Eastern Deal Rejected
Harrisburg City Council last month voted 4-2 to reject a proposed lease agreement with Eastern University, a Christian college that wished to renovate and rent space in the city government center.
Council’s objection to the agreement, in which Eastern offered to spend $600,000 renovating city hall’s dilapidated basement, centered on the university’s religious affiliation and its requirement that its employees sign a doctrinal faith statement.
In remarks before the vote, Councilman Ben Allatt said he was deeply conflicted about the prospect of ceding public space to a private, religiously affiliated institution.
“The university would not hire someone like me,” said Allatt, who is gay. “I recognize they can do what they want, but they want to come into our city hall, which is a building of the people.”
Council previously pressed Eastern representatives on their commitment to the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance, which outlaws employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Eastern embraced the non-discrimination policy in a letter to council.
In the same letter, however, Eastern affirmed its right to hire faculty who “fully embrace” the school’s religious mission. Members of council feared that exercising that right would translate into discrimination against LGBT applicants.
Mayor Eric Papenfuse lobbied in favor of Eastern during the meeting, saying that the deal would save the city “real, significant money” by paying for necessary renovations. After the vote, he blasted council’s decision and accused them of squandering a one-of-a-kind opportunity.
“We’re going to have to take taxpayer dollars and devote it to fixing a building instead of fixing a pothole or fixing a park,” Papenfuse said. “To me, it was a no-brainer to move forward in a partnership with Eastern.”
Green to Take Council Seat
Ausha Green will be Harrisburg’s next councilwoman, as City Council plans to appoint her to an open seat.
Council President Wanda Williams announced last month that council will name Green to the seven-member body, forgoing a competitive process that has marked recent council vacancies.
Williams said that council reached a consensus to appoint Green, who had served on the Harrisburg school board.
The seat became vacant after the resignation of former Councilwoman Destini Hodges, who left Harrisburg to take a job out of state.
Come January, Green would have assumed a council seat anyway, as she won the Democratic nomination for council in May, along with incumbents Wanda Williams, Shamaine Daniels and Ben Allatt. There is no Republican opposition for the four, four-year seats.
A two-year council seat also will be on the ballot this month following the resignation in August of former Councilman Jeffrey Baltimore. Councilman Dave Madsen, appointed a month ago by council, is running unopposed for that seat.
Bike Share Launched
A local nonprofit and community sponsors officially launched Harrisburg Bike Share last month, putting 55 communal bicycles on Harrisburg’s streets.
The program is modeled after bike share systems that have sprouted up in recent years in cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Paying members use a smart phone app or text messages to unlock a bicycle from a docking station and then ride and return it to any docking station in the city.
A $25 annual membership gives riders free access to bikes for periods shorter than two hours and then charges $2 for each hour after that. “Pay as You Go” members will be charged $2 for each hour they use a bike.
The program is spearheaded by Communities in Schools Pennsylvania (CIS), a dropout prevention organization, and sponsored by organizations including Highmark insurance and the Dauphin County commissioners. CIS outsources bike share management to Zagster, which operates more than 100 city bike shares across the country.
The bike share includes 11 docking stations in the city’s Uptown, Midtown and downtown neighborhoods and on City Island.
Riley hopes to add more docking locations in the future, but said that user trends will dictate how the program grows. Bike share sponsors will watch ridership data to see who is using the bicycles and for what purposes.
“We need to know if this will be a leisure [service] or if we have people who want to use these bikes to get to employment areas,” Riley said. “We need to see success to know where to expand.”
In conjunction with the launch, Mayor Eric Papenfuse said that the city will establish two bike boulevards in the spring on low-speed, low-traffic streets. A boulevard on Aberdeen Street will connect the Capitol Complex and the Harrisburg Transportation Center, and another on North Street will extend from the Capitol to Riverfront Park.
The city will paint both roads with “sharrows,” road signs indicating a shared lane for cyclists and motorists. The signals do not designate the roads as bike-only lanes.
City Buys Sinkhole-Ravaged Homes
More than 3½ years after a sinkhole erupted on the 1400-block of S. 14th Street, Harrisburg has started to relieve homeowners of their worthless properties, though some residents say that they still have nowhere to move.
Harrisburg last month bought the first of 52 homes on the block, Mayor Eric Papenfuse said, adding that the city is on track to purchase all 52 affected properties by Dec. 31.
“It’s been a very complicated and drawn-out process,” he said.
Papenfuse reported that the purchasing program is the first of its kind in the nation, since sinkhole events are not usually covered by natural disaster relief dollars.
A few years ago, the situation along S. 14th Street seemed dire. However, the city was able to secure about $4.7 million in federal and state disaster relief funding to purchase all the homes at their pre-sinkhole market value.
Despite the announcement, some residents said that they weren’t prepared to move by year-end.
