Council extends tax abatement deadlines.

Byline: Don Spatz

June 12--City Council on Monday unanimously approved extending to 2020 the tax-abatement deadlines in the vacant portions of the city's Keystone Opportunity Zones to keep the zones attractive to new businesses.

It also unanimously added 58 other properties to the zones, all of them next to the existing zones as required, but most of them with private owners. In a state that's not business friendly, council needs to do what it can to make the city business friendly, Councilwoman Donna Reed said. Councilman Jeffrey S. Waltman Sr. said he wanted assurances that Berkshire Bottling Works -- now half-built and abandoned in northwest Reading, but …