Student Scribes: Stand-Up Comedy–Only the Brave Need Apply.

January 30, 2015 | by Iain Sunday

Painting by Diana Rogers

Periodically, TheBurg highlights the work of student writers at Capital Area School for the Arts.

I pace outside the bathroom door, my fingers hovering over the call button of my phone. “Am I ready?” Two minutes of pacing, and I finally build up the courage to call. I fling the bathroom door open, shoot out of my pants, sit on the toilet, and hit call. The phone rings and my stomach rumbles. A beautiful young voice answers on the other side, much different than the stereotypical old, menacing, owner voice I was expecting. There is no, “You think you got the chops, kid?” lecture from the ‘60s. Instead, I’m greeted with a “Hello” and a “Thank you for calling the Harrisburg Comedy Zone.”

Months of built-up courage and long hours of writing jokes were about to be worth it. My voice cracks on the how of “How old do you have to be to see a show?” It’s all I can muster.

“Eighteen,” says the woman.

Whatever, I don’t really care about that. I pause. Twenty seconds pass. “How old do you have to be to perform? I’d like to open one night.”

She answers, no 20-second pause. She says they have a lot of openers right now. “You have to be 18 to perform, as well.”

My stomach drops. My poop drops. “Okay.” I hang up.

Stand-up comedy is difficult to get into when you are 17 and live in a rural area. Location and age are big factors, especially when most clubs have an age requirement. Devin Siebold, a comedian from Orlando, Fla., started stand up at the age of 27. “Anyone in a comedy club for the first time tonight? (Wait for hands to be raised) Me too, we’re f***d.” That was Siebold’s first joke. He also took advantage of a cool resource for novice comedians: comedy classes.

Stand-up comedy classes allow aspiring comics to learn, as well as to gain confidence. The Helium Club in Philly offers a class where Brad Trackman, a successful comedian and instructor, teaches you the ropes. I signed up for classes starting in February.

John Powers, a comedian who spent most of his time in comedy on the New York circuit, but recently has retired and moved to Orlando, remembers his first joke, as well.

“It was about Popeye,” he told me. “The punch line was that the green stuff was marijuana, not spinach. I was 19 to 20 when I open mic’d.”

Getting on stage and doing comedy provided a transition between playing music, he said. He would go to an open mic in New Paltz, N.Y., and play his guitar. “I’d tell jokes in between songs and people responded better to the jokes than the songs.” Eventually, John dropped the guitar and stuck to the jokes.

“I hate guys who call the gym the lab. Just because you are stupid, doesn’t mean you can make places different places.” That’s my first joke. Well, it will be when I perform. Unable to test it out on a stage, I funnel the joke through my friends. I massage the word placement judging by their reaction. The original joke was, “I hate guys who call the gym the lab. You can’t make words other words just because you are stupid.” It doesn’t seem like a lot, but sometimes the smallest details make for the biggest laughs.

“My jokes have always been more witty than funny…it’s that extra bit of intellect that makes you question things. It takes longer to write clever jokes, but it’s totally worth it,” Powers said. This attention to detail is something great comedians like Norm MacDonald, Mitch Hedberg, and Demetri Martin use and can really make the difference in a set. It’s a style that fits Powers, and I hope, me.

Telling jokes isn’t as easy as going on stage and launching into the set you prepared. I am terrified. It’s not just stage fright. Comedy is one of the few things in life where you get an immediate response to how you’re doing. There is no wiggle room. People laugh or they don’t, and I am terrified they won’t. “What if I’m not funny?” I think this to myself every day. I’m not the only one.

“All the time,” Siebold told me when I asked if he ever questions if he’s funny. It doesn’t matter how many times people laugh. It is hard to be a stand-up comedian. You put yourself out there every single time you perform. He relies on the support from his friends to push through.

Powers thinks differently. “I’m the funniest person I know, and I know a lot of comics.” Powers is teaching me a lesson. You can’t be a good performer without confidence. “The worst performers look nervous up there.”

However, I believe all comedians are confident. If you can get on stage, especially when you are scared, you are confident. Comedians are brave, whether they admit it or not.

Bravery alone, however, doesn’t make a successful comedian. Neither does just being funny. It takes a combination of both, plus hard work, dedication, and a good bit of luck. When Powers first started, he performed at a Greek restaurant called Mezzo. He drew a crowd. On his third night, the show runner didn’t show, but Powers did. He did so well the owner gave the show to him. He took that and ran with it. He grew in popularity and after a while, he took his show to a club in Manhattan. For five years he performed there, once a month, killing it. It was a combination of talent, hard work and opportunity.

Siebold also struck an opportunity goldmine. “I lucked out,” he said. The booker of his first show kept inviting him out to shows. He also networked, a skill a lot of people don’t know comedians must possess. “I networked and talked to him (the booker) and other comics and, within about two months, he offered me a paid hosting spot at a really crappy bar.” When Siebold performed that night he bombed, but he made $25. He got paid to do comedy! More importantly, he got his feet wet. Siebold attributes his transition from open mic’s into paid spots to networking that night.

Comedy isn’t as easy telling a joke; it’s a mind game. Can you get on stage? Are you brave enough? Do you know you are funny? Are you going to work for it? Comedians are some of the hardest working people in the world. Powers thinks it’s worth it. “I’ve always enjoyed making people laugh. There’s an art to putting a smile on people’s faces, and it takes wit and intellect and timing.” He basks in the feeling he gets when people enjoy themselves over something he did.

When people in the crowd laugh because of Siebold’s comedy, he’s ecstatic. He knows he made their day better. “So many times, I have had people come up to me, or another comic after the show and say how we helped them through a death in the family, or getting fired, or a bitter divorce.” Comedy is therapeutic. “Laughter heals, and it is a privilege to be a humor doctor.”

According to Helpguide.org, laughter relaxes your whole body, protects your heart, decreases pain, as well as many other benefits. Dr. Paul E. McGhee once said, “Your sense of humor is one of the most powerful tools you have to make certain that your daily mood and emotional state support good health.”

