The Wheel Deal: City bike share to roll out this week.

September 26, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

The Harrisburg bike share system will comprise 11 docking locations similar to those in Philadelphia, pictured above. (Image from Creative Commons database.)

A local nonprofit and community sponsors have finalized plans for the city’s first bike share, which will put 55 communal bicycles on Harrisburg’s streets starting Sept. 29.

The program is modeled after bike share systems that have sprouted up in recent years in cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Paying members use a smart phone app or text messages to unlock a bicycle from the docking station and then ride and return it to any docking station in the city.

A $25 annual membership will give riders free access to bikes for periods shorter than two hours and then charge $2 for each hour after that. “Pay as You Go” members will be charged $2 for each hour they use a bike.

The program is spearheaded by Communities in Schools Pennsylvania (CIS), a dropout prevention organization, and sponsored by organizations including Highmark insurance and the Dauphin County commissioners. CIS will outsource bike share management to Zagster, a startup that operates more than 100 city bike shares across the country.

A map released by CIS on Tuesday shows 11 docking stations in the city’s Uptown, Midtown and downtown neighborhoods and on City Island.

Ryan Riley, president of CIS, said that Zagster representatives helped determine where to place docking stations. National data show that bike shares are most successful when docking stations are spaced ¼-mile apart in areas with high pedestrian safety, he explained.

Those standards mean that some neighborhoods were cut off from the docking stations, Riley said, since major thoroughfares in the city cannot safely accommodate cyclists.

“Paxton Street and Cameron Street were two big impediments,” Riley said. “But that cuts off parts of Allison Hill and Bellevue Park, which creates a whole section of the city that can’t connect with the other parts of it safely.”

The station map released by CIS on Tuesday. Jenna Lewis, CIS vice president, said that the Broad Street East station shown here will be moved to the corner of Front and Division streets.

The stations also had to be located on city property. All of the docking stations are located on public sidewalks, or, in the case of the City Island stations, on city-owned land, said Jenna Lewis, CIS vice president.

Riley hopes to add more docking locations in the future, but said that early user trends will dictate how the program grows. Bike share sponsors will watch ridership data to see who is using the bicycles and for what purposes.

“We need to know if this will be a leisure [service] or if we have people who want to use these bikes to get to employment areas,” Riley said. “We need to see success to know where to expand.”

Zagster will charge an annual $90,000 subscription fee for bikes, insurance, maintenance and technical support. Harrisburg’s program also will have a separate marketing budget to fund ad campaigns and outreach events.

Riley said that the bike share sponsors are committed to seeing the program through for at least two years, though they don’t expect it to be self-sustaining after that.

Instead, they see their sponsorships as investments in public health, community building and traffic improvements.

“The whole point of bike shares is to increase pedestrian access by using bikes to improve communities and replace driving,” Riley said.

The program is part of a larger effort to raise awareness of CIS’s mission within the Harrisburg community, according to Riley. He said that the program launch will tie into their plans to establish a reengagement center for underserved youth in the city. CiS expects to open that center in spring 2018.

Securing Downtown: Mayor pledges to find solution to late-night turmoil.

September 25, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

A view of Harrisburg’s 2nd Street entertainment district.

Harrisburg officials plan to meet with business owners in the city’s downtown entertainment district to help prevent a recurrence of the turmoil that resulted in numerous fights and left two people with gunshot wounds early Sunday morning.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse said he is arranging meetings with bar, club and restaurant owners along 2nd Street to share ideas on how to improve safety, especially following late-night closing time.

“It’s going to require the cooperation of the bar and restaurant owners,” he said. “There may be things they can do to make the downtown safer.”

At about 2:40 a.m. on Sunday, Harrisburg police put out a call for assistance after they found they could not control a crowd estimated at more than 1,000 people along a two-block stretch of N. 2nd Street. According to police, fistfights broke out near Locust Street, followed by more fights at Pine Street that resulted in two people shot being shot in the leg. The crowd in the street was so large that officers had trouble getting to the area of the shooting, police said.

