Harrisburg imposes austerity measures, hopes for legislative action as it faces hard realities of Act 47

June 25, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse takes a question outside city hall during today’s press conference.

Harrisburg is enacting an immediate hiring freeze and reevaluating all capital improvement projects as it braces for $12 million in spending cuts over the next three years, the mayor announced today.

The austerity comes as the city faces the expiration of its Act 47 status as a financially distressed municipality. That designation has granted Harrisburg special taxing authority for the past five years, which can continue until 2021 under a one-time, three-year extension.

But as Mayor Eric Papenfuse explained today, Harrisburg will lose its current taxing power in 2021 unless the state legislature intervenes. That would cost the city $12 million in annual revenue from its earned income tax (EIT) and local services tax (LST).

According to Papenfuse, the city must start preparing for that loss at the start of the new fiscal year in January 2019.

“The drawdown has to happen next year,” he said. “We cannot wait until the three-year extension expires.”

The city will develop new three-year budget projections starting this week, but has already implemented a hiring freeze and scrutinized its supplies and services expenditures. Papenfuse said all capital improvement spending from the city’s fund balance may be in jeopardy, but declined to name specific projects.

The mayor hopes the city can avoid layoffs by cutting jobs through attrition. The city will not replace anyone who retires, including police and fire personnel, or fill any of the 11 job vacancies currently posted on its website.

“These are perilous times for the city,” Papenfuse said on Monday, when he addressed reporters and a crowd of citizens in front of city hall. “Without legislative action, the city will suffer dire consequences.”

The announcement follows news last week that the state legislature would not pass a provision codifying Harrisburg’s current tax rates. Lawmakers have previously granted special taxing power to Act 47 cities, including Pittsburgh, which exited the oversight program this year.

Harrisburg officials have long said that the city cannot leave Act 47 without a change to state laws. Papenfuse explained that the Harrisburg Strong Plan, which was adopted in 2013, was written with the assumption that the state legislature would help the city with its financial recovery.

That plan addressed the city’s debt, but did not repair the conditions that created its structural deficit, Papenfuse said. Harrisburg cannot pass balanced budgets under the state’s current tax code, he said, since its small, highly impoverished tax base cannot support its large commuter population and tax-exempt state properties.

The only way to avoid a structural deficit is to expand the city’s taxing power, he said. Papenfuse’s administration entered a 12-month, $60,000 contract with a lobbying firm this year in hopes of securing a victory in the statehouse.

That moment appeared to be close on Friday, when Papenfuse announced that the legislature had secured the votes to pass a special tax provision for Harrisburg. But that provision, a proposed amendment to the state’s fiscal code, never came up for vote.

The defeat dealt a blow to the city’s leadership, which must adopt a new, state-sponsored recovery plan in September to secure an Act 47 extension. Since the state can only make recommendations based on current laws, the plan will likely assume the loss of $12 million of revenue in 2021.

Marita Kelley, the city’s Act 47 coordinator, could not be reached for comment on Monday.

The mayor hopes that the city can extend its lobbying efforts into September, after the legislature returns to session and before city adopts a new recovery plan.

According to Papenfuse, that’s the only way Harrisburg will avoid catastrophe.

“This does not have to be cataclysmic or fatal if we work on legislation together,” he said. “But make no mistake – the city cannot cut $12 million.”

Papenfuse reiterated today that the city has very few expenses it can cut. He said that personnel and associated costs, such as pensions and healthcare, make up 92 percent of the city’s budget. The remaining 8 percent of supplies and services spending covers utilities and other mandatory expenses, he said.

If the city must trim 20 percent of its expenses, it has no choice but to cut personnel, including police officers and firefighters.

The mayor is confident that most legislators understand Harrisburg’s plight and wish to help the capital city. He laid most blame with House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny County, who recently called on the city to curb spending and surrender its taxing authority.

Papenfuse and Turzai reportedly clashed in talks last week, and the mayor said today that the Speaker bucked the will of his own party by blocking the Harrisburg provision on Friday.