I’ve been obsessed with stand-up comedy for years. It’s a world many people admire and love, but one where few people actually have the balls to contribute. Powers and Siebold gave me a view from the inside, answering each question with detail and passion. It’s a passion I’m already starting to feel. These comics work hard and genuinely care about what they do. Oh, and they are also really freakin’ funny.

Iain Sunday is a junior at CASA.

Student Scribes: Gamut Theatre, Behind the Mask.

January 30, 2015 | by Bernard Joseph

Painting by Mekhi Hall

Periodically, TheBurg highlights the work of student writers at Capital Area School for the Arts.

It’s 7:15 in the evening as patrons flood into Gamut Theatre, located in Strawberry Square in Harrisburg. This is my second performance with the company, playing the role of the 4^th Volsce, or tribesman, for the fifth night of the Shakespeare tragedy, “Coriolanus.” I peek through the crack of the dressing room door as audience members file in line at the concession counter, while others rush in to grab the best seats.

A female voice nearby says, “I finally get a chance to see ‘Coriolanus.’ I heard great things about this show.”

A toothy grin stretches across my face.

“Fifteen minutes until show time!” shouts Hannah, a stage manager.

Actors and actresses don their 19^th-century soldier uniforms and Victorian-style dresses. We tribesmen grab our battleaxes and machetes, quietly hooting and chest-banging our warrior chant, “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!” Green and red paint covers my face with a yellow streak down the middle. I hop on one foot to the other, psyching myself up to fit tonight’s character.

Gamut, a crown jewel in the south-central PA theater scene, introduced itself to the local acting community 22 years ago, when it began as The Popcorn Hat Players Children’s Theatre Company.

“Melissa and I were regional actors…but we wanted to settle down and open our own theater,” said Clark Nicholson, artistic director and part owner.

For the first two years, the plan for the company was to collect a lump sum of money and move to an area where the theater market thrived. If not for a friend convincing the founders to put on a Shakespeare play, the Harrisburg Shakespeare Company half wouldn’t exist at all. Both entities operated under different boards of directors until 2000, when the directors formed the umbrella name, Gamut Theatre.

Act 1, Scene 4—the first major fight scene.

I rush to Titus Lartius (local actor Aidan Roth), battleaxe in hand, driving it down to his sword. Titus smacks me aside with his cane. I stumble back to my feet, parrying a right and left shoulder cut. I swing Titus’ sword out of the way, screaming at him until he scuttles off, down stage left. I retreat through the scaffold, my heart beating faster and faster, adrenaline coursing through my veins. Sweat travels down my forehead as the cool air calms me. The audience’s hands clap like popping oil, applauding the fight choreography.

Like Gamut, many of the major theater companies rooted themselves into Harrisburg’s artistic culture through the years. The grandfather, Harrisburg Community Theatre (now Theatre Harrisburg), has been around for 88 years. Open Stage of Harrisburg was formed in 1983, thanks to a Greater Harrisburg Foundation planning grant. Being a children’s theater in the early stages, Gamut built its patron base around the people who came to see its shows as children. “As those children grew up, they supported the theatrical arts in Harrisburg,” said Nicholson.

Kolbe Gelbaugh, a student at Capital Area School for the Arts Charter School, shares with me her exposure to Gamut Theatre.

“I was about 8 years old. My sibling always attended PHP shows,” she said. “Since sports weren’t my strong suit, my mom put me into their acting classes, and I loved it.”

Gelbaugh performed in many of Gamut Theatre’s Young Acting Company shows, noting her participation in “The Jungle Book.”

“From working with them for all of those years, they’re like a second family to me,” she said.

I first came in contact with Gamut Theatre during my ninth-grade year in high school. As I sat in Strawberry Square, bored out of my mind, a few people climbed upstairs to the third floor. I got curious, so I made my way up. Turns out, the company was holding auditions for the Shakespeare in the Park show, “Romeo & Juliet.” My best friend sat on a bench reciting her monologue in a whisper. I auditioned for Benvolio but failed to get the part. The director, Karen Ruch, called me back to “reset” my audition, and I got the role of Friar John. It was my first audition for a professional stage production, and I’m glad it was with Gamut Theatre.

Act 5, Scene 2—Coriolanus’ death.

We Volsces gather in our campsite with our general, Aufidius. We fall silent as Coriolanus enters. Aufidius brands him a traitor for not conquering Rome. 1st Volsce bludgeons Coriolanus with a blood egg-loaded hammer. Then I follow with two back stabs. 2nd Volsce stabs him in the gut. 3rd Volsce slashes behind Coriolanus’ knee. Aufidius finishes with a throat slit. The lights dim to complete darkness. The show ends as Aufidius strolls off center stage, laughing at the lifeless Coriolanus. I peek through the curtains once more. The audience stands, clapping and whistling at the great performance. I blow out a huge breath of relief.

“Only seven more shows until we close,” I whisper to myself as I travel to my placement for bows. All actors walk on stage. The crowd shouts and applauds even louder. Tom raises his right hand, leading the final bow of the night. A huge grin plasters across my face as I exit the stage.

“I think I’ll do this more often,” I think to myself.

Throughout a single year, Gamut Theatre presents more than 350 performances and workshops for more than 10,000 people. The theater reaches an additional 36,000 people with a combination of performances and classes.

Gamut Theatre is a priceless treasure among the Harrisburg theater community. It’s been an honor for me to be a part of a great company, and thanks to the close-knit patrons for supporting the theater community. Please do a great service by visiting Gamut and the other prominent theater companies in the area.

Bernard Joseph is a senior at CASA.

On Hipsters and Harrisburg: Can beards & vinyl coexist with church socials and civic engagement?

January 30, 2015 | by Tara Leo Auchey

In the city of Harrisburg, there is an ongoing battle about who’s who. Historically, it’s consisted of skirmishes based on politics, socioeconomics and race.

However, in the past two years or so, those typical lines of division have been marked by the arrival of new participants—hipsters.

A figure of controversy and confusion, the hipster embodies many of the issues the city has been fighting about for a long while, yet not until recently was there such a particular character to point to who symbolizes the conflict.

