Not Just the Incinerator: Scores of initiative are buried within the receiver’s report.

March 16, 2012 | by Lawrance Binda

Sell the incinerator. Lease the parking garages. Get concessions from creditors and hire a chief operating officer.

Those are some of the main points of the Harrisburg receiver’s financial recovery strategy, which was released last month.

However, there are many other initiatives and recommendations buried deep within the report’s 194 pages. If enacted, these also could have a substantial impact upon life in Harrisburg–for residents, city employees and visitors.

The following are among the numerous less-publicized proposals outlined in receiver’s plan.

Workforce (most recommendations subject to re-negotiation of union contracts)

Reduce healthcare expenses by requiring greater employee contributions (currently, workers pay very little to their healthcare coverage).
Eliminate retiree healthcare for new hires (currently, the city pays healthcare for all retired employees).
Freeze benefit levels for all retirement plans and explore changing retirement plans from defined benefit plans to defined contributions plans (much like private sector 401 (k) plans).
Implement new pay scales for police and firefighters that will dramatically lower entry-level wages to bring them in line with nearby jurisdictions.
Use professionals for labor negotiations and establish labor/management committees.
Limit almost all labor contract enhancements, such as new overtime and benefits.
Freeze longevity pay, reduce paid holidays and personal time to 10 days annually and reduce vacation and sick leave.
If the city’s three labor unions refuse to renegotiate their contracts, declare union contract extensions granted by former Mayor Stephen Reed to be null and void.
Increase the number of city staff attorneys from one to three: city solicitor, deputy city solicitor and assistant city solicitor.

Revenues & Taxes

Increase earned income and property taxes as primary means to help balance the budget.
Review real estate assessments to ensure properties are assessed properly.
Increase use of “payment in lieu of taxes” programs with non-taxable entities.
Increase business license fees and link them to an inflationary index.
Increase enforcement of local services tax.
Increase interest and penalties for late and non-payment of various taxes.
Improve real estate tax collection rate.
Select a broker to identify city assets for advertising, concessions, marketing and sponsorship opportunities with private businesses and organizations.
Sell remaining historic artifacts.

Parking Enforcement

Increase parking ticket fees from $15 to $30 per standard violation; $50 if not paid after five business days; $100 if not paid after 10 business days; fire hydrant/handicapped parking violation would double to $100 per incident.
Extend on-street parking meter hours from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Increase efficiency and productivity (and generate more revenue) by hiring a full-time, civilian parking enforcement manager, upgrading the electronic ticket system and ensuring that officers write about five more tickets a week.

Police Bureau

Restructure police patrol duty, reallocate staff and introduce a rotating schedule to ensure better, more even coverage for all three police shifts.
Implement a proactive crime analysis and crime reduction strategy, as opposed to just reacting to reports of crime.
Assign a minimum of six investigators, up from four, to the bureau’s vice unit, which is responsible for narcotics investigations.
At a cost of $90,000, build an interface between the Dauphin County dispatch/9-11 system and the city’s METRO computer system to improve police response and information access.

Fire Bureau

To slash overtime, change the shift structure from a four-platoon to a three-platoon system. One ladder company would be eliminated, as would five bureau positions.
Eliminate “premium pay” for regularly assigned hours.
Renegotiate union contracts so the city can determine staffing needs and can lay off firefighters without contract restrictions.
Explore closing one fire station.
False alarm fees should be increased from $50 for the third in a 12-month period to $50 for the second incident, with amounts escalating from there.

Trash Collection

Implement a “container-based” trash collection system, which would include issuing residents new, wheeled trash carts. A bond would be issued to pay for new carts and trucks. If the city cannot issue a bond or if workers are resistant to the change, it should consider using an outside vendor for trash collection.
Ensure that businesses use city trash services.
Promote greater recycling through education and begin recycling of paper and cardboard products.

Building & Housing

Increase fees, fines and charges for services.
Hire additional code and enforcement officers to clean and prevent backlogs. Organize and deploy multi-agency code enforcement teams.
Get grants and hire contractors to demolish blighted structures (currently, the city has a backlog of 300 such buildings).
Update the city’s comprehensive plan, which has been largely unchanged since 1974.
Develop a comprehensive housing strategy that would include neighborhood planing, guidelines for new and rehab housing and efforts to promote the city as a place to live.
Designate a housing coordinator, who would help coordinate and guide a comprehensive housing strategy.

