No Tax Hikes in Budget
Harrisburg City Council last month weighed a balanced 2015 budget that included a $2 million investment in sanitation, nearly $250,000 in staff raises and the hiring of 14 additional public safety personnel, but no tax increases.
The budget proposed hiring five firefighters and nine police officers. After the hires, the total number of city firefighters will be 81, up from 76 last year and 62 in 2013.
According to Mayor Eric Papenfuse, the $59.4 million budget contained “no gimmicks,” a reference to a multimillion-dollar “plug” that was used to balance the 2014 budget without cutting certain unfunded, though vacant, positions.
The budget also committed the city to greater transparency, he said, by replacing hundreds of thousands of dollars in off-book discretionary accounts with dedicated funds subject to oversight by City Council.
Council held two hearings on the budget last month and indicated it might make small changes to the spending plan before passage.
DeHart Land Sale Proposed
Capital Region Water, the city’s water and sewer authority, last month agreed to examine a proposal for a $1 million sale of land above the DeHart Reservoir, the lake that supplies Harrisburg’s drinking water.
The sale would occur under a conservation partnership that would generate revenue while keeping the property in public hands, said Capital Region Water CEO Shannon Williams.
The sale, to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, would be federally funded through the Department of Defense’s Army Compatible Use Buffer program, or ACUB, which seeks to maintain undeveloped spaces around military installations.
The program would partner Fort Indiantown Gap, a National Guard training facility near the reservoir, with the Conservation Fund, a national environmental charity. Under the sale, the Conservation Fund would purchase the 384-acre parcel with ACUB funding and then transfer the property to the Game Commission.
The parcel, at the furthest upstream edge of Capital Region Water’s 8,200 acres in Clarks Valley, would form a bridge between two existing tracts of state gaming lands on either side of the reservoir.
After examining the proposal, Capital Region Water will vote in February whether to proceed with the deal.
Study Detects “Fragile” Ground
A second engineering report of sinkhole potential in south Harrisburg shows additional areas of concern, in a region that a city official described as “fragile, but not unstable.”
The report, prepared by Camp Hill-based engineering firm Gannett Fleming, is based on an expanded survey of the surrounding neighborhood, as opposed to the single city block that was studied in a prior report.
The previous report, released in August, showed evidence of five fractures in the limestone bedrock and several potential voids beneath the 1400-block of S. 14th Street, where a series of sinkholes opened in March.
For the latest report, engineers surveyed an expanded area bounded by S. 12th Street to the west, Scott Street to the east, Hanover Street to the north and Cloverly Terrace and S. 13th Street to the south, a neighborhood encompassing some 200 buildings, most of them single-family homes.
The report shows evidence that previously detected fractures extend across the larger area and also introduces evidence of possible additional fractures and voids throughout the neighborhood.
City Engineer Wayne Martin said that the report showed the area was “fragile, but not unstable,” adding that the city had determined it was safe to keep roads in the neighborhood open.
New Parking Zones
Park Harrisburg last month unveiled four different parking zones in downtown and Midtown Harrisburg, each with its own pricing.
- Central Business District covers much of downtown, and street parking costs $3 per hour.
- South of Central Business and Old Midtown districts include street parking south of Chestnut Street and from Forster to Verbeke streets, respectively. These districts cost $1.50 per hour.
- New Midtown District, which covers Midtown from Verbeke to Harris streets, on and around N. 3rd Street. These spots cost $1.50 per hour, with the first 15 minutes of parking free.
Separately, a company called Pango USA introduced an application last month that will allow motorists in Harrisburg to buy street parking via their mobile devices.
The app, which is free to download, requires customers to establish an account and register a method of payment. Once the account is established, a customer can purchase parking with a few taps of the thumb.
For each transaction, Pango will charge customers an additional 14 cents on top of the regular cost of parking. Visit www.mypango.com for details of the app.
Water/Sewer Rates Increase
Harrisburg water and sewer customers will see higher bills in 2015, following a unanimous vote to increase water rates by Capital Region Water.
Under the hike, the current water consumption charge of $6.61 per 1,000 gallons will increase by 57 cents to $7.18 while an additional “ready to serve” fee will increase by 45 cents to $5.67.
The effect on the average customer’s monthly bill will be an increase of $3.29 based on an average consumption rate of 5,000 gallons per month.
Harrisburg sewer rates, meanwhile, will remain at $6.05 per 1,000 gallons.
The hikes will help fund a $48 million budget that sets aside $10 million for capital improvements, $13 million for debt service and $20 million for operations and maintenance. It also provides for the hiring of 21 new employees.
In addition, Capital Region Water announced an agreement with federal and state regulators that provides a timeline for reaching compliance with laws governing pollution of local streams.
The agreement begins to address a number of violations that the Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Protection discovered during inspections in 2010 and 2012.
The agreement, known as a partial consent decree, sets forth some initial steps for bringing the system into compliance, and is primarily focused on gathering information, Williams said.
A future agreement will set out tangible steps the authority can take to comply fully with regulations, a process that Williams said could take upwards of 20 years.