“[Turzai] did not want to understand Harrisburg’s situation, and he stopped something with strong bipartisan support,” the mayor said.

Turzai has not responded to requests for comment.

Speeches & Shovels: After years of delays, officials break ground for new federal courthouse in Harrisburg.

June 25, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (middle) and Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse were among the officials at today’s groundbreaking for the new federal courthouse.

“I was giving up hope.”

“Will it ever happen?”

“A long road.”

Under a large, white tent set up in a field at the corner of N. 6^th and Reily streets, a succession of federal and local officials described an arduous, two-decade-long journey that led to the groundbreaking today for a new federal courthouse in Harrisburg.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse joined three area congressmen, a couple of judges and several federal officials in a ceremonial groundbreaking at the four-acre site, where the $194 million courthouse will rise over the next 3½ years.

Papenfuse reflected on the meetings he attended years ago as a private citizen, when numerous sites were suggested and then rejected for the new courthouse. Finally, people settled on an unlikely patch of ground across the street from the Bethesda Mission.

“Fourteen years ago, I participated in those public meetings, in those visioning sessions,” he said. “A lot of sites were considered. Eventually, it was decided to put the courthouse here. It was a site that was slightly out of the region’s comfort zone.”

But the battle didn’t end there. After the 2010 site selection, the project languished, unable to get funding from Congress. But, eventually, the area’s congressional delegation turned up the heat, leading to a full appropriation in the 2018 federal budget.

“It was too long in coming, but God serves those who are patient, right?” said Rep. Scott Perry, who represents much of the city in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In fact, construction machinery was already on site today, as site preparation and utility work were set to begin. Actual construction of the 243,000-square-foot building isn’t expected to start until early next year, with a completion date estimated for the fall of 2021.

The 11-story federal courthouse will provide eight courtrooms, 11 judges’ chambers and 42 interior parking spaces. Following relocation of workers, the federal government plans to sell the current Ronald Reagan Federal Building at N. 3^rd and Walnut streets.

An artist’s rendering of the new federal courthouse in Harrisburg.

Rep. Lou Barletta, whose district includes a small portion of Harrisburg, recalled the day in 2015 when the project was added to the federal courthouse priority list.

“It’s been a long road, but one worth the fight,” he said. “Our persistence has finally paid off.”

A keynote address by Hon. Christopher Conner, chief judge for the U.S. Middle District of Pennsylvania, capped off the hour-long groundbreaking ceremony.

“Many of you did not believe this day would ever arrive,” he said, reiterating the point made by every speaker before him.

Perhaps the only people not happy today were those who wanted to witness the long-time-in-coming occasion, but were turned away. This included some Harrisburg residents, people with significant investments in the area and, notably, members of Right Site Harrisburg, which, for years, advocated and agitated for the selection of the site at N. 6^th and Reily streets.

If your name was not on the invite list, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which was performing security checks, turned you away.

Inside the tent, several speakers, including Conner, mentioned that they expected the courthouse to help revive the area. More than a century ago, the neighborhood was built largely for working-class, railroading families, who lived in small houses on small lots. It later became blighted, and, over the years, most of the houses were torn down.

Papenfuse pointed to projects like 1500 Condominium, Café 1500, the courthouse and the planned state Archives building as the first signs that the area is coming back.

“This is a transformative project,” he said, using the occasion to put in a funding pitch for his next priority—a bridge the city wants to build over the railroad tracks in Uptown Harrisburg.

Harrisburg headed toward fiscal “catastrophe,” budget cuts, says mayor

June 24, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

Mayor Eric Papenfuse with members of the city’s police and fire bureaus last week.

Harrisburg’s financial crisis is back, and that could lead the city to impose dramatic budget cuts, according to the mayor.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse plans to hold a press conference tomorrow afternoon declaring the city to be back in a state of fiscal emergency following the state legislature’s refusal last week to allow the city to retain its extra taxing authority and leave Act 47, the state’s program for fiscally distressed municipalities.

