Tag Archives: Andrew Bliss

Capital Region Water begins water main project, with road impacts expected

April 8, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

Capital Region Water replaces a water main in Harrisburg

Spring has finally sprung, which means the beginning of infrastructure and road projects around Harrisburg.

Capital Region Water today announced that it will start a $1 million drinking water improvement project that will affect four locations in Susquehanna Township and another in Harrisburg.

This week, CRW plans to begin the installation of 1,400 feet of drinking water mains, which are also used for water supply for fire hydrants.

“This project is part of Capital Region Water’s proactive capital improvement strategy to provide safe and reliable drinking water service while reducing long-term operational costs,” said CEO Charlotte Katzenmoyer, in a statement. “We thank our customers who live or work near these project locations for their patience and understanding while these improvements are made.”

The projects will not happen all at once, said Andrew Bliss, CRW’s external affairs manager. Projects, in order of completion, are as follows:

Magnolia Street between S. 12th Street and S. 13th Street, Harrisburg
Ridgeway Road between Overbrook Road and Colonial Road, Susquehanna Township
Clinton Road between Cloverfield Road and Centerfield Road, Susquehanna Township
Darby Road and Darby Place near Vernon Avenue, Susquehanna Township
Herr Street and Laurel Street near Walnut Street, Susquehanna Township and Penbrook

Each project should take two to three weeks to complete, Bliss said. The entire series of projects should wrap up in late June to mid-July, he said.

Residents and motorists along these routes should expect a variety of impacts, including road closures, noise, parking restrictions and temporary road patches, according to CRW. Patched roads are expected to be resurfaced within about 90 days of project completion.

Work will take place on weekdays, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. CRW stated that home access will not be required for the project.

A map of CRW’s 2019 infrastructure projects can be found at capitalregionwater.com/capitalprojects.

One Bad Party: Neighbors come together to handle a very unpleasant surprise.

September 28, 2018 | by M. Diane McCormick

Cate Rowe was doing yardwork when something in the ground came a-bubblin’ up, and it sure wasn’t Texas tea.

“I pulled out a weed that made the entire brickwork in the backyard collapse in on itself, and I just had standing water underneath a layer of bricks,” she recalled.

That was Rowe’s introduction to the sewer party line. If you don’t know what that is, you’re not alone, even though your home could be affected. If you do know, it’s probably because you shelled out thousands of dollars for a fix, or, perhaps, have gone to war with a neighbor.

In Rowe’s case, the sewer party line actually helped promote neighborhood unity, but it still cost thousands of dollars to fix.

Sewer party lines are shared lines hooking two or more homes to sewer mains. Nineteenth- and early 20th-century builders dug single trenches to contain sewer, gas and water lines. They plied to “no rhyme or reason,” although are most common in the row homes of Allison Hill and Midtown, said Harrisburg Codes Enforcement Director David Patton.

Sewer party lines are “problematic,” he said. “The lion’s share of party lines go out the back and collect from home to home to home and go out an alley or street. Anywhere we see common walkways that go into the back, you always have to be suspect.”

Very Tough

Rowe loves her circa-1861 row home in lower Midtown, the one with the gasp-worthy curving staircase.

“It’s a lot of work,” she said, “but it’s home.”

She bought the house in December 2015, blissfully unaware of the sewer lines shared with the conjoined homes on the block and with the 2nd Street-facing converted apartments to the rear. The problem manifested itself when a backup created pressure that pushed her home’s connection off the party line. While an adjoining neighbor got raw sewage in his basement, Rowe was getting backup pushed from other houses into her backyard.

“Great tomatoes last summer, but disgusting,” she joked.

Capital Region Water was “fantastic in getting me information,” but as many have discovered to their consternation, the sewer hookups known as laterals are the homeowner’s responsibility.

“They are private lines built by private entities, and they’ve been private ever since,” explained CRW Community Outreach Manager Andrew Bliss.

The city can declare a house uninhabitable due to raw sewage infiltration and, in those cases, try to force replacement of a party line with individual laterals.

