The Surf Is Up: Island Breezes has survived floods, bad planning and broken government—and now is having one of its best years ever.

June 30, 2014 | by Ashleigh Pollart

Island Breezes, like City Island itself, has ridden a wave of great change over the past 30 years. The shop and café has been everything from a kite and toy shop to home to a Jimmy Buffet fan club and merchandise store to its current state as a café.

Built with the rest of RiverSide Village in the 1980s as part of former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed’s revitalization efforts, Island Breezes was purchased by current owners Melvin and Ann Marie Cross in 2001. The couple rebuilt and expanded the store in 2005 after it experienced massive flood damage.

“I saw a City Island business for sale in the Sunday paper, and I said to my husband ‘I think we need to buy that—it’ll give you something to do,’” said Ann Marie, laughing as she relived the story.

The other village shops that Harrisburg natives remember were torn down a few years ago after storeowners closed and the buildings became abandoned.

“Since the shacks have been removed, our foot traffic has been phenomenal,” Ann Marie said.

Island Breezes—which sells hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken tenders, funnel cakes, coffee, ice cream cones and even crafts—is so passionate about making RiverSide Village Park family-oriented that the owners actually lowered prices for this season. The handicapped-accessible and dog-friendly café focuses on building relationships with customers to continue to bring more visitors to City Island.

The shop owners and employees have literally watched their clientele grow up. One customer, Josh, has visited Island Breezes almost everyday for 15 years, said Ann Marie, who mentioned how wonderful it is to see returning families.

“We see a lot of women come in pregnant, and the next summer we get to meet their kids in a stroller,” she explained. “We get to meet a lot of interesting people and really watch them grow up.”

Island Breezes’ loyal employee, Tina Magaro-Lewis, explained her passion for what the café brings to the city.

“We want families to come here. It’s a happy, safe place and a safe ground for grandparents to bring their grandchildren because it’s contained,” she said while recounting stories of local visitors and returning customers from all over central PA.

The day of this interview, Island Breezes had even served international visitors from Canada and Great Britain who were staying in Harrisburg to visit Hershey or Gettysburg.

The family-friendly venue gives customers of all ages a reason to come together and enjoy the aesthetic view of Harrisburg’s skyline.

City Island, now an integral part of the state capital’s economy, was not always such a hub of activity. In its unfathomably long history, the 63-acre island has been used for everything from a home to local Native Americans to a venue for Metallica and Grateful Dead concerts, intermixed with periods of abandonment.

The 1970s may have been the low point, with the island then known largely for illicit activity that ranged from illegal dumping to drug dealing, along with the occasional rock concert. In addition, some grand plans—including a Sports Hall of Fame, a restaurant and sports bar—never materialized.

More recent challenges have included flooding and the city’s financial crisis, which made island maintenance spotty.

Visit today, however, and you’ll find that this once-neglected place has improved dramatically.

City Island now is home to the Harrisburg Senators, the Pride of the Susquehanna riverboat, marinas, miniature golf, batting cages, Susquehanna Outfitters and Harrisburg Carriage Co. In addition, the Harrisburg City Islanders recently announced a plan to greatly expand and improve its stadium.

Take the scenic walk across the Walnut Street Bridge today, or any warm day of the year, and you’ll find people making their way over the Susquehanna to run, walk, watch baseball and play volleyball, among a range of other activities.

Business-wise, Island Breezes hung in there while others around it closed and, with improving traffic on City Island, it’s now taking advantage of its place as a survivor.

“When you would see those shacks down there with broken windows, [City Island] visitors wouldn’t walk down through the village,” said Ann Marie. “Now, our business has done a complete turnaround.”

Mention this article at Island Breezes on your next visit to receive a complimentary small ice cream cone. The café is open daily from 10 a.m. to dusk during summer months.

A Ritch Life: Poet Jeremy Ritch has a voice—and he’s not afraid to use it.

June 30, 2014 | by Lori M. Myers

Jeremy Ritch, photo by Dani Fresh, www.danifresh.com

Being with artist, musician, poet/writer, blogger and former pastor Jeremy Ritch is easy.

Ask a question, sit back and listen; take it all in. No pressure. Ritch has a lot to say, and he doesn’t hold back.

He’s complex, has lived many lifetimes in quite a few places—Philadelphia, Atlanta and now Harrisburg. And while his beginnings date back 30-plus years to Cleveland, where he was “a white kid in a black neighborhood,” Ritch wouldn’t have it any other way. Those surroundings molded his passions, his concern and his yearning to speak out against injustice.

“My mom was open to people,” Ritch recalls. “She fed the kids in the neighborhood. I was very accepted, and it’s something that stays with you.”

Ritch’s mother was an artist, his father a bass player. Music was a mainstay in the home where Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin and Motown were played. Later, it was Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. Ritch started to write songs and recognized the “poetry” of country music.

“I wrote a lot of music,” Ritch says. “As a kid, my identity was through music. Music was my biggest influence and became everything. It was a way to escape. In Cleveland, I listened to black music and started to learn about punk rock.”

Musically, Ritch is currently writing with local singer/songwriter Nina Scarcia.

His old neighborhood is gone now but not Ritch’s rebellious spirit—a spirit, he says, that has been redirected and re-harnessed into the written word. Case in point: his poem, “Philadelphia (Take Me Back),” begins with “Mad love to Philadelphia/Mean street Killadelphia/Straight Illadelphia…”—and ends with “That’s Philadelphia/Just Relax and Chilladelphia.”