“With the state legislature’s failure to act Friday to extend Harrisburg’s taxing authority beyond Act 47, the city now faces a looming financial catastrophe that will require immediate implementation of austerity measures to begin to close a projected $12 million budget deficit over the next three years,” Papenfuse said in a statement.

He did not immediately reveal what those austerity measures might include, nor did he immediately return a phone call asking for additional comment.

On Friday, the House and Senate declined to consider a measure that would have allowed the city to keep its special taxing authority, enabling it to exit Act 47 without sacrificing tax revenue.

That amendment never made it into the appropriations bill that the Senate subsequently passed.

As part of Harrisburg’s current financial recovery plan, the Commonwealth Court permitted the city to raise those taxes beyond what is allowed in the state tax code. The city doubled its earned income tax (EIT) in 2012 and tripled its local services tax (LST) in 2016. Those taxes bring in about $12 million in annual revenue for the city.

The city’s current, five-year financial recovery plan under Act 47 expires in September. The state likely will grant the city a three-year extension. However, a new plan would have to be drafted and approved and, with it, the city may lose those extra taxes and that extra revenue, Papenfuse has said.

Last week, Papenfuse said that he believed the city had the votes in the legislature to retain the current, elevated EIT and LST, as well as the support of Gov. Tom Wolf. However, House Speaker Mike Turzai has been publicly opposed to allowing the city to retain the current EIT and LST, advocating a three-year extension and saying that “the city had not completely addressed its financial issues.”

“Just as we did with Pittsburgh, we need to get Harrisburg on track to exit Act 47 on strong financial footing, instead of allowing it to simply continue to tax those who live and work in the city at a higher rate,” Turzai said in a June 13 statement.

With Turzai opposed, the measure to allow the city to retain its EIT and LST, and exit Act 47, never came up for a vote.

Legislature denies Harrisburg special tax power, making Act 47 extension all but inevitable.

June 22, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg will likely spend another three years in the Act 47 program for financially distressed cities, thanks to a decision by the state legislature today.

The House and Senate declined to consider a measure that would have granted the city special taxing authority, enabling it to exit Act 47 without sacrificing tax revenue.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse expressed confidence this morning that a provision embedded in the state’s fiscal code had enough support to pass before the legislature adjourns for recess tonight.

But that amendment never made it into the appropriations bill that the Senate passed this afternoon.

Papenfuse, who could not be reached for comment after the vote, described this outcome as a “financial catastrophe” in a press conference this morning. He said that the Act 47 extension would require a new financial recovery plan, which could jeopardize the city’s current earned income tax (EIT) and local services tax (LST) rates.

As part of Harrisburg’s financial recovery, the Commonwealth Court permitted the city to raise those taxes beyond what is allowed in the state tax code. The city doubled its EIT in 2012 and tripled its LST in 2016.

Those taxes bring in $12 million in annual revenue for the city. Papenfuse insisted today that Harrisburg could lose that revenue under a new recovery plan.

But City Council budget and finance chair Ben Allatt said that that gloomy forecast won’t necessarily come to pass.

The mayor’s statements this morning marked the first time any city official had raised concerns about the city’s future in Act 47, and Allatt said that the “alarmist” narrative was new to him.

He believes that the city will be allowed to maintain its status quo tax rates when it appears before the court with a new recovery plan in September.

Allatt was hopeful that the legislature would pass the special provision for Harrisburg today, but he does not think that its inaction will derail the city’s financial recovery.

For months, Harrisburg officials have insisted that they will not exit Act 47 without legislative action by the state. The administration entered a year-long, $60,000 contract with Harrisburg-based lobbying firm Maverick Strategies to coax special taxing conditions out of the statehouse.

Allatt said that many lawmakers do not understand the unique challenges of funding a capital city. Harrisburg is home to large swaths of tax-exempt property (occupied by the state or nonprofit groups) and a population with a 40-percent poverty rate. The city’s median home value is just $44,000.

