Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

March 24, 2022 | by Sara Bozich

Plan your weekend with my weekly list of things to do around Harrisburg and central PA! Scroll down or use the menu links to find ideas for your weekend.

What you’ll find:

For your weekend planning
Top Weekend Recs
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
- Sunday
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For something new: Discover 26 small businesses during Camp Hill’s Spring Fling on Saturday. Oscar fans should check out the Red Carpet Evening at Midtown Cinema.

P.S. I’m hiring.

(Still) Worth noting: Check out my private Facebook community, Cheers Harrisburg. You can join the convo here.

Things on my agenda this weekend: Dinner out with a friend (belated birthday!), then spending Saturday in Camp Hill for the Spring Fling!

Don’t forget to support your local brewery! Click here to find one near you.

For your weekend planning

Check out my ? Spring Bucket List!
My trip to Lancaster last weekend
View our local Restaurant Directory
Local Brewery, Winery, & Cidery Directory
See what else you missed on the blog.

Below are options for your weekend.

Things to Do in Harrisburg + Central PA | Weekend Roundup | Sara Bozich

Top Weekend Recs

Details on Camp Hill’s Spring Fling
Preview of Prima Theatre’s Murder Ballad – opens this weekend!
Make travel plans (with a discount + perks)
Reviews of The Sound of Music (last weekend) and Singin’ In the Rain
Submit your events for the Weekend Roundup

What are you doing this weekend around Harrisburg? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

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Once an eyesore, 5G pole by Susquehanna Art Museum becomes colorful work of art

March 23, 2022 | by Maddie Gittens

Verizon 5G pole in front of the Susquehanna Art Museum

The Susquehanna Art Museum was not initially happy with the large 5G pole that popped up in front of their building last summer.

But on Wednesday, they showed off the pole, which was transformed into a colorful work of art.

“I wanted this to be a light in the community,” said Stephen Michael Haas, the Harrisburg artist behind the design. “You can’t help but smile when you see it.”

The pole is one of over 100 small cell sites that Verizon has installed in Harrisburg as part of its efforts to provide 5G Ultra Wideband connectivity. According to Verizon, the poles increase network speeds and streaming capabilities.

However, when Verizon started to bring the technology to the city last year, many residents and business owners had concerns about the aesthetics of the poles, especially those fronting historic properties.

Alice Anne Schwab, executive director of Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, was also unhappy with the new device that was installed directly in front of her museum. However, she has since developed a partnership with Verizon to make the pole the first of its kind in the nation to become a work of art. The museum brought in Haas to complete the work.

“We are so excited about this partnership, but at first we weren’t,” Schwab said. “We are proud to be the place people can look to and say, ‘yes,’ you can work with a corporate company.”

The pole is wrapped in a whimsical rainbow design created by Haas with the intent of turning an eyesore into a cheery sight-to-see, he said.

Artist Stephen Michael Haas

“It’s art for everybody,” Haas said. “That’s important for me. There’s not a barrier for entry. My biggest goal is to inspire people.”

According to Verizon Project Manager Marshall Sbar, the company is having discussions about adding art to other 5G poles in the future.

“There’s so much potential for these,” he said. “It’s not going to be the last. I think there are going to be a lot more of these.”

Verizon officials noted that, so far, there have been 112 5G poles installed in the city with plans to add 33 more throughout this year.

This is Verizon’s second local arts partnership locally, as the company sponsored the “Kindness Mural” by artist Ali M. Williams on the Strawberry Square building, last November.

The Susquehanna Art Museum is located at 1401 N. 3^rd St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit their website.

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Demo Day, Saturday, clears the way for Center Square Park in Mechanicsburg

March 23, 2022 | by Karen Hendricks

The future site (left) of Center Square Park in Mechanicsburg

Mechanicsburg is on the verge of a renaissance.

A $5.3 million, three-phase revitalization plan is set to begin Saturday, March 26. That’s when demolition will take center stage—on Center Square. A vacant, one-story brick building at 1 W. Main St. will be demolished to make way for a town park—correcting a 200-year-old error in the town’s layout and design and honoring the town founder’s original vision.