Economic Development

Designate an economic development coordinator, who would coordinate a strategic plan and direct economic development activities.
Evaluate and possibly revise and extend the city’s tax abatement strategy for new and renovated buildings.
Improve management and collection rates of the mismanaged MOED/ revolving loan portfolio, in which taxpayer-funded, city loans were given to private businesses, many of which later defaulted on their loans.

Capital Improvement

Establish a multi- year capital improvement program to address Harrisburg’s severely deteriorating infrastructure. Needs must be assessed, projects indentified and a schedule rigorously developed and followed.

Assets

Explore a sale and lease-back of city-owned buildings, such as the City Government Center. If another city building becomes available for city hall, consider selling and vacating the building, which is in need of significant repair and improvement.

Utilities

Establish a stormwater utility fee to fund stormwater expenses and improvements.

Policy

The mayor, receiver, business administrator and the City Council Budget & Finance chairman should meet at least monthly to review financial and operational issues.
Implement quarterly financial reporting and develop city-wide financial policies.
Establish a “debt policy” to guide the issuance and use of debt,
Conduct regular implementation meetings for the recovery plan and form smaller implementation teams to oversee specific aspects of the plan.
Implement a performance management system to track government productivity, activity and cost-effectiveness.

A Vineyard Grows in Hershey: New winery is about good friends, a great pour.

March 15, 2012 | by Lawrance Binda

It’s late winter, and the view across an old, 40-acre farm is one of grays and browns, with a chilly wind blowing.

On a hillside, 3-year-old grape vines are dormant, their colors blending in with the landscape, which makes them difficult to distinguish against the surrounding fields.

It’s quiet now, but renewed life isn’t far away. As the weather warms, vistors will join together in this spot to sip wine, chat with friends and watch with delight as the chardonnay, riseling and chambourcin vines sprout leaves then fruit.

On a country road, just over a hill from area’s attractions, a gathering place–the Vineyard at Hershey–has just opened for business.

“Wine is about developing relationships,” said Jason Reimer, who owns the vineyard with Doug Gellaty and L. Paul Vezzetti. “It’s a common, shared experience in which everyone is enjoying the same emotions.”

Indeed, friendships can be credited for the entire venture.

Six years ago, a friend invited the wine-loving Reimer, who daylights as a Harrisburg attorney, to Napa Valley for a tour of vineyards there. He returned wanting to re-create the Napa experience–a friendly, welcoming place with great wines that caters to both casual and sophisticated drinkers.

“I thought that kind of customer experience is something that we could bring to central Pennsylvania,” he said.

Vezzetti, another long-time friend, had begun making wines, while another, Gellatly, owned a farm just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike south of Hershey.

It turned out the farm had an eastward-facing slope (perfect for grape cultivation), a 120-year-old farmhouse (perfect for a small tasting room) and a large, spring-fed laike (perfect for romantic vistas).

Three years ago, the partners planted their first vines, which are now maturing. They have also restored the farmhouse, and, soon, will knock down the dilapidated barn, the site of a future 4,300- square-foot building that will house the production facility, a larger tasting room and event space.

Until then, Vezzetti performs his viticultural magic in a small area in the bottling the winery’s first merlot, one of 500 that will be bottled, available in September.

“We plan to produce 14,000 bottles of wine this year–and every one is bottled by hand,” he said.

This season, the vineyard’s own grapes will be ready for the first time. Until then, Vezzetti makes his wines exclusively with product bought from other farms, all in Pennsylvania.

Currently, the Vineyard at Hershey offers a dozen wines, including two types of chardonnay, a seyval blanc, a Niagara, a chambourcin, a catawba, a dry and sweet riesling, a peach wine and several blends.

All are made in accord with Vezzetti’s wine-making approach, which could be described as somewhat drier and perhaps more complex on the palette than other area wines.

That said, Vineyard at Hershey offers wines for every taste–from dry to sweet; from simple to bold. The owners want to appeal to everyone, whether they’re day-trippers from the area or wine sophisticates staying at the Hotel Hershey.

“We want to make wines that people can have as their everyday drinking bottle, no matter who you are,” said Reimer.

Looking over the still terrain, Reimer envisions a day when the fields are fully planted with mature vines and ripe fruit is being harvested and trucked directly into the spacious new production room.