“While I was in college, I was obsessed with Philadelphia,” he says. “There’s so much diversity there.”

Ritch’s love of cities is evident in his latest book of poems, “Sidewalk Stories and Other Poems,” recently published by Atlanta-based Autumn+Colour.

Growing up that white kid in a black neighborhood resulted in his respect for groundbreakers like Martin Luther King, Jr., and baseball player Jackie Robinson as evidenced in Ritch’s “#42 (A Poem For Jackie).”

“Show those ignorant folks that it is time for a new day/Where we judge by character not by skin/Jackie helped break that down and he also did win/He was at the top of the game as an elite player/Robinson helped to quiet the racist naysayer.”

“Jackie Robinson sacrificed a lot,” Ritch muses. “Many people don’t have a voice. I’m not the most appropriate voice, but I do have one.”

That voice echoes in his blog, which is a mix of his poetry and the columns he writes for today’s the day Harrisburg, where he points out the injustices faced by the less fortunate, particularly those living in urban areas like Harrisburg. One that he is particularly passionate about is ending the “war on drugs,” which, he says, has devastated poor communities for decades, especially the African American community. Another is prison reform and making sure sentencing is fair for minor crimes.

“There are generations of black men who have been destroyed by an unbalanced justice system and by the ‘three strikes’ rule that many states have,” Ritch says. “The poor of our country are devastated by unfair drug laws. It is fine to find the source of these drugs and go after that, but punishing users and small-time dealers with outrageous jail terms is a great injustice.”

While there are two sides to every story, Ritch only knows to relay any one story with honesty—an attribute he values greatly. For instance, he’ll tell you without hesitation what needs to be fixed in Harrisburg: The arts district is too spread out, Allison Hill needs attention, downtown needs more retail, and something should be done about all the abandoned buildings.

While the themes of Ritch’s work are hope and justice, he does like to sprinkle in a bit of comedy because he loves making people laugh.

Yes, musician, writer, blogger and a former “man of the cloth.” This rebel, this Harrisburg citizen who wants his city to be the best it can be, has planted his roots in our fair city and is sticking around a while. It’s never been easy, but that’s okay.

“Growing up, our family had a hard life,” he says. “My mother knew I was a strong kid. I’d call myself a survivor.”

Find out more about Jeremy Ritch’s life and work by visiting his blog: jeremymarkritch.wordpress.com. His work also can be read at www.todaysthedayhbg.com.

Person of Interest: Director Paul Haggis is out with a layered story about love. Or something.

June 30, 2014 | by Sammi Leigh Melville

Years after “Crash” won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, writer/director Paul Haggis returns to his multiple-storyline structure with “Third Person,” a convoluted and slightly soap-operatic story about love.

Michael (Liam Neeson) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, holing himself up in Paris to write his latest manuscript about love. But Michael has the tendency to write his own life into his story—his journal is written in the third person to encourage inspiration—and the manuscript becomes dangerously personal, split into three different stories around the world that make up the film.

The first story is linked directly to Michael, as his lover, Anna (Olivia Wilde), flies over to see him on the construct that she wants him to read a story she’s been writing. Quickly, their secret affair is revealed to be based mostly on verbal (but occasionally physical) S&M, which makes more and more sense as we learn about Anna.

Next, we meet an altogether unlikeable character. Adrien Brody plays a mean-spirited crook who steals designs for his knockoff clothing company. He takes a business trip to Italy… though he never seems to meet with anyone about his business while there. He does, however, meet a young gypsy woman (Moran Atias), who enlists him to help pay ransom to get her 8-year-old daughter back from human traffickers.

The final story follows Julia (Mila Kunis) struggling to keep her head above water in New York as she fights a custody battle with her ex-husband (James Franco) after an incident that led to her indictment for putting her son in danger. A large dose of unlucky circumstances, combined with Julia’s inability to keep a job for more than a week or so, makes it even more difficult to win her son back.

These three stories begin to cross paths as the film progresses, in some ways unbelievably. In fact, a lot of the plot points in the story seem far-fetched, which detaches the audience from its characters, in turn causing some of the more dramatic moments to fall a little flat. And this, perhaps, can be written off with the idea that it’s a story within a story. Michael seems to want to write his problems away, and so these characters are more a form of writer’s therapy, ideas rather than people, helping Michael through his emotional turmoil. The same cannot be said for the film’s audience.

Out of this ensemble cast of celebrities, Kunis and Wilde give us the best performances. Both actresses artfully display an array of emotions that enable the audience to connect with their characters, despite some of the wonky plot points.

Ultimately, Michael gave each story a happy ending because he wanted a happy ending, and I suspect we can see the parallels to Haggis’ career. After a series of unmemorable projects, we see this writer/director in Michael’s character—but it remains to be seen whether he will get his happy ending.

We’ll leave that judgment up to you. “Third Person” will be playing at the Midtown Cinema. Come check it out!

Sammi Leigh Meliville is a staff member and film reviewer at the Midtown Cinema.

Midtown Cinema July Events

2^nd Saturday Morning Cartoons

7/12 9:30-11:30 am, Classic Looney Tunes

2^nd Sunday Foreign Series

7/13 4 pm, Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes”

MLB All-Star Game

7/15 8 pm, the big game on the big screen, free.