The hipster is commonly defined as a 20-something, white, suburban, middle-class person who transplants to a city to live a Bohemian life free of conventional impositions.

The term is a throwback to the 1940s, but its modern usage was coined in the 1990s and, since then, has become a common term, sufficiently overused and not well understood. Urban areas across the nation deliberate on who the hipster is and what it means to be one.

In fact, the idea that hipsters have arrived in Harrisburg actually signifies that this is a real city.

While almost every other city has been debating hipsterness for the past decade (this is central PA after all…things seem to land here long after other places have been there, done that), Harrisburg’s debate has really revved up in the past year.

Like the word gentrification, it’s been increasingly thrown around—not always appropriately—especially in discussions on the capital city’s economic development. To many born and raised, long-lived here Harrisburgians, “hipsters” are the token menaces of their society.

Before the perceived Harrisburg hipster invasion, the fights of progress were rooted in issues of entrenched politics and struggles for power. For some, former Mayor Stephen Reed was a man of vision. For others, he was a neglectful ruler. Under Linda Thompson, the bouts became more overtly about race and money. Always, it’s been about insiders and outsiders.

Knowing this, I’ve become more and more concerned about hearing the word “hipster” in Harrisburg. Simple research shows that anywhere the word is used, it tends to invoke disdain. It’s often used pejoratively, referring to someone identified as young, white and well off, with a “too cool for school” gait bedecked in skinny jeans and witty T-shirts. It’s a stereotype, and, like all stereotypes, it’s unfair. Yet at the same time, there’s always some truth to it.

I’ve been worried that in our small, fragile city, the hipster would be the scapegoat for the growing pains of Harrisburg’s reconstruction. I’ve also been worried that the hipsters are ignorant of this city’s history, politics and true troubles.

The battlegrounds of Midtown, the Broad Street Market and ballots are being riddled with the word. Hipster. The “us” and “them” are no longer loaded yet ambiguous terms of this city’s war. Now, the hipster has sufficiently become the “them” to those looking for someone to blame for the discomfort of change.

What is a hipster of Harrisburg? Are they the ones hanging out in the coffee shops and walking the streets during 3^rd in The Burg? Are they those people with beards and oversized glasses who love craft beer? Does this mean anyone who fits that description is one of “them?”

That seems to be what’s unjustly happening in Harrisburg.

Unjust as it may be, that doesn’t mean the “hipster” doesn’t exist around here.

In a thought-provoking 2012 essay in the New York Times entitled “How to Live Without Irony,” Christy Wampole builds off of the general definition of hipster as the white millennial subculture group migrating to America’s cities. She defines “the hipster” as someone who lives in an irony that is characteristic of a life of comfort and one of choices. The hipster can be ironically clever because a life of relative privilege has permitted such contemplation. This becomes apparent not just in attitude but in aesthetic, as well.

In juxtaposition to those who live in irony are those who don’t. She writes that those who live non-ironically—the opposite of the hipster—are “very young children, elderly people, deeply religious people, people with severe mental or physical disabilities, people who have suffered, and those from economically or politically challenged places where seriousness is the governing state of mind.”

This highlights what, I think, is the ultimate tension of having the hipster in Harrisburg—this place is almost too complicated for such irony as the hipster embodies.

Harrisburg is the quintessential place of economic and political challenge. It is where people have suffered for generations.

The fact, though, is the hipster—or any influx of youth, energy and culture—can help boost this city.

Yet problems arise when anyone, whether hipster or other fleeting label, arrives in Harrisburg and neglects to acquaint themselves with the trials and tribulations of this place.

If people who live here don’t make themselves familiar with Harrisburg’s past and potential, then its problems will remain.

Ultimately, in order to quit the battles, we have to agree that anyone, no matter who they are, is welcome to fit into the Harrisburg community as long as they don’t think they are solely the community.

Tara Leo Auchey is creator and editor of today’s the day Harrisburg. www.todaysthedayhbg.com.

Student Scribes: Confessions of a (Recovering) Angry Young Man

January 30, 2015 | by Alejandro S. Guzman

Painting by Mekhi Hall

Periodically, TheBurg highlights the work of student writers at Capital Area School for the Arts (CASA).

Walking into the house, finally out of the cold, my mom calls me to come to her room. My body tenses as I drop my bag. “Alex!” She’s yelling. Opening the door, I see what I feared the most: her face is red as if something in her brain blew up. “Why did you get suspended?” Now she’s screaming. In my head, hitting that kid felt good. Feeling flesh connect with my hand and knowing that he just might be in pain, felt oddly soothing. “I told you if he hits you first, THEN you hit him back. You don’t start the damn fight. What is wrong with you? Now I have to deal with this crap in court. When will you grow up?” She continued to yell, but I got stuck on why she was concerned more about going to court than about me. I didn’t understand.

I knew from an early age that hitting someone first was wrong. I didn’t care. If I hadn’t hit him, I probably would have been lying on the floor with a knot where my forehead should be. At that moment in time, I thought about survival of the fittest and without hesitation, I hit him as hard as I could. The crowd the fight attracted began howling like a pack of wolves as my opponent stumbled back, holding his jaw. I fed them what they wanted. Conflict.

It’s sad looking back and seeing peer pressure as the trigger. About.com emphasizes what peer pressure really is: “Peer pressure is pressure from others to conform to the behaviors, attitudes and personal habits of a group or clique.” Peer pressure, without a doubt, is a form of bullying. A child growing up may never bully, but when peer pressure comes into play, everything changes.

At 13, my only friend was a kid named Adam. We always had each other’s backs, or so I thought. I protected him. Always protected him. But because his “friend” stepped out of line, and we beat his butt, he hit my little brother with brass knuckles.

Thinking about it now, I wonder if he, too, was bullied. Could he have been a victim of peer pressure, or did something else trigger it? Bullyingstatistics.org tells us “there are a variety of reasons why people bully.” Some of them include: “Cultural causes, a culture that is fascinated with winning, power and violence…” Others are “social issues, family issues and the bully’s personal history.”