“We have a setting in which people will come here by thousands to enjoy fine wines and an overall wonderful experience,” he said. “And 10 years from now, it will be that much better.”

The Vineyard at Hershey, 598 Schoolhouse Rd., Middletown. Tasting room open Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6p.m. and by appointment. 717-944-1569; www.vineyardathershey.com.

South of the (Harrisburg) Border: Authentic Mexican cuisine is a short trip away at Herby’s.

February 22, 2012 | by Lawrance Binda

On occasion, good things can arise from terrible tragedy.

Even great things.

A quarter-century ago, Maria Marroquin lost her husband, who died suddenly.

Out of sheer necessity, she started a small grocery in Steelton specializing in the food of her native Mexico. This way, she reasoned, she could support her three young children, while also caring for them when they were out of school.

So, she left her job as a cook for Marriott Corp. and opened Herby’s, which has grown to become one of the Harrisburg area’s favorite destinations for authentic Mexican cuisine.

“People ask me, ‘Why are you called Herby’s?'” said Marroquin. “I chose Herby’s because that was my husband’s name.”

A lot has changed since she first stocked the shelves with bags of tortillas and cans of black beans in her small store on Front Street.

In fact, Marroquin never intended to serve prepared food at all, but her customers, reveling in the odor of dishes she was preparing for her family, asked for a taste. Then they wanted to take some home. Then they wanted to sit there and eat it.

“I was cooking for the kids, and people came in and said, ‘Hey, what are you making?'” she said. “That’s how I got the idea.”

Almost by accident, a restaurant was born.

Soon, Herby’s had outgrown its cramped space with a few tables in the back of a store. So, in 1995, Marroquin moved up the hill, buying an old bar and grill in Bressler, a crossroads village now part of Swatara Township.

After a total renovation, Herby’s El Mexicano was born.

At first, leafy, residential Bressler may seem an unusual spot for a Mexican restaurant, and, approaching the location, one is struck by the sign and the exterior, both boldly, colorfully designed in Mexican style.

The interior decor continues the theme, transporting diners to another land–and then there’s the food.

Herby’s is authentically Mexican, which sets it apart from the many Tex-Mex franchises that have spread like locusts into suburban strip malls.

Marroquin is there every day, all day, supervising each operation and dish. It’s where the area’s large Latino community dines–and the place, increasingly, sought out by people demanding more sophisticated, authentic flavors.

Yes, Herby’s has what you might expect from a Mexican restaurant: burritos, enchiladas and fajitas–all made from scratch every day and superior to what you might find elsewhere.

But Marroquin urges her patrons to try what her Mexican customers like, dishes like sope (a thick tortilla with savory vegetable and meat toppings), carnitas (a heavily seasonsed, slow-roasted, succulent pork dish), posole (an ages-old Mexican corn and meat soup) or even tacos made in true Mexican style (soft tortilla, meat, onions, cilantro and salsa).

If you’re skittish, or just adventurous, perhaps it’s best to start at Herby’s inexpensive ($6.99) lunch buffet, served each Thursday and Friday. There, you can sample a variety of dishes–so you’ll know what to order when you return for a full dinner, perhaps over a top-shelf margarita or glass of sangria.

“I have many customers who say to me, ‘Why did it take me so long to try something different?'” said Marroquin. “And then they want that same dish, over and over again.”

Buns, Books to Share Roof: Bookstore & bakery coming to storefront.

February 22, 2012 | by Lawrance Binda

The heart of Midtown Harrisburg soon will see some significant changes as Midtown Scholar Bookstore and a popular bakery both expect to expand.

Midtown Scholar plans to take space in the front portion of the building next door at 1300 N. 3rd St. Bookstore co-owner Eric Papenfuse said he wants to link the buildings through an internal doorway and use the space to increase his selection of new releases and popular titles.

“We want to be able to offer everything in the book world–soup to nuts–so you never have to go to Barnes & Noble,” said Papenfuse, who owns both buildings along with his wife, Catherine Lawrence.

The new space also will feature an area for events and meetings.

Increasingly, Midtown Scholar has become a center for community gatherings, lectures and concerts, requiring another area to hold events, said Papenfuse. In addition, many events are simply too small for the bookstore’s large main stages, but would be perfect for a more intimate space in a separate room, he said.

The storefront last was occupied by Garden Fresh Market & Deli, which consolidated into the Broad Street Market in November.