Harrisburg cannot balance its budget and provide basic services with the tax rates currently authorized by state tax code, he explained.

“This city has always had a revenue problem,” Allatt said. “It’s a math equation, and, at the end of the day, the math doesn’t add up.”

Allatt said that one goal of the city’s lobbying effort is to convince legislators that state laws, and not political ineptitude, constrain Harrisburg’s finances. He singled out House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny County, who clashed with the mayor yesterday over the city’s recovery status.

In a statement last week, Turzai blasted the idea that Harrisburg should retain its taxing authority after exiting Act 47. He called on the city to remain in the oversight program until it could cut its costs.

Papenfuse and Allatt said separately that Turzai did not comprehend the extent of Harrisburg’s financial recovery over the past five years. By reducing its personnel costs and privatizing its parking and trash assets, Harrisburg has passed balanced budgets and run surpluses every year Papenfuse has been in office.

Turzai did not respond to a request for comment today.

Allatt still believes that the city will need legislative action to exit Act 47, but he does not think that today’s failed lobbying effort portends intransigence for the next three years.

“Our legislature moves very slowly, but I do [think] they can help us,” Allatt said.

Following public outcry, PennDOT rethinks plan that would oust train station newsstand.

June 22, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg’s favorite newsstand might not be closing its doors after all.

Weeks after TheBurg reported that Transit News would be forced out of the Harrisburg Transportation Center under a new PennDOT plan, the store’s proprietor has been invited into talks with PennDOT executives.

They’ve pledged to discuss potential design options that would keep the newsstand in the train station, PennDOT press secretary Erin Waters-Trasatt said on Thursday.

William Cologie, who has owned Transit News since 1991, met with PennDOT executives last week after mounting a campaign to save his business. A PennDOT plan published in March called for evicting Transit News from its current retail space to make room for Amtrak offices, part of a $15 million overhaul of the train and bus hub.

At the meeting, PennDOT apologized for not including Cologie in early stakeholder conversations. They also reported that the renovation plans must be revised and offered to include him in the upcoming planning process, he said.

PennDOT has not guaranteed that Transit News will keep its current spot in the renovated station, but Cologie is heartened that they have listened to the opinions that he and his customers have raised.

“It has been incredibly gratifying to read the messages sent to PennDOT and to see how much Transit News means to so many,” Cologie said in a letter to his supporters. “We work hard, have always worked hard, and will continue to work hard to remain, what many consider us to be, the world’s best transit center newsstand.”

Cologie bought Transit News in 1991, when it had $3,000 of inventory and occupied a small office in the train station lobby. He oversaw an expansion of the store and its move into a larger space. Today, Transit News has $54,000 of inventory and generates more than $500,000 in annual sales.

Cologie said that many travelers and Harrisburg residents sent messages supporting Transit News to PennDOT in the days after the story broke, and shared some of those comments with TheBurg. Customers who commute to Harrisburg by train said that the station enhances their work week, while city residents said that they rely on the station for to buy a daily newspaper, coffee or books.

Waters-Trasatt confirmed that PennDOT has received emails and calls from the public asking them to preserve the newsstand.

Nonetheless, Cologie remains concerned that Amtrak, a key stakeholder in the remodeling process, has not confirmed its participation in the next round of planning. Amtrak owns the train station, but PennDOT is paying for its remodel.

The renovation is on hold until PennDOT and Amtrak executives decide who will manage the remodeled space. That responsibility currently lies with the Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority.

PennDOT will not have a timeline for advancing the project until the two parties reach that agreement, Waters-Trasatt said.

Vote by state legislature today could allow Harrisburg to exit Act 47; shed status as “financially distressed” city.

June 22, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Mayor Eric Papenfuse was joined outside of City Hall this morning by members of the city’s police and fire bureaus, whose jobs would be endangered if the city entered receivership.

Today could be a historic day for Harrisburg.

