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.

Burg View: End the Road Carnage Now

April 16, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

One of the many crashes last year on Forster Street in Harrisburg.

Harrisburg’s collective patience has been exhausted.

Last week, a video went viral showing a pedestrian getting mowed down by an SUV as she ventured into the crosswalk at the intersection of Front and Herr streets.

Moreover, an epidemic of crashes continues along Forster Street from the bridge past 3rd Street. Up on Allison Hill, four pedestrians and a bicyclist have been killed on State Street over the past 18 months, according to the city.

What is the one thing these streets—Front, Forster and State—have in common? They are all state roads. In addition, they’ve all been widened over the years to accommodate the army of state workers who zip in and out of the capital city every day from the suburbs, as Harrisburg’s erstwhile neighborhood streets have been turned into multi-lane highways.

In other words, the commonwealth holds a unique responsibility for these roads and their safety. And it is failing that responsibility in the most profound and deadly way.

Over the past two years, TheBurg has written repeatedly about the dangers of Front, Forster and State streets. We’ve even offered suggestions on how to reduce speeds and improve safety on the Harvey Taylor Bridge and on Front and Forster streets. So far, nothing has happened.

This isn’t rocket science. Many other states and cities have implemented traffic-calming measures that include more signage, flashing lights and altered road services. Of course, better traffic enforcement also would help, as, currently, there is precious little.

We appeal to Gov. Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to make road safety a priority in Harrisburg. The state must act now before another person is injured or a life is lost. The carnage must end along the dangerous, deadly roads that the state controls within the city’s limits.

Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.

Glass Recycling Returns to Harrisburg

April 16, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

Under Harrisburg’s new program, residents can drop off glass for recycling at the marked areas on the map.

Glass is trash no more.

That was the message of Mayor Eric Papenfuse today, as he announced the return of glass recycling to Harrisburg.

“We are pleased to be able to provide a way for our residents to recycle glass jars and bottles,” Papenfuse said. “This is just another way we’re trying to implement environmentally friendly programs that will make us a green and progressive city.”

Three years ago, Harrisburg suspended glass recycling, citing its high cost and difficulty. At the same time, it began to accept paper products for recycling, which previously had not been allowed.

While glass recycling will re-start, it will not be picked up with other recyclables during weekly curbside collection. Instead, the city has identified areas in the following places where glass can be dropped off:

Shipoke
Hall Manor
Kline Plaza
Fire Station Two
Fire Station One
Fire Station Eight
Broad Street Market
Uptown Shopping Plaza
Harrisburg Department of Public Works
William Howard Day Homes

Each location will provide a clearly marked dumpster or bin for recycled glass products, Papenfuse said.

Specific glass products, including jars and bottles without lids or tops, will be accepted. Glass products such a mirrors, windows and drinking glasses, will not be accepted.

Papenfuse said that glass recycling has re-started because the new program will keep glass out of the waste stream of other recycled products. A major challenge for glass recycling has been that broken glass is difficult and expensive to separate and handle when intermingled with other recycled waste.

The city has contracted with Mount Pleasant, Pa.-based CAP Glass, a glass recycler to collect and recycle the glass. Glass recycling is slated to begin on Earth Day, April 22.

Papenfuse said that, since he’s been mayor, recycling in the city has increased three-fold, and he stressed the importance of glass recycling to keep down the city’s cost of burning solid waste at the incinerator.

“Not only are we concerned about the environment,” he said. “We’re also concerned about taxpayer dollars.”

For more information, including drop-off areas for glass recycling, visit the city’s website.

This story has been updated to include information about CAP Glass and additional comments from the mayor.

TheBurg Podcast: Zombie Edition

April 13, 2018 | by TheBurg Staff

On this week’s episode of TheBurg Podcast, Larry and Lizzy cover three topics that, for better or worse, just won’t die: DBE participation in city contracts, affordable housing in downtown Harrisburg, and shakeups in the city’s comprehensive planning process. Stay tuned until the end to hear about new, encouraging research on violent crime in cities.

You can stream the episode on Soundcloud, or subscribe to TheBurg Podcast in the Apple or Android podcast apps.

Read about the topics in this podcast on TheBurgNews.com:

Does Harrisburg need to increase minority participation in public contracts? Council says ‘yes.’

Open for Business: As Harrisburg prepares to spend millions on capital projects, it seeks to re-engage  with minority and women-owned business.

Apartments OK’d: Harrisburg council approves Harristown, other projects.

Planning Commission “has not served citizens well” and needs to be replaced, Mayor says.

TheBurg Podcast is released semi-monthly by TheBurg Magazine. It is recorded in the offices of Startup Harrisburg and produced by Lizzy Hardison. Special thanks to Paul Cooley, who wrote our theme music.

“Our First Responders”: Harristown to start workforce housing policy.

April 13, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Strawberry Square in Harrisburg, where many of Harristown’s employees work

As debates about housing prices swirl in City Council chambers, Harrisburg’s busiest downtown developer is dipping its toe into affordable housing policies.