A popular bakery, P&R Baked Goods & Desserts, plans to relocate from the Broad Street Market to the back of the same building, said bakery co-owner Nora Proctor.

Proctor said the larger space will allow her to expand her hours and offer sandwiches and other prepared foods, in addition to her popular cookies, cakes and other baked items. She expects to make the move around April 1.

Proctor and her husband, Ed, have operated out of the Broad Street Market for about five years and have been supplying baked foods to Midtown Scholar for re-sale.

Papenfuse said he expects to build another entry to the building off of Verbeke Street, which will allow P&R customers to enter the shop directly without needing to go through the bookstore.

Going Big in Harrisburg: Ambition and over-reach in the capital city.

February 22, 2012 | by Lawrance Binda

“How did a city of this size, not a large city, end up with so much debt?”

Harrisburg receiver David Unkovic asked that question at a recent community forum, perfectly capturing the nugget of the city’s dilemma.

Population: 49,500.

Debt: about $1 billion*.

Unkovic didn’t want to know how it literally happened. He has the numbers in front of him and, no doubt, a good understanding of the deals that went down, who got paid and how each layer of new debt was piled on.

The question seemed more rhetorical, in the incredulous sense of–how in the world could this ever have happened?

Here’s how: ambition, hubris, over-reach–and it’s been a part of Harrisburg since its beginning.

The city’s founder, John Harris Jr., himself practiced the art, brazenly suggesting, in the late 1700s, that his speck of a settlement should become capital of the second most populous state in the new nation.

By 1810, Harris’ offer of free land actually succeeded in luring lawmakers from far more populous Lancaster, even though muddy, ramshackle Harrisburg lacked nearly every amenity needed to serve as a seat of government.

Other ambitious plans followed. In the early 19th century, Harrisburg’s reformers decided they no longer could tolerate sewage flowing in open gutters, garbage chucked into the streets, roads still made of dirt and shacks teetering on the riverbank. So, they initiated an enormous civic improvement program that gave us many of the amenities we still enjoy today: sewers, parks, paving and the beautiful river walk and steps.

Unfortunately, that was the last time Harrisburg could afford its lofty dreams, its grand ambitions.

As former Patriot-News columnist Paul Beers describes in his book, “City Contended, City Discounted,” Harrisburg never really recovered from the Depression, and, afterwards, suffered one misbegotten grand plan at revival after another.

In the post-war period, it endorsed a Paris-like scheme to level an old, dense neighborhood near the Capitol and build marble edifices, wide boulevards, a manicured park and a new bridge as tribute to political boss Harvey Taylor. That was actually the second time the city had enthusiastically razed an entire neighborhood and evicted its own residents en masse to accommodate the voracious land appetite of the state government.

Downtown suffered a similar fate, as swaths of gorgeous 19th century buildings were destroyed in support of sprawling, suburban-style structures, soulless malls and ugly high-rise apartments. In so doing, Harrisburg destroyed its historic patronage, which can never be replaced, as well as the urban charm that now attracts people to cities.

And, when Harrisburg needed a new way to get rid of its trash, what did it do? It went big.

Foregoing a simple, inexpensive facility, the city built what then-Mayor Al Straub called “the Rolls-Royce of incinerators,” with wide-eyed plans to attract trash throughout central Pennsylvania and turn it into electricity, spinning garbage into gold.

Unfortunately, the opposite happened. From its first firing, the incinerator was a leaden weight dragging the city down. Four decades of breakdowns, malfunctions, controversies, bad decisions, short-term thinking and dubious financings led to a city bankruptcy filing, a state takeover and $317 million up in smoke.

When your lofty visions flounder, you don’t admit your mistakes, cut your losses and move on; you throw good money after bad.

And then you find new ways to over-reach, each one increasingly ridiculous.

You give millions of dollars in loans to private businesses, which often never pay them back.

You buy a baseball team and build a stadium.

You envision grand city gateways, a series of oddly misplaced museums, a hydroelectric dam, a wind farm.

You stuff the government with patronage jobs and dole out gold-plated benefits packages, good for a lifetime, to ensure loyalty.

You take over the school system, burying it in debt.

Wherever was tiny, poor Harrisburg supposed to get the money to fulfill these grand ambitions, this reckless over-reach?