“Since the streets were laid out in the 1820s, there’s not been a lot done to give new vitality to Mechanicsburg, but this is a rebirth or reimagining of life as we know it,” said Jayne Drake, executive director of the nonprofit Downtown Mechanicsburg Partnership (DMP). Revitalization efforts, known as “RENAISSANCE Mechanicsburg,” are funded by grants, corporate and individual donations.

History in the Making

Saturday, the public is invited to celebrate and witness history in the making, beginning at 9 a.m. Festivities include the building’s demolition—complete with photo ops with the bulldozer, a time capsule project managed by The Foundation For Enhancing Communities (TFEC), a children’s “Paint a brick” contest, free popcorn, refreshments, and a festival atmosphere. Food vendor sales by Richard Phelan, owner of The Gingerbread Man, will benefit the project, and many downtown businesses will offer discounts in honor of the momentous occasion.

The corner of West Main and South Market streets is “the civic soul of the community,” Drake said. That’s because, over time, numerous comprehensive borough plans dating back to the 1950s have called for revitalization efforts—specifically, a community park at that location.

But the history of that intersection, and visions of a town green, actually go back much further.

“Two hundred years ago, when the original landowner, Henry Stouffer, sold off his farmland to set up the town, 1 W. Main Street was always and forever to be a public park,” Drake said. “But for reasons lost to time, it never was established.”

Instead, the corner lot held a succession of houses, replaced by the Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church—which stood for 100 years before Hurricane Hazel ravaged it in 1954. At that time, even though the borough’s first comprehensive plan in 1960 noted the original vision for a green space on that plot, a one-story brick structure was built. It housed a drug store, an attorney’s office, and most recently, a trucking company’s office. Today, many, including Drake, consider it “an eyesore.”

“When the opportunity arose for the Downtown Mechanicsburg Partnership to purchase it three years ago, we jumped on it,” said Drake, noting the property’s price of $225,000 and adding, “It’s important to understand that no taxpayer money is being used to improve this area.”

The intersection, in the heart of the Cumberland County borough, has become known as the town’s center square. The creation of a green gathering space, Center Square Park, with “Mechanicsburg” signage, would make it official.

This small brick building will be razed to make way for the new park.

A Clean View

“We can just watch from the window,” said Alicia Miller of Glitz Soap Co., located diagonally across the intersection from the demo site. “That building really doesn’t fit in any downtown—it’s so short and squat and weird, but I think a park gives people a place to gather at a central downtown point, and every downtown needs a central point.”

Among her handmade soap products is “The Renaissance Soap”—with 50% of proceeds going to the DMP.

“I feel like we’re going to benefit from the project, so I think we should give back,” Miller said. “I’m excited it’s coming to fruition. I thought it was just an idea that was going to stay an idea, but I’m so excited it’s actually going to happen.”

Square and Circles

Creation of the park, Phase One of RENAISSANCE Mechanicsburg, a $1.8 million project, includes continued landscaping and way-finding across the street, at S. Market and E. Main Streets, in front of PNC Bank. The project, designed by Lancaster County firm Derck & Edson, is expected to be completed in about a year. One of the highlights will be a state-of-the-art performance stage.

“This park is intended to be a magnet—it will draw people downtown and be an economic shot in the arm for businesses,” Drake said.

Symbolic elements are incorporated into the park’s design.

“We want to celebrate Mechanicsburg’s legacy,” said Pam Zaiser, DMP board member. “Mechanicsburg was a town of mechanics that fixed wagons on people’s quest to go west, so there will be outlines of wagon wheels built into the bricks on the square.”

Phase Two calls for Railroad Alley—half a block from the square—to be converted into a walkway, including benches and trees leading to Mechanicsburg’s Museum Association, which Drake calls “a treasure” of railroading and marketplace history.