Harristown Enterprises, the real estate company that has developed dozens of apartments in downtown Harrisburg since 2016, will soon implement a workforce housing policy for its rental units, CEO Brad Jones told TheBurg.

Jones said that Harristown will reserve 10 percent of its downtown units for employees of Harrisburg Property Services, the Harristown subsidiary that provides janitorial, security and maintenance services to its properties.

“These are our folks who clean and maintain buildings, our plumbers, electricians, construction guys,” Jones said. “They’re the people who fix and maintain everything here and keep the place safe and clean.”

Any HPS employee whose household earns $40,600 per year, which is 80 percent of Dauphin County’s median household income, will qualify for the program.

Participating employees will also get a modest reduction on their market-rate rent. According to Jones, prices for Harristown’s downtown apartments range from $750 to $1,500 per month. An apartment that rents for $800 or less will get a $50 reduction, while those renting for more than $800 will be reduced by $75 per month.

Jones said that Harristown followed federal affordability guidelines to set its program criteria and eligibility standards. The rule of thumb set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is that any household spending more than 30 percent of its total income on housing – rent or mortgage plus utilities – is considered cost-burdened. Most affordable housing programs, from the federal to local level, aim to keep housing costs at or below HUD’s affordability indicator.

Jones reported that one HPS employee who already lives in a Harristown unit will have his rent reduced. Other HPS employees will be able to participate in the workforce housing program as units become available.

“We have a lot of turnover in the apartment business,” Jones said. “I don’t anticipate that people will have to wait very long.”

Harristown currently owns 60 apartments clustered in three different housing projects downtown: Strawberry Square, the Fifteen@ Twenty-Two project on S. 3^rd Street and SOMA apartments on 3rd Street. All of the units are modern conversions with upscale finishes and in-unit washers and dryers, according to property listings.

Twelve more apartments are currently under development at Harristown’s newest project, “The Bogg” on 2nd and Cranberry streets.

Jones said that the workforce housing initiative was partially spurred by recent discussions in City Council, which grants final approval for any building project in the city.

Since January, council President Wanda Williams has called on Harristown and other property developers to consider low-income residents in their projects.

“I’m very in favor of developers investing in Harrisburg, but until we talk about having affordable housing for everyone–including cashiers and clerks who work in downtown bars and restaurants–in every neighborhood of our city, we have not done our jobs,” Williams said.

At a legislative session earlier this week, Williams cast the sole vote against Harristown’s newest project, which will convert a mid-century office building on Pine Street into 25 apartments. Williams said she would not vote for any development projects until she felt confident that they were providing affordable units.

But Jones also said that Harristown is responding to HPS employees who have expressed interest in downtown units. Harristown executives decided that a workforce housing program could be mutually beneficial to employees and managers.

Jones estimated that only about half of HPS employees live in Harrisburg, and many of them walk or take public transportation to work. But since many security and janitorial personnel work late hours, not all can count on using public transportation for their commutes.

“We do have some employees who have no other way to get home, so this could be a real benefit for them and for us,” Jones said. “It’s nice to have people who work for you and live a block or two away from work. Often, those folks might get called in if there’s an issue in the facility – they’re our first responders.”

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

April 12, 2018 | by Sara Bozich

Happy Weekend!

Holla. Have you seen this forecast? It won’t last long, so soak in that warm weather while you can. The Harrisburg Senators have to be jazzed. I used to always go to the home opener until I realized I would always be freezing cold by the end of it. Not this Friday! Should be a beautiful night to be out and enjoy City Island.

We have dinner guests tonight, then the weekend is free. I’m excited to get this baby some vitamin D.

What are you doing this weekend?

(more…)

Does Harrisburg need to increase minority participation in public contracts? Council says ‘yes.’

April 10, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Officials from Capital Region Water and the City of Harrisburg break ground on the Third Street Repaving Project in November 2017. City Council members objected to low minority participation rates in the $6.3 million public project.

For months, Harrisburg City Council members have raised seemingly the same question to members of the city’s administration.

How many women and minorities are being hired for public works contracts?

Tonight, they got their first firm answer from Business Director Marc Woolley, who appeared at a legislative session to review the city’s success in hiring disadvantaged business enterprises, or DBEs, for its public contracts.

DBE is a recognized business category that includes minority business enterprises (MBEs) and women business enterprises (WBEs). A business can seek MBE or WBE certification if 51 percent of its ownership is controlled by minorities or women, respectively.

Most large cities across the country have policies aimed at drawing DBEs into public projects. TheBurg reported in March that Harrisburg’s own policies became the subject of scrutiny late last year, when council members grilled city officials on the rate of DBE participation in a major repaving project.

This evening, Woolley confirmed that DBE contracts for the 3rd Street Multimodal project, which will enhance two miles road and sidewalks from uptown to downtown Harrisburg, amounted for just 3.8 percent of the project’s $3.1 million construction budget.

“There’s a lot of room for improvement if we want to increase our participation percentages,” Woolley said.