And, as officials dreamed of going into the garbage business or the electricity business or the baseball business or the museum business or the parking business, the basic, boring duties of local government often fell away.

Today, a walk through Harrisburg is an exercise in navigating an obstacle course of broken sidewalks, crumbling curbs and incipient sinkholes. And, oh, the deplorable state of the once-stately river walk.

Ambition and over-reach, fueled by greed and borrowed money and enabled by yes men, exact a crippling cost. That’s the answer of how a city of of this size ended up with so much debt.

*Incinerator debt: $317 million; general obligation debt: $30 million; guaranteed stadium debt: $8 million; guaranteed Parking Authority debt: $112 million; guaranteed Redevelopment Authority debt: $83 million; water and sewer upgrades: $72.3 million. Source: Act 47 Plan.

Other Post-Employment Benefits: $184 million. Source: City Controller Dan Miller.

School system debt: More than $500 million by 2020. Source: Rep. Ron Buxton.

Poles, Pick-up & Problems: Director Hoch sheds light on challenges at DPW.

February 22, 2012 | by Lawrance Binda

Bill Fritz can count at least four light poles that are down near his home in Midtown Harrisburg.

It’s not that the light bulbs are out–the poles themselves are actually missing, the victim of car crashes or storms or whatever caused them to tumble over.

“One of the poles just rusted off at 3rd and Cumberland streets,” he said. “Nothing is being done, and it’s a breeding ground for people committing crime.”

Ernie Hoch, the city’s director of the Department of Public Works, listened with concern as Fritz and more than a dozen other Midtown residents gathered recently to ask questions and get some answers.

Does Hoch know about the downed poles? Yes. In fact, he knows exactly how many there are (39 city-wide) and where they are.

Does he know the locations of scores of lights that are out? Yes again. Does he know that many streets need to be striped, where illegal dumping is occurring and where sinkholes are about to pop up?

Yes, yes and yes.

Hoch said that his employees and residents keep him well-informed of the many critical infrastructure, maintenance and sanitation issues that need to be addressed in Harrisburg. He’s just asking for a bit more time, patience and, fingers crossed, resources.

Hoch’s been in his position more than a year and has spent much of that time trying to undo the damage of the previous administration, which delayed critical projects, such as street striping and repair, again and again, he said.

“When I see what was going on around here for the past 30 years, I almost can’t believe it,” he said.

Moreover, he’s had to deal with what he calls “crazy contracts.”

The Reed administration, for instance, bought the city’s lighting system from PPL Electric around 2000, then turned around and gave the company a 10-year maintenance contract that, with escalation clauses, was costing the city $400,000 a year for bulb replacement and pole repair, he said

Hoch said he’s now taken those functions in-house, which has significantly cut the cost.

“Every deal I look at and unravel, it’s like an onion, with so many layers,” he said. “It makes no sense.”

In addition, the department’s utility funds were constantly raided to make up for shortfalls in the city’s general fund.

“It was a shell game, moving things from here to here to here.”

To make matters worse, a series of severe storms have knocked down many old trees, destroyed light fixtures and diverted resources. Then there’s the city’s financial crisis, which has taken a toll on his budget.

The residents, assembled by Friends of Midtown, were generally sympathetic. They know that Hoch is under sever constraints, but they still want their lights fixed.

“There are four lights out just on my block,” said Don Barnett, Friends of Midtown president.

Hoch said that his department “has been catching up quite a bit” with light outages, which have been unusually severe because, a few years back, the bulbs were all replaced and are now blinking out simultaneously.

As for pole replacement–the 2012 city budget should be sufficient, he said. His department is ordering new fixtures, which will be installed over the next few months.

Otherwise, Hoch hopes that the city receiver’s financial plan, due for release this month, will provide more resources for his department.

Manpower is desperately needed, as Hoch constantly has to divert employees just to pick up the trash. He estimates that, due to vacation, sick and personal time, only 70 percent of his sanitation staff shows up for work on any particular day.

Asked how residents could help, Hoch said that people can ensure their blocks are kept tidy and community groups could “adopt an area.”

“It does help a lot if we are working together,” he said.

The Great Divide: Forster Street: a road that splits Harrisburg.

February 22, 2012 | by Lawrance Binda and Peter Durantine

In 1891, Harrisburg’s Mulberry Street Bridge opened, linking Allison Hill with downtown and the rest of the city. The bridge was hailed as a unifier, pulling people closer to each other.