LGBT Film Festival

7/12: 7 pm, “Milk”

7/13: 7 pm “Call Me Malcolm;” 7:15 pm “Love Free or Die;” 7:30 pm “Out in the Dark”

7/14: 6:30 pm “Call Me Malcolm;” 7 pm “Love Free or Die;” 7:30 pm “Out in the Dark”

7/15: 4:30 pm “Call Me Malcolm;” 5 pm “Love Free or Die;” 5:30 pm “The Wise Kids;” 7 pm “The New Black;” 7:30 pm “Out in the Dark”

3^rd in The Burg $3 Movie

7/18 about 9:30 pm, “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” with comedy improv stylists Down in Front! BYOB

3^rd Sunday, Down in Front!

7/20 7pm, Movie+Improv, “The Screaming Skull,” BYOB

“A Small Family Business”

7/20 4 pm & 7/21 7pm

Riotous comedy filmed live at the National Theatre in London; $20/$15 members

Moviate Night at MC

7/27 7pm, film TBA

“Iron Jawed Angels”

7/29 7pm, Harrisburg Area NOW presents the 2004 drama

Pet Smart: Q&A with Brett Miller, Chair of Harrisburg’s Animal Advisory Board.

June 29, 2014 | by Alexis Dow Campbell

There’s been some dog drama in Harrisburg over the last several years, but the city is taking steps to help remedy it. Last year, City Council enacted an anti-tethering ordinance, one of the strictest in the country, which limits the amount of time and the manner in which a dog may be tethered. Now, Mayor Eric Papenfuse has created an Animal Advisory Board.

Last month, we caught up with animal advocate Brett Miller, who is serving as chair of the board. We wanted to know why this board was needed and what it hopes to accomplish.

TheBurg: What is your background relating to animal causes?

Brett Miller: I’ve been advocating for animals for many years and have been a volunteer fundraiser at the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area, a citizen lobbyist for the Humane Society of the United States, Central Pennsylvania Coordinator for Humane PA (the political action committee for animals in Pennsylvania) and worked briefly for the (state) Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement when the new Dog Law was passed. That experience really opened my eyes to not only what goes on in puppy mills, but, even when a new law gets passed, it all comes down to enforcement. I’m happy to see now, under the direction of Kristen Donmoyer, that the Dog Law Enforcement Office is doing a much better job of enforcing the law.

TheBurg: What are the basic goals of the new task force?

Brett Miller: Our mission is to advocate for animal welfare, educate the community and serve as advisors to city government on effective humane practices. Some of our goals are to increase awareness about the importance of dog licensing to help reduce the number of strays ending up at the Humane Society or elsewhere, making sure pets are up to date on rabies vaccines and spaying/neutering of pets, as well as ensuring enforcement of the city’s animal control ordinances, including the anti-tethering ordinance that was passed last year. All dogs three months of age and older must be licensed, and residents can obtain a dog license by filling out an application. Also, spay/neuter vouchers are available to city residents through the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area, and low-cost vaccine clinics are also available through HSHA and the Central Pennsylvania Animal Alliance.

TheBurg: What are the most common problems relating to animals in Harrisburg?

Brett Miller: Stray dogs, stray cats, backyard breeding, dog fighting, tethering.

TheBurg: What are some things that average citizens can do to help?

Brett Miller: Making sure their pets are spayed/neutered, staying up-to-date on vaccines and being current on their dog licenses.

June News Digest

June 29, 2014 | by Lawrance Binda

School Tax Unchanged

The Harrisburg school board last month kept the school portion of the local property tax unchanged, as it reported a rare budget surplus.

The board unanimously passed a $133 million budget for the 2014-15 school year that retains the tax rate at 27.92 mills. School property tax bills will go out this month.

Recently, school property taxes have increased each year, as the board has struggled with recurring budget deficits. However, Gene Veno, the district’s chief recovery officer, announced last year that a financial analysis had discovered an unexpected surplus of about $12 million.

In addition, the board announced last month that it would reinstitute full-day kindergarten for the coming school year. Two years ago, kindergarten was cut to half-day after being threatened with elimination entirely.

The board also reappointed school Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney to another four-year term. Her base salary will remain unchanged at $160,000 per year.

Lastly, the board unanimously denied the revised application of Key Charter School, which had hoped to open in the former site of Bishop McDevitt High School at 2200 Market St. in Harrisburg. The board cited numerous deficiencies in the application in such areas as curriculum, student assessment and staff training.

Zoning Code Effort Revived

Harrisburg has revived a long-dormant effort to re-haul its aged zoning code, with a City Council vote expected early this month.

Council last month began discussing the code in a committee meeting, after which two public input sessions were held. A final vote on the new code is slated for the July 8 legislative session.

The effort to revamp the city’s zoning code began about five years ago to try to streamline and simplify a code that had become overly complex and even obsolete, according to the city. Over the years, the code, originally passed in 1950, had grown to include 27 base zoning districts and six overlay districts. The new code includes just nine base districts and four overlay districts.

After a year of work by Harrisburg’s planning bureau, City Council introduced the new code in 2010, but never acted on it. The code, with just a few adjustments, now has been reintroduced as the 2014 Zoning Code draft.

In a separate effort, Harrisburg also is in the process of developing a comprehensive plan for the city.

Task Force Meets

The Harrisburg Strong Task Force has held two meetings so the public could comment on a future nonprofit that will decide how to spend the city’s dedicated infrastructure and economic development funds.