But Woolley pointed out that there are other ways to quantify economic opportunity for minorities, women and other protected classes participating in public projects. He reported that minority construction workers have performed 47 percent of the work hours for the project’s main contractor to date.

“There are different ways to have inclusion in our contracts,” Woolley said.

Working with colleagues from the Department of Community and Economic Development and the city’s Affirmative Action Office, Woolley set out to determine how many DBEs have participated in city contracts in the past three years and how city departments can reach more through bidding and solicitation.

City officials also appointed LERTA administrator Charles White as the leader of Disadvantaged Businesses for the Community. He’ll assume duties of outreach in Harrisburg’s business community and will assist Woolley and others to implement the city’s DBE program in city hall.

According to Woolley, the program currently under development will have three objectives: removing impediments to business certification, participating in business development, and elevating small businesses and suppliers by moving them up the supplier chain.

Woolley said that Harrisburg’s current process for certifying DBEs is cumbersome, which could discourage businesses to seek DBE certification and, in turn, skew the city’s participation rate.

Woolley and his team plan to simplify the certification standards and are in the process of verifying the DBE status of every vendor that the city has hired in the past three years. The verification process has already revealed some vendors who were not listed as DBEs and who have since been added to the city’s Certified Minority Business Directory, Woolley said.

While some cities try to enforce minimum participation levels for DBEs, Harrisburg’s own DBE program will focus on education and business development, Woolley said.

Woolley told TheBurg in March that most DBE vendors enter city contracts as suppliers, as opposed to prime contractors – the entities that lead projects and collect the most lucrative contracts. City officials hope that hosting business outreach and workshop events will aid in the long-term goal of moving small DBEs up the supply chain.

City officials also plan to bolster outreach efforts by advertising public bidding opportunities on social media and in public service announcements.

“There are a lot of arms, legs, limbs going into this, and the biggest piece of it is education,” said Shaashawn Dial-Snowden, director of Social Equity and Affirmative Action.

Woolley expects to report back to city council later this spring with a complete assessment of the city’s three-year participation rate. So far, he’s analyzed less than half of the city’s vendor base, which revealed that minorities have accounted for just $1 million of $12 million in spending on public contracts.

Some council members expressed disappointment in the preliminary findings, but others said they would withhold full judgement until Woolley returned with updates.

“It’s still very low, we have to do a better job,” said council president Wanda Williams.

Apartments OK’d: Harrisburg council approves Harristown, other projects.

April 10, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

This downtown Harrisburg office building is slated for apartments.

Another downtown apartment project received the official go-ahead tonight, as Harrisburg City Council agreed to a residential conversion on Pine Street.

Council voted 5-1 to allow Harristown Enterprises to proceed with converting the circa-1952 office building at 124 Pine St. to a 25-unit apartment building with commercial space on the first floor.

The lone no vote came from council President Wanda Williams, who stated that she would refuse to vote affirmatively on future Harristown projects until she was satisfied that they contained what she considers to be affordable units.

“I will not be voting for any of these projects,” she said.

With the affirmative vote, Harristown can move forward with purchasing the six-story, 30,000-square-foot building from current owner Keystone Human Services, which has it on the market for $1.5 million.

Once the sale is complete, Keystone is expected to lease the building until it can find a new home, meaning that the office-to-residential conversion probably won’t begin until early 2019, according to Harristown CEO Brad Jones.

The Pine Street project, Jones has said, will consist of 18 one-bedroom and seven two-bedroom units that will range from about 700 to 850 square feet in size. He expects rents to be about $1,095 to $1,395 a month. The project includes 19 off-street parking spaces, which would be rented separately.

Over the past few years, Harristown has converted several other downtown office buildings to residential use, adding about 60 apartment units in all.

At tonight’s meeting, City Council also approved a resolution that will allow broadcaster ABC27 to construct a 3,500-square-foot addition to its Uptown Harrisburg building. The project entails consolidating three parcels at 3235 Hoffman St. and at 560 and 600 Alricks St., demolishing several existing structures on the Alricks Street parcels and adding to the main building on Hoffman Street.

In other action, council passed an “aerial easement agreement” with Harristown, allowing the company to continue to string about 580 lights over S. 3^rd Street between Market and Chestnut streets. Harristown hung the lights last year after receiving temporary authorization from the city. Since then, several evening block parties have been hosted on the street.

Council also approved a $2 million, 10-year loan from the state Department of Transportation Infrastructure Bank to fund the repair and improvement of streets, including accessibility upgrades, in south Harrisburg.

Lastly, council passed a resolution allowing New York-based Smart City Media to install about 25 digital kiosks in downtown and Midtown Harrisburg. The kiosks will display city-based information such as events, businesses, dining options, schedules and history, with Smart City footing the $100,000 cost per kiosk, said Councilman Cornelius Johnson. The displays will contain advertising, with the revenue split between the company and the city, he said.

“This is also a revenue driver for the city,” Johnson said.

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