Art Preview: En Plein Air Lancaster takes it outside

July 9, 2019 | by Bob MacGinnes

Painting in the great outdoors has a charm uniquely its own.

Usually, it is a rare occurrence when one happens upon an artist engaged in this endeavor. So, it is with some degree of fanfare when an entire locale is invited to take part in an event that centers around “fresh air painting.”

Lancaster hosts “En Plein Air Lancaster” this Saturday on the streets of the Red Rose City. Set up outside of 13 participating art galleries and museums, the event is free to the public, who can watch artists actively dabbing at their palette.

Coordinated by Lancaster City Art Galleries and Museums, the event is hosted by Mio Studio, City Folk Gallery, Liz Hess Gallery and Red Raven Art Company. The event is rain or shine, with galleries welcoming visitors indoors if the weather is unwelcome.

The participating galleries and museums will feature artists who regularly show there, are members of the respective galleries or are there by special invitation for the event. One such gallery, City Folk, at 146 N. Prince St., owned and curated by Karen Anderer, will welcome Michael Bartmann, who specializes in oil paintings on board with an emphasis on urban Lancaster’s abandoned structures.

Painting in the great outdoors may be just what the doctor ordered for artist and viewer alike. Watching the artists paint “En Plein Air” is certainly more exciting than watching paint dry.

En Plein Air Lancaster takes place on July 13, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. To learn more, visit their website.

Central PA Jazz Fest returns for 39th year, making music throughout the region

July 8, 2019 | by Maddie Conley

The CPFJ youth band

Harrisburg is full of musical artists on the cutting edge of the industry, each hoping to deliver a sound like you’ve never heard before. But, this week, the city is taking it back to the music that started it all, “America’s original art form”—jazz.

For the 39^th straight year, Central PA Friends of Jazz (CPFJ) is presenting their jazz festival, which features performances in Harrisburg, York, Mt. Gretna, Dillsburg and Hummelstown.

“It’s a whole lot of jazz in four days,” said Andy Herring, co-executive director of CPFJ.

CPFJ is a nonprofit organization with a threefold mission of the preservation, education and presentation of jazz. Along with their six annual concerts and performance at Harrisburg Artsfest, their youth band and jazz camp, jam sessions and newsletter—the Central PA Jazz Festival is one of the ways they fulfill their vision.

This year, festival musicians will include the River City Big Band, vocalist Amy Banks and the CPFJ Youth Band. However, the big name at the festival this year is pianist and composer George Cables, who plays Saturday at the Gretna Playhouse.

Cables has been playing jazz for longer than the festival has even existed, performing with renowned artists like Sarah Vaughan and Freddie Hubbard.

“Getting to see George and his trio play is kind of like a window back in to seeing jazz developed,” Herring said.

On Thursday, one of the performance locations will be the Pride of the Susquehanna, on the river in Harrisburg. Audience members will float along the river listening to the Dave Stahl Quintet for a three-hour evening cruise on Thursday. It’s the perfect venue to socialize while enjoying the music, Herring said.

On Friday night, CPFJ is turning up the sound as they feature a festival jazz party at the new Greystone Brew House in Dillsburg.

“We try to stay dynamic with new venues all over the area,” Herring explained.

There will be two free jam sessions on Saturday for aspiring jazz musicians. The stage is open for anyone at any skill level from the community who wants to play with other musicians, Herring said.

A jazz picnic will take place on Sunday at Indian Echo Caverns in Hummelstown featuring Amy Banks, the Andy Roberts Trio, Teen Town, Mark Swartzbaugh’s Quartet and the CPFJ Youth Band.

Ron Waters, a jazz musician, has been directing the CPFJ Youth Band for over 30 years. His band typically has 15 to 20 students. Those interested in the band are not required to audition, making it ideal for any beginner that loves jazz.

Waters explained his passion for keeping jazz alive is through young musicians. Being able to perform at the festival is just one more way to do that.

“The audience is the thing that keeps jazz alive,” Waters said.

According to Herring, having youth at the festival is what makes it so special.

“It’s a balance between internationally world-renown musicians all the way to students,” he said.

The Central PA Jazz Festival runs from July 11 to 14. For more information and the full schedule of events visit www.friendsofjazz.org.