Seeing the bottom of my little brother’s teeth reach the back of his throat kills me inside. I did this, I taught him this way. Now, because of me, this a-hole who I thought was my friend, is the reason I can’t see my brother’s teeth. His shiny white teeth. The only color I can see is red. I protected Adam, and this is how he repays me.

Sitting in the car on the way to the hospital, I contemplate how I’ll take his life. Being the sadistic little s-t that I was at 13, when I lived in York, Pa., I had friends with knives, guns and many other deadly items. Thinking back on that now, four years later, I realize how stupid it all sounds. Going to jail at 13 wouldn’t have been worth it, but at the time, I didn’t care.

Knowing now that fighting is a form of bullying, I try to avoid it at all costs, but is it really avoidable? There is an internal conflict that rises up whenever I am confronted. I always ask myself, “Should I fight, or let myself be walked all over?”

In the article, “Social Goals: How Kids’ React To Bullying,” found on Futurity.org, Professor Karen Rudolph explained what a child with developing social skills will most likely say to himself or herself: “I’m not going to do anything negative, that’s going to make me look like a loser, that’s going to embarrass me…”

She explained the internal conflict I talked about earlier: Imagine living in a world where peer pressure and bullying are normal to some children, and they see nothing wrong with it. Now imagine yourself fearing school. “Mommy please, I’ll do the dishes, I’ll clean the walls, I’ll help you do whatever you need. Just don’t make me go to school, please?” Then mom asking you, “What’s wrong, why don’t you want to go to school, is someone bothering you?” But you can’t tell her because she’ll go to the school and tell someone, then the bully will come back and do it again. So, you tell her, “Oh no mommy, I’m just really tired,” or “I just feel really sick.”

I’ve wondered at times if adults could be bullied. Pondering this for hours and, in the end, deeming the theory impossible, I found contradiction in an article at www,bullyingstatistics.org: “Verbal Adult Bully”: “ Words can be quite damaging. Adult bullies who use this type of tactic may start rumors about the victim.” Another example the site offers involves “the workplace bully—an employee being excluded from company activities or having his or her work or contributions purposefully ignored.” As trivial as it may seem, this can cause a person to hate his or her job and, when they quit because they want to find a job that creates joy, they could receive a bad review because they weren’t “lively” or “joyous.”

The stress and depression that tag along with scenarios such as this one are depressing enough. Adults don’t have their mothers or fathers to retreat to as children do. “Mommy can I please stay home? I’ll help you do whatever you need. Please,” becomes, “This is so f-in’ stressful. I’m going to quit, screw this. This is bull… but the bills. How am I going to feed myself, where would I shower?” If you have a child and a bad job, the stress level increases.

Lying on the floor as my mom passes by, I call for her.

“Yes, Alex?”

“I feel so lonely, why do I feel like this?”

Raising her voice, she replies, “What are you talking about, Alex? You know I love you!”

I can’t help but tear up and get angry to the point where I create a hole in the wall. Now she’s in my face, red as the devil on his worst day.

“Why would you do that?”

“I‑I’m sorry, I hate this! I know you love me, I know it’s there, but I can’t help my feeling this way. If I could change it, I would!”

Continuing to blow up, she shouts, “Look at that wall, what am I going to tell the landlord?”

Again, she’s more concerned with saving her own butt. Glancing at me as I sob, she walks over to me, tears welling in her eyes. “We’ll get through this, I promise you. Together.”

My sobbing continues, only faster.

I’m doing better…I’m working on it.

Alejandro S. Guzman is a sophomore at CASA.

January News Digest

January 30, 2015 | by Lawrance Binda

LERTA Hung Up

The Harrisburg City Council last month quashed an effort to revive a city tax abatement proposal, the second time in a month the administration failed to pass this economic development initiative.

At council’s first legislative session of the year, Councilman Jeffrey Baltimore tried to bring the bill forward for reconsideration, but his effort failed after a split council denied the motion.

The Papenfuse administration had hoped to pass a 10-year abatement for residential properties in the city under the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) program. Under this bill, owners would not be taxed on the value of their property improvements for a full 10 years.

Two weeks earlier, Councilman Brad Koplinski successfully forced the proposal onto the council’s agenda over the objection of council President Wanda Williams. Council then tacked on 10 separate amendments to the Papenfuse administration’s original bill.

The administration balked at some of those amendments, particularly those that would make the LERTA graduated, so that the tax burden on property improvements would increase by 10 percent each year over 10 years.

After the bill was amended, the administration asked that it be withdrawn, citing a need to conduct a legal review.

By January, Koplinski appeared to have changed his position on the proposal, casting one of the three votes, along with Williams and Councilwoman Shamaine Daniels, which defeated the motion to reconsider the bill.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse vowed to try again to pass his proposal, which he regards as essential to revitalizing the city, which is full of vacant land and dilapidated buildings. If the council does pass a tax abatement bill, it also would have to be approved by Dauphin County and the Harrisburg school board.

Budget Shows Surplus

Harrisburg ended last year with a $5.3 million budget surplus, which it has carried over into 2015.

Finance Director Bruce Weber credited the surprise surplus to an administration directive that city departments spend less than they were authorized to spend. In addition to the surplus, the city paid down nearly all of the $4 million in outstanding 2013 payables that it inherited from the previous administration.

Moreover, the city met all its general obligation bond payments for the first time in three years.

In late December, the City Council approved a balanced 2015 municipal budget that did not raise property taxes but added several key positions. Fourteen more public safety personnel were funded under the $59.4 million budget, which also included a $2 million investment in the city’s sanitation program.

The 2015 budget also included hundreds of thousands of dollars in discretionary departmental accounts, which previously had been kept off-book. They were brought into the regular budget process for the first time in many years.

City Weighs TRAN

Harrisburg City Council last month considered authorizing a $4.5 million tax and revenue anticipation note (TRAN).

A TRAN is a form of short-term borrowing that municipalities often issue to cover lean revenue periods, allowing the city to pay its bills in the event of a cash shortfall until property taxes and revenues begin to roll in. In Harrisburg, for instance, cash flow often is weak until late March, when people begin to pay their city property taxes.