The 10-member task force met twice at the Greater Harrisburg Area YWCA, briefing the public on its mission and asking for input. Ideas from the audience ranged from fixing sinkholes to fighting blight to helping employ youth.

The task force now will draft a governance structure and action plan that will guide the work of a future non-profit corporation that will disburse money earmarked exclusively for improving Harrisburg’s infrastructure and boosting its economic development efforts.

The Harrisburg Strong financial recovery plan created two funding silos, each for $6 million, for these two purposes. The future nonprofit will allocate money after judging the worthiness of projects and their ability to raise matching funds.

311 Number Confirmed

Harrisburg is on track to have a new 311 information system for non-emergency government services, thanks to the state Public Utility Commission’s approval of a city petition to administer the three-digit dialing code.

The 311 code, which will be restricted to Harrisburg residents, will connect callers to a centralized, automated directory of city services. Under the existing system, residents either would need to look up the numbers of individual city departments or, as often happened, would simply dial 911 with non-emergency calls, tying up the county’s dispatchers.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse recommended the adoption of a 311 system during his campaign for office last year. In March, the city submitted a petition to the PUC, which announced its approval following a 5-0 vote by its commissioners.

Papenfuse added that certain infrastructure upgrades necessary for running the system were well underway. In the next few months, the city expects to replace its phone system with one that will be able to accommodate 311 calls.

Summer in the City

The Dauphin County regional tourism bureau has budgeted close to $100,000 for Harrisburg’s “Summer in the City” promotional campaign, an effort to market the city’s summer cultural offerings on billboards, buses and the Web, city officials announced Friday.

The campaign highlights such events as the “Harrisburg Independence Weekend Walkaround,” a three-day program of festivities scheduled for the July 4 weekend. The full program, which can be viewed at Stayandplayhbg.com, includes free concerts in city parks, “family fun” festivals, a martial arts tournament and a reading of the Declaration of Independence.

The campaign will be promoted on area billboards as well as on each bus in Capital Area Transit’s 80-bus fleet. The Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau hired Top Flight Media, an advertising agency headquartered on Lindle Road in Swatara Township, to design the campaign.

Funding for the marketing campaign comes from the county’s hotel tax, a levy on overnight lodging that was raised from 3 percent to 5 percent in 2008. According to county ordinance, a portion of hotel tax revenues—about 13 percent—is to be spent on “appropriate and reasonable marketing and promotional expenses” for tourism in Harrisburg.

New Manager for Market

The Broad Street Market last month hired Ashlee O. Dugan, a member of the market corporation’s board and the founder of a local food-recovery organization, as its newest full-time interim manager.

She replaced Len Cobosco from the Camp Hill accounting firm Carey Associates, who came on as an interim manager in June 2013. Cobosco will remain employed by the market as a part-time financial manager, board members confirmed.

Officially, the position is transitional, since the market’s operations and organizational structure are still under review by the Broad Street Market Task Force. The market may open the search for a permanent manager again following the task force’s recommendations, Dugan said.

Amy Hill, a volunteer board member doing public relations outreach for the market, noted that Dugan has a “legacy connection” to the market. Dugan’s great-grandfather, Gilbert S. Miller, operated a butcher stand at the market from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s.

Previously, Dugan served as a membership and marketing coordinator at the Pennsylvania Downtown Center. She also is the founder of The Greenhouse, an organization with the goal of locating and saving food that might otherwise go to waste.

The Broad Street Market has gone through numerous managers over the past few years. For more about its history and the efforts of the task force, read our feature in the April issue (“A Simple Plan,” p.14).

Fire Bureau Gets FEMA Grant

The Harrisburg Bureau of Fire last month received a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grant of $114,840.

The grant will provide for advanced training and education of firefighters and fire officers in the bureau, said Acting Chief Brian Enterline.

“This grant was successfully obtained due to the collaboration and dedication of the city’s grants manager and some young brilliant firefighters and fire officers that are eager to rebuild the Bureau of Fire,” Enterline said.

He added that, over the coming year, firefighters and fire officers will attend classes that offer training and education in areas such as technical rescue, nationally certified fire officer and firefighter safety.

“These classes are essential for keeping our firefighters safe and expanding their knowledge in many aspects of firefighting,” Enterline stated.

The primary goal of the grant is to meet the emergency response needs of fire departments and nonaffiliated emergency medical service organizations. Since 2001, the grant has helped firefighters and other first responders obtain needed equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training and other resources to help protect the public and emergency personnel from fire and related hazards.