A streetscape facelift, including new sidewalks, lighting, flower baskets, bike racks and a bus stop, is the focus of Phase Three. The timetable will be determined by fundraising and grant availability.

Accidental Involvement

Sisters, Drake and Zaiser got involved in the DMP “purely by accident,” said Drake. The pair, walking out of Diener’s Diner six years ago, noticed weeds growing through sidewalk cracks.

“It was a beautiful spring day, we were looking at the architecture, and we said, ‘This is such a beautiful little town—we need to help take care of it,’” said Drake. She had just moved to Mechanicsburg, following a 40-year career as an English professor at Philadelphia’s Temple University. Zaiser is a retired healthcare professional.

“My sister persuaded me to move here, and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” said Drake.

Motived by those weeds, the sisters tried to attend a Historical Architectural Review Board meeting to lend a hand.

“But we walked into the wrong meeting—it was the Downtown Mechanicsburg Partnership meeting,” Drake recalled, “And we both ended up on the board purely by accident, even though neither of us had ever been involved in a downtown before.”

Zaiser said their civic involvement gives them “a mission.” Similarly, she sees the overarching goal of RENAISSANCE Mechanicsburg as a rebirth of the town’s historic mission.

“Because Mechanicsburg was developed as a town that helped people go west, it was a town built on relationships, then relationships with the railroad industry, and relationships between the townspeople and those who came to buy and sell at market,” Zaiser said. “Right now, we’re a pass-through town, but this project will change that and allow us to rebuild relationships and be welcoming once again.”

For more information, see renaissancemechanicsburg.com.

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Jenkins-Dallas announces bid for PA’s 103rd House district, will run as a Republican

March 23, 2022 | by Lawrance Binda

Jennie Jenkins-Dallas

The race for one of Harrisburg’s two PA House seats now has a Republican candidate in the mix—former mayoral and city council candidate Jennie Jenkins-Dallas.

In a press release on Wednesday, Jenkins-Dallas, 51, announced her candidacy as a Republican for the 103^rd legislative district. Last year, she ran unsuccessfully for City Council as a Democrat and previously ran unsuccessfully for mayor.

“I am running because I love my country, and I can’t stand by and watch what is happening to our children, our churches, law enforcement and our freedom,” Jenkins-Dallas said in a statement. “I intend to build a bridge of unity between our two shores and neighborhoods. I am the only candidate who embodies conservative values and understands Dauphin and Cumberland counties.”

Rep. Patty Kim (D-Harrisburg) currently serves in the 103^rd House seat, and she is running for re-election.

The district is set to change considerably. It currently includes all of Harrisburg and several other east shore communities. With redistricting, it will include about half of Harrisburg and will extend across the Susquehanna River into the west shore communities of Lemoyne, Camp Hill, Wormleysburg and East Pennsboro Township.

In her announcement, Jenkins-Dallas, who lives in Uptown Harrisburg, said that the redistricting prompted her to run for office, saying she “could run on her long-held conservative values and have a legitimate chance at winning.” She also touted her record during the pandemic, saying that she supported small businesses remaining open and along with her husband, Bishop William Dallas III, opened the doors of Gospel Fellowship Church to the homeless.

Jenkins-Dallas currently serves as publisher of two Harrisburg-based publications: La Voz Latina Central and Black Wall Street PA. She also has served as a city police officer. Following her suspension from the force in 2014, she filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, which had accused her of theft, a charge she claimed was retaliatory for prior internal complaints she had made of workplace harassment and sex discrimination. After three years, she settled with the city, receiving $140,000.

In her campaign announcement, Jenkins-Dallas included a statement from former Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse addressing this issue. Papenfuse was mayor at the time of the settlement.

“Jennie got dragged into a lot of drama that was beside the point,” the statement said. “I know her to be a good person and a hard worker. Jennie loves her community and that is what voters want to know.”

Last year, she backed Papenfuse in his unsuccessful general election bid as write-in candidate.

Her announcement also included a statement from former Dauphin County Commission Chair Jeff Haste.