The state legislature is scheduled to vote on a measure that would enable the city to exit Act 47, the oversight program for financially distressed cities. A proposed change to the state fiscal code would allow Harrisburg to preserve the augmented taxing authority it gained under Act 47 and spare it from entering receivership for the second time in its history.

If the measure passes, the city will be able to maintain its current revenue streams, preserve its staff and services, and avoid raising taxes indefinitely.

“We are averting a financial catastrophe,” said Mayor Eric Papenfuse. “If the legislature does not act today, we would lose $12 million in revenue that is absolutely necessary to our city.”

Papenfuse was referring to the $12 million of revenue generated by the city’s earned income tax and local services tax, both of which more than doubled when the city entered Act 47. The oversight program allows distressed cities to pass tax hikes beyond what is allowed under state tax code.

If the legislature does not approve the measure, the city would enter receivership and adopt a new financial recovery plan. That would bring an astronomical property tax increase for Harrisburg residents, since the new plan would not necessarily preserve the city’s current EIT and LST rates, Papenfuse explained.

Papenfuse believes there is enough support for the vote to pass.

Last night, Papenfuse reported that he had entered unsuccessful discussions with House Speaker Mike Turzai, who urged the city to reduce its spending or enter receivership. Papenfuse said that he made little headway convincing the Republican that the city has already taken every possible measure to cut costs and privatize assets.

Under its first financial recovery plan, Harrisburg leased its parking assets and sold its trash incinerator. Residents still pay dearly for those services – Papenfuse said today that the city’s trash and parking rates are higher than any neighboring municipality. It also pays high water rates to Capital Region Water, the public authority that controls its water and sewage system.

“The citizens of Harrisburg are taxed enough,” Papenfuse said. “There is nothing left to privatize.”

But in the past 12 hours, Papenfuse said, discussions with House and Senate leadership improved, resulting in a promise to call the measure up for a vote today, the last day before the legislature adjourns summer recess.

Once the acrimony dissolved, Papenfuse cancelled plans for city officials to march to Turzai’s office in the state Capitol complex. The mayor appeared instead in front of city hall with members of the city’s fire and police bureaus, whose jobs would be threatened by the potential $12 million revenue loss.

The mayor wore a tie stamped with coiled rattlesnakes, the insignia of the Revolution-era “Don’t tread on me” flag, to mark the occasion.

The legislative action marks the culmination of a months-long lobbying effort by the city. In January, the administration entered a 12-month, $60,000 contract with Maverick Strategies, a local lobbying firm with ties to Republican leadership. Papenfuse said that he has logged more than 40 meetings in the Capitol to educate lawmakers about Harrisburg’s unique financial plight.

Half of Harrisburg’s property is tax-exempt because it is owned by state agencies or non-profits. Most of the city’s population lives at or below the poverty line, and its median home value sits at $44,000.

Those factors make it difficult for the city to maintain local services and infrastructure that serve more than 40,000 commuters each day.

Turzai could not be immediately reached for comment.

HBG at a Crossroads: State can free city from Act 47 or plunge it back into receivership, says mayor.

June 22, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

Harrisburg officials plan to march on Friday morning to the state Capitol, as the city faces two stark choices—fiscal freedom or renewed crisis.

In an interview late last night, Mayor Eric Papenfuse said officials from his administration, police officers and firefighters will walk from city hall to the Capitol in a last-ditch effort to convince House Speaker Mike Turzai to back a measure that would free the city from Act 47, the state’s program for fiscally distressed cities.

The state legislature is on the brink of passing a 2018-19 budget, which may include an amendment that would allow Harrisburg to exit Act 47 by granting the city the ability to retain increases to both its local services tax (LST) and earned income tax (EST).

“We have made incredible inroads,” Papenfuse said. “We have an amendment to the fiscal code that will allow the city to keep its taxing authority and exit Act 47.”

Papenfuse said he believes that majorities in both the House and Senate, as well as Gov. Tom Wolf, back the amendment. However, one critical House member is opposed—Turzai.