“I’m not ready to move,” said resident Ronald Cook. “We’ve got nowhere to go.”
Papenfuse and Jackie Parker, director of the city’s Department of Community Economic Development, said that the city has been in continual contact with S. 14th Street residents ever since the sinkhole opened in 2014.
Parker also said that the Dec. 31 closing deadline was negotiable, since each property sale is highly individualized. The grants funding the home purchases technically expire on Dec. 31, but Parker said that homeowners do have the opportunity to extend.
“Nobody has to move by any particular time,” Parker said. “Every property owner has a unique situation and unique closing opportunity and paperwork. No two are the same.”
Off-Leash Dogs at Issue
Citations for off-leash dogs are on the rise in Harrisburg, but some residents want the city to do more to enforce leash laws in the city.
As of last month, animal control officers working for the Harrisburg Police Bureau had cited 22 dog owners in 2017 for letting their animals run off-leash. That figure is up from 14 in 2016, 15 in 2015 and zero in 2014, according to data from the Harrisburg Police Bureau.
But many dog owners say that off-leash dogs remain a problem in certain neighborhoods of the city, particularly Italian Lake and the former William Penn High School. Dogs must be restrained on a leash in all public places, including parks, according to ordinance.
The issue surfaced at a City Council meeting last month. One resident said her service dog was attacked by unrestrained dogs at the State Hospital grounds in Susquehanna Township, where she started going to avoid off-leash dogs in Harrisburg.
“I don’t think this problem is being taken seriously,” she said, adding that an attack like the one her service dog suffered could ruin its training.
City Councilman Cornelius Johnson said that one possible solution is increased cooperation between animal enforcement officers and the city park rangers, who are responsible for patrolling Harrisburg’s 26 parks.
Mayor Eric Papenfuse said that the city hopes to budget for another park ranger in 2018, bringing the total rank to three.
Park rangers cannot write tickets, but they make ticket referrals to the police or report stray dogs, Papenfuse said. Animal enforcement officers are also responsible for collecting stray animals and have picked up 78 this year.
Above all, Johnson said, communication is key. He asks residents to report off-leash dog violations when they see them.
“The best thing a resident can do when they come across an issue is call it in,” Johnson said on Thursday. “When we get calls, there’s accountability.”
New Business Administrator
Mayor Eric Papenfuse announced last month that Harrisburg has hired a new business administrator, concluding a two-year search to fill the grant-funded position.
Marc Woolley, an attorney who has worked as general counsel at the Hershey Trust and the Pennsylvania Housing Authority, will direct the city’s Department of Administration and help the mayor manage the city’s budget and finances.
One of Woolley’s major responsibilities will be helping the city determine its next steps in the Act 47 process, a state program for financially distressed municipalities.
His $115,000 salary is funded for three years by an Act 47 grant from the state.
Papenfuse said that he had been performing most of the duties of business administrator himself. He hopes that filling the position will allow him to focus more on strategic planning and community outreach.
More Apartments Downtown
More residences are slated for downtown Harrisburg, as Harristown Enterprises is eyeing another worn-out office building for redevelopment.
Harristown has under contract a vacant, 11,000-square-foot office building at N. 2nd and Cranberry streets currently owned by Camp Hill-based CJ2 Group, which has it on the market for $399,000. Harristown wants to convert the space to 12 one- and two-bedroom apartments, with additional first-floor retail.
Most of the building has long been empty, though a restaurant, Arepa City, occupied the ground-floor retail space until fairly recently.
“Upscale apartments in the downtown are in high demand,” said Brad Jones, president and CEO of Harristown. “We want to bring more exciting unique and desirable apartments to the market to grow the number of downtown residents and to support retail and restaurant activity along this corridor.”
Harristown now must shepherd its plan through Harrisburg’s land development process. To undertake the project, Harristown will need a variance from the city’s Zoning Hearing Board, as the building is not zoned for this use.
Several years ago, Harristown dipped its toe into office-to-residential projects by converting a part of Strawberry Square into apartments. Since then, it’s undertaken several other conversions along S. 3rd Street, adding a total of 60 new apartments downtown.
Harristown also recently began to raze a building on the first block of S. 2nd Street. It expects to build a new office building in that space, pending an anchor tenant.
Home Sales, Prices Up
Harrisburg-area home sales continued their recent upward trend, with both purchases and prices on the rise.
In September, sales increased 3.3 percent and the median price rose 3.2 percent from the year-ago period, according to the Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors.
In Dauphin County, 268 units sold versus 256 in September 2016, while the median price increased to $159,950 compared to $155,000. In Cumberland County, sales fell to 289 units from 314 a year ago, though the median price went up to $195,000 versus $179,250 in September 2016, GHAR said.
Perry County had 40 home sales, a decrease of 10 units. However, the median price rose to $166,450 versus $146,950 a year ago.