Changing Hands

Adrian St., 2474: M. & B. Sumy to M. Jones, $58,000

Allison Ct., 6: T. Pham to 2013 M&M Real Estate Fund LLC, $38,000

Benton St., 600: A. Allegrini c/o J. Chubb to T. Griffin, $114,900

Benton St., 631: Fannie Mae to PA Deals LLC, $50,000

Berryhill St., 2306: T. Vo to Jiang Brothers Realty LLC, $40,000

Berryhill St., 2321: R. & L. Mason to L. Chen, $270,000

Berryhill St., 2437: J. Howarth to C. Still, $54,000

Briggs St., 231: J. Theurer et al to C. Natcher & J. McCadney, $92,500

Brook St., 346: Kirsch & Burns LLC to LMK Properties LLC, $31,200

Chestnut St., 2114: T. Cubitt to S. Felmlee & R. Church, $169,000

Duke St., 2433: P. Bui to 2013 Central PA Real Estate Fund LLC, $45,000

Duke St., 2622: PI Capitol LLC & J. Pierce to J. Conjar, $116,000

Forster St., 123: M. Warden to Heit Holdings LLC, $345,000

Forster St., 1815: Trusted Source Capital LLC to Blackscotch LLC, $30,000

Fulton St., 1705: Cartus Financial Corp. to R. Dickinson, $125,000

Green St., 1400: T. Wiestling to P. Misivich, $119,000

Green St., 1928: R. Riley & K. Stutzman to M. & S. Young, $205,000

Green St., 2223: C. Barner to J. & B. Readinger, $50,000

Harris St., 212: E. McKee to R. Evanchak, $136,000

Herr St., 1933: J. Kim to Bajwa & Rana LLC, $250,000

Hoffman St., 3100: B. Cates to A. Bhatti, $154,900

Hummel St., 203: Vitosh Investment Group LLC to Brethren Housing Assoc., $73,000

Kelker St., 218: Integrity Bank to C. Proctor & J. Mesa Cruz, $114,500

Kensington St., 2364: PA Deals LLC to M. & D. Graeff, $68,000

Kensington St., 2422: L. Schroeder to PA Deals LLC, $43,500

Locust St., 110 & 112: Mid Penn Bank to Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, $140,000

Midland Rd., 2401: D. Hollinger to J. & L. Arnold, $155,000

N. 2^nd St., 2437: D. Powell to C. Dove, $41,500

N. 4^th St., 2144: Kirsch & Burns LLC to LMK Properties LLC, $33,967

N. 14^th St., 322: D. Boyle to G. Lopez Figueroa, $30,000

N. 18^th St., 800, 1716 North St., 1717 North St., 1820 North St., 1913 Forster St. & 1915 Briggs St.: Shokes Enterprises LLC to JDP 2014 LLC, $499,000

N. Front St., 17: Association of County Commissioners to Harrisburg Building & Grounds Co., $525,000

Reily St., 219: PA Deals LLC to S. Briffa, $109,900

Royal Terr., 135: PA Deals LLC to S. Maurer, $38,500

S. 14^th St., 400: J. Rodriguez to R. Rodriguez, $40,000

S. 18^th St., 31 & 33: N. Grove to Capital City Investment Properties LLC, $67,500

S. 25^th St., 615: R. Pursel & Keystone Guardianship Services to 2013 Central PA Real Estate Fund LLC, $42,250

S. Cameron St., 443: P. Dobson to F. & D. Miller, $100,000

S. Cameron St., 1607: J. & R. Mallonee to I. Claytor, $61,900

S. Cameron St., 1660: Bemar Enterprises to D&F Complex on Cameron LP, $281,000

State St., 1935 & 1937 State St.: W. Kyles to C. Johnson, $112,000

Susquehanna St., 2142: FTM Properties LLC to A. Moore, $88,000

Verbeke St., 112: Random Properties Acquisition Corp. III to PA Deals LLC, $46,250

Verbeke St., 340: 44 Breed Street Nominee Trust & F. Ciccone to Historic Holdings LLC, $380,000

Vernon St., 1553: D. Boyle to J. Rodriguez, $30,000

Washington St., 111: Sirva Relocation Credit LLC to C. Altman, $129,000

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

Teen Summer Jobs Program Gets Council Go-Ahead

June 25, 2014 | by Paul Barker

Riverfront cleanup, along the lines of last month's knotweed-whacking along Riverfront Park, is one of several environmental jobs envisioned in the summer program.

Riverfront cleanup, like last month’s knotweed-whacking in Riverfront Park, is one of several environmental jobs envisioned in the summer program.

City Council voted Tuesday night to approve a $35,000, six- to eight-week summer jobs program for Harrisburg teenagers, to be paid from “host fee” funds the city receives as the host of a privately operated trash incinerator.

The program, which was proposed by the Harrisburg Housing Authority in late May, will aim to recruit 25 teenagers, ages 13 to 16, to work on environmental projects across the city.

Under the proposal, each teen will be paid a $1,000 stipend for his or her work, which could include things like litter collection, riverfront cleanup, garden competitions and healthy eating initiatives.

The remaining $10,000 of requested funding will go towards administrative costs like marketing, insurance and transportation, the application says.

On Tuesday night, council members voiced some concerns about the program’s execution before finally voting 6-1 to approve it. Among their concerns was the projected $10,000 in administrative costs, which Councilwoman Shamaine Daniels suggested should have been covered already in the authority’s mission and budget.

Daniels wound up casting the sole vote against the project’s approval.

Council members also worried that the program would be starting too late in the summer to be successful. Bill Cluck, the chairman of the Environmental Advisory Council, which makes recommendations to council for use of host fee funds, said the EAC voted to recommend the program on June 5, in the hopes the administration would place it before council at the June 10 legislative session.

Cluck added that the proposal represented a “pilot program” that could be improved and expanded next summer, depending on how it goes this year.

Councilman Jeffrey Baltimore, who was appointed earlier this year to complete the term of the late Eugenia Smith, said Tuesday that he wanted to ensure the program would target teenagers in public housing.

Cluck said this was a priority shared by the housing authority. According to its application, the authority will “heavily promote participation in the program within its public housing communities,” but “would not limit participation to teens living in public housing.”