If the amendment fails, the city likely will be plunged back into state receivership, Papenfuse said.

That’s because the city’s Act 47 status ends in September and, with it, the city’s extra taxing authority, which accounts for about $14 million of its $72 million budget.

The city could stay in Act 47 for three more years, but that would require another financial plan, likely without the extra taxing authority, Papenfuse said. Because the city would never raise property taxes enough to cover the budget shortfall, it almost certainly would wind up back in state receivership, he said.

“Ultimately, it brings us right back to square one,” he said. “All the gains we made would be wiped out.”

Last week, Turzai released a statement announcing his opposition to the amendment, stating that Harrisburg should remain in Act 47.

“If Harrisburg officials want to get out of Act 47, they should give up the increased earned income tax on residents and the doubling of the local services tax (LST),” Turzai said. “Further, while in Act 47, the city needs to make changes working with the private sector, not against it.”

As part of its financial recovery plan, the state allowed the city to double its EIT to 2 percent and triple its LST to $156 a year.

In his statement, Turzai said that he believes that city has not done all it can to put its fiscal house in order.

“While Harrisburg officials claim to have taken steps to address the city’s legacy costs, they have not truly begun to undertake the needed reforms to get the city back onto steady financial footing,” he said. “Allowing the city to maintain the increased taxes allowed under Act 47 without the oversight to rein in its spending would only seek to encourage the city to continue the spending habits that got them into Act 47 protection in the first place.”

Papenfuse said that, on Thursday afternoon, he met briefly with Turzai, but made little progress in convincing him that the city has cut expenses “to the bone” and, having sold off its incinerator and leased out its parking system, had no other major assets that it could monetize. The meeting, he said, ended acrimoniously, leading to the plan to march to the Capitol building on Friday morning.

“The danger is that, if [Turzai] is successful, he’s made things even worse for us,” Papenfuse said. “If he’s successful, we’re back in receivership.”

By marching, Papenfuse hopes to show legislators the city employees, especially the emergency workers, who help ensure the security of the state government every day. These workers must believe they have stable jobs if they’re going to remain with the city, he said.

“Fire and police have agreed to walk with me to the speaker’s office because we simply can’t cut public safety,” he said.

Coming to HBG: Author Eliza Griswold tells of 2 damaged PA towns in “Amity and Prosperity.”

June 21, 2018 | by Yaasmeen Piper

The names Amity and Prosperity seem ill-suited for such tough-luck towns.

Eliza Griswold’s “Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America” follows a group of rural Pennsylvania residents and the resource extraction company that nearly broke them.

“It’s not really about fracking that interests me as much as that larger story of how, over a century, rural people have paid the price of urban America’s energy appetite,” Griswold said.

For seven years, Griswold followed Stacey, the focal character in the book, and her family.

The two came across each other in 2011, years after the fracking began. From the moment they met, Griswold said she felt Stacey’s story deserved to be heard.

Stacey drove Griswold through Amity and Prosperity, places that hold 150 years of Stacey’s family roots—a place she no longer calls her home.

“Red and white drill rigs dotted the hillsides planted with timothy,” Griswold wrote, describing the scene of the neighborhoods. “Sandy access roads snaked through the clover fields. Green condensate tanks shimmered in the distance.”

Dust from the numerous trucks (one resident counted as many as 250) began to build up against Stacey’s old home, hummingbird feeder, tire swings, trampoline and other childhood objects. The dust at times was so thick that, even in the winter, it would find its way through the windows. Somedays, Stacey said she could feel it on her teeth.

According to Griswold, Range Resources, a national resource extraction company, pumped a total of 3,343,986 gallons of water and chemicals into the properated pipe. Though some were harmless, other chemicals such as ethylene, glycol, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene posed a greater risk.

Only months in, the chemical effects began to wear on the town. Black sludge trickled down the hills of their neighborhood and made its way into Stacey’s dishwasher and even her tap. Smells described as “rotting sewage” pervaded her house, so terrible that no amount of Febreze could cover them.

