Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

April 26, 2018 | by Sara Bozich

Happy Weekend!

Harrisburg Beer Week is still in full effect. Join us tonight and get Amped Up with Little Amps + Pizza Boy Brewing at Strawberry Square.

Join us! »

Plus, Saturday is the sold-out Little Big Beer Fest at The National Civil War Museum. What a great fest to be a Designated Driver for, though — live music from Shine Delphi, take in the Museum, craft sodas from Boneshire Brew Works, Elementary Coffee cold brew, food from Weis Markets (plus you can buy beer treats that won’t intoxicate you from Raising the Bar) — annnnd, the DD ticket ($10) costs less than regular Museum entry fee!

Be a hero – Be a Designated Driver »

Cap off Harrisburg Beer Week with us at Water Golf on City Island for our Mini Golf Tournament with Harrisburg River Rescue. $100/4-person team gets you adult bevs along the course, your mini golf game, plus music, door prizes, and an after party with Arooga’s next door at Skyline Pavilion.

Register your team now »

What are you doing this weekend?

(more…)

3 Weeks Later: Free parking earns favorable reviews from HBG restaurateurs.

April 25, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

The heart of Harrisburg’s downtown restaurant district.

Three weeks ago, when free evening parking kicked in for downtown Harrisburg, restaurateurs weren’t sure what to expect.

Would free dinnertime parking make any difference—would it bring customers back? Or would it be a false hope, a pricey lead balloon?

The early reviews are in, and they’re encouraging.

“The two past weekends, we’ve showed strong numbers—much stronger than before,” said Nick Laus, owner of two downtown restaurants, Cork & Fork and Burger Yum.

Beautiful spring weather may have contributed to the flock of diners, Laus said, but he believes some of the credit lies with the free daily parking after 5 p.m., which began on April 2, from State Street to Chestnut Street.

“I do believe it has helped,” he said. “It’s brought people back downtown.”

Down 2^nd Street, restaurateur Steve Weinstock told a similar story, reporting an increase in business for his establishments, Stock’s on 2^nd and Carley’s Ristorante.

“It’s been a couple of weeks, and we’ve definitely seen an increase in happy hour and early dinner,” he said. “Customers are thrilled about it (parking).”

The issue, Weinstock said, is more complex than patrons simply not wanting to pay $2 an hour, the previous rate for street parking from 5 to 7 p.m. Some customers, especially older ones, were uncomfortable with the digital meters, he said, while others were scared off by the possibility of a $30 ticket.

“I think it’s more the issue of dealing with the machines and the aggressive ticketing,” he said.

Next door, Brian Fertenbaugh, owner of Café Fresco Center City and Level 2, agreed that the issue has been bigger than needing to pony up a few bucks to park. He believes that people found the meters to be intimidating and difficult to use compared to simply pulling into a space in a surface lot in the suburbs. The mobile app was supposed to help solve this, but it’s proven to be unreliable, he said.

“It’s just been inconvenient,” he said. “Now that it’s convenient to park on 2^nd Street, I believe it’ll turn around.”

Still, it may be awhile before people permanently shake off three years of bad publicity and bad experiences, he said.

“I think it will take some time,” he said. “I feel like downtown Harrisburg will become an option again.”

Todd Vander Woude, executive director of the Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District, said he heard positive things among his members at a recent board meeting. His group led the effort to raise the $270,000 necessary to pay Park Harrisburg/SP+ for the loss of revenue during the 5 to 7 p.m. timeframe for a year, contributing $50,000 towards the effort.

“I would have to say that everything is going well,” he said. “As we get into it a little bit more, we’ll have to see what difference it makes number-wise.”

Laus and Weinstock both said that they hope the negative narrative surrounding going downtown has eased as the parking barrier has been removed.

“It really affected us for three years,” Laus said. “Now, this last couple of weeks, judging by the numbers, people are really coming back.”

Habitat for Humanity nabs volunteer partnership, plans affordable housing building spree.