Burg Books: Midtown Scholar to host author of “The Tenth Muse.”

July 8, 2019 | by Yaasmeen Piper

You may know the story of the nine muses.

The daughters of Zeus were masters of the arts and would bestow their gifts in any creative person who called upon them. However, author Catherine Chung came up with a 10th muse. Unlike her sisters, when it came time for her to claim an art, the 10th muse refused.

“She did not wish to sing the voices of men, telling only stories they wished to tell,” wrote Chung. “She preferred to sing her songs herself.”

This muse left the heavens, leaving behind her family, gifts and immortality without ever looking back. Instead, she walked among Earth as a mortal woman until her last breath. But, according to Chung, the spirit of the muse lived on inside countless women throughout history who defied societal rules.

This muse became the backdrop to Chung’s sophomore novel “The Tenth Muse.” This coming-of-age novel outlines the life of Katherine, a mathematician on a quest to solve the Riemann hypothesis, the greatest unsolved math problem of her time. Throughout her life, Katherine uses numbers, patterns and history to understand the complexities of the world and make her way through the male-dominated industry.

“[The novel] is about history and the way in which it invisibly affects the ways of our lives in ways that we don’t necessarily understand at the time,” Chung said. “It’s about coming of age and trying to grapple with the world around us. It’s also about love and what it gives you and often what it demands.”

From the moment she was a child, Katherine was taught to subdue her intelligence by outsiders. She was often punished for her intellect or simply not believed. But she pushed her way through these barriers and eventually took on one of the greatest unsolved math problems.

Though Chung insists she is no genius like Katherine, she does have some background with math. Her father was a mathematician, and she even studied math when she was in college. Just like Katherine, Chung was fascinated by the patterns and structure of math.

“I always thought math was beautiful,” she said. “It’s an interesting way to explore other ideas of what it means to try to find a place for yourself.”

“The Tenth Muse,” published June 18, has received praise from a plethora of news outlets and authors. USA Today listed the novel on their “5 books not to miss.” New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay called the novel “as ambitious and intriguing” as the math problems that the novel’s main character aims to solve.

However, Chung’s favorite reactions have come from the readers she’s encountered on tour.

“In Katherine’s struggles and joys, they feel triumph,” she said. “Knowing that people have felt that deeply about Katherine and have felt like they’re on her team and she is on theirs.”

Chung now is coming to Midtown Scholar Bookstore, her first time here. The author will read from bits of her novel and be in conversation Adrienne Su, a creative writing teacher at Dickinson College.

Chung is offering to buy one lucky audience member a book, as long as they can solve a math problem found in her book.

“I think the audience will learn about the growing complexity of Asian-American writing,” Su said. “And I think Catherine will shed light on the process of writing and revising in a fast-changing literary context.”

See Catherine Chung this Friday, July 12, at 7 p.m. at Midtown Scholar Bookstore, 1302 N. 3rd St., Harrisburg. For more information visit www.midtownscholar.com/featured-events.

The Week that Was: News and features around Harrisburg

July 5, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

Harrisburg school district receiver Dr. Janet Samuels with Dr. John George of the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit

It may have been a holiday-shortened week, but it was still long on news around Harrisburg. Here are some local stories and features that you may have missed amidst the barbecues and big booms.

Harrisburg City Council members expected a long summer break, but now they’ll need to return to city hall next week because of delays in the annual process of doling out federal housing grant money. What’s the holdup? Click here to find out.

Harrisburg’s affordable housing crunch is a problem that won’t be fixed overnight. However, our editor has some thoughts on what may help.

Harrisburg school district receiver Dr. Janet Samuels introduced Dr. John George, who will head up her recovery team for the next three years. Oh, and a bunch of computers and essential data have gone missing. Click here for all the details.

Independence Day fireworks went off with a bang, despite the threat of rain. Read our feature story on the best place to witness them in Harrisburg.

Pennsylvania Department of Education consultants completed their financial audit of the Harrisburg school district, issuing a damning report that prompted responses both from the school receiver and from our editor.

Sara Bozich looked beyond the July 4 holiday to offer up some great ideas for going out and having fun for the entire long(ish) weekend.