Three lenders bid on the city’s request for a TRAN, according to the Papenfuse administration. The TRAN is expected to cost the city a $1,500 legal fee and no commitment fee.

Last year, the council authorized a $2 million TRAN with a $10,000 commitment fee and a $5,000 legal fee. Ultimately, the city did not draw on the TRAN at all.

Distillery Rejected

The Harrisburg Zoning Hearing Board has rejected a proposal by two city residents to build a distillery in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg.

The board unanimously denied a variance to Alan Kennedy-Shaffer and Stanley Gruen, who wanted to locate a micro-distillery, Kennedy Spirits LLC, in the historic “Carpets and Draperies” building at 1507 N. 3^rd St.

After two hearings, the board was unsatisfied with the evidence presented for the variance, which is needed because the area is not zoned for this use. The board urged the applicants to return with additional witnesses who could speak on behalf of their project at its next meeting this month.

The applicants, however, said a delay would jeopardize their financing. When asked if they wanted to continue the case to the February meeting, the applicants did not respond, and the board voted down the variance request.

Solicitors Confirmed

Harrisburg’s understaffed legal department received a boost last month, as City Council confirmed two new hires.

City Council unanimously approved the appointment of Douglas L. Walmer as deputy city solicitor and Marta Rifin as assistant city solicitor.

Walmer has worked for the city in an acting capacity since July and Rifin since August. They report to city Solicitor Neil Grover.

Equipment Purchased

Harrisburg last month acquired several pieces of heavy equipment to assist with sanitation and firefighting.

City Council approved the purchase of a used 2005 International Recycling Truck from the Borough of Shippensburg, Pa., for $15,400. The truck will assist in the city’s recycling program.

Council also directed the administration to purchase a used 2001 International Rear Loader Trash Truck from the Borough of Conshohocken, Pa., for $22,500. This truck will be deployed for trash collection.

Finally, the city agreed to acquire a 1996 Sutphen Tower Truck from Union Grove, Ala.-based Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus in exchange for four used fire trucks and $38,000.

Changing Hands

Bellevue Rd., 2301: D. & D. Dwyer to J. & D. Schroeder, $139,000

Berryhill St., 2247: S. Burner to PA Deals LLC, $56,000

Berryhill St., 2247: PA Deals LLC to MidAtlantic IRA LLC, $62,000

Calder St., 270: C. Martin & D. Zimmerman to JLS Rentals LLC, $30,650

Derry St., 2423: J. Green to E. Gmys, $62,900

Fulton St., 1726: PA Deals LLC to R. & K. Lloyd, $104,900

Green St., 1918: M. Kirk to J. Leahan, $147,000

Green St., 1934: WCI Partners LP to B. & J. Lentes, $201,000

Harris St., 213: 8219 Ventures LLC to Braxley Property Management LLC, $60,000

Kensington St., 2143: B. Ramper et al to P. Luna, $65,000

Kensington St., 2302: J. & K. Flynn to X. Weng & C. Yang, $41,000

Kensington St., 2412: L. Batista to J. Na, $54,000

Midland Rd., 2406: R. & A. Kurtz to S. Peterson, $123,500

Muench St., 315: S. Jusufovic to K. Mullen & T. Hawbaker Jr., $76,000

N. 2^nd St., 1110: W. Moyer to MC Investment Properties LLC, $117,000

N. 2^nd St., 1805: Members 1^st Federal Credit Union to T. Pham & T. Nguyen, $32,000

N. 2^nd St., 2410: T. Keyes to C. Bennet, $133,000

N. 2^nd St., 2417: R. Hunsicker to Z. & J. Kashatus, $125,000

N. 2^nd St., 3106: C. Hawk to M. Kaschock & S. Bryant, $46,500

N. 2^nd St., 3305: J. William to J. England, $96,500

N. 3^rd St., 3015: A. Montalvo to M. St. Vil, $75,500

N. 5^th St., 3128: S. & D. Creek to S. Jawhar, $35,000

N. 7^th St., 3116, 3120; & 630 Antoine St.: OLINC Limited Partnership to LNW, $247,500

Pennwood Rd., 3205: C. Lebo to T. & A. Wolfe, $96,000

Royal Terr., 145; 2716 Reel St.; 524 Radnor St.: Harlie Investments LLC to S. Maurer, $54,000

Rumson Dr., 281: S. Zimmerman to G. Burdsal, $65,500

S. 17^th St., 248: Harrisburg School District to Pennsylvania Counseling Services, Inc., $680,000

S. Cameron St., 1201: W. Dealtrey & R. Bennett to H. Tran, $355,000

S. Front St., 331: I. & T. Heikel to L. Brice & P. Cappetta, $85,000

S. Front St., 575: W. & L. Renz to N. Hiltz, $165,000

State St., 200: WCI Partners LP to 200 State Street LLC, $580,000

State St., 231, Unit 301: LUX 1 LP to D. Scott, $149,900

State St., 231, Unit 404: LUX 1 LP to M. & K. Lastrina, $119,000

Swatara St., 2400: E. Johnson to G. Washington, $115,000

Verbeke St., 258: River Front Development Group LLC to J. Boyd & V. Brandler, $132,500

Wisconisco St., 630; 2605A N. 6^th St; 2603 N. 6^th St.; 2611 Reel St.: Aydel Investments LLC to S. Maurer, $72,000

Zarker St., 1942: Mussani & Co. LP to Next Generation Trust Services, $35,000

Harrisburg property sales for December 2014, greater than $30,000. Source Dauphin County. Data is assumed to be accurate.

Gun Rally in Harrisburg Park Postponed Until Spring

January 29, 2015 | by Paul Barker

A gun-rights group suing Harrisburg over its firearms ordinances has postponed a rally until April, after bad weather and a last-minute change of venue compromised plans for a pro-gun gathering in a city park last Saturday.

The group, Firearms Owners Against Crime, had originally planned for a two-hour, 25-person gathering in the Reservoir Park bandshell on Saturday afternoon, during which attendees openly carrying or concealing firearms intended to celebrate their “God-given rights under the Constitution to bear arms,” according to the group.