“Jennie and I worked on numerous projects while a Dauphin County commissioner,” the statement said. “She is a woman of faith, dedicated to helping people, and is a conservative at heart.”

The PA primary is slated for May 17, with the general election on Nov. 8.

“Unlike city administration, serving on a state level allows me to engage in broader policy discussions around life, the family’s role in education, crime and regulation,” Jenkins-Dallas stated. “I represent the people. I am conservative and that will never change.”

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Mobile barbershop to provide free haircuts to community members, encourage youth

March 22, 2022 | by Maddie Gittens

Anthony Pierce-Rodriguez in front of his mobile barbershop

There’s just something about a fresh haircut that makes you feel “totally different,” explained Harrisburg-resident Anthony Pierce-Rodriguez, who has been a barber for 42 years.

However, he recognizes that a trip to the barber isn’t something that everyone can afford.

Starting this week, Pierce-Rodriguez will offer a solution. Members of the community, adults and youth, can hop aboard his mobile barbershop for a free haircut and a conversation.

He plans to travel around the city in his barbershop on wheels, Street Art Innovative Design—the same name as his former barbershop in Uptown Harrisburg. Each week, he will park in different locations.

For Pierce-Rodriguez, the haircuts serve as a way to build relationships and to share his story to hopefully inspire members of the community.

“A barbershop is like a home away from home,” he said. “People open up about things.”

Inside the mobile barbershop

From the age of 13 years old until 2011, Pierce-Rodriguez was in and out of prison, was involved with illegal drug dealing and faced addiction himself. These days, those experiences are the driving force behind his passion to help the community, especially youth, avoid the mistakes that he made.

“I want to be a father figure to them and give them a better path,” he said. “I want to make sure the youth don’t follow the same steps. It’s about breaking the cycle.”

He hopes to have those conversations and build relationships through providing free haircuts. But for Pierce-Rodriguez, it’s also bigger than that.

Through his organization, Actions of Change Foundation, he plans to partner with other local nonprofits to tell his story and work to better his community.

“I’m going to put in the footwork,” he said. “I’m not just about talking about something without doing it. I want the community to become a village again.”

Pierce-Rodriguez has plans to grow his organization, but for now, he’s focused on welcoming people into his barber chair where he can give haircuts and encouragement. He sees himself also serving as a resource to be able to point people in need of specific services in the right direction.

“The knowledge I learned from making my mistakes, I’m going to give that to people,” he said. “There’s always a solution and way to be a better person.”

Pierce-Rodriguez’s mobile barbershop will be open on Thursdays through Saturdays from around 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at locations around Harrisburg. This week, he will be parked on the 300-block of Peffer Street in Uptown Harrisburg.

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The Millworks gets zoning approval to expand to nearby building, move brewery

March 22, 2022 | by Lawrance Binda

The Millworks plans to expand into this building at N. 4th and Sayford streets. The main Millworks restaurant and gallery space is the brick building to the right.

Two once-paired buildings soon may be reunited in use, as the Millworks plans to relocate its small brewery to an industrial structure across a narrow street.

On Monday, the Harrisburg Zoning Hearing Board approved an application that allows owner Joshua Kesler to move the Millworks brewery operations into a brick building at the rear of his restaurant, directly across Sayford Street.

“The genesis of this application is really an expansion of the Millworks operation,” said Kesler’s attorney, Ambrose Heinz of Harrisburg-based Stevens & Lee. “There’s currently a micro-brewing operation within the Millworks . . . that would be relocated into this facility.”

In 2014, Kesler bought the long-vacant Stokes Millworks building and transformed it into a now-popular restaurant and art space, later adding a small brewery.

Then, last November, he bought the Millworks’ sister building, a two-story, 8,640-square-foot structure across the street at 1321 N. 4^th St. That building was constructed in 1939 to store lumber and support the manufacture of wood products for the Stokes Millworks.