April 24, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Habitat for Humanity volunteers raise a house frame. (Creative Commons.)

Seven days, three houses, and 160 volunteers.

That sums up an upcoming building blitz by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Harrisburg, which plans to construct new affordable housing units with a sought-after volunteer corps in June.

Habitat for Humanity has won a competitive partnership with WoodsWork, a youth-led mission group from Maryland. The faith-based group partners with one Habitat for Humanity affiliate each year to assist on a large-scale building project.

This year, they decided to send their services to Harrisburg, where 160 teen volunteers will construct three affordable housing units on Swatara Street over the course of five work days. They’ll spend two additional days exploring the city.

The trained volunteers will arrive in Harrisburg in June with their own food and medical crew in tow.

“They’re essentially like an army,” said Yinka Adesubokan, executive director of Habitat for Humanity, at tonight’s City Council legislative session.

Habitat for Humanity is partnering with Tri-County Housing Development for the June project. The three housing units will be part of HDC’s Mount Pleasant development, which comprises 10 new houses in a blighted area near Swatara and N. 16^th streets.

Tri-county HDC hopes to build three more homes after the June construction, bringing the total number of affordable units in the development to 16.

In addition to construction, volunteers will also assist local neighborhood groups with beautification projects.

The WoodsWork volunteers will stay at West Shore Christian Academy in Camp Hill and travel to their construction sites each day. HDC Director Gary Lenker explained that the nonprofits had to arrange accommodations for the WoodsWork volunteers. He said that schools in Harrisburg could not meet the needs of the volunteer corps, which include sleeping space, showers and a cafeteria.

Lenker said that the free labor provided by WoodsWork would generate significant cost savings for the local nonprofits. Tri-County HDC has previously paid as much as $160,000 per unit to construct the homes in its Mount Pleasant development, which all have four bedrooms and 3.5 baths.

By reducing the amount of paid labor, Lenker estimates that construction costs will clock in at just under $100,000 per unit—much closer to the homes’ selling price.

The teen volunteers will complete most of the construction on the new homes, but local volunteers will add mechanical components and interior finishes later in the summer, Lenker said.

The nonprofit leaders touted the fact that the projects will be completed without any financial assistance from the city. But they did have some requests of council and the administration, including street closures surrounding the work sites and security fencing to protect equipment left out overnight.

“It would also be nice not to have to pay for building permits,” Lenker said.

Leaders from Habitat and HDC will meet with city hall officials tomorrow to go over some of their requests.

In its legislative session tonight, council also approved a building project by Bethesda Mission, which plans to raze and rebuild its women’s shelter on 20^th Street. The project is expected to double its capacity for its recovery programs.

Council also approved a grant agreement with PennDOT that will finance $1.5 million in repairs to the city’s crumbling river walk.

Council will reconvene for a work session on May 1 at 5:30 p.m. Councilmembers will hear a presentation from the Harrisburg Police Bureau about public safety issues, including speeding vehicles and pedestrian safety. The Public Works Department will also give a presentation about proposed revisions to the city’s sanitation ordinance.

School Board may have violated state transparency law, expert says.

April 24, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

The Harrisburg City School District Administration Building at 1601 State Street.

When the Harrisburg School Board recently voted to rescind a controversial decision on its superintendent, it didn’t just take residents by surprise.

It also may have violated state laws that govern public meetings, according to one attorney and public access expert.

Last week, the board voted 5-4 to rescind its March decision to open a search for a new district superintendent. The action was added to the April agenda and immediately went to vote following a motion by board director Tyrell Spradley.

The vote took place without an opportunity for public comment, which raises serious questions about the board’s compliance with the state Sunshine Act, said Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel at the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.

Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act governs the proceedings for public meetings of any government body. Among other requirements, it states that all public agencies must provide an opportunity for residents and taxpayers to comment on an issue before a decision takes place.

“There’s really no exception to that rule,” Melewsky said. “The public was not given the opportunity to participate in the process, and that right is guaranteed. That creates a significant Sunshine Act issue.”