The city, however, asked that the event be moved to outside city hall, noting the bandshell was closed in the winter, and the group changed its plans.

Details of the rally were included in the group’s permit application, which was provided to TheBurg on Wednesday in response to a right-to-know request, along with an email exchange between the city and the group’s president, Kim Stolfer.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Stolfer said the purpose of the rally was to “send a message” to Gov. Tom Wolf, whose inauguration took place in Harrisburg on Jan. 20.

But the rally also would have coincided with a larger contest over gun control in Harrisburg, in which gun-rights groups have sued the city over laws they claim are unconstitutional and in violation of state laws preempting local gun regulations.

Those lawsuits were prompted by a recent state law, signed by then-Gov. Tom Corbett on Nov. 6, that granted gun-rights membership groups standing to sue local governments over their firearms regulations.

Firearms Owners Against Crime, which filed its suit against the city on Jan. 16, is one of two such groups that have sued Harrisburg since the law took effect. The other group, U.S. Law Shield, filed a similar suit on Jan. 13.

Both suits have demanded the city pay the groups’ attorney fees, pursuant to a provision in the new law permitting plaintiffs to recoup legal costs from municipalities whose ordinances they successfully challenge.

Stolfer, however, called the U.S. Law Shield suit “premature,” describing his own group’s suit as “more comprehensive.”

FOAC’s suit was brought by four plaintiffs: the group itself, identified as a statewide, nonpartisan political action committee and membership organization, on behalf of its members; Stolfer, its president and chairman; Joshua First, a Harrisburg resident and FOAC member; and Howard Bullock, a resident of Lower Paxton Township and FOAC member who works in the city.

The suit takes issue with five city ordinances and their accompanying penalties for violators, claiming they threaten the plaintiffs with criminal charges, prosecution and other penalties for what the plaintiffs view as a lawful use of firearms under state law and the U.S. Constitution.

Three of the ordinances regulate firearm use and possession outright, forbidding the possession of firearms by minors unaccompanied by adults, forbidding the discharging of firearms within city limits and obligating an owner to report the loss or theft of a firearm to law enforcement.

A fourth ordinance prohibits the sale, display and possession in public of firearms during a state of emergency declared by the mayor, while a fifth forbids the use and possession of firearms and other projectile weapons in city parks.

Stolfer submitted the permit application for the Reservoir Park rally on Jan. 14, two days before his civil complaint was filed in Dauphin County court.

No reference to the permit application appears in the civil complaint, and it was not clear whether the rally was partly conceived to play a role in the lawsuit.

If the city had rejected the permit application, it might have granted FOAC standing independent of the standing granted by the new state law, which is being challenged by several Pennsylvania cities.

In his emails to the city, starting on Jan. 14, Stolfer repeatedly asked for a decision to approve or deny his request in writing.

“If at all humanly possible,” he wrote on the morning of Jan. 15, “I would like to know if this has been approved or declined today.”

On Wednesday, however, Stolfer said the rally was “not overtly” about achieving standing, noting the timing was meant to coincide with the inauguration.

In his initial reply to Stolfer, the city’s recreation director, Kevin Sanders, explained the city would not sign off on a permit until it had received a rental fee.

He later wrote that it would take two weeks to process the application, though he added the city was “working on a quicker result.”

On Jan. 22, Sanders wrote Stolfer again. The Reservoir Park bandshell, he said, was “closed until April due to weather,” but the city was offering the plaza outside city hall as an alternate venue.

Less than an hour later, Stolfer wrote to say he was rescinding the request and would plan to hold the rally instead on April 11 in the original location.

Stolfer also said Wednesday that the city’s online application was not clear about the fees applicants needed to pay or the time it would take to process their requests.

Sanders did not respond to inquiries Wednesday. The city’s communications director, Joyce Davis, later said the city would not comment on questions related to the pending litigation.

Firearms Owners Against Crime was founded in 1993 and became a statewide political action committee in 1994, according to its court filing.

Its mission is to inform its members, the public and legislators “on all issues pertaining to firearms, firearm safety, constitutional provisions, statutes, case law and all other issues” related to the constitutionality of gun ownership.

The group has 1,649 members in Pennsylvania, including one member under 18 in Harrisburg, the filing says.

Stolfer, who lives in the borough of McDonald in Allegheny County, was a founder of the group and has been its president for the past 10 years.

He has been involved in legislation regarding firearms for several years, including the state’s so-called “castle doctrine” legislation from 2011 and last November’s law, both of which he said he helped author.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler), who sponsored the November bill, described Stolfer as his “lead advisor” on the legislation, which he said was aimed at reining in municipalities that have been “thumbing their nose” at the state’s preemption law.

The law, which was partly inspired by a similar Florida law from 2011, “seems like it is working,” Metcalfe said, with several Pennsylvania municipalities already rescinding their ordinances.

But Harrisburg’s Mayor Eric Papenfuse, who has stood by the city’s gun control ordinances, responded to Metcalfe’s comments with his own rejoinder.

Pointing out that both Stolfer and FOAC have donated to Metcalfe—FOAC has donated a total of $5,725 since 2010, according to data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics—the new law “only seems to be working if the goal was to generate a potentially big payday for your lead advisor and major campaign contributor,” Papenfuse said.

This story has been updated with comments from State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe and Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse.

TheBurg Podcast, Jan. 23, 2015

January 23, 2015 | by Admin

Welcome to TheBurg Podcast, a weekly roundup of news in and around Harrisburg.

Jan. 23, 2015: This week, Larry and Paul talk about an upcoming settlement to a major Harrisburg debt burden and the dropping of charges against a local pastor whose church collapsed earlier this year in south Harrisburg. They even play-act a little debt scenario, with Larry taking the role of the lender and Paul the role of, shall we say, the young and the reckless.

Special thanks to Paul Cooley, who wrote our theme music and whose own podcast, the PRC Show, is available on SoundCloud and in the iTunes store.

TheBurg Podcast can be downloaded by clicking on the date above or by visiting the iTunes store. You can also access the podcast via its host page, here.