“But there’s really not a lot we can do because they’re considered private,” said Patton. “It’s based on the owners coming together to figure it out.”

CRW helped Rowe find her “sewer card”—“like old-school, hand-drawn cards,” Bliss said—in the Harrisburg City Codes office, available for some homes where known sewer work has been conducted.

“Once we get that information, it’s pretty much up to the customer, if they’re on a party line, to work with their neighbors to resolve the issue,” said Bliss. “As you can expect, it can be very tough, especially if you have neighbors that aren’t willing to cooperate, or if the house is vacant.”

Common Interests

In an ideal world, neighbors cooperate and share costs.

Rowe paid for her repairs. A neighbor hired the same plumber to install an access point in his yard, allowing easy access to flush or scope a line. When a problem threatened this summer, all agreed to split the cost of a flushing, but the blockage cleared on its own.

In fact, Rowe said that the problem, however unpleasant and unwelcome, actually drew her and her immediate neighbors closer together. Dealing with the sewer party line has kept them attuned to their common interests, she said.

“The four of us on this block, we have great communication,” she said. “There’s no issue.”

That doesn’t mean that everything went smoothly.

One landlord to the rear “was swearing to me up and down that there was no problem,” Rowe said. But she knew that a neighboring apartment house was having problems, and she believes that tenants are reluctant to report problems. If someone doesn’t want to pitch in $20 to help pay for a line cleaning, she knows there’s nothing she can do.

“That’s part of living in the city,” she said. “You deal with the neighbors.”

In some cases, neighbors don’t cooperate, refusing to share costs or take responsibility, said several sources.

“I’ve seen people move because they didn’t want to deal with it anymore,” said Brian Wizzard of Wizzard Drain Cleaning, based in Lower Paxton Township.

He is Rowe’s plumber, “kind of on call,” she said.

Some neighbors simply can’t afford the drill-clean via auger or the high-pressure “sewer jet” needed to clear a line, Wizzard said.

“I try to do it as price-friendly as I can, because there’s a lot of people in the city who just can’t afford to do a lot of things,” he said.

Property owners with sewer mains running in front of their homes can reroute their lateral lines.

“But it’s not always that easy,” said Bliss. “If you don’t have a sewer main in front of your house, it’s more expensive to run it to the main.”

How expensive? Repairs can cost $5,000 to $10,000, and direct-line construction can be “in that ballpark but slightly more,” depending on the variables, said Bliss.

Patton noted that switching lines to the front also requires rerouting the interior plumbing, adding to the cost. And, making the process even more fun, augers meant to clean party lines often can’t navigate the curving, whole-house traps in many old-home basements.

Wizzard doesn’t know of any insurance company willing to cover party lines. If one neighbor treats the plumbing responsibly but the family next door is “flushing diapers and all kinds of crazy stuff, the insurance will be paying to fix somebody else’s problem,” he said.

Rowe spent nearly $3,000 to reconnect her line and basically evacuated her home for a week.

“I was lucky,” she said. “Three thousand dollars didn’t break me, but for a lot of people, it does. You can’t live in your home. You can’t use the water. You can’t shower. You can’t wash dishes. You can’t do laundry. It is a fundamental need. I can only imagine there are a number of neighborhoods where this is going unchecked, and it’s waiting to be a real emergency.”

Rowe sees a public health matter deserving city education efforts about potential problems and warning signs. She would also like to see “some sort of subsidy for people to get off the party line.”

“The infrastructure is old,” she said. “It’s not reliable. It’s unpleasant.”

The “two worst enemies” of sewer party lines are so-called “flushable” wipes—they’re not really flushable—and tampons, Wizzard said.

“Most people just don’t know they shouldn’t do it,” he said. “They do it anyway, and they find out once it causes a problem, and then it’s too late.”

Bliss also pointed an accusatory finger at grease poured into drains, trapping foreign objects as it cools. Rowe grew up with well water, so she’s “never been reckless” about flushing forbidden objects, she said.

“Everyone is guilty of flushing something that shouldn’t go down there at some point in their lives,” she said “If you have someone who doesn’t know, how are they going