The board did hold its requisite public comment sessions at the beginning and end of the meeting. But the motion to rescind was raised and passed just after the start of the meeting, before the floor opened to public comment on agenda items.

As a result, audience members did not have the chance to comment on the rescission before it went to vote.

According to Melewsky, the board should have called for public comment before taking any action on Spradley’s proposal.

“All they had to do was say, ‘Here is a proposed action, we will accept comments,’ and then proceed with the vote,” Melewsky said. “Whether they get comments or not, that opportunity for the public has to exist.”

Board Solicitor Samuel Cooper did not respond to requests for comment on this story, but board President Judd Pittman said that his colleagues moved the motion before any public comment could take place.

“Everyone was caught off guard,” Pittman said.

The board’s possible non-compliance does not invalidate its vote. But Melewsky explained that the board could uphold its obligation to the public by holding the vote again, this time after hearing comments.

Elected officials don’t typically change votes based on public comment, she said, but courts have ruled that they deserve the chance to do so.

Stuart Knade, senior director of legal services at the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said that it’s up to board members to hold themselves accountable for Sunshine Act compliance.

PSBA offers training for new board directors that includes a two-hour orientation on legal matters, Knade said. However, he estimated that only one-third of board members across the state take advantage of them.

Knade added that solicitors can help board directors police their Sunshine compliance.

At the end of the day, though, it’s a citizen-enforced law, according to Melewsky. Any citizen attending a public meeting has the right to raise an objection at any time to a perceived Sunshine Act violation.

“There is no state agency that polices compliance,” she said. “It’s up to the public to make officials follow the rules.”

This article was edited to make clear that members of the public did not have the chance to comment on the rescission before it went to a vote.

Burg View: Harrisburg’s School Daze

April 19, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

You’ll have to forgive the residents of Harrisburg for a certain case of whiplash.

On Monday night, the city school board voted 5-4 to retain the district’s long-serving superintendent, at least for another year. Minutes later, board members sat through a crushing report on the district’s dire financial condition.

In fact, the district’s finances are so bad, the board was told, that years of deficits are projected, even if the district imposes the maximum allowable annual tax hikes.

How do we make sense of this?

The short answer—it doesn’t make sense.

But the problem isn’t just financial. The poorly performing district has shown scant academic improvement since Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney was hired in 2011. In fact, it consistently has fallen far short of academic goals imposed by the commonwealth, meaning it probably will stay in the state’s recovery program for troubled school districts past its scheduled exit in June. Nor is the appointment of a state receiver for the district out of the question.

Meanwhile, over just the past year, the district has experienced crisis after crisis, including high teacher turnover, mass student suspensions, a faculty revolt over abusive students, a supervisor who admitted stealing almost $180,000 from the district, and the bizarre, administration-led investigation—at the district’s expense—of two of its own school board members (who just happened to be vocal critics of the superintendent).

Indeed, Knight-Burney has her strong supporters, who believe the system has shown some improvement during her tenure. They often cite a district-wide curriculum management plan, restoration of full-day kindergarten and a few, rather isolated academic bright spots. So, I guess, it’s not all bad news.

But, after seven years, “not all bad news” is weak sauce for students struggling to get by, for teachers who feel besieged in their own classrooms and for city property owners who, evidently, are looking at rising tax bills as far as the eye can see.

Apparently, though, it is good enough for the five board members who voted to retain Knight-Burney, who earns $179,208 annually, for the 2018-19 school year.

We’ll have to see if any board members change their minds come July, when city residents receive their new tax bills. So far, residents have shown remarkable patience as they wait for city schools to improve, but nothing erodes good will faster than a tax shock. Will they sit idly by while being asked to pay more to support an administration that clearly is not succeeding?

Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

April 19, 2018 | by Sara Bozich

Happy Weekend!

‘Tis the season — Harrisburg Beer Week is here. Official events all start tomorrow. Please send coffee and LaCroix.

Tomorrow also is 3rd in the Burg, so if you’re not splurging on the VIP Party, get thee to Broad Street Market or any of many other fantastic events happening throughout the city.