Council Weighs Debt Settlement For Downtown Verizon Building

January 23, 2015 | by Paul Barker

The so-called Verizon Tower in downtown Harrisburg, which the telecommunications company will vacate in early 2016.

Harrisburg City Council considered for the first time publicly Thursday night the details of a proposed settlement with Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp., the insurer of a $41.6 million bond debt that the city must begin repaying in 2016.

The debt is tied to the so-called Verizon building, a 12-story office tower in downtown’s Strawberry Square, where the broadband and telecommunications giant, formerly the Bell Atlantic Company, has leased space since 1975.

The total debt, representing principal and interest on a 1998 bond issue of $6.9 million, starts coming due on Nov. 1, 2016, with payments ranging between $930,000 and $1,175,000 due every May and November thereafter through 2033.

A final payment of $6,175,000 is due on Nov. 1, 2033.

The city is obligated to make the payments under the terms of a guarantee agreement, which pledged the full faith and credit of city taxpayers as added security on the bonds at the time they were issued.

Under the proposed settlement, AGM will advance up to 20 percent of the annual debt service to bondholders each year through 2025, with the city later paying back any advances at a 6.07-percent interest rate.

The settlement also contains a forbearance agreement, so that as long as the city does not exceed a 20-percent advance each year or an aggregate $2.7 million through 2025, AGM will not declare the city in default under its insurance policy.

The city is not obligated to rely on AGM for a cash advance in any year, and any unused advance can be rolled over into the next year.

Steven Goldfield, a financial advisor to the state officials overseeing Harrisburg’s recovery, said the city should regard the advances from AGM as a “line of credit” to be drawn upon if the city can’t afford its full debt payments in a given year.

The settlement is the result of many months of work and will help the city realize “significant benefits,” said Fred Reddig, Harrisburg’s coordinator under Act 47, the state program for distressed municipalities.

Most of those benefits depend on the building’s expected new tenant, the state Department of General Services, which signed a 17-year lease in late September to locate around 900 workers in Strawberry Square.

The state will rent 765 parking spaces, which should produce around $600,000 in new parking taxes each year for the city, though Goldfield later acknowledged that may be offset slightly by the loss of Verizon employees who parked downtown.

The state’s rent payments are also projected to eat up about $12.8 million of the debt obligation from the 1998 bonds, reducing the city’s burden.

The settlement with AGM is a critical last piece of the negotiations towards the state lease, Goldfield explained, because it clears the way for a $17 million investment in the Strawberry Square property.

The investment, to be spent on an energy retrofit of the office towers and on fitting out the space for DGS’s use, depends in part on financing from First National Bank.

But the bank wants some assurance that the Strawberry Square assets won’t be tied up in litigation over the city’s debt payments, which the forbearance agreement with AGM would provide, Goldfield explained.

The deal is a major step in a long and complex chapter of the city’s involvement in the downtown real estate business.

In 1975, the city, the Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority and the Harristown Development Corporation embarked on an urban renewal project that included the development of the site at Strawberry Square.

Included in the development was the 12-story, concrete-and-steel structure that would come to be the Verizon building, comprising 239,841 square feet out of Strawberry Square’s more than 1 million square feet of total space.

The 1998 bond issue financed the redevelopment authority’s purchase of the land and facilities from the city, which had received fee title to the property in 1976 under the terms of the urban renewal project agreement.

The proceeds from the deal helped cover a deficit in the city’s 1999 budget, which then Mayor Stephen Reed celebrated for including “no tax increases of any kind” and “no layoffs of existing staff.”

He made the remarks at a November 1998 legislative session, on the same night council would vote in favor of the Strawberry Square property sale.

In theory, debt service on the bonds would never touch the city’s guarantee, as rent payments from tenants was supposed to cover the necessary payments.

But documents from the financing suggest that officials involved in the deal were aware of the city’s exposure.

The lease with Verizon, for example, was set at the time to terminate on Feb. 1, 2016, nine months before the first debt payment was due.

And at various points in the official statement for the bonds, investors were reminded of the downtown real estate market’s volatility, with the statement at one point stipulating that there was “no assurance that the authority will be able to lease the facilities to future tenants at rent levels sufficient to pay the 1998 bonds.”

Nonetheless, Standard & Poor’s rated the bonds ‘AAA,’ the highest possible rating.

During an interview in early January, Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse characterized the Verizon building debt as a “horribly bitter pill” for the city to swallow. He said he was reviewing documents from the deal, but that it was his current belief the city was obligated to repay the debt in its entirety.

Council members echoed the mayor’s sentiments Thursday night. Councilman Ben Allatt, the budget and finance committee chair, described the debt as “one of the worst deals the city ever entered into.”

He added that he was working with city officials on adopting a debt policy to ensure Harrisburg would never enter such deals again, which he expected to be one of council’s legislative initiatives this year.

Council President Wanda Williams concurred with Allatt’s statements, and then expressed her gratitude for the work of Reddig’s team on negotiating a solution. “I commend you both for what you’ve done, and I thank you,” she said.

City Solicitor Neil Grover told council he was still in talks with AGM over the terms of the agreement, and that there was a specific clause he wanted amended before he would recommend an affirmative vote from council.

If the matter was not resolved to his satisfaction, Grover said, he would urge council to reject the agreement.

Williams said that, so long as Grover addressed the issue, she would put the agreement on council’s agenda for next Tuesday’s legislative session for a vote.

This story has been updated with information about the bills council voted on at a November 1998 legislative session, which approved the sale of the city’s Strawberry Square properties.

TheBurg Podcast, Jan. 16, 2015

January 16, 2015 | by Admin

Welcome to TheBurg Podcast, a weekly roundup of news in and around Harrisburg.

Jan. 16, 2015: This week, Larry and Paul talk about the policy and politics of tax abatement, the drawing of battle lines between the mayor and the school district, and the opening of the Susquehanna Art Museum.

Special thanks to Paul Cooley, who wrote our theme music and whose own podcast, the PRC Show, is available on SoundCloud in the iTunes store.

TheBurg Podcast can be downloaded by clicking on the date above or by visiting the iTunes store. You can also access the podcast via its host page, here.

