it’s about time.
Last weekend, the Boondoggle said in a social media post that it would open later this year. It has forecast many openings and always come up short.
The Boondoggle, which prefers to call itself the Bethlehem Co-Op Market, will always be a boondoggle. It never should have been given $3.1 million of taxpayers’ money to open a grocery store under 42 new apartments, but that money is long gone.
Thanks to Susan Wild, Lisa Boscola and Bethlehem City Council for throwing taxpayers’ money at a yuppie grocery store. I hope a lesson was learned, but I doubt it.
Here’s a note from the Boondoggle’s latest newsletter:
“Last week we notified our member-owners that we have officially passed the $600,000 fundraising threshold for our first phase! It’s important to remember that our fundraising efforts will continue, but in the meantime the Board has authorized moving forward with the next phase of work to open the store. This means: Refrigeration work is underway.”
Yes, the Boondoggle set many opening dates even though it didn’t have an operating refrigeration system. Ponder the nonsense of that.
As for the financial threshold, the Boondoggle has set a few, and in the meantime it was about $1.1 million in debt as of last year.
The newsletter adds:
“In addition to our continued work on fundraising—which will continue into the first year and beyond—debt restructuring for the co-op is being explored in collaboration with our partners at LEAF, Penn Community Bank, and The Reinvestment Fund.”
Debt restructuring often means seeking lower rates or extending payback times, or changing debt covenants. Even without opening, the Boondoggle has run up debt, which they have blamed on the “complexity” of taking a $2.9 million federal grant. The reality is, they didn’t know what they were doing.
The newsletter suggests that work on the refrigeration system will take three to six weeks.
Meanwhile, being the Boondoggle that it is, it is still seeking money. The Boondoggle has always been a fundraising operation, and so far, never a grocery store.
Let the donor beware, and Boondoggle On!
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 
“Thanks to Susan Wild, Lisa Boscola and Bethlehem City Council for throwing taxpayers’ money at a yuppie grocery store. I hope a lesson was learned, but I doubt it.”
All Democrats at the time of their reckless money throw. Bethlehem has a “we only elect Democrats” affliction. Typical of the mindset, no expectations or essentially non enforced expectations mandated to those who took the money. City folk seem to be ok with this. Why? Ignorance? Habit? Apathy? Braindead? The proper choice for mayor (the sweetheart of millennials) was not the incumbent. It was Kachmar who had a strong proven record of municipal turnarounds in other cities. It was his job. His achilles heel? He ran as a Republican. That is not allowed in this city.
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