At its June 5 meeting, the EAC also recommended 10 other environmental projects to be paid for with close to $100,000 of host fee funds. The administration and council, however, have not yet taken action on those recommendations.

The host fee, a $1-per-ton payment to the city that is meant to offset the environmental cost of having an incinerator within city borders, first became available to Harrisburg in 2006, when a private company, Covanta Energy, took over operations at the Resource Recovery Facility on S. 19^th St.

For several years, however, the city received the payment in-kind, in the form of rent-free facilities with free heating on the incinerator grounds, which housed former Mayor Stephen Reed’s vast collection of museum artifacts, among other things.

In 2012, under the direction of the state-appointed receiver, the facility replaced the in-kind contributions with cash payments of the host fee. The receiver’s final recovery plan, which was approved by a state court last fall, included a directive to use host fee money for environmental projects, to be approved by council and the mayor upon recommendations from the EAC.

Jack Lausch, the director of administration of Capital Region Water, which formerly owned the incinerator as the Harrisburg Authority, estimated that host fee payments from the facility should total around $300,000 per year.

In early May, the budget director, Bruce Weber, reported that the city had received $355,000 in host fees so far. The next quarterly payment is due in mid-July.

Community Comment: Draft Zoning Code Sparks Concern

June 24, 2014 | by Adam P. Meinstein

The old Keystone Post Office (pictured 2011) is now privately owned, incubating and housing several businesses. The property owner is concerned that a proposed new zoning code for Harrisburg could detrimentally affect his business going forward.

Editor’s Note:
Harrisburg will hold public sessions on its proposed new zoning code on Wednesday and Thursday. The letter below was sent to City Council and the mayor yesterday, written by the president of the company that, several years ago, bought the former post office building at 815 Market St. The author allowed us to reprint his letter here. For more background on the zoning changes, please see our story from last week.

I am writing in regard to the Proposed Zoning Code and Map that shall be considered by the Harrisburg City Council in public hearings on June 25 and June 26, 2014 and a potential Council vote on July 8, 2014.

An affiliated investment company of our firm is the owner of the former Keystone Branch Post Office Building at 815 Market St., encompassing a 200,000-plus-square-foot building and 11 acres of land adjacent to the Harrisburg Transportation Center. The proposed changes to the Zoning Code and Map were first raised nearly a decade ago at the end of the Reed administration and are now proposed for expedited approval.

We are supportive of the concept of a new ordinance for the city. However, the proposed Zoning Code and Map absolutely fail to acknowledge the hard work by our firm that has occurred since the time that this plan was first brought forth. NONE of the various uses that we have put into place at 815 Market St. over the past several years are listed as Permitted Uses under the proposed changes and, furthermore, the clear industrial bones of our property were not taken into account in pushing this new ordinance ahead.

Our progress and efforts were not, unfortunately, considered in the recent decision to advance this revised Zoning Code and Map. Our efforts over the past several years have been quiet, but successful! We have been working very hard to turn around 815 Market St. and make it a productive asset for the City of Harrisburg. In doing so, 815 Market St. has not become another addition to the sea of vacant and dilapidated buildings in our immediate neighborhood. We have expanded and incubated various growing businesses at the property that have decided to remain in Industrially Zoned property within the City of Harrisburg.

New tenants that have moved into our renovated 815 Market St. include Exhibit Studios, Restaurant Auction Company, Appalachian Brewery and Tri-County OIC and account for over 70,000 square feet of new occupied space for the City of Harrisburg. Other viable concerns are still considering our project at present. We recently donated space to the city (and several non-profits) for the storage of 80 classic murals saved from the Mulberry Street Bridge project that now are within our building. Recently, we were able to accommodate Volunteers of America (whose building was burned in a horrible fire on Cameron Street).

Our property is also the location of a thriving, 700-space parking business (https://transitpark.com) that is largely populated by (1) City, State and Federal workers and other downtown employees looking for affordable monthly parking and (2) customers of the Harrisburg Transportation Center. We have developed a very close relationship with Amtrak in this venture. Our lot improvements, new state-of-the-art parking equipment, video cameras, new signage, validation kiosks within the Amtrak station, local advertising and Internet search engine optimization have helped us excel.

As indicated above, the proposed City Zoning and Map changes that are, by the city’s own admission, a “stepping stone” to future Comprehensive Planning studies, do not list any of our actual current property uses. Various industrial and parking uses are not part of the “Downtown Center” zone proposed for our property. Our entire project could become some odd “pre-existing non-conforming use”… despite our new industrial tenants, 40 dock doors, excellent ceiling heights, high-capacity freight elevators, large truck court, etc. This is trouble we do not need or deserve and will make it more difficult for us to continue our good work. We obviously are serving numerous businesses that want to remain and conduct commerce in the city. Our progress cited above is proof positive.

We respectfully ask for your consideration of these points and hope that the proposed Zoning Ordinance and Map changes will be modified to allow all of our current permitted uses to continue as permitted in the future. We made a significant investment in the city at a time when others were fleeing from it during the height of the “Great Recession” and while the city was in a dire financial crisis. It is hard enough for us to attract new companies and retain businesses to the city without additional roadblocks.

Sincerely,

Adam P. Meinstein
President
Equilibrium Equities, Inc. (www.equilibriumequities.com)

Mayor’s Tax Abatement Presentation for “Informational Purposes,” Say Administration and School Board

June 20, 2014 | by Paul Barker

A collapsing building on a blighted block of N. 6th St., formerly the site of the Riviera Hotel.