TheBurg’s music columnist has fests and folkies in focus this month. Check out all her recommendations for July.

Two-way 2^nd Street is a step closer to reality, as Harrisburg plans to offer two design plans at a public meeting on July 18. Click here for the details.

“Where I Live,” a book by Harrisburg writer and educator Debra Hervitz, teaches local children exactly where they stand in the state, the country, the universe.

Do you receive TheBurg Daily, our daily digest of news and events? If not, subscribe here!

School receiver calls financial audit “clear indictment” of former administration practices

July 4, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

Harrisburg school district receiver Janet Samuels introduced John George, executive director of the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, earlier this week.

The state’s recently released financial audit of the Harrisburg school district is a “clear indictment” of the practices of the former school administration, according to the district’s receiver.

Receiver Janet Samuels released a statement on Thursday declining comment on specific audit findings, but that acknowledged the report’s findings.

“In my capacity as the court appointed Receiver, I acknowledge receipt of the audit which is a clear indictment of the accounting and Human Resources practices of the former school district administration,” she said.

In March, the state Department of Education hired Johnstown-based Wessel & Co. to perform the audit following a series of costly errors by the district, including continuing to pay health benefits to former employees.

The report, released earlier this week, looked at a year-three period, July 2015 to June 2018, and discovered more than $3.8 million in unsupported and questionable costs, more than 100 ex-employees who continued to receive healthcare benefits and huge deficits in cafeteria operations that had to be covered by the general fund. Other shortcomings included personnel records rife with errors, a lack of financial oversight and controls and a profoundly unqualified business manager.

“I am not going to comment on any of the specifics of the audit findings other than the fact that the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit plans to fully analyze all of the issues raised in the audit and establish best practices for the school district. These audit findings further justify the necessity of my June 27, 2019 action partnering with the MCIU to operate the district and my personnel actions taken on that date,” Samuels concluded.

At the urging of the state Department of Education, a Dauphin County judge appointed Samuels as the district’s receiver on June. 17.

Under her direction, the district dismissed former Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney and much of the top school district leadership. It then contracted with MCIU, one of 29 intermediate units throughout Pennsylvania that offer educational services to local school districts, to head up the district’s leadership team under the three-year receivership.

Read the full audit report: Harrisburg City SD – AUP and Consulting Report 2016-2018

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

July 4, 2019 | by Sara Bozich

Happy [Long] Weekend! Weather-permitting, we’ll be in the pool, at the BBQ, and dancing with friends (the latter, weather doesn’t matter!). We hope you have a wonderful and relaxing weekend, too — and if relaxing doesn’t cut it, well, see below.

What are you doing this weekend?

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Meeting planned to share, discuss designs for 2-way 2nd Street

July 3, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

N. 2nd Street in Harrisburg

Last year, more than 100 Harrisburg residents came together to hear about preliminary plans to convert N. 2^nd Street to two-way traffic.

Now, city planners are back with some firmer ideas.

On July 18, the city and its consultants will present concept plans to return much of N. 2^nd Street, between Forster and Division streets, to two-way traffic. The road has been a three-lane, one-way mini-highway since the 1950s.

According to the city, residents will have the opportunity to ask questions and suggest refinements to the alternatives before the final design is drafted.

“We honestly don’t know which design we’re going to go with,” said city Engineer Wayne Martin. “So, we need the public input.”

Martin said that the city will present two major design choices, though some elements could be interchangeable based on public feedback.

The city, Martin said, hopes to begin some work on the $6 million project next year. However, the majority of the work probably will take place in 2021, due to an expected, lengthy state permitting process for signalized intersections.

Also, the city plans to begin soon on related improvements to several other streets, including Forster Street, to facilitate the flow of traffic once N. 2^nd goes two-way in Midtown and Uptown.

One thing that residents won’t see is angled parking along 2nd Street, an option that was discussed during the public first meeting in November. According to Martin, angled parking was nixed because it took up more space on the street but didn’t yield any additional parking spaces.

Martin said he hopes that a consensus emerges following the July 18 meeting.

“We hope there will be overwhelming support for one design or the other,” he said.

Harrisburg’s two-way 2^nd Street public meeting will take place on July 18, 6 to 8 p.m., at HACC Midtown 2, 1500 N. 3^rd St., Harrisburg.