According to Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter, no arrests have yet been made in the shooting.

Papenfuse said he would be willing to consider numerous options, from realigning police resources to collecting a fee from business owners to pay for extra security.

Currently, Harrisburg police deploy several officers to the downtown from other parts of the city around the 2 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. closing time. In addition, some club owners—notably Ron Kamionka, who runs several bars and clubs there—employ off-duty police to assist around their establishments.

However, the crowd overwhelmed those resources on Sunday, causing state police and officers from surrounding municipalities to rush to the aid of Harrisburg’s force. Police also used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

“Due to the overwhelming amount of people committing violence, officers had to use pepper spray foggers to subdue the crowd,” police said in a statement.

The Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District employs two off-duty officers on Friday and Saturday nights, but they only serve during the 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. dinner hours, said Executive Director Todd Vander Woude. Papenfuse said that an expanded role for the district might be an option, perhaps funded by an additional fee on business owners to pay for the security.

Papenfuse and Carter spoke to the press following the city’s annual promotional and awards ceremony in city hall. In that ceremony, many officers were cited for bravery and achievements over the past year.

Both Papenfuse and Carter described Saturday night’s violence as unusual, the result of one-time events at several bars, notably at the Capital Gastropub. Moreover, Papenfuse said, large numbers of minors often flock downtown as bars close, mixing it up with departing club-goers and contributing to the instability on the sidewalks and streets.

“We’re going to sit down with the various stakeholders and come up with a plan,” he said.

Harrisburg police pilot body camera program

September 22, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

Capt. Deric Moody demonstrates use of a magnetically mounted body camera on Cpl. Josh Hammer in City Hall on Friday.

Police body cameras have hit the streets of Harrisburg, signaling the Police Bureau’s first steps toward developing a city-wide body-camera program.

Eight officers from the bureau will test cameras from four vendors over the next two months. At the end of the pilot program, the city and the bureau will begin drafting plans for a comprehensive program, with the goal of equipping all 75 uniformed patrol officers with cameras.

At a press conference on Friday, however, city and police officials were hesitant to say exactly when that deployment will start.

“There’s a lot of legwork that goes into developing this program, and it’s not ready for full rollout,” said police Capt. Deric Moody.

The process for starting a comprehensive program — which includes negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police and a public bidding process among vendors – likely won’t wrap up until 2018.

Before then, the police force must decide which camera specifications will best serve their officers. The city has already deployed two camera models for testing, which they will swap out for two other models after 30 days.

The eight officers in the pilot program will complete surveys for each model they audition, Moody said. The bureau will use that survey data to determine which features they want in their cameras.

The camera that officials showcased on Friday attached magnetically to the front of an officer’s uniform, but other models might use clips or straps. Officers will also have to consider the weight and battery life of the cameras.

Officers using the equipment report that it’s relatively unobtrusive.

“They said they haven’t noticed it’s been on them, and it hasn’t interfered with their work,” said Cpl. Josh Hammer, who supervises some of the officers in the pilot program.

One quality all of the cameras share is a manual on-off switch.

“We looked at cameras with continuous recording, but most people understand that there’s a point when you have to turn it off,” Moody said. For example, he said, officers would disable recording any time they enter a bathroom.

Beyond the physical features of the camera, one of the major considerations for the bureau is storage, Moody said. Each vendor offers different software to retain, redact and store footage.

Some systems run automated, cloud-based backups, while others may require officers to manually upload footage to servers. Storage plans range from flat-rate unlimited packages to those that charge per minute or megabyte of footage.

Once the footage is stored, the remaining question is under what conditions it will be released to the public.

Moody said the police force is conducting its pilot program in compliance with Act 22, a statute passed by the state legislature in 2017. Act 22 dictates the times when officers must activate and deactivate their cameras. It also allows police to record conversations in private residences – something civilians can’t do under the state wiretap law.

However, any footage recorded under Act 22 is not subject to Right to Know laws. Police departments have final say over what footage will be made public.