A collapsing building on a blighted block of N. 6th St., formerly the site of the Riviera Bar and Hotel.

A presentation by the mayor’s office on tax abatement this month was not, in fact, a proposal, but rather was given to the city’s school board for “informational purposes,” school board and administration officials said Friday.

The presentation, which was first reported by the Patriot-News, bears the title “Full Tax Abatement To Grow the City’s Housing, Residents and School District Revenues,” and contains 11 pages of slides and figures about the potential financial impact of a tax abatement program on the city.

It was given to school board members at their former Front Street office on June 3.

Jackie Parker, the city’s director of community and economic development, said Friday that she prepared the presentation in collaboration with Brian Hudson, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse, who expressed support for tax abatement programs during his campaign last year, also attended the June 3 meeting.

Tax abatement programs, also known as LERTAs, for Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance, were authorized by the Pennsylvania legislature in 1977. They aim to spur development in struggling areas by providing tax breaks on certain forms of development, under terms to be specified by the local governments that adopt them.

Lancaster, for instance, has a tax-abatement program that it has consistently renewed since 1978, providing for exemptions on either new housing in under-developed areas or improvements on existing deteriorated properties.

The Lancaster program follows a “phase-in” model, whereby the new development is fully exempt in the first year, and then pays an increasing share of taxes each year until arriving at the full assessment in year 11.

Lancaster’s program also includes incentives for “green” construction, under which environmentally-friendly construction can receive full abatement for as many as five years.

Harrisburg previously had a phase-in abatement program, but it expired in 2010 and was not renewed.

The June 3 presentation includes numerous unsourced charts and graphs, which assume new development under full tax abatement—meaning 100-percent real-estate tax exemption for new developments or improvements—at a rate of 200 houses per year. If those numbers were realized, according to the presentation, the school district could see nearly $8 million in income and real-estate tax revenues over the next 11 years.

But, Hudson said Friday, these figures were purely hypothetical, and had been provided to give a sense of the potential financial impact of an abatement program.

“This was in no way, shape or form a proposal,” Hudson said. “It was just an example of what could happen.”

Asked about one of the graphs in his presentation, which identified Harrisburg’s former phase-in program as “ineffective policy,” Hudson said he wasn’t certain where the slide had come from. But, he said, he supported full abatement as a better method of jump-starting the city’s growth.

“Full abatement sends a message,” he said. “Yes, we want you to live here, we want you to build here.”

On Friday, Hudson, Parker and school board officials all emphasized that the abatement presentation was meant to be a means for starting discussion. “You look around the city, and you see how many properties are vacant, and how many could be new homes,” Parker said. The purpose of the school board meeting was to discuss one of many “tools in the tool box” for spurring economic growth, she said.

Jennifer Smallwood, the school board president, said the meeting had been called to answer members’ questions about whether a LERTA program “could be a good tool” for Harrisburg. Following the presentation, the school board scheduled a public meeting for Aug. 11, to discuss possible tax-abatement programs.

Smallwood is also a program manager at PHFA, where she has worked since 1990, according to her LinkedIn profile. The agency was created by the state legislature in 1972 and provides affordable housing options for low-income families, seniors and people with special needs across the commonwealth.

Hudson, who has worked at PHFA for the past 39 years, became its executive director in 2003.

James Thompson, a school board member, said Friday that he met with Parker individually before the June 3 meeting.

“The mayor hasn’t been shy about his support of a tax abatement program,” he said.

Thompson previously researched and recommended tax abatement for Harrisburg as a member of a business advisory committee under former Mayor Linda Thompson. In 2010, when the city’s existing abatement program was expiring, he advised Mayor Thompson to renew it.

But, he said, both the mayor and City Council seemed to view abatement with suspicion. “They felt that, if people were loyal to this city, they would develop here without it,” he said.

Mayor Thompson’s position may have evolved somewhat in the years that followed. In the summer of 2012, according to a report in the Patriot-News, she publicly supported abatement, submitting a proposal for a five-year program to council. Council President Wanda Williams, however, opposed the plan, and it never went forward.

On Friday, following the initial story on PennLive, J. Alex Hartzler, a local developer and the publisher of TheBurg, took to Twitter to critique the report on the presentation as “inaccurate and irresponsible.”

Abatement “is not a ‘tax break,'” he wrote to Matt Zencey, the paper’s deputy opinions editor. “LERTA holds assessment value constant and no increased taxes for rehab and new. I know you know this.”

Several commenters on PennLive Friday suggested that Hartzler’s campaign contributions had influenced the mayor’s support of an abatement program. Harrisburg Capital City PAC, a political action committee headed by Hartzler, paid for television ads and mailers for the campaign of the school board’s Jim Thompson, and also made contributions totaling $60,000 to Papenfuse’s mayoral campaign.

Hartzler’s company, WCI Partners, is a “real estate development company focused on urban revitalization,” according to its website. A photo of an Uptown block of Green Street, where WCI has invested heavily in recent years, appears on the front page of the abatement presentation.

Hudson said Friday that he picked the photo himself, because it represented an area where PHFA had made significant investments.

“It’s a perfect shot of what could happen with investment,” he said.

This story has been updated with information about Smallwood’s and Hudson’s employment at PHFA.

Harrisburg Renews Push to Pass Zoning Code

June 19, 2014 | by Lawrance Binda

Undeveloped sites, such as this Front Street lot in a newly created “Riverfront District,” would be impacted by Harrisburg’s proposed new zoning code.

