Downtown apartments, affordable housing again top HBG Council meeting

June 19, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

Harrisburg City Council, at Tuesday’s work session

Downtown development and affordable housing dominated another Harrisburg City Council meeting tonight, as members began to chew over the latest apartment proposal from Harristown Development.

As she has at several other meetings this year, council President Wanda Williams pressed Harristown on the relative affordability of its apartment units, this time for a proposal to convert a bank-owned, mostly vacant Pine Street building to 44 one- and two-bedroom units.

“We want you to be successful,” Williams told Harristown CEO Brad Jones, who presented the project to council. “But we want our residents to be able to live in safe housing, in comfortable housing, in affordable housing.”

At the council work session, Williams said that many city residents have told her that they want the chance to be able to live in the fully renovated Harristown units, but that they’re concerned that they can’t afford the rent.

“Our residents are living in slum housing,” Williams said. “I want to give residents a chance to live in those areas.”

Jones responded that many of his company’s apartments are considered affordable under federal housing guidelines. In recent years, Harristown has fully renovated several underused and rundown office buildings downtown, adding about 60 new residential units, which rent from $775 to $1,450 a month, he said.

He added that four of the 12 units in a 2^nd Street building the company is now renovating “will be in the affordable category,” so that a tenant with a modest income would have to pay no more than one-third of his or her salary in rent.

“You could make $36,000, and that’s an affordable index, according to HUD,” Jones said, referring to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines.

He said that the rents in the proposed building at 116 Pine St. are projected to be $1,000 a month for one-bedroom unit and $1,400 for two bedrooms.

Jones also said that rents have to be high enough to justify the project financially. Early next year, Harristown plans to begin work on converting both 116 and 124 Pine St. to apartments, spending some $12 million on the renovations.

“These are very risky projects,” he said. “The fact that we’ve been able to convince two other partners to contribute has been a Herculean effort.”

Several other council members said that, while they also support affordable housing, Harristown can’t be held solely responsible for redressing any lack of affordable housing in Harrisburg. The city currently lacks an affordable housing policy for Harristown to follow.

“Affordable housing is a huge problem with our city, but City Council has failed to act on affordable housing,” said Councilwoman Shamaine Daniels.

Likewise, Councilman Cornelius Johnson said that the responsibility rests with council, not Harristown.

“The onus is not on you,” he told Jones. “It’s on us.”

To that end, the city, along with Harristown, the Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority and the Harrisburg Housing Authority, has commissioned a $10,000 housing study. The results of the study, conducted by Columbia, Md.-based Real Property Research Group, should be available later this year.

The city hopes that, through the study, it will learn more about its housing stock, rental rates and resident needs, so it can begin to craft more informed housing policies.

Following the meeting, Mayor Eric Papenfuse said that he supported Harristown’s apartment projects both to encourage investment in the city and to persuade people to choose Harrisburg over the suburbs, putting tax dollars in city coffers and money into city businesses.

“I definitely feel this brings new people into the city and expands the tax base,” he said. “This is exactly what Harrisburg needs.”

In April, City Council approved Harristown’s plan for 124 Pine St., with Williams casting the lone dissenting vote. Council is expected to vote on the land use plan for 116 Pine St. at an upcoming legislative session.

A Garden Grows: Veggies, learning take root at Camp Curtin Y.

June 19, 2018 | by Yaasmeen Piper

Gardeners in action in the Camp Curtin Y’s new community garden.

What’s growing at the Camp Curtin YMCA’s new Community Garden project?

Sustainability, fresh produce and education.

The program aims to provide S.T.E.M. Summer Camp students with the tools and resources needed to understand and create organic foods. In 2017, Giant Food Stores awarded the YMCA a multi-year, $20,000 grant to help launch the program for its 65 participants.

“The goal for the garden is the have the kids actually be able to plant, grow, understand what they are growing, and for us to take the food back and actually implement it into their meals,” said Jamien Harvey, the YMCA’s executive director.

Only three weeks into the project, and the garden is already sprouting green. Located at the back of the 6th street building, the community garden features peppers, tomatoes, squash, sunflowers, corn, basil and other herbs and produce.

The learning doesn’t stop with growing the food. Rafiyqa Muhammad, the garden manager, is teaching the kids sustainability by incorporating recycled materials into the garden and teaching them how to solarize—use the sun’s rays—to kill harmful plants like poison ivy.