What are you doing this weekend?

(more…)

HACC restores arts offerings in response to complaints from students.

April 18, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

HACC student Allanah Green works in the glassblowing studio at HACC’s Harrisburg campus. HACC administrators recently announced that they would reinstate five arts electives, including one glassblowing class, that had previously been cut from the fall course catalog. Photo by Dani Fresh, reprinted with permission.

Following weeks of complaints from students, Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) has decided to reinstate arts courses that had previously been cut from the fall course catalog.

HACC President John Sygielski announced in a statement this morning that five of the six classes that were cut from the department in March will return for the fall semester.

HACC announced on March 23 that it would not offer six of its art elective courses—two ceramics courses, three glassblowing courses and one introductory silkscreen printing course—in the fall semester. The announcement came three days before course registration opened.

Students immediately pushed back against the administrative decision. A petition calling for HACC to restore the courses had garnered more than 20,000 signatures by April 18. Written by a group of HACC students, the petition argues that HACC offers an affordable, high-quality arts education that’s unrivaled in the area.

Jennie Baar, dean of academic affairs at HACC, told TheBurg earlier this month that HACC administrators were holding meetings with students to discuss their concerns about the reduced course offerings. Apparently, they took those concerns to heart.

“We heard you, and we listened,” Sygielski said in his statement.

According to Baar, administrators initially cut the elective courses from the fall catalog with the intent of bringing them back in the future on a rotating schedule. They were flagged for removal after HACC switched to a new financial aid administration software, which alerted them to a number of courses that were not part of degree programs.

Under new federal financial aid guidelines, students may not pay for non-degree courses with federal aid dollars. As a result, HACC administrators decided to remove the arts electives, as well as some electives in other departments, to prevent the misapplication of financial aid.

However, Sygielski acknowledged in his statement that many students in the associates program in fine arts were willing to pay out of pocket for the classes.

These students told TheBurg that higher-level elective courses offer the opportunity to hone their skills and build portfolios for applications to four-year arts degree programs.

Today, they expressed relief at HACC’s decision to reinstate the courses.

“I’m glad we were able to work with the administration to get to a solution and bring back a majority of the art classes,” said HACC student Alexis Reisch, who wrote the petition defending the arts programming.

Full Speed Ahead: Harrisburg receives additional $500,000 to start river walk repairs.

April 17, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

The City of Harrisburg will soon start repairing its pockmarked riverfront walkway, working with a budget that’s 50 percent larger than initially anticipated.

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse announced on Tuesday night that the city has received an additional $500,000 in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to repair concrete on the entire length of the city’s historic river walk — 11,000 feet stretching from the Shipoke neighborhood to Maclay Street in Uptown.

The city learned a year ago that it had received $1 million from the federal Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) grant, which is designed to assist and promote non-motorized transportation.

City officials knew then that $1 million would not cover the whole project, Papenfuse said. They successfully lobbied PennDOT, which administers the federal TAP grant, for more money.

“It’s a massive project,” Papenfuse said. “With the price of concrete and total scope of the project, we needed more.”

Papenfuse said that work could begin as early as this year. He declined to say how long it would take to complete the repairs, but did say that the city might have to work quickly to comply with terms of the grant.

Harrisburg expects to receive its funds almost immediately after council grants approval for the grant agreement. That will likely happen at council’s legislative session next week.

“I think PennDOT is ready to go,” Papenfuse said. “This isn’t that complicated and won’t require a separate design phase… so we’ll move into the contract and bidding phase next.”

The 100-year old Riverwalk is pummeled by floods, snow and ice every year, which leads to erosion and cracks in the concrete. The walkway is currently marred by potholes and uneven surfaces, making it impassable for anyone riding bikes, pushing strollers, or travelling in wheelchairs.

The funds from this grant will not permit the city to repair the stairs leading from Riverfront Park to the riverside promenade, nor the steps that descend from the lower walkway into the river. Papenfuse said that those fixes, as well as other enhancements like landscaping, could be made by the city with in-house labor after the walkway repairs are complete.