In 1998, Thomas Slothower bought the auxiliary building on 4^th Street from the Stokes family and used it for his own living and storage space, before selling it to Kesler last year for $385,000, according to the city.

Kesler now plans to move the Millworks’ microbrewery operations and offices into the former lumber storage building, freeing up space for expansion of the restaurant. He also expects to carve out dedicated space for meetings and events in the brewery building.

“It is the expansion of the current operations of the Millworks,” Kesler told the board.

At the meeting, Kesler first needed a variance for the brewery use. Though the auxiliary building was long used for commercial/industrial purposes, it currently sits in the city’s “residential-medium” zoning district, which does not permit industrial uses, including for a brewery, by right.

Secondly, Kesler needed a special exception for nine parking spaces, as there is no off-street parking on the planned brewery site.

After over 2½ hours of testimony, the zoning board unanimously voted in favor of both of these measures.

The board, however, balked at a third application for zoning relief.

In this case, Kesler sought a variance to establish a surface parking lot encompassing an entire city block at Verbeke and James streets. Kesler has actually operated a gravel parking lot at this site for several years for use by Millworks patrons, but has not received zoning approval for it.

Kesler said that he believes that the existing gravel lot already complies with city regulations, a position that the city disputes.

The Millworks’ gravel parking lot at Verbeke and James streets. The Millworks restaurant can be seen in the background, on the right, and the future brewery building in the background, in the center of the picture.

Both the city’s Planning Bureau and Planning Commission had attempted to tie together the brewery building approvals with improvements to the parking lot a block away. Both bodies required, as a condition for approval, that Kesler “formalize” and improve the lot with paving, landscaping and sidewalk reconstruction.

Kesler then would have the city’s blessing for the 48-space lot to serve as accessory parking for both the new brewery and the Millworks restaurant.

The zoning board, however separated the issues. It approved the building variance and parking special exception for the brewery building, but struck the condition requiring Kesler to formalize and improve the existing gravel parking lot.

In light of this, Kesler withdrew his application for the parking lot variance, so board members did not vote on that related issue.

At the meeting, board members did not publicly explain why they voted the way they did or why, against the wishes of the city Planning Bureau and Planning Commission, they unlinked the building approvals with the parking lot improvements.

According to Kesler, it may be awhile before the Millworks expansion takes place. Due to material and labor shortages, the project’s construction timeline is “more than a year” away, he said.

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Ready to shop? Trader Joe’s sets date for Harrisburg-area debut

March 22, 2022 | by Lawrance Binda

Central PA—your long, agonizing, hungry wait is almost over. Trader Joe’s will open next week in the Harrisburg area.

This morning, the beloved grocery store chain announced that it would open its first midstate location on March 31.

The day will kick off with an 8 a.m. ribbon-cutting at its location at 3545 Gettysburg Rd., off of Route 15, the company said in a press release.

On that day, customers will be greeted by store captain, Jamie Brown, who has been with the company for 14 years, Trader Joe’s stated.

The 12,550-square-foot store will be the first Trader Joe’s in the area and the ninth in Pennsylvania. Nationwide, it has over 500 stores in 42 states.

According to the company, the store interior will feature artwork with images familiar to central PA, including images of the Market Street Bridge, white-tailed deer, roughed grouse, hemlock trees and a Nittany Lion.

Last June, the store announced its decision to locate the first area store in Lower Allen Commons, where the Camp Hill Bon-Ton was located, setting off a nine-month wait until shoppers could fill their carts with such signature items as chocolate hazelnut biscotti and kettle cooked chicken soup.

Trader Joe’s stated that it also has employment opportunities at the store. Folks interested in applying should visit traderjoes.com/careers for more information.

The store also will participate in the company’s longstanding Neighborhood Shares Program. That means it will donate all products that go unsold but still are in good shape to a range of nonprofit, community-based organizations, according to the company.

Trader Joe’s will be located at 3545 Gettysburg Rd., Camp Hill. Store hours will be 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. For more information, visit www.traderjoes.com.