After First Year, Taking Stock of Harrisburg’s Recovery

January 12, 2015 | by Paul Barker

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse. (File photo.)

On the campaign trail in 2013, soon-to-be-mayor Eric Papenfuse spoke approvingly of the state’s financial recovery plan for Harrisburg, saying it offered a “brief window of opportunity” to bring the city back from the brink of bankruptcy.

Now, Papenfuse and other city officials are sizing up the recovery plan once again, as they look back on the city’s first year under his administration and weigh the financial challenges and successes since the plan was implemented.

The year saw Harrisburg’s departure from receivership, the period of direct state intervention in city finances, although the city remains in Act 47, Pennsylvania’s program for state oversight of financially distressed municipalities.

For the most part, officials said, the year exceeded expectations, with the city receiving most of its anticipated revenues, maintaining a balanced budget through the close of the year and getting current on its bills faster than was predicted.

They also pointed to a substantial year-end fund balance and a likely settlement of an outstanding debt obligation as evidence of the city’s improving fiscal health.

At the same time, they remained cautious about the city’s finances in the coming year, as evidenced in part by the $4.5 million tax and revenue anticipation note, or TRAN, they plan to submit for City Council’s consideration Tuesday evening.

The TRAN, a form of short-term borrowing that municipalities often issue to cover lean revenue periods, would allow the city to pay its bills in the event of a cash shortfall in the months before property and other taxes start to roll in.

Steven Goldfield, a financial advisor who helped craft the city’s recovery plan and continues to work closely with the city’s coordinator under Act 47, said the TRAN was a positive step for Harrisburg, since it meant the city was accessing the capital markets for the second year in a row after its debt crisis.

In addition, three lenders bid this year on the city’s request for a TRAN, securing a better offer for the city than last year, when only Metro Bank bid.

Last year’s $2 million TRAN cost the city a $10,000 commitment fee and a $5,000 legal fee. Under this year’s offer, from Mid Penn Bank, the city will pay a $1,500 legal fee and no commitment fee, said Bruce Weber, the city’s finance director.

The city ultimately didn’t draw upon last year’s TRAN. Both Papenfuse and Weber said in an interview last week that they did not expect the city to draw upon this year’s TRAN, either, largely because of its sizable fund balance going into 2015.

That year-end fund balance, which Weber said totaled $5.3 million, is another measure of the city’s improved financial condition, they said, as well as being a pleasant surprise to city officials.

“In my wildest dreams I never thought I’d see a fund balance like this,” said City Controller Charles DeBrunner, who took office in January.

DeBrunner, who served briefly as budget director under Mayor Harold Swenson in the 1970s, ran for his current post with the encouragement of Dan Miller, his predecessor and a former councilman whom Papenfuse defeated in a bid for mayor.

DeBrunner praised Papenfuse for his management of the city’s 2014 budget, saying the mayor helped achieve the large fund balance in part by having almost every city department spend less than it was actually authorized to spend.

The city also managed to pay down nearly all of the $4 million in outstanding 2013 payables that it carried forward into 2014, far exceeding DeBrunner’s expectations.

Papenfuse “had a terrific year,” DeBrunner said. “I’m really pleased with him. And controllers don’t get pleased.”

Officials were also hopeful about a settlement to a significant outstanding debt obligation, which City Council will consider for the first time at Tuesday night’s legislative session, the first of the year.

The settlement, to be introduced as Resolution 7 of 2015, will be with bond insurer Assured Guaranty Municipal, or AGM, over debt obligations related to the so-called Verizon tower, a downtown office building.

In 1998, the Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority issued $23.6 million in revenue bonds to purchase land and facilities from the city in Strawberry Square. The city guaranteed $7 million of these bonds, which were to be secured by rent payments from tenants and were to start coming due in 2016.

However, the building’s primary tenant, Verizon, later decided not to renew its lease, which expires in 2016, potentially leaving the city on the hook for a total of $41.6 million of debt payments through November of 2033.

The so-called Verizon Tower in downtown Harrisburg, which the telecommunications company plans to vacate in early 2016.

In September, the state Department of General Services agreed to lease office space beginning in 2016, relieving the city of part of the burden. The DGS payments, however, will not be sufficient to cover all of the debt, leaving the city with mounting debt service that could threaten its financial stability.

Full details of the proposed settlement with AGM will not be made public until Tuesday’s council hearing. But Goldfield, in a partial preview of the deal last week, said that it would involve AGM advancing payments to bondholders on the city’s behalf without declaring the city in default of its obligations.

Effectively, AGM will authorize the city to borrow up to $400,000 per year for six to eight years to put towards debt service on the bonds, with the city later paying back any required advances with interest.

Goldfield would not disclose the interest rate, although a note in the relevant section of the state’s recovery plan from August 2013 indicated the receiver’s team was at the time negotiating towards a rate of 6.02 percent.

Goldfield said it was his “mantra” in the city’s debt negotiations that Harrisburg would not have ascending debt service. His goal, he said, was to keep annual debt payments at around 10 percent of the city’s budgeted expenditures.

The city’s current annual debt service exceeds this percentage, although a chart of projected payments, which Papenfuse showed TheBurg, indicates that under the proposed settlement with AGM, the city’s debt service will reach 10 percent of expenditures in the next few years and remain there through 2032.

Repaying the Verizon tower debt is a “horribly bitter pill to swallow,” said Papenfuse, who was reviewing documents from the original 1998 bond issue prior to the interview with TheBurg.

He said he was “personally reviewing every document” to see if the city could get out of its obligation. But he added that, in his current analysis, Harrisburg was “stuck with this horrible Reed deal,” referring to former Mayor Stephen Reed, under whose watch the borrowing occurred.

Because of that borrowing, Papenfuse said, the city had “basically maxed out” its credit through 2032 and would not be doing any elective borrowing under his tenure or possibly even the next mayor’s.

Nonetheless, he was proud of the city’s progress in his first year, which he said represented an extensive effort by him and his staff to cut costs and spend responsibly. “To me it’s pretty extraordinary what we’ve been able to do,” he said.

This article has been updated to correct the title of Bruce Weber, who is the city’s finance director.

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