“This is a major investment and it will be up to the city to maintain it,” Papenfuse said.

In a surprise move, Harrisburg School Board rescinds vote on superintendent.

April 16, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney speaks at a press conference in December 2017.

The Harrisburg School District may not be getting a new superintendent after all, thanks to an unexpected vote at Monday night’s monthly board meeting.

Last month, the board voted 5-4 to approve a resolution opening the position of superintendent to new applicants. The move signaled to sitting superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney that her contract would not be automatically renewed when it ends on June 30.

But on Monday, Tyrell Spradley, the board member who cast the deciding vote on that contentious resolution, motioned to rescind it. His motion passed 5-4 with board members Carrie Fowler, Percel Eiland, Brian Carter and board President Judd Pittman in the minority.

Asked what the vote meant for Knight-Burney’s contract, district Solicitor Samuel Cooper pointed to Pennsylvania school charter. That law states that the board must give the acting superintendent 90 days-notice if they do not intend to automatically renew her contract.

But if the board fails to take action, then the terms Knight-Burney is serving extend for one year, Cooper said.

By nullifying the vote from last month, the board has essentially chosen to forego any action on the superintendent’s contract. It will automatically renew for a one-year provisional period, but Cooper said the board could act before then to renew it for a term up to five years.

The motion to rescind March’s superintendent vote did not appear on the board agenda ahead of tonight’s meeting, and board members did not say whether they had explicit notice that it would come up. According to the Pennsylvania School Board Association, that creates some ambiguity over how many votes the motion needed to pass.

A PSBA publication outlining parliamentary procedure said that the conditions for approving a rescission depend on whether the board had advance notice of the vote. If the board did have notice, only a simple majority is needed to pass the motion.

Absent such notice, however, “either a majority of the entire membership or a two-thirds majority of those present and voting is needed,” the manual states.

Cooper seemed confident tonight that the motion passed on firm procedural grounds. He said that the board seldom makes rescissions, even though members can legally revisit any past action in their meetings. According to the PSBA, the board cannot rescind an action during the same session when they voted on it. Other than that, there is no time limit on rescinding.

Spradley said after the meeting that he changed his mind about the superintendent search because the board received new information about personnel and budget matters.

Allowing Knight-Burney’s contract to renew for one additional year will preserve consistency in the district and lead to better decision-making by the board, he said.

“I don’t have an issue looking for candidates, but we need time to find the correct ones,” Spradley said. “The board may feel rushed.”

Spradley pointed out that the provisional renewal of Knight-Burney’s contract did not preclude the board from soliciting applications and conducting a superintendent search over a longer period of time. However, he could not say if there was any collective will on the board to conduct such a search.

Board President Judd Pittman was disappointed, but not surprised, by the board’s action. He said his position on Knight-Burney’s tenure has not changed in the past three years he’s served on the board.

“When you look at our academic data and the evidence we put forth for our success, it just isn’t there,” Pittman said. “If we’d done a search and Knight-Burney came out as the best candidate, I would have supported her… but our responsibility as a board is to hold everyone as accountable as possible.”

Pittman said that the board had not yet advertised Knight-Burney’s job ahead of the meeting, but he claimed he had received numerous solicitations from interested candidates following March’s vote.

He also confirmed Spradley’s claim that the board received new information about district business since March. He said that a recent budget presentation announced projections that were “more bleak” than what they’d been anticipating.

District Chief Financial Officer James Snell told the board that Harrisburg school district is facing some serious financial challenges.

Budget projections prepared by consultants at Philadelphia-based firm Public Financial Management anticipate that rising expenditures and flat revenues will generate years of consecutive deficits and ultimately draw down the district’s $21.6 million fund balance.

PFM consultant Marissa Litman told the board that the fund balance could be depleted in as few as three years, even if the board levies the highest possible tax hikes.