When another bridge, the M. Harvey Taylor Memorial Bridge opened in 1951, requiring tree-lined Forster Street to be widened into a highway, there was no such accolade. Even today, there is dismay with what happened to Forster Street, which now has four through lanes and multiple turning lanes.

“It cut the heart out of the city,” said Ken Frew, city historian and librarian for the Dauphin County Historical Society.

The decline of Forster Street began in the 1940s, when state and local governments began pushing for another span across the Susquehanna.

Originally, the bridge was to be built farther uptown, but Harrisburg political boss Harvey Taylor wanted his namesake bridge in a more prominent location, closer to the Capitol and downtown, according to Jackson Taylor, author of the historical novel set in Harrisburg, “The Blue Orchard.”

So, in the early 1950s, a long line of houses, shops and other buildings was leveled, from Riverfront Park to N. 7th Street.

While benefiting suburban developers and commuters, the widening did damage to the city itself. It made a once-quaint, residential Forster Street into an asphalt wasteland–a congested, noisy street that no one wanted to live on any longer. Soon, the street took on the look of desolation and even danger.

To save as many buildings as possible on the south side of the street, sidewalks were narrowed, making walking in some areas nearly impossible. And then entire swaths of houses were razed for parking lots, while billboards sprung up.

The ugly, harsh state buildings that rose near the Capitol, several built in the stark concrete “brutalist” style common in the 1950s through the ’70s, furthered Forster’s transformation from quaint to forbidding.

Then there was the effect on Midtown.

Before the Forster Street expansion, downtown and Midtown flowed together as an integrated urban community. Afterwards, the residential portion of downtown, accessible to the Capitol and the business district, remained vibrant, while Midtown began to fall apart.

“I think that was one of the most divisive things things that ever happened to this city,” said Frew.

In the early ’90s, there were various city improvement groups that looked at ways to re-connect Midtown to downtown, with ideas such as building pedestrian walkways under and over Forster Street.

“How do we bridge the divide?” said David Morrison, president of Historic Harrisburg Association, who has long been involved in city improvement efforts.

No idea, through, seemed satisfactory. Meanwhile, a renaissance of sorts brought a flourish of new restaurants downtown, particularly along N. 2nd Street, further deepening the divide between Midtown and downtown, Morrison said.

Morrison and Frew are not alone in their assessment. Many, if not most, of the city’s residents and visitors share a critical opinion of Forster Street.

In 1998, Harrisburg Young Professionals, working with PennDOT, took the first steps to try to improve the road. It adopted Forster, planting trees and landscaping the median strip, an effort that continues today.

Bradley Jones, an HYP member at the time who helped initiate the tree-planting, said the sense among the membership was that something needed to be done to make the street less “a harsh sort of roadway barrier between Midtown and downtown.”

The HYP efforts have helped, as Forster, softened up by plantings and regular maintenance, is more pleasant today.

“Now when you come into the city, it’s an attractive boulevard,” said Jones, vice president of community development for Harristown Enterprises.

Landscaping, though, can only do so much. It can’t eliminate the cars whizzing by at high speed that make the street difficult to cross or the abandoned, industrial feel that permeates the entire stretch of road.

Today, there is no plan for Forster Street other than to maintain its surface and HYP’s landscaping. The roadway continues to interrupt the flow of the city.

At the time of the Harvey Taylor/Forster Street project, local and state officials praised it for connecting downtown with the West Shore, allowing commuter traffic fast, easy access to and from the Capitol complex.

However, it had the unintended consequence of dividing the city itself, a division that many believe Harrisburg has never recovered from.

Bad Decisions, Worse Outcome: Harrisburg Authority report details incinerator debacle.

February 22, 2012 | by Lawrance Binda

The Harrisburg Authority last month issued a damning report on the city’s bungled incinerator, criticizing the administration of former mayor Stephen Reed for pushing through a failing project at any cost, one that eventually would land the city in bankruptcy court.

The report’s charges are many, including conflicts of interest, lack of due diligence, self-serving dealings and recklessness. The report analyzes the most recent incinerator upgrades, beginning more than a decade ago, when the city and the authority selected Barlow Projects, Inc, as the lead contractor to fix the broken facility.