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At first in-person board meeting in years, Harrisburg School District officials discuss staffing shortages, violence

March 22, 2022 | by Maddie Gittens

The Harrisburg School District board met on Monday.

On Monday, a crowd of Harrisburg School District staff and community members filled the Lincoln Administration Building for a board meeting—something that hasn’t happened in years.

At the first in-person school board meeting since the beginning of the pandemic, district officials and teachers brought up concerns over staffing issues and violence.

At the meeting, district Receiver Dr. Lori Suski officially approved a schedule change that shortens school days at Rowland Academy, a shift that took place on March 7. According to the district, the change resulted from district-wide staffing shortages.

“It’s not something that’s just happening in Harrisburg,” Superintendent Eric Turman said. “We are going to be aggressive in our approach to try to recruit.”

According to Turman, the district is hoping not to have to change schedules for any of its other schools. They are putting additional efforts into recruiting, even out of state, he said.

Additionally, the district recently increased its pay rate for substitute teachers in an effort to attract more educators to its buildings, Turman said.

At Monday night’s meeting, many district teachers attended the meeting, a few stepping to the microphone to raise concerns over staffing shortages and their effects.

“We don’t have enough staff to be able to teach the classes,” said Michele Rolko, a teacher at Harrisburg High School–John Harris campus. “I’m looking at these resignations and I think, yeah I understand. We’ve had so much violence in our schools.”

Rolko explained how incidents of violence and fighting are affecting teachers and students. She believes that, coupled with the effects of the pandemic, teachers are leaving the district.

“This is affecting our mental health, our physical health and our socio-emotional health,” Rolko said. “If we don’t do something now […] then this district is going to implode.”

While Turman said that the district has begun several initiatives to combat violence by addressing mental health issues, finding solutions hasn’t been easy.

“That’s been very challenging for the district—to try to come up with something that’s a solution that’s going to solve the problem,” he said. “We have taken steps to put things in place, but we’re just not to a point where we’ve been able to see a drastic change.”

Solving the staffing shortage issue may prove challenging, as well, as Turman believes that a lack of young people entering the education field will make filling empty positions difficult.

For more information, visit the Harrisburg School District’s website.

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Harrisburg U sets January date for building debut; announces new home for innovation center, accreditation

March 21, 2022 | by Lawrance Binda

A rendering of Harrisburg University’s new Science Education Center

Harrisburg University has set a January date for the official opening of its new academic building in downtown Harrisburg.

On Monday, HU President Eric Darr said that he expects the 11-story academic building at S. 3^rd and Chestnut streets to debut for the university’s spring 2023 semester, following a 2½–year construction process.

“We’re making great progress on it,” he said. “We expect to have students in the building this January.”

The $100 million, 210,000-square-foot Science Education Center will house health science laboratories, 3D printing facilities, advanced manufacturing equipment, a 150-seat interactive auditorium, a virtual reality creation space and other classrooms.

Darr said that he expects the university to begin to move equipment and furniture into the building this fall.

In other HU news, the university on Monday announced that it has received official notification from Middle States Commission on Higher Education that its accreditation status has been reaffirmed.

“This shows that Harrisburg University meets the very high standards set by the commission without exception,” Darr said. “Middle States accreditation is an expression of confidence in our mission and goals, our performance, and our resources.”

In addition, on Monday, HU and Harristown Enterprises jointly announced that the HU Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will locate inside of Strawberry Square, into 4,000 square feet of space formerly occupied by the Hallmark gift and card store.

The center’s mission is to help innovators build successful ventures, including HU students and faculty, as well as entrepreneurs from the community, according to the university. It should open this summer following renovations and build-out, Darr said.

“The CIE is a multi-pronged hub that aligns entrepreneurial activities across the campus and business disciplines that feature active learning laboratories, technological suites and a makerspace,” said Jay Jayamohan, the center’s director.

The center has been located in various offices on the HU campus. With the move, the center will be able to consolidate in one location, Darr said.