Harrisburg has revived a long-dormant effort to re-haul its aged zoning code, with a final City Council vote slated for next month.

The flurry of action represents an abrupt change for the city. Four years ago, the city’s Planning Bureau submitted the new code to council, which then bottled it up in committee and never voted on it. After making several small changes, the Papenfuse administration recently re-introduced the draft code for consideration.

“The existing zoning code is too outdated and must immediately be updated,” said Joyce Davis, communications director for Mayor Eric Papenfuse. “[The mayor] believes at least a transitional zoning code is needed as the city goes through the comprehensive planning process.”

Council held a committee hearing on the proposed code on June 5. At that meeting, some businesses and residents expressed concern over how the new code treats matters like private parking businesses and transitional housing.

The city now will conduct two public input sessions. The first is slated for June 25 at 5:30 p.m. at the Camp Curtin YMCA, 2135 N. 6th St. The second will take place June 26 at the Boys & Girls Club at 1227 Berryhill St.

A final council vote is slated for the July 8 legislative session.

The effort to revamp the city’s zoning code began about five years ago in an effort to streamline and simplify a code that had become overly complex and even obsolete, according to the city. Over the years, the code, originally passed in 1950, had grown to include 27 base zoning districts and six overlay districts. The new code includes just nine base districts and four overlay districts.

There has been some opposition to the new code, which makes considerable changes to how Harrisburg zones the city for housing and business. Several critics have said the city has the process backwards, that it should pass a new comprehensive plan before a new zoning code.

Davis, though, said that amendments can be added later “if deficiencies surface after the comprehensive planning process is complete.”

In one significant change, a new Riverfront District would be created along much of Front Street and along State Street to the Capitol. The district is more restrictive than existing zoning in terms of use, signage and parking in an effort to minimize impacts and preserve the character of the area. It also would cap new building height at 45 feet and, in many cases, increase setbacks.

Click here to read the draft zoning code and see maps of Harrisburg’s existing and proposed zones.

County Tourism Bureau to Fund “Summer in the City” Promotional Campaign

June 13, 2014 | by Paul Barker

Top Flight Media’s Darren Smith at Friday’s press conference in city hall. At right, a rendering of a campaign poster at a city bus stop.

The Dauphin County regional tourism bureau has budgeted close to $100,000 for Harrisburg’s “Summer in the City” promotional campaign, an all-out effort to market the city’s summer cultural offerings on billboards, buses and the Web, city officials announced Friday.

The campaign, which will launch on June 23, will highlight such events as the “Harrisburg Independence Weekend Walkaround,” a three-day program of festivities scheduled for the July 4 weekend. The full program, which can be viewed at Stayandplayhbg.com, includes free concerts in city parks, “family fun” festivals, a martial arts tournament and a reading of the Declaration of Independence.

Mary Smith, president of the Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau, joined Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse at a press conference Friday morning in city hall to announce the campaign, which will be promoted on area billboards as well as on each bus in Capital Area Transit’s 80-bus fleet.

Bob Philbin, a spokesman for CAT and the city’s former chief of operations under Mayor Linda Thompson, said CAT buses were estimated to produce 3.5 million impressions over the course of the campaign. If the campaign runs through Labor Day, Sept. 1, that figure would amount to 50,000 impressions per day.

The visitors bureau hired Top Flight Media, an advertising agency headquartered on Lindle Road, to design the campaign. Darren Smith, Top Flight’s senior vice president, said Friday that this is Top Flight’s fourth year working with the bureau, and that his company sought to “over-deliver” on the city’s marketing needs.

Of the 13 percent of hotel taxes earmarked for marketing Harrisburg, most of it—around 8 percent—is paid directly to the Harrisburg treasurer. The other 5 percent is distributed to the Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau, which is Dauphin County’s designated tourism promotion agency. The bureau also gets 20 percent of total hotel tax revenue for county-wide tourism promotion.

Since 2011, total hotel tax revenues have come in between $9 and $10 million, according to figures provided by the county treasurer. Based on the allocation formula, the amount sent to the visitors bureau explicitly for spending on city tourism should have been just below half-a-million dollars each year—$445,000 in 2011, $450,000 in 2012, and $485,000 in 2013.

Rick Dunlap, the bureau’s public relations director, said it was hard to say what the bureau actually spent to market the city in those years. City and regional tourism often overlap, as when someone books a night at the Hilton downtown and then visits Hersheypark the next day, Dunlap said. But between media tours, sales missions and other promotions, he felt confident that the bureau had spent an amount “up to and exceeding” the revenues slated for city promotion.

Dunlap also said, however, that the absence of any formal marketing campaign made it difficult to provide a solid figure on spending. Prior to the administration of Harrisburg’s former mayor, Linda Thompson, marketing campaigns were typically brainstormed by a subcommittee of city and bureau representatives. In fact, the county ordinance provides for approval of such a spending plan by the regional visitors bureau in relation to city marketing dollars.

But a meeting between bureau representatives and Mayor Thompson, which took place early in her term, had indicated that her administration either had little time or little interest in a regional tourism plan, Dunlap said. “The past administration had quite a focus on keeping water out of their boat,” he said, referring to the city’s fiscal crisis. “There was less engagement from a tourism aspect.”

Attempts to reach Thompson for comment Friday were unsuccessful.

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