“The outcome of the retrofit, including the current debt crisis related to the city, reflects the accumulated effects of bad decisions on critical project issues, ranging from contractor selection at the outset to the $60 million in debt taken on in 2007 when the facility was still incomplete and not fully operational,” the report states. “In some cases, the authority, the city and the county took strained positions on state law regarding municipal debt financing and other issues to allow the retrofit and related financings to proceed.”

Perhaps the most troubling, the report states that numerous parties has significant financial interest in continuing to issue bonds for the incinerator (also known as the resource recovery facility or RRF), while knowing its operations could never service those bonds.

Among the entities that benefited, says the report, were the administration, City Council, Dauphin County and the many lawyers, advisers and financial companies involved.

“The city, the county and FSA (insurer Financial Security Assurance) provided guarantees or insurance on some (as to the county and FSA) or all (as to the city) of the facility’s debt,” the report states. “They received significant guarantee fees or insurance premiums for doing so, knowing the risks associated with default, both in 2003 and even more so in 2007, when all evidence pointed to the RRF’s inability to service existing and contemplated debt upon completion.”

Following the report’s release, City Council introduced a resolution asking the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into how the incinerator was financed.

“This entire process has been about greed,” charged Councilman Brad Koplinski. “No one got paid unless these deals went through. They said and did whatever it took to close the deal and get their paychecks. In the end, they left the people of the city holding the bag.”

The report takes a step-by-step approach to describe how the incinerator disaster unfolded.

The story starts in the late 1990s, when the city and authority, frustrated by repeated breakdowns and EPA violations, needed to fix the long-troubled facility, which had never worked properly since its first firing in the early 1970s.

After learning about Barlow from a trade magazine article, the city and authority eventually hired the company to get the incinerator running smoothly and to expand capacity, as the county also wanted a place to send its trash.

Barlow promised that the upgrade would cost about $45 million, an amount that officials, at first, hoped could be paid for by fees from increased trash flows. The outcome was far different, says the report:

Barlow was hired on a sole-source basis, without competitive bidding or consideration of other technologies.
Barlow’s cost and revenue projections were never tested or confirmed.
Barlow proceeded without a performance bond, which typically guarantees the quality of large-scale construction projects.
Barlow’s incinerator technology, unproven for a facility the size of the RRF, never worked properly.

Eventually, Barlow went bankrupt and the project failed, requiring another contractor–and yet more money–to finish it.

In addition, the report states, city and authority officials acted recklessly as they tried desperately to save the project, accumulating more and more debt, with fees from bond issuances being diverted to other purposes.

“Those interviewed … confirmed that the city made it a practice of collecting these fees for conduit issues for utilities to generate money for the city’s general fund,” the report states. “The city guarantees fees related to the RRF historically appear to be related to the amount needed to fill a city general fund or RRF budget gap.”

Also, the Reed administration attempted to get council support for a 2003 bond issue by council members a “special projects fund,” also derived from bond fees, says the report. The report adds that it’s unclear whether the fund was ever established.

Today, the incinerator is some $317 million in debt, and the authority and the city both have defaulted on their incinerator bonds. The result has been an unprecedented financial crisis in Harrisburg, including insolvency, a state takeover and a bankruptcy filing. As a result, Harrisburg soon will have to sell its most treasured assets to help pay off its creditors.

Debate Comes Full Circle: Roundabout begins new journey for Linglestown.

January 23, 2012 | by Debbie Merlo

Whether it’s a grilled cheese sandwich or plain white slices stuffed with egg salad, The St. Thomas Restaurant in Linglestown offers more than good food and quick, friendly service. The view visible from a table tucked in a corner by a front window is one well worth admiring, as is the unmistakable enthusiasm in Bill Minsker’s voice.

Minsker, a teacher and firefighter with the Linglestown Fire Co. since 1967, graciously gives up “the best seat in the house,” allowing a lunch guest the opportunity to appreciate the visible charm of the third oldest town in Dauphin County. Before there’s time to get too comfortable taking in the sights of old buildings with original gingerbread trim enveloping the windows, Minsker noted the traffic outside steadily flowing through the roundabout. The roundabout (don’t call it a circle) is one of two recently completed and is known as the Linglestown renovation project. Its purpose to provide safe access through the village while keeping traffic moving slowly and steadily. Minkser said that discussions for the based upon the town’s own modified bicentennial theme of, “So your children can show their children.”