The deal that the bureau ultimately strikes with the FOP will determine, among other concerns, their standards for deploying cameras and releasing footage.

The operating budget for the first year of the program is $70,000 for the first year, but Mayor Eric Papenfuse said that his administration and City Council are willing to spend “whatever it takes” to implement the body camera program city-wide. The final cost will depend on what equipment and storage features the department wants in its cameras.

The bureau will specify those features in its request for public bids. Moody said that any vendor will be able to submit a bid for the project, regardless of whether or not they participated in the pilot program.

Moody and Papenfuse emphasized the importance of public opinion in their planning process and encouraged Harrisburg residents to call the 311 city line with feedback or questions about the body camera program. The city will also host community meetings to solicit input and share information about the camera program.

Ultimately, both parties hope that the cameras will increase the public’s perception of transparency in the police department.

“I believe body cameras will make things safer and go a long way in healing the divide between the police and the public,” Papenfuse said.

Author: Lizzy Hardison

Ground Game: Harrisburg mayor makes pitch for new composting site.

September 21, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse last night led a discussion at the location he hopes will become the city’s new composting site.

City officials outnumbered residents at a meeting in Susquehanna Township last night, as Mayor Eric Papenfuse once again made the case for building a compost site on land in the township borders.

The meeting was held at 1850 Stanley Road, where the city wishes to build a five-acre facility to compost lawn and tree waste. Speaking to residents from the edge of the property, which is owned by the Harrisburg School District, Papenfuse sketched the boundaries of the proposed project and answered questions about its operation.

The proposed facility would consist of a macadam surface beneath piles of decomposing leaves. The only on-site equipment would be a wood chipper, which would process large trees and branches, and a wind turner, which would churn the leaf piles once a month to promote decomposition.

Papenfuse was joined by members of the city’s Public Works Department, who would drive the trucks used to transport waste from the city to the compost site. They promised to develop traffic patterns and operating hours that would have minimal impact on the nearby neighborhoods. Papenfuse also pointed out that the closest home to the facility was not in eyesight from the lot.

The site visit was the latest attempt by the city to win supporters for the composting project, which many township residents protested when it was first proposed in April.

Since then, city officials have tried to shift public opinion by hosting open meetings and appearing at the Susquehanna Township commissioners meeting.

Norvella Mosley, a Harrisburg resident who lives close to the Stanley Road site, said on Wednesday that she’s warmed to the proposal since getting more information from the city.

“At first, I wasn’t for it, but now I’m wavering,” Mosley said. “Now, I think it’ll be a good thing.”

Mosley did say that the project shouldn’t exceed five acres. She and other residents want a clause in the final permit that will prevent future administrations from expanding it.

Papenfuse addressed concerns about the facility growing over time, saying that any expansion to the site would require a new permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection. He reiterated the city’s willingness to enter a 30-year memorandum of understanding with Susquehanna Township, expressing their shared intent not to expand the facility beyond five acres.

On Thursday, Papenfuse said that attitudes toward the project seem to be softening.

“I’d say we started out with 90 percent of people against the facility, and we’re closer to 50/50 now,” he said.

The city will organize a field trip to the Swatara Township compost site on Sept. 30, which will allow residents to see a lawn and leaf compost facility in action. After that, there will be another round of meetings before the city begins drafting a permit application.

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

September 21, 2017 | by Sara Bozich

Happy Weekend!

Did you know that September is one of the busiest months of the year, festival-wise? Likely because the weather is (typically) so nice. What this all means is another busy weekend. Here are my picks:

Tonight: ZerØday hosts Boozy Bingo. Have you tried their latest creation, When Did We Get A Dog?

Swing by downtown Camp Hill Saturday morning and do a little shopping for the Borough’s Harvest Hop. The businesses are loaded with specials, deals and refreshments all day long!

Then, drop by Strawberry Square in downtown Harrisburg (these two locations are like, 5 minutes apart from another — not different time zones) for the first-ever Harrisburg VeggieFest! We have a great lineup planned for you. PLUS – park for FREE for up to 4 hours when you download the ParkMobile app and use the code: LUVHBG.