Expenditure projections anticipate no salary increase for HEA represented employees, but it does anticipate that bargaining will move some teachers up a salary step based on a grievance settlement. Social security and pension payments will increase along with those salary expenditures, and the projections also call for $3 million for facilities enhancements. The expenditure projections assume that the district will continue its debt service payments and will not borrow any more money.

Litman reminded the board that projections are based on assumptions that are subject to change. Nonetheless, she advised the board to correct its spending to avoid drawing down its fund balance.

“This has been projected for a number of years and now we have to deal with it,” Litman said.

The district was able to add to its fund balance as recently as the 2014-15 fiscal year. But the district ran a $3.7 million deficit in 2015-2016, followed by a deficit of roughly half a million in 2016-2017. The adopted 2017-18 budget anticipates another $6 million deficit.

The district has scheduled a public meeting on April 30 to hear a more detailed budget presentation and consider the first draft of a 2018-19 budget. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Lincoln Administration Building at 1601 State St.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the years that the district accrued deficits. That information has been corrected.

Harrisburg Zoning Board scrambles plan for chicken business.

April 16, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

Julian Vasquez made his case for a live poultry operation at tonight’s meeting of the Harrisburg Zoning Hearing Board.

There’s an old saying not to count your chickens before they hatch.

That adage was especially apt on Monday night for a Camp Hill couple who tried unsuccessfully to get the Harrisburg Zoning Hearing Board to approve their plan to open a chicken-processing and retailing operation on Cameron Street.

Julian and Carmen Vasquez hoped to convince board members to grant them a special exception, which, they thought, would permit them to operate a live poultry business from a property at 436 S. Cameron St.

The board, however, told them that their application was not correct. A special exception, they said, would allow the couple to keep and process chickens–but not sell them.

“It seems to me that your application is to grant a retail butcher shop,” said board Solicitor James Cowden. “The City Council has determined that, within the industrial district, a retail shop isn’t permitted at all.”

Julian Vasquez told board members that he and his wife thought that a live poultry operation would be a good business, given the area’s rapidly growing Latino population. They planned to house as many as 200 birds on site, keeping them there for about a week before slaughtering them for sale.

Cowden informed the couple that they would need a variance, not a special exception, to operate a retail business in that zone. That’s a much higher burden to meet, requiring the applicant to demonstrate some type of “hardship” that the variance then would alleviate.

To help make his case before the board, Vasquez pointed to the wide variety of businesses along that stretch of Cameron Street, which already includes retailer Family Dollar.

Board Chairman Tom Leonard said that Vasquez had a fair point, but that the board had to follow the code as it’s currently written, which disallows new retail shops in the industrial zone. Thus, a zoning variance, not a special exception, was needed.

City Council President Wanda Williams attended the meeting, saying that some residents of South Allison Hill had complained to her about potential noise and smells from the establishment.

“I would ask you to go talk to the neighbors because I’ve heard that they’re concerned about a live poultry operation,” she said.

Vasquez said that they had held a meeting with neighbors at a Derry Street location, but that they would do so again. He also denied that noise and smells would be issues.

In the end, the board granted the couple a continuance, so that they could have time to decide if they wished to return to a future meeting to request a variance from the board.

The board granted a continuance for another project.

Across town, city developer and landlord David Peffley, Sr., asked the board for a variance so that he could convert an industrial building he purchased last year at 2327 N. 7^th St. into a multi-family dwelling with 19 one-bedroom, low-income units.

Again, zoning board members balked, stating that the Peffley hadn’t proved any “hardship” that would lead the board to allow a new residential use in an industrial zone. In fact, the property’s current tenant, Bulldog Motors, is an industrial business, meaning, Leonard said, that Peffley was asking the board to favor a non-conforming use over a conforming one.

“We’re always concerned with certain imperatives,” Leonard said. “One thing we’re always concerned about is setting bad precedent.”

In the end, Peffley accepted the continuance, leaving the fate of his project uncertain.

What are you doing this weekend?

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

You May Also Like

You May Also Like