Now that the project, which began in late 2009 and finished in mid-2011, is finally done and its success is apparent, Minsker said, “We lost a lot of battles, but we won the war.” Those who objected to the project, he said, didn’t understand the significance of having a roundabout as opposed to a traffic light, which, he argued, would stop the flow and take away an higstorical element.

Although there isn’t a notion of negativity to be found among village poroprietors today, the “war,” as Tina Robenolt of First Impressions Boutique explained was the double hit: an economy that plummeted and a road that wasn’t.

But, by following the red brick sidewalk as the aroma of brewing coffee wafts through the air, you discover a spirit of unity among the town’s impressive array of shops and eateries.

When construction began on the road running through the heart of the village, owners banded together and formed a merchants association. The purpose, Robenolt said, was to “work together to bring people to Linglestown to establish and support a network.” The main focus, she said: “Buy local, support local.”

The efforts of the merchants association yielded not only The Historical Walking Tour of Linglestown, a Fall Festival and a Chocolate Walk–complete with maps guiding guests to alternative routes and available parking–but what Geof Smith, owner of St. Thomas Roasters, called a synergy of positive energy throughout the community. Without hesitation, he said there is much to look forward to in 2012, including a fresh start for a prosperous year.

With the project complete, the merchants association continues to oversee community activities. In addition to events like the Chocolate Walk on Feb. 10-11, Robenolt’s First Impressions is open to host fundraisers and St.Thomas Roasters provides live music on Friday evenings.

Jim Murphy, owner of Murphy’s Automotive said, “When experience counts, you can count on us.”

As he finished the last bite of his egg salad sandwich, Bill Minkser proudly pointed out: “Our village has always remained just a village.”

They Plow by Night: Our intrepid reporter braves a snowless night.

January 23, 2012 | by Sylvia Grove

It’s 11:35 p.m., Wednesday, December 7, and I haven’t left home at this odd of a weekday hour since Black Friday. I bend over my steering wheel and crane my neck toward the sky: still no snow. Front Street is as clear as a country road, a sleek, damp ribbon studded with lamp posts. The black jogging path runs beside a silver Susquehanna. It’s a picturesque scene, but the weather forecast has been clear: snow advisory for central Pennsylvania from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Thursday.

When snow is in the forecast, most of us slide into a familiar routine: check the quantity of milk in the fridge, the level of gas in the tank. The routine typically stops there, except for the occasional glance at the sky. This is not the case of Harrisburg’s Department of Public Works, for whom the term “snow day” has an entirely different meaning.

Tonight, four men—Dave Spiroff of Enola, Rodney Keller of Hummelstown, Randy Sauder of Harrisburg and David Jordan of Susquehanna Township—have just arrived for work. I join them in a utility building on S. 19^th Street, which is backlit by fog and orange light. Director Ernie Hoch sips coffee and shakes my hand, and the men greet me with a nod. “This is my ‘A’ team,” said Hoch, by way of an introduction. “These are the guys that I call first.”

During heavy snow, as many as 45 men, CDL-licensed or otherwise, can be called upon by the department to help clear the streets, rotating over 12-hour shifts. Most snow removal strategies are systematic, including prioritizing primary and secondary streets and mapping out the city into eight sections to focus the work. However, trying to determine where to push the snow, or struggling to fit a snowplow down narrow Penn Street, can make for white-knuckle work.

“There’s always that one street you’re driving down with your heart pumping Kool-Aid,” said Spiroff, who has worked with the city for 16 years.

Tonight, expectations are minimal. The 1- and 5-ton salt trucks have already been loaded, the goal being to salt ramps and bridges and to keep a close eye on the roads near the river, where it’s colder. The crew scatters, taking places among the city.

Hoch and I duck into a pick-up truck and drive up Cameron Street. We’ve barely driven five minutes before Hoch checks the weather on his phone. “I actually think the snow’s passed over us,” he said suddenly. There is no regret in his voice. “I’m not disappointed. It’s better to be proactive. The streets will be clear by rush hour.”

I will be awake again by 6:30 a.m. and part of that rush hour traffic that will move swiftly through a bitter cold sunrise. The students that I teach will be disappointed to have not had a delay, and I will secretly regret that I can’t sleep in, either. However, it’s clear that this privilege of safe driving has everything to do with the four trucks that are out on the streets right now, circulating like quiet watchmen, tracing the city silently beneath a snow-less sky.

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