And the students aren’t the only ones learning. Muhammad said this type of gardening was foreign to her. Reading, workshops and practice taught her what she needed to know to relay the information to the kids.

“It’s something that God just put on my heart a couple years ago,” she said. “My husband told me I would figure it out, so I figured it out.”

Harvey said that, besides gardening technique, students also are learning a work ethic.

“I did not know how much went into this until we got knee-deep in truckloads of mulch,” he said. “We’ve been working these last three weeks. Just to get it to the point where it is now, we’ve been working.”

The community garden is only part of the YMCA’s sustainability projects. The organization also has partnered with Capital Region Water to create a water catchment, or collection, system.

With the permission of a neighboring resident, the YMCA will attach an object to the back and front gutters of the home. When it rains, the water will go through the gutters and into a compartment, where the water is stored and used later to water crops.

“It’s part of a neighborhood initiative around sustainability, specifically when the water runs off, where does that water go?” said Rosie Turner YMCA’s director of marketing and communications. “We’re teaching [the students] about their own consumption and how they can impact the planet.”

According to Turner, programs such as the garden help the YMCA connect with its community and the youth within it.

“I think, you walk around and you see the kids and they’re smiling and they’re happy and they’re engaged,” she said. “It’s summertime, and they’re at a place where they feel safe and protected, and that’s really the goal of the Y.”

The Camp Curtin YMCA is located on 2135 N 6th St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit ymcaharrisburg.org.

Harrisburg sets first public meeting for “Vision Zero”

June 18, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

Traffic is diverted around an accident at N. 3rd and Forster streets, the scene of many crashes in Harrisburg.

Do you feel like you’re in a game of Frogger whenever you try to cross one of Harrisburg’s main roads?

Then you may want to attend a public meeting that the city government is planning for its nascent “Vision Zero” initiative, which aims to improve pedestrian safety and slash, even eradicate, fatalities.

According to the city, the June 27 meeting is designed to give information about the proposed program and, in turn, listen to feedback from residents.

Vehicle-related fatalities have quadrupled in the city in the last four years, according to PennDOT data, rising from two deaths in 2013 to eight deaths in 2017.

Vision Zero aims to eliminate vehicle-related deaths within the next decade, city Engineer Wayne Martin has told TheBurg.

The city also is undertaking a rapid-response study to improve transportation safety on State Street, the site of five pedestrian deaths in the past 19 months.

At next week’s meeting, city officials will focus on the State Street rapid response, which is the program’s first phase, according to the city. Officials will take comments and provide information about State Street traffic accidents.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 27, 5 to 7 p.m., at Fire Station No. 2, located at the corner of State and N. 16^th streets, Harrisburg.

Local stories in focus as African American History Expo returns this weekend to Midtown HBG

June 15, 2018 | by Yaasmeen Piper

Macajah Brown, organizer of the event

Through the decades of constructions and demolitions, new generations and stories, Harrisburg native Macajah Brown said the city’s black history has been lost in the mix.

With the hope of reviving that pulse in the community, Brown created the African American Black History Expo. For the second year in a row, the Expo, which takes place tomorrow, will showcase the history of Harrisburg, Middletown and Steelton through church representatives.

“We wanted the church to come and share their history, come and present their history,” Brown said. “I felt the communication of people behind the booth, sharing their history with someone would be pretty awesome.”

Members from select churches will give a presentation on their history dating back as far as the 1800s.

From his connections in and outside the region, Brown enlisted artists, musicians, dance groups and poets to perform between speakers.

Demonstrations in wrestling, boxing and karate will be available for younger guests, Brown’s target audience.

“The main history goes to our young people,” Brown said. “We need to educate our young people about our history.”

Vendors will set up shop selling jewelry and clothing, as well as others selling dinners and desserts. Brown is also in the works of adding domestic violence and other health services to the expo.

“There are [health services] that I think we should always stay on top of,” he said. “[We need to] educate people about the sources around us so they can know how to get help.”

The event was inspired by the African Festival at Reservoir Park, which ended more than a decade ago. Brown said he saw a different attitude among the black community after the end of the festival.

“[The African Festival] brought a closer relationship among our race. I think everything got lost after they stopped, in the sense of being proud of who you are,” he said. “The biggest thing about doing [the expo] is bring that pride back and understanding and emphasizing the education of history.”