GHAR covers all of Dauphin, Cumberland and Perry counties and parts of York, Lebanon and Juniata counties.
So Noted
Brittney Parker has been elected to the board of directors of the Commonwealth Foundation, a Harrisburg-based think tank. Parker is a manager of donor relations for the State Policy Network and, prior to that, served on the staff of the Commonwealth Foundation and the LIBRE Initiative.
Capitol Express Grille opened last month at the corner of N. 2nd and North streets in Harrisburg, offering a variety of sandwich and entrée options, with a focus on Middle Eastern dishes. The storefront last housed Aleco’s, which moved up the block to N. 3rd and Briggs streets.
Eight Oaks Craft Distillers began pouring samples last month in the Broad Street Market’s brick building. The stand sells products such as vodka, rum, gin, applejack and whiskey from the Lehigh County-based spirits company.
Changing Hands
Boas St., 209: V. Padilla to W. Lee, $116,500
Cameron Terr., 1513: Clover Court Investments LLC to M. Lewis, $43,000
Cumberland St., 1725: T. McGarrity to PA Double Dels LLC, $34,500
Emerald St., 218: H. Buda & N. Brown to K. Page, $90,000
Fillmore St., 620: L. Kent to C. Austin, $57,000
Green St., 1008: J. Peirson to J. Iole, $120,000
Green St., 1913: WCI Partners LP to B. & K. Cavanaugh, $129,900
Green St., 2026: A. Brett to Fratelli Property Investments LLC, $119,000
Green St., 2102: J. & N. Fodor to C. Watson, $39,900
Green St., 2104: B. & S. Woodard to 2104 Green Street HBG LLC, $44,000
Hamilton St., 226: J. Shoop to J. Rosado, $159,900
Herr St., 1507: Mussani & Co. LP to P. Akhter, $66,000
Lewis St., 237: M. Horgan & Innovative Devices Inc. to N. Reist, $135,000
Market St., 1918: JPM Property Holdings LLC to Round Rock Investments LLC, $70,000
N. 2nd St., 909: R. & D. Miller to C. Simmons, $55,000
N. 2nd St., 1009: Bricker Boys Partnership to J. Kok, $148,000
N. 2nd St., 1509: Vortex Properties LLC to R. Joseph, $109,000
N. 2nd St., 1616: D. McCord to M. Smith & D. Root, $190,000
N. 6th St., 2352: E. Waters to E. Wright, $50,000
N. 15th St., 1429: K. & R. Thames to J. Ewell & G. Jones, $41,900
N. 16th St., 907: A. Graves to A. Pollard, $110,000
N. Front St., 1525, Unit 505: L. Bublin to G. & C. Francis, $177,000
N. Front St., 1525, Unit 608: R. Murray Jr. to W. Nugent, $182,500
N. Front St., 1525, Unit 609: N. Borreli to C. Yastishock, $161,500
N. Front St., 2301: J. & V. Zarkin to 2301 North Front Street LLC, $362,500
Penn St., 1524: A. Olives to J. Recordon, $122,500
Regina St., 1434 & 1438: M. Naranjo to J. Gutierrez, $30,000
Revere St., 1615: A. Navarro to S. Wolfe, $74,900
Showers St., 584: W. Jenkins to J. Chacko, $67,500
S. 13th St., 914: D. & N. Martin to Archie Group LLC, $635,000
S. 16th St., 434: T. Hong to N. Newman, $36,500
S. 17th St., 1033: Mortgage Equity Conversion Asset Trust 2011-1 to D&F Realty Holdings LP, $40,900
S. 27th St., 806: PA Deals LLC to M. Cole, $85,000
S. Cameron St., 830: Cameron Street Associates & Select Capital Corp. to Statewide Enterprises LLC, $100,000
S. River St., 309, 311, 318 & 326: Historical Society of Dauphin County to Allilin LLC, $130,000
State St., 231, Unit 402: LUX 1 LP to LUX Rentals LLC, $124,900
State St., 231, Unit 604: LUX 1 LP to LUX Rentals LLC, $154,900
Susquehanna St., 1712: J. Pittman to W. Sweet, $127,000
Swatara St., 2140: G. & J. Trump to Equity Trust Company, $43,000
Swatara St., 2324: SWM Properties LLC to W. & L. Smith, $125,000
Swatara St., 2413: PI Capital LLC to T. Cooper & R. Stern, $138,900
Tuscarora St., 117: W. Morgan & M. Ford to K. Yesilonis, $157,000
Vineyard Rd., 218: S. & J. Clark to J. Pittman & T. Dierolf, $195,000
Wayne St., 1720: M. Kurtz to Round Rock Investments LLC, $34,000
Harrisburg property sales for September 2017, greater than $30,000. Source: Dauphin County. Data is assumed to be accurate.