Guys, on Sunday — football in my own house, watching my own team, hoping my Fantasy teams don’t fall apart (plus, I gotta beat Andy in one league — fingers crossed!)

What are you doing this weekend?

(more…)

Campus Debate: Eastern U makes pitch to locate inside city hall.

September 20, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

Part of the basement of Harrisburg city hall, where Eastern University wants to establish a satellite campus.

There’s no denying that the proposal from a faith-based university to renovate and rent space in Harrisburg city hall is an unusual one. But just how unconventional is it in the realm of public-private partnerships?

“We’re out on the edge here,” said city Solicitor Neil Grover on Wednesday night, as City Council debated a proposed agreement with Eastern University, a Christian college based in St. Davids, Pa.

Council devoted its entire workshop session tonight to discussing the proposal from Eastern, which wishes to move a satellite campus from Lower Paxton Township to the basement of city hall. University officials are offering to foot $600,000 in renovation costs to make the vacant space functional.

The arrangement would net the city a new press room and emergency operations center, two amenities it can’t afford to build itself. City hall employees also would be permitted use of Eastern’s lounge area and bathrooms. Since the university would only offer classes in city hall from 6 to 10 p.m., there would be little overlap between students and city employees.

Eastern would pay a nominal fee for a 10-year lease, since the value of the rental agreement would come from the cost of renovations.

Council members expressed skepticism about the arrangement at the July 6 meeting where the proposal was first considered. Namely, some worried that a faith-based institution operating within city property would render that space exclusionary, particularly for members of the city’s LGBT population. That concern was reprised tonight, along with questions about parking and tuition discounts.

Councilman Ben Allatt pressed Eastern University representatives on their commitment to Harrisburg’s non-discrimination ordinance, which prohibits discrimination against LGBT people in areas of employment, housing and public accommodations. Allatt wanted confirmation that these protections, which are not codified at a state level, would be upheld in Eastern’s hiring and admissions practices.

“I can assure you that Eastern University is committed to standing against discrimination,” said Provost Kenton Sparks. “You can trust Eastern University to protect the dignity of every single student.”

Allatt asked the Eastern officials if they would affirm their values of inclusivity in writing. Grover, however, pointed out that there are limits to what a government can demand in a contract with a private entity.

Councilwoman Shamaine Daniels asked city officials why they were not letting other organizations compete for a partnership with the city. She said that the city should request proposals from other businesses that may be open to a renovations-for-rent agreement. Grover and Mayor Eric Papenfuse demurred, saying that nobody else had approached the city with a proposal and that the city has no plans to solicit any.

Councilman Cornelius Johnson pointed out that the cost of Eastern’s renovations would not come close to the value of fair market rent. He said that even if the city charged just $5 per square foot for the space, Eastern’s rent payments would total more than $1 million for a 10-year lease.

“We’ll still be subsidizing the cost of them being in city hall,” Johnson said.

Eastern has offered to give Harrisburg residents a 25 percent tuition discount as a term of their agreement with the city. Johnson asked them to consider increasing the discount to 35 percent.

Eastern officials agreed to reconsider the tuition discount before council’s Oct. 10 legislative session, when the resolution will come up for debate and a vote. They also said that they would come to that meeting with more detailed plans for student parking and a response to council’s concerns about the city non-discrimination ordinance.

Playgrounds, rain gardens in the pipeline for water authority

September 19, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

The empty playground at the corner of Penn and Sayford streets will get new play equipment and storm water management systems as part of Capital Region Water’s City Beautiful H20 program.

Capital Region Water (CRW) will renovate four public playgrounds and one city street next spring, continuing its effort to beautify Harrisburg while alleviating strain on its aging sewer system.

CRW is currently accepting contractor bids for the projects and hopes to break ground in spring 2018. Both are considered early-action items in CRW’s City Beautiful H20 campaign, which aims to use green landscape architecture to reduce storm water runoff into city sewers.

