Mayor Eric Papenfuse speaks from City Hall on Friday.
Mayor Eric Papenfuse wants you to enjoy Harrisburg’s bars, restaurants and nightlife on the weekends. He just asks that you leave quietly at 2 a.m.
Papenfuse was joined by public safety officials and business owners on Friday to announce tightened security measures for Harrisburg’s downtown entertainment district. The press conference came almost a week after mayhem erupted on N. 2nd Street after closing time for bars and clubs, causing the police to use pepper spray on a crowd and leaving two people wounded by gunfire.
Starting this weekend, the city will hire additional off-duty officers on Saturday nights, bringing the night detail from six officers to 10. The officers will close 2nd street to all vehicles other than Ubers and taxis starting at 2 a.m., install portable lighting on side streets, and curtail outdoor food vendors, including food trucks, after 2 a.m.
“Please, come visit Harrisburg this weekend and all weekends, but at 2 a.m. we are shutting things down and ask you to go home safely,” Papenfuse said.
According to Papenfuse, the city will adhere to this plan for a month and a half and then assess its progress and develop new strategies if necessary.
Papenfuse admitted that the city has had a problem with what he calls the “let out,” or the time between 2 and 3 a.m., when businesses close and partiers linger in the streets for an “after party.” The plan that Papenfuse announced on Friday arose out of conversations one day prior with business owners and members of the police bureau.
Police Chief Tom Carter said on Friday that he will be out on patrol with night detail officers this weekend. In addition to the measures that the mayor announced, Carter said that police will employ other strategies for shutting down the streets that he “can’t talk about yet.” He declined to comment further on what those strategies would be.
Three businesses – Arooga’s Sports Bar, Sawyer’s and the Capital Gastropub – will share the cost of the weekend off-duty officers. The officers are paid a $45 per hour wage, which, Papenfuse said, is commensurate with overtime pay from the city. Six officers will work on Friday from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., and 10 will work the same shift on Saturday.
Ron Kamionka, who owns Sawyer’s, Susquehanna Ale House, Knock Speakeasy and Anna Rose Bake Shop, among other establishments, estimates that he’s spent half-a-million dollars in the past six years hiring off-duty officers on the weekends. He thinks it’s only fair for bars and restaurants to absorb the cost of nighttime law enforcement.
“We make money because we bring additional people downtown,” Kamionka said. “It’s incumbent on us to cover additional security costs because we benefit from it.”
The alternative – having the city pay for the security costs – would be unfair to Harrisburg taxpayers, he said.
“There’s no reason someone paying taxes in Uptown or Midtown who isn’t out on Saturday should kick in more for us,” Kamionka said.
Kamionka called last weekend’s events a “wake up call” for the city and its business owners, but said he feels optimistic about the plans they’ll put in place starting tonight.