The Hallmark store in Strawberry Square closed in 2020, following the outbreak of the pandemic.

For more information on Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, visit their website.

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The Week that Was: News and features around Harrisburg

March 18, 2022 | by Lawrance Binda and Maddie Gittens

Patty Kim (D-103), along with several other area representatives, spoke out against the proposed tolling of the South Bridge at a Dauphin County commissioners meeting.

Happy St. Patty’s Day weekend, everyone! Whether you’re hitting the parade downtown or the bars, there are fun ways for everyone to celebrate. Grab a beer and read up on all of this week’s local news, below.

The Art Association of Harrisburg is bringing back its annual gala fundraiser, our online story reported. This year’s theme is blue-green and will feature a costume parade, music, food and art.

Arts blogger Bob, this month, pays tribute to Elementary Coffee Co. and highlights shows at Arts on the Square, Art Association of Harrisburg and HIVE artspace.

The Capital Area Greenbelt will see some major improvements, thanks to state grants, our online story reported. The organization received more than $280,000 for environmental infrastructure projects centered on two creeks that run through the 24-mile park and trail system.

Dauphin County Commissioners, along with other local representatives, voiced their opposition to PennDOT’s proposal to toll the I-83 South Bridge, our online story reported. Many expressed concern that the extra fee would bring economic hardship to residents and the area.

D&F Realty, a local development group, shared a proposal to transform a warehouse building in Uptown Harrisburg into apartments, our online story reported. The project would include 22 apartment units in total, ranging in rent from $800 to $900 per month.

The Garden Collective, an art studio in downtown Harrisburg, will open this weekend, our reporting found. The studio comes out of the desire of a group of local artists to create an accessible space for underrepresented artists.

The Great Harrisburg Litter Cleanup is slated to take place on April 23, our online story reported. The annual volunteer day focuses on beautifying the city.

Harrisburg Hoopla will return to City Island on June 4, our reporting found. The daylong event will include plenty of friendly competition through physical and puzzle-like games, organized by the Foundation for Enhancing Communities (TFEC).

Harrisburg’s historic breweries have an interesting story including cutthroat competition, caves and tunnels, and a savvy businesswoman thriving in a man’s world. Intrigued? Read, here.

Harrisburg Keystone Rotary Club is hosting the Capital City Corn Hole Classic on March 26 at Appalachian Brewing Co. in Harrisburg, to raise money for Liberian students’ school tuition. The funds raised will go towards YESLiberia’s “Hop on the Bus” project, our online story reported.

Home sales in the Harrisburg area dipped in February, but the median price rose substantially, our online story reported. For the three-county region, 456 previously owned houses sold during the month, compared to 471 in February 202.

Open Stage theater in Harrisburg has a special exhibit on display, our online story reported. The exhibit shows photographs taken by Anne Frank’s father, Otto, in the years before the family went into hiding from the Nazis.

“Orlando,” a layered, jigsaw puzzle of a play, is showing at Gamut Theatre. Our theater reviewer found the piece complicated, yet satisfying, as it tackled issues of identity and gender fluidity.

Police and other Harrisburg officials held a press conference to address the many recent instances of gun violence in the city, our reporting showed. They urged residents to work with the police in solving and preventing shootings.

Rosemary’s recipe is perfect for this St. Patty’s Day weekend. Click, here to find out how to make a unique soda bread.

Sara Bozich has lots of fun ways for you to celebrate the green holiday weekend. Find a place to grab your next drink, here.

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade and race are this weekend, which means several downtown Harrisburg roads will be closed on Saturday. Find out which ones to avoid, here.

Trees that are dead and dying on Market Street in Allison Hill were cut down this week by parks and recreation crews, our online story reported. The city plans to replace the trees with new cherry trees in the coming weeks.

Tri-County HDC showcased their recently completed redevelopment project this week—a single-family townhome at 247 Hummel St, our online story reported. The building is part of the organization’s revitalization efforts in the MulDer Square neighborhood of Allison Hill.

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