After pulling in people all across Harrisburg, from Hall Manor to Uptown and Allison Hill, Brown estimated the number of guests will reach 3,000. People who bring in an event flyer will be entered in a raffle to win one of the 80 prizes, including restaurant coupons and Susquehanna Art Museum tickets.

“We want everybody to be there to build a better bridge among races,” Brown said. “Understanding each other’s culture and having everyone attend. It’s a learning experience. Learning someone’s culture and understanding them a lot more than we hear and actually get the real facts.”

The African American Black History Expo will take place Saturday, June 16, noon to 6 p.m., in the HACC Midtown parking lot located near the corner of Reily and N. 3^rd streets, Harrisburg.

Screen Shots: World Cup action gets super-sized at Whitaker Center.

June 15, 2018 | by Erica Koup

At Whitaker Center, Penn FC players Jorge Rivera and Fabio De Sousa flank youth soccer players Maddox, Kaden, Ollie and Callen

For soccer fans, there may be nothing better than watching the first match of the World Cup.

Except this: Watching the first match of the World Cup on a 40-foot screen. In extremely comfortable chairs. With food and drink at the ready. Accompanied by a few professional soccer players.

The quadrennial soccer tournament kicked off in Russia last week, and, outside of the stadium itself, there may have been no better venue to enjoy it than at Harrisburg’s Whitaker Center.

Seated before the towering Select Medical Digital Cinema screen, the crowd could see every pass, every shot, every penalty in the inaugural Russia vs. Saudi Arabia match – very, very up-close.

As fans entered the lobby, players from Harrisburg’s professional soccer team, Penn FC, greeted them. Young fans barely could contain their excitement as they took their seats, anticipating the ups and downs, the blowouts and upsets, during the month-long tournament. Though the United States failed to qualify for the World Cup, attendees still enjoyed the game, screaming with each goal, as Russia defeated Saudi Arabia by a score of 5-0.

Under new CEO Ted Black, Whitaker Center increasingly is positioning itself as a regional center for watching sports. This may be no surprise, as Black has a deep bench of experience in professional sports, serving previously as the president of the Buffalo Sabres, a professional ice hockey team. So, going forward, you may be just as likely to visit the downtown arts and culture center for a major sporting event as for a big concert or movie.

“Soccer is a community sport,” said Bob Ancharski, the director of events and ticketing, commenting on the choice to bring the World Cup to the very big screen.

The World Cup isn’t the first—and certainly won’t be the last—sporting event at the center. Past events have included the Super Bowl, and the future includes showing eSport tournaments.

Last year, Black announced a plan for eSports to be added to the center in collaboration with Harrisburg University. ESports, also known as electronic sports, are competitive video games, which are quickly building a passionate fan base. The sport has been rapidly gaining in popularity globally and is now a $900 million industry just in the United States.

With a theater that seats 200 people, Whitaker Center looks forward to hosting more sports viewing events. In fact, on Sunday, July 15, the venue will show the World Cup final, accompanied by more family-friendly activities. For more details, visit whitakercenter.org.

Mandate or Suggestion? State calls on Harrisburg school district to seek new financial managers

June 14, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Members of the district’s business office, from left: acting assistant business manager Regis Barwin, interim CFO James Snell and acting business manager Bilal Hasan.

Soon after wrapping up a protracted debate over its superintendent, the Harrisburg school district may find itself in another personnel battle.

The state Department of Education is asking the district to search for new leadership for its business office, which oversees budgets and financial management.

In a letter to the district on Monday, department Secretary Pedro Rivera said that the district’s chief financial officer and business manager do not meet the criteria set forth in its five-year recovery plan, which calls for full-time, permanent, highly qualified employees to fill both positions.

The school board has final say on all district personnel actions. But board members, who diverged for the past six months over whether to replace or retain Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney, once again disagree on the need to seek new hires.

Board President Judd Pittman interprets the letter as a directive from the state, giving the district no choice but to replace interim, part-time CFO James Snell and acting Business Manager Bilal Hasan. But board Vice President Danielle Robinson thinks the district should keep the current team.

“It’s not a directive, it’s a suggestion,” Robinson said. “The team we have in place is giving us what we need.”