The playground renovation project will outfit four city playgrounds with rain gardens, drainage structures and catch basins. The playgrounds, which are located at Penn and Sayford streets, Royal Terrace, Norwood and Holly streets, and Cloverly Heights, will also receive new equipment.

CRW’s work on the playgrounds will be in partnership with the City of Harrisburg. Renovations and equipment will be funded by $775,000 in grant money from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and Impact Harrisburg. CRW will contribute $250,000 to finance the storm water management systems.

The second project will turn vacant lots into rain gardens and create community gathering spaces on Bailey Street in Harrisburg’s Summit Terrace neighborhood. The $400,000 undertaking be funded by CRW ratepayer money.

Claire Mulhardt, project manager at CRW, said that the neighborhood was an ideal location to pilot storm water projects. Its entire sewage system was replaced in 2016 after years of deferred maintenance, and Mulhardt believes it can be a case study for sustainable storm water management solutions.

Storm water refers to any water from precipitation or snow melt that enters the city’s sewers through storm drains. Like many old cities, Harrisburg has a combined sewer system, or CSO, where the storm drains connect to same sewer system as toilets and showers.

When it’s not raining, all the contents of the sewer system flow to a treatment plant on Cameron Street, where they are cleaned and then discharged into the Susquehanna River. But heavy rain can cause the system to overflow, sending untreated water into the river and Paxton Creek.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleged in a 2015 lawsuit that levels of runoff in Harrisburg violated the Clean Water Act and PA Clean Streams Law. After a year of negotiations, the EPA agreed to spare the city financial penalties, as long as CRW agreed to update of its long-term plan for the city’s sewer system.

City Beautiful H20 is the first step of that long-term plan. It uses green space as a storm water management technique, since greenery can absorb storm water during a deluge and slow its flow into the sewer system. It can also divert water away from sewers by encouraging infiltration into the earth’s subgrade.

Mulhardt said that green spaces are also appealing to city residents, whose input is essential to sustain projects.

“We want to come up with solutions that people want in their neighborhoods,” Mulhardt said. “These won’t be successful if we plop something into the ground but nobody in the neighborhood has been part of the process.”

CRW hosted public meetings and launched a “Community Ambassadors Program” to solicit public feedback throughout the City Beautiful H20 planning process.

Brian Humphrey represented the Summit Terrace neighborhood in the Community Ambassadors Program. He traveled with CRW to Lancaster and Philadelphia to see storm water management systems at work, which helped him see the potential to implement similar fixes at home.

“I explained to my community how storm water management worked in other places, and we figured we could use our open space to make a rain garden,” Humphreys said.

He added that his neighborhood association also will partner with CRW to make a pre-existing community garden a storm water runoff area.

CRW also recently installed new combined sewer overflow warning signs to comply with EPA orders. The signs, located City Island boat launch, and along the riverfront at Tuscarora Street, Hamilton Street, and Lewis Street, alert the public to avoid contact with water nearby or downstream due to high levels of pollutant runoff during storms.

Author: Lizzy Hardison

Going Up: Building permit revenue rises sharply in Harrisburg.

September 15, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

Construction is underway on a two-story expansion to the Alex Grass Building on the PinnacleHealth Harrisburg Campus on 2nd St. The project will expand the hospital’s maternity ward.

Revenue from building permits in Harrisburg has far exceeded projections for the 2017 fiscal year, a trend that city officials attribute to a stabilizing business climate and a few large projects.

Harrisburg met nearly 300 percent of its projected building permit revenue for the 2017 fiscal year by the end of August. The city budgeted $290,000 in revenue from building permits for the entire year, said City Finance Director Bruce Weber, but so far has collected $856,723 from 671 permits.

According to city codes administrator David Patton, the city netted $423,566 from 881 permits in all of 2016.

Weber conceded that permit revenue accounts for a very small percent of the city’s annual budget. Almost 90 percent of the city’s revenue comes from taxes, including those on local services, earned income and real estate. However, he said that the building permit revenues raised eyebrows during the city’s mid-year budget assessment.