Burg View: Cursed City

July 3, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

Harrisburg school district receiver Dr. Janet Samuels with Dr. John George, the district’s newly hired financial recovery plan service director.

In his famous book, “On the Road,” author Jack Kerouac, having spent a night on a bench in the train station and then run out of town, famously decried Harrisburg as, “Cursed city!”

That thought beat through my brain as I read the latest missive to the cursed— “Harrisburg City School District: Agreed Upon Procedures and Technical Consulting Report”—otherwise known as the state Department of Education’s financial audit, which was released today.

For the past decade, the city of Harrisburg has been pulling itself out of the financial crater following former Mayor Steve Reed’s 28 years in office. And now this.

But at least Reed got maybe $500 million of value from the $1 billion in debt he piled onto the city’s credit card. A terrible return, for sure, but it’s hard to discern what exactly Harrisburg and its children got from nine years of Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney and her crew.

Oh, actually, it’s not. It’s in the report:

Over $3.8 million in “questioned costs and unsupported expenditures”
The cost of health benefits inappropriately continued to more than 100 terminated employees
A quickly disappearing general fund balance
A lack of financial oversight and controls
An acting business manager utterly unqualified for his job
Cafeteria operations running enormous deficits
An uncertified school nurse who provided students with medical services
Frequent overpayment of contractors
Rampant errors in personnel records
A “history of inadequate ‘Tone at the Top’ and poor ethical values”

I could go on and on, but perhaps you should just read the report by the consultant, Wessel & Co., for yourself. Harrisburg City SD – AUP and Consulting Report 2016-2018

This, of course, is just the latest horrible district news, building upon years of poor student achievement, large and small scandals, a lack of transparency and accountability, and, now, missing computers and financial data.

Sigh.

In 2011, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania placed the city government into receivership, which, though we didn’t know it at the time, ended up being the first step in restoring Harrisburg to relative financial health.

In comparison, the school district’s fiscal situation, while very bad, is actually not as terrible as the city’s was—to the extent that “not bankrupt” is an improvement.

Like the city, though, the district will need to rebuild its top leadership, its financial and management systems and the public confidence—no small order. Of course, it has the extra responsibility of providing a decent education for Harrisburg’s children, which is supposed to be its core mission.

In 2014, Harrisburg emerged from state receivership still shaky, but it allowed the city to set the stage for more responsible leadership, which, thankfully, arrived. Here’s hoping that, after a three-year receivership, we’ll be able to say the same for the Harrisburg school district—that it pushed reset, stabilized and rebounded.

Then, perhaps finally and forever, Harrisburg can shake off Kerouac’s term, “cursed city.”

Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.

Harrisburg must act quickly on HUD funding; council puts hiatus on hold

July 2, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

Harrisburg City Council on Tuesday night

Harrisburg City Council had a fine plan on Tuesday night to tie up some loose ends and then clock out for seven weeks for summer recess.

It didn’t work out that way.

Instead, council members will need to return to work at least twice over their summer break or risk losing millions of dollars in federal housing money that funds everything from low-income home repairs to at-risk youth programs to paying off a federal loan.

The city blamed the change of plan on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which issued its notice of funding to Harrisburg on June 10, several months later than usual.

The late notice gives the city just two months to scramble to work with a new technical consultant, determine allocations, hold a public hearing, have a month-long public comment period and finalize its ordinances, all before a mid-August deadline.

“We are under a crunch that is substantial,” said Mayor Eric Papenfuse.

The city now must prepare three ordinances by Friday, including one for the popular Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.

The city uses this grant, which, in recent years has totaled about $2 million, for city-run housing rehabilitation projects, to help support social service groups and, in recent years, to help pay off the outstanding federal debt associated with the disastrous Capitol View Commerce Center project.

The Friday deadline is necessary so that the city has enough time to properly advertise the meeting for Tuesday evening, when both the action plan will be introduced and a mandated public hearing will be held.

A 30-day comment period will follow, leaving council with just days to meet again on Aug. 6, pass a final ordinance and send it to HUD to make the federal agency’s deadline.

“It’s an all-hands on deck situation,” said city Solicitor Neil Grover.