County Taxes Unchanged
Dauphin County taxes will not increase under a $246 million 2015 budget passed last month by the county commissioners.
For a 10th straight year, county taxes will be unchanged at 6.87 mills.
The budget represents a small hike from the 2014 spending plan. Commissioners, though, attributed the increase to about $8 million in pass-through state and federal funds, which then were forwarded to municipalities in the county.
Shimmel School Project OK’d
A split City Council has approved the re-use of the empty Shimmel School as a mental health and addiction treatment center.
By a 4-3 vote, the council approved the land use plan by the for-profit, Lebanon-based Pennsylvania Counseling Services to renovate the facility at 548 S. 17th St. for a new treatment center.
Several council members voiced objections, saying that this area of South Allison Hill already has a plethora of similar rehabilitation facilities and halfway houses. In addition, Councilwoman Susan Brown-Wilson said she was stunned that the school district would sell the school for just $680,000, as it underwent a nearly $20 million renovation under former Mayor Stephen Reed.
The sale will put the school onto the tax rolls. Harrisburg expects the facility to generate property tax revenue of nearly $14,000 in 2015.
New Shopping Center
A new shopping center is coming to Allison Hill, as Harrisburg City Council has approved a plan to open an eight-unit retail center.
Harrisburg-based D&F Distributors will build the center at 137 S. 17th St. that will consist of seven 950-square-foot shops and one 1,925-square-foot shop. The estimated $500,000 project will include a convenience store and a sandwich shop, according to owner David Peffley Sr.
The property has long been an eyesore along the S. 17th Street corridor, recently serving as a vehicle storage lot. It sits across the street from the new Hamilton Health Center, which has helped spur developer interest in the corridor.
Parking for Pinnacle
PinnacleHealth soon will have another place for employee parking, as the Harrisburg City Council approved its plan to turn a plot of land into a surface parking lot.
Council gave its unanimous consent for Pinnacle to demolish a dilapidated building at 157 Paxton St. and resurface the blighted site for 78 parking spaces. The building, which once housed a daycare center, has been empty for years and has been repeatedly flooded.
Pinnacle has vowed to enhance the property with landscaping and incorporate stormwater management techniques to reduce the flow of polluted surface water into Paxton Creek and the Susquehanna River.
Firehouse for Sale
Harrisburg is putting the art deco Paxton Fire Co. station on the market, months after it shut down the firehouse.
Council unanimously agreed to hire RE/MAX realtor Wendell Hoover to market the structure at 336 S. 2nd St. The city is asking $200,000 for the property. The building dates to 1937, though a firehouse has occupied the site for 150 years.
Several years ago, former Mayor Linda Thompson tried to shut down the station as part of a move to cut escalating Fire Bureau expenses. She abandoned the plan, but Mayor Eric Papenfuse revived it in March.
Changing Hands
Adrian St., 2455: P. Okane to L. Mahoney, $45,000
Berryhill St., 2316: W. & J. Collins to D. & Y. Jiang, $46,500
Bigelow Ct., 3: D. Schultz & Schultz Properties to G. Neff & M. Murphy, $34,000
Boas St., 1812: PA Deals LLC to Mid-Atlantic IRA et al, $41,400
Grand St., 927: G. & T. Morcol to J. Gustitus, $88,000
Green St., 1517: R. Lewis to J. Bowser, $71,500
Harris St., 210: J. Provins Jr. & C. Good to B. Stefek, $139,900
Kensington St., 2105: PA Deals LLC to Mid-Atlantic IRA et al, $61,700
Lenox St., 1912: E. Clark to C. Saterstad, $31,000
Linden St., 145: P. Scott to E. & M. Kinchloe, $73,000
Mulberry St., 1217: A. & P. Sena to Ministerio Casa de Oracion, $45,000
North St., 1619: H. Halilovic to K. Sol, $33,000
North St., 1724: PA Deals LLC to B. & C. George, $62,900
N. 2nd St., 603: Mercy Home to D. & C. Peltier, $240,000
N. 2nd St., 1110: W. Moyer to MC Investment Properties LLC, $117,000
N. 2nd St., 1701: Colorado Federal Savings Bank to C. Troutman & B. Jackson, $76,000
N. 2nd St., 3005: Wells Fargo Bank NA to H. Sharifi, $36,000
N. 3rd St., 510: R. & S. Schreckengaust to 510 North Third LLC, $243,115
N. 3rd St., 1225: S. & D. Donofrio to I. Rosario, $116,000
N. 3rd St., 3117: N. Mastrippolito & L. Oechler to M. Means, $140,000
N. 7th St., 1303: 1303 North 7th Corp. to Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, $2,750,000
Penn St., 2242: J. McDonel to W. Hoover, $60,000
S. Front St., 707: K. Scofield to D. & G. Dowen, $140,000
Susquehanna St., 1338: B. Smith to J. Grubbs, $108,000
Zarker St., 1941: Habitat for Humanity to T. Reid, $82,800
Harrisburg property sales for November 2014, greater than $30,000. Source: Dauphin County. Data is assumed to be accurate.