“Generally, building permit revenue doesn’t vary much, but that changed this year,” Weber said.

He reported that the city had met 200 percent of its expected building permit revenue by June 30, the mid-point of the fiscal year.

Patton said that the cost of a building permit depends on the value of the building project. For example, a $2.5 million parking lot project at Harrisburg Area Community College carried a permitting fee of $23,023, and the permit for a $28-million expansion at PinnacleHealth brought in $214,273.

Though permit revenue contributes to the city’s bottom line, building projects do not necessarily indicate a growing real estate tax base in the long term. Some projects, such as the PinnacleHealth facility, operate as non-profits and do not pay real estate taxes to the city. In addition, many building and renovation projects can qualify for a LERTA tax abatement, which holds property taxes steady for a period of up to 10 years.

Weber said that while the city’s real estate tax base hasn’t grown for the last 10 years, building projects still contribute to the positive economic momentum in the city.

“It’s good to have building,” Weber said. “It feels like entities want to reinvest in the city, and that had not happened here for a really long time. It shows that there is stability and confidence that I hope will continue to grow.”

Patton, whose office processes all building permit applications, agreed.

“The development that is occurring is at a phenomenal level, and one that is beyond my recollection in my 22-plus years as an administrator,” he said.

Encouraging as this year’s surge may be, Weber said that the city cannot count on matching the same revenue next year. He said that the city might increase its revenue projections for 2018, but only slightly – perhaps up to $350,000 from this year’s $290,000.

“I think they’ll be higher but not like this,” Weber said. “You don’t really know what’s really going to happen.”

Roundabouts to Rain Gardens: MulDer Square designs eyed, debated.

September 14, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

Attendees pondered designs for MulDer Square at tonight’s meeting on Allison Hill.

Residents from Allison Hill mulled over bike lanes, roundabouts and rain gardens at an open house on Thursday, as the city displayed plans to improve transportation in the area known as MulDer Square.

The purpose of the open house was to solicit public opinion on design proposals for a redevelopment project on Derry and Mulberry Streets in Allison Hill. The intersection of these streets is called MulDer square, and Harrisburg officials and residents hope that they can spur economic development there, in part, by improving pedestrian access and calming traffic.

The event, which was also attended by city officials and project consultants, was held at Harrisburg First Church of the Brethren on Hummel Street.

The city has proposed designs that include creating a linear park with bike lanes on Derry Street and a public gathering space at the intersection of Derry and Mulberry. The project managers are also considering two options for improving walkability at that intersection: a traffic roundabout or a traditionally signalized intersection with green space and large sidewalks.

Deborah Rodriguez, a resident on Sylvan Terrace in Allison Hill, was happy to see plans targeting pedestrians in her neighborhood.

“You see a lot of people walking over the bridge to work in the city, so I’m glad to see attention drawn to this area,” she said.

Rodriguez called the proposed projects “wonderful” but expressed concerns about their long-term upkeep.

“I want to know whose responsibility it will be to maintain it,” she said.

She suggested that school children or community organizations could have a stake in keeping the spaces clean and functional.

“These plans are beautiful as long as they have organized maintenance,” echoed Shirley Blanton, president of the South Allison Hill Homeowners Association.

Chris Eby, a software engineer who lives on Market Street in Allison Hill, comes into the MulDer Square area every week to volunteer at the church. He hopes that the city will look beyond its target area to maximize pedestrian and cyclist safety.

Eby pointed out that the areas receiving pedestrian improvements and bike lanes are not necessarily connected to other areas with the same amenities. For example, Mulberry Street meets Cameron Street at a busy intersection that is a frequent site of pedestrian accidents. And though the city is proposing a bike lane for Derry Street, it would not intersect with any other bike lanes in the area.

“We need to think about where pedestrians will go when they leave this area and where cyclists are coming from,” Eby said.

Residents who attended the open house were invited to complete comment sheets for the project planners. City Engineer Wayne Martin, who is the project manager, said that one quickly emerging theme was the neighborhood’s desire for public art.