Papenfuse is holding out some hope that HUD may extend the deadline, but said that the city can’t count on that.

“We’d be asking you to come back twice during your recess,” he told council. “If the federal government would extend the deadline, then you wouldn’t have to come back in August.”

Tuesday’s lengthy, three-hour meeting was marked by periods of bickering between the administration and some council members, especially over the process for re-appointing finance director Bruce Weber to his position.

Council members objected that they needed to act immediately on Weber’s appointment, as his 120-day period serving as “acting” director, following an administrative restructuring, was expiring. After heated exchanges between Papenfuse and several council members, the appointment was approved by a 6-1 vote.

However, in the case of the CDBG funds, both the administration and City Council were on the same page, agreeing that HUD deserved the blame.

“A lot of this is coming down from the federal government,” said Councilman Westburn Majors. “We are acting as expeditiously as possible on this HUD CDBG funding.”

Harrisburg school district finances in shambles, computers missing, as recovery team begins work

July 2, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

Dr. John George speaks to the press as Harrisburg school district receiver Dr. Janet Samuels looks on.

The Harrisburg school district recovery team needs to reconstruct much of the district’s key financial data, as critical financial records have gone missing and existing data can’t be trusted, officials said today.

Dr. John J. George, the financial recovery plan service director, said that numerous computers containing key financial data are missing from the district’s financial office. In addition, those records were not backed up, as they should have been, resulting in substantial information gaps, he said.

“I know that the records are missing,” said George, following a press conference that introduced key members of receiver Dr. Janet Samuels’ new leadership team. “I don’t know why they’re missing or how they’re missing.”

The missing computers were only discovered yesterday, the first day on the job for the team, George said. Samuels dismissed the district’s top officials, including former Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney, effective Sunday, June 30.

George declined to say whether law enforcement had been contacted, nor would he say exactly what types of records are missing, other than that they are “certain key financial records.”

But he did say that the missing records pose a significant problem trying to understand the district’s current financial state.

“These are financial records that are important to the operation of the Harrisburg school district and that seem to be no longer there,” said George, who is the executive director of the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, one of 29 “intermediate units” that offer educational services to local school districts.

The Harrisburg school district uses a web-based financial management software system called eFinance. However, the missing records also were not included in that system, George said.

Moreover, George said that he had little confidence in the accuracy of the data that is in the system.

“We have to rebuild the financial system immediately,” he said. “Right now, we have little confidence in any of the dollar figures available to us. That’s not a good position to be in.”

George said that his team will need to go through the district’s paperwork, “piece by piece and redo those systems.” He estimated that about 10,000 account codes will need to be examined.

“So, we have to go through account code by account code and make sure that expenditures are being properly coded and revenue is being properly recorded so that we have a baseline,” he said. “Our initial analysis, and we’re 24 hours into this right now, is that there are already significant errors in the accounting procedures.”

Under Samuels, the Harrisburg district has entered into a three-year contract with the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit (MCIU) to provide a host of services to the district.

For the most part, team members are replacing the former top district administrators, including the superintendent, the business manager and the human resources manager. Samuels said that the $1.4 million contract with MCIU is $600,000 less than the district was paying the in-house personnel who held those jobs.

Samuels today said that she decided to hire MCIU because of her past experience with George. She credits him for helping to stabilize the finances and improve the operations of the Reading School District.

“This district deserves highly competent, highly credentialed and qualified individuals, and that is exactly what exists within Dr. George,” she said.

George will remain with MCIU and will not be compensated by the Harrisburg district. Chris Celmer, the assistant superintendent for the Reading district, will lead the team on a daily basis as Harrisburg’s chief operating officer.

Like George, Samuels described the current state of the district financially and operationally as woeful.

“Very intentionally, it was looking at some of the failures here in the school district, some of the mismanagement that has taken place over a period of time here in the school district and really determining and deciding what could be done about it,” she said. “The time is now, and we look forward to making a difference.”

George said that, besides the financial aspect, the recovery team will assess the quality of personnel and strive for academic progress.

“It’s going to take time,” he said. “Our contract is for three years. I believe that we can make systemic change in three years.”

“We have no more time to waste,” Samuels said.

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