Harley, the oldest of Stacey’s two kids, was the first to get sick. Some nights, he’d wake clutching his stomach and screaming for his mother because he was in so much pain. The frequent canker sores in his mouth stopped him from eating even his favorite meals. It got so bad that Stacey pulled him out of school and began to home-school him.

“Exploiting energy often means exploiting people,” Griswold wrote. “In Amity and Prosperity, as elsewhere, resource extraction has long fed a sense of marginalization and disgust, both with companies that undermine the land and with their urbanites who flick on lights without considering the miners who risk their lives to power them.”

Once the book was finalized, Griswold sat at Stacey’s kitchen table and read her the entire thing.

“It was incredibly intense,” she said. “I felt that I didn’t have the right to exist so intimately in someone’s life. It was hard for her to hear. It…it was not easy.”

Still, Griswold is no stranger to the world of immersion journalism. The author, reporter and poet has traveled across the globe investigating some of the world’s most taboo topics.

Her first book “The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam,” examines the geographic borders between Christianity and Islam and where the two collide. Her reporting in the book earned her the Anthony Lukas Book Prize in 2011.

“Wideawake Field,” her collection of poetry, is a personal account of mental health and what it’s like to feel at home in a wrecked place and lonely in another.

“I am interested in exploring worlds or issues,” Griswold said, “whether it’s resource extraction or other issues that are going on in the world today, how they affect human lives.”

This Saturday, Griswold will read bits from her book at Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg and will discuss the complexities of resource extraction and the Americans who pay the price for those resources.

“I hope that [readers] understand the complexity and the sophistication of life for rural Americans when it comes to resource extraction,” she said. “I look forward to coming and talking about this history of conservation and how it plays out on the ground today.”

Eliza Griswold will be at Midtown Scholar Bookstore, 1302 N. 3rd St., Harrisburg, on Saturday June 23, 6 to 8 p.m.. For more information, visit www.midtownscholar.com. Follow her on twitter @elizagriswold.

Groundbreaking set for new federal courthouse in Harrisburg

June 21, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

The site of the future federal courthouse in Harrisburg

And some thought this day would never arrive.

The U.S. government plans to break ground next week on the new federal courthouse in Midtown Harrisburg, according to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).

The groundbreaking ceremony will take place on Monday at 11 a.m. at the site at N. 6^th and Reily streets, according to a GSA press advisory.

This doesn’t mean that residents soon will see the 243,000-square-foot structure begin to rise from the ground. Site preparation and utility work will come first, with actual building construction not slated to start until early next year.

In fact, the federal government still hasn’t assembled all the land it needs for the courthouse, particularly along the fringes of the project. Just last night, Harrisburg City Council learned that the federal government is offering $39,000 for two city-owned parcels, 648 and 650 Boyd St., that will be part of the project.

The city acquired those parcels about a decade ago as part of the 7^th Street widening project. A vote on that resolution is expected at next week’s legislative session. In the unlikely event that council refuses to sell the land, the federal government would initiate eminent domain proceedings to acquire it, according to the city administration.

The $194 million courthouse will provide eight courtrooms, 11 judges’ chambers and 79 parking spaces on about four acres. After a long site search, the federal government settled on the site across the street from Bethesda Mission in 2010.

Construction should take about three years, with expected completion in 2022.

Following relocation of workers, the federal government plans to sell the current Ronald Reagan Federal Building at N. 3^rd and Walnut streets.

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

June 21, 2018 | by Sara Bozich

Happy Weekend!

I’m beach-bound! Just warning, we may not have a Weekend Roundup next week. Or we will. I haven’t decided, and I don’t yet know the complications of taking an 8-month old to the beach. I’m excited (and a bit stressed) nonetheless.

I’m bummed to be missing Cider Fest and its kick-off Cider Dinner, but they always seem to coincide with my beach trip. Maybe next year! Meanwhile, look for Jimi’s posts from there.

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What are you doing this weekend?

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