“They want us to include art and murals,” Martin said.

He plans to provide a new mock-up of the Derry Street project that will include the Mulberry Bridge Mural, which was dismantled and put into storage when PennDOT renovated that bridge in 2014.

Martin remarked that the event turnout exceeded expectations and generated valuable input for his team. He expects that at least one more round of designs and public meetings will take place this year.

The city hopes to begin construction on the projects in March 2019, Martin said, and complete them by that fall.

Pre-K program in Allison Hill slated to grow with Hamilton Health expansion

September 14, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

Hamilton Health Center will expand its current campus, above, by adding a parking lot and 25,000-square foot building by next fall.

A planned expansion at Hamilton Health Center in Allison Hill will increase pre-K access for children in that neighborhood, while also providing additional parking for the facility’s patients and employees.

On Tuesday, Harrisburg City Council approved Hamilton Health’s application to add a new parking lot and a 25,000-squre-foot building to its facility on S. 17th Street. The building will house classrooms for Capital Area Head Start and another child care facility.

Jo Pepper, executive director of Capital Area Head Start, said that the Hamilton Health expansion will allow her organization to direct more resources to its highest-need area. They will increase Head Start enrollment in Allison Hill by 80 slots starting next year.

“Every year, one of our biggest problems is finding safe, age-appropriate facility space in our areas of need,” Pepper said. “We’ve been looking for additional space in Allison Hill for three to five years now.”

Capital Area Head Start will occupy five classrooms in the new Hamilton Health building, where 80 children will attend pre-K for six hours a day, five days a week.

Pepper said that the 17104 zip code, which encompasses Allison Hill, currently has a list of 224 children waiting for a spot in pre-K – the highest of any area served by Capital Area Head Start. Within that zip code, 391 children are currently enrolled in Head Start pre-K programs operating in public schools.

Capital Area Head Start obtained federal funding earlier this year to increase facility space and classroom hours across their programs, which serve Dauphin, Perry and Cumberland counties. They subsequently moved some enrollment slots from their low-need areas to high-need ones like Allison Hill.

Pepper said that the Hamilton Health project, which administrators hope to complete by fall 2018, was a major factor in deciding where to distribute future enrollment.

“It’s our highest-need area, and now we have great facility space,” Pepper said. “It can be difficult to apply for more funding if I don’t have appropriate facility space.”

Federal funding will also allow Capital Area Head Start to pay rent for the Hamilton Health space, which Pepper said meets fair market value. Their rental space will also house early Head Start programs and offices for home visit counselors.

Jeanine Peterson, CEO of Hamilton Health, said that her staff decided to pursue a building permit when Capital Area Head Start approached them in 2015 about renting space on their campus. At that time, the Hamilton Health facility was at full capacity, but Peterson believed a partnership would help parents access Hamilton Health’s services for children.

A third of Hamilton Health patients are children receiving health and dental care and school immunizations, said Peterson. Hamilton Health also houses a federally-sponsored Women Infants and Children (WIC) program that offers nutritional supplements for pregnant women and young children.

“We are a one-stop shop for families to access what they need,” Peterson said. “Co-locating with Head Start eliminates a lot of the barriers that a lot of families have in ensuring that their kids get quality health care.”

Pepper agrees that the new space will benefit programming at Head Start and Hamilton Health.

“I can’t wait to break ground,” she said. “We’re very excited about the opportunities and the initiatives that we’ll be able to develop by providing educational services on the campus of an important community health care provider.”

Peterson also said that the 30,000 patients who get treatment at Hamilton Health make the neighborhood a ripe spot for other business opportunities. She wishes that more investors would look past downtown development areas when choosing the sites for future projects.

“I think that a lot of attention is paid to the downtown and midtown areas, and we forget that there’s tremendous opportunity in the city in areas like Allison Hill,” Peterson said. “Getting other businesses to take a look at this corridor would be a major asset to entire city.”

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Happy Weekend!

What are you doing this weekend?

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