The business manager and CFO are responsible for developing and managing the district’s $156 million budget. This year, the district faces a shortfall of almost $9 million. The business office has proposed bridging it with a $5 million transfer from its fund balance, $4 million in staff cuts, and a 3.6 percent tax hike.

“The people we had in [the business office] before are the reason we’re in the situation we’re in now,” said Robinson. “Hasan and Snell have helped us come out of it.”

The district’s business office has seen a revolving door of interim and acting managers in the past five years. The office had permanent leadership during the 2016-17 school year, when William Gretton served as CFO and Kenneth Medina as business manager.

Gretton resigned last July to take a superintendent position near Philadelphia, and Medina was reassigned to a grants management role in August.

Pittman called the lack of consistent leadership in the business office “a cancer.” He said that, while he appreciates Snell and Hasan’s hard work over the past year, he’s been frustrated with the district’s administration – including the superintendent – during this year’s budget talks.

“I haven’t gotten answers to the questions I’ve been asking this budget cycle,” Pittman said. “I haven’t seen any creativity.”

Pittman said that the administration has lagged on actions that would generate more revenue, such as selling its vacant properties or seeking out payments from tax exempt entities in the city.

Since the state could put the district in receivership once its five-year recovery plan ends on June 30, Pittman thinks it’s imperative that the board act now on PDE’s directive.

Knight-Burney declined to comment on the letter today, but Chief Recovery Officer Audrey Utley said that the district would need to seek new personnel.

“[Hasan] does not have the required experience,” Utley said. “PDE is saying that we need to do a search now.”

Utley was referring to the criteria set forth in the recovery plan, which calls for a business manager with “substantial prior experience and… a successful, documented track record” overseeing a business office in a similar-sized district.

Hasan also lacks certifications from the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials. He was serving as assistant business manager in February when he was promoted to acting business manager at a salary of $113,000.

He was floated as a potential business manager in 2016, according to school board minutes, but passed over in favor of a more experienced candidate (the job ultimately went to Medina.)

Robinson said that she would support Hasan seeking coursework and certifications to become a full-time, permanent business manager.

Separately, the school district announced today the resignation of Percel Eiland as a school board director. The district now must find and appoint a replacement for Eiland, who served just six months of his two-year term.

Feds affirm 6 Harrisburg census tracts as “Opportunity Zones”

June 14, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

These census tracts were approved as Harrisburg’s Qualified Opportunity Zones.

The federal government has approved all of the census tracts nominated for a new program aimed at spurring development in low-income communities, the commonwealth announced today.

Six of those tracts are in Harrisburg.

“Approval of our nominated tracts is an important step in the process of bringing critical investment and development to these areas,” Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement. “Designation as an opportunity zone is one piece of the puzzle that can help many of our distressed communities across the commonwealth.”

In April, Wolf nominated 300 low-income census tracts across the state as Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZ), a status created under the 2017 federal tax reform bill. All were accepted.

Six of Harrisburg’s 14 census tracts were included in Wolf’s submission. The potential investment zones encompass the city’s downtown area south of Forster Street, South Harrisburg, South and Central Allison Hill and the neighborhoods along the city’s Cameron Street industrial corridor.

The QOZ program aims to stimulate investment in low-income communities by providing tax breaks to private investors. It’s expected to defer or reduce capital gains taxes to anyone who invests in funds supporting businesses, real estate and other ventures in the zones.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is still in the process of developing the program, and the IRS is expected to provide further information regarding opportunities for investment in zones in the coming months, according to Wolf’s office.

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse previously said that the recommended zones aligned with the city’s current development efforts, including the MulDer Square revitalization project and the Paxton Creek reclamation in the industrial corridor.

To qualify for QOZ status, a census tract had to have at least a 20-percent poverty rate or a median family income less than 80 percent of the statewide or regional median income.

The list of approved tracts, an interactive map and additional information about the opportunity zone program can be found at DCED’s Qualified Opportunity Zones website.

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

June 14, 2018 | by Sara Bozich

Happy Weekend!

Hi, we have a babysitter on Friday. For real. AND I realized it’s 3rd in the Burg. But first — we have our #HBGBeerWeek check presentation at the Market at 4 p.m. — Join us! We’re presenting Harrisburg River Rescue with a BIG CHECK!

I’ll drop the baby home then I’m thinking dinner at Note. Saturday is Market Day. I didn’t make it last week, and I am thirsty for fresh produce. Is that possible? I deem it so.

And then, Sunday is Andy’s first Father’s Day. He wants a relatively low-key celebration of diner breakfast and a walk along Riverfront Park.

What are you doing this weekend?

(more…)

Click & Toss: Harrisburg announces new recycling, sanitation app.

June 13, 2018 | by Yaasmeen Piper

Sanitation and recycling services in Harrisburg are about to get a little more user-friendly.

The city today announced a new app called Recycle Coach, which allows residents to get the latest information on sanitation services, schedules, what and where to recycle, collection requirements and more.

“[The app provides] details people need to understand, like the way food could potentially contaminate recyclables,” said Mayor Eric Papenfuse. “The app addresses all this, and it’s really interesting, easy to use and fun.”

Already used in other states and countries, Recycle Coach is now available for Harrisburg residents. The app is personalized via language, building type (apartment or home) and address. Using that information, six tabs on the home screen offer users various types of functionality, information and additional options.

The “my schedule” tab is a monthly calendar that indicates when sanitation workers will collect certain items. Icons indicate the type of waste—from regular trash to yard waste—that will be collected on which day. The app also allows users to add reminders for certain collection or disposal days.

The “what goes where” tab helps users find the proper disposal method and location for items they may be unsure about.

“Be a better recycler” is a quiz in which users can discover the rights and wrongs of your recycling habits.

“Communication” allows users to send a report to technical support and to the Department of Public Works. “More resources” has a list of local waste and recycling companies. Under each company, there is a list of which items they recycle, their services and their contact information.

“Collection requirements” provides information on curbside programs and requirements, such as what is collected, information on electronic and large appliance collections and more.

John Rarig, Harrisburg’s recycling coordinator, said that the Recycle Coach app will help the city get sanitation information out to the public quicker.

“This app will allow us to update information as things change [such as] weather problems and things that we can notify the populous about,” he said. “[Recycle Coach] is very easy to work with, and we think this is a great thing for Harrisburg.”

Harrisburg residents can access Recycle Coach not only from their smartphones, but also via computers and voice assistants such as Alexa.

“I feel that [the app] really empowers people to become better recyclers and take a greater interest in what they are doing,” Papenfuse said. “I encourage everyone to download it on their phones. It’s quick. It took just a few seconds to download.”

The Recycle Coach is free and available for Apple and Android users. For the online version or more information visit harrisburgpa.gov

Citizen’s group proposes Riverfront Park monument to honor prominent African Americans

June 12, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg’s Riverfront Park is dotted with historical monuments, but none of them honor African Americans.

A group of citizens hopes to change that.

Members of the Peace Promenade Project are asking city hall to green-light Harrisburg’s first monument to African Americans, which they hope to erect near the corner of Forster and Front Streets by June 2019.

Their proposal calls for a life-size tableau of four Pennsylvania abolitionists and voting-rights advocates: Thomas Chester, a Harrisburg-born journalist and attorney; William Howard Day, the first black school board director in Pennsylvania; Jacob Compton, a pastor who drove Abraham Lincoln’s carriage during his visit to Harrisburg; and Frances Harper, a poet and women’s rights activist.

All except Harper lived in Harrisburg and are buried in Lincoln Cemetery in Penbrook.

The monument would testify to the city’s African-American history and honor the 15^th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which granted African-American men the right to vote. (Women would not get the right to vote until the 19th amendment passed in 1920.)

“This is an American monument that represents the continuing struggle for the full fulfillment of the 15^th amendment,” said Lenwood Sloan, leader of the Peace Promenade Project, which aims to rededicate Harrisburg’s public monuments through a yearlong event series.

Kelly Summerford, another project leader, said that the monument would also offer local students an opportunity to learn about abolition and voting rights.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse said he met with the project leaders and enthusiastically supports the project. He also offered to help the group pursue a gaming grant from Dauphin County.

City Council President Wanda Williams also pledged her full support at tonight’s legislative session.

The Peace Promenade group, which counts more than 200 members and 40 supporting organizations, plans to fund the monument through public support, corporate donations and individual giving. They did not announce an anticipated budget.

According to Summerford, the group plans to follow a process used by the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts to commission an artist and develop a design.

They hope to install the monument by “Juneteenth” 2019 – the anniversary of June 19, 1865, the official announcement of the end of slavery in the former Confederacy.

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

What are you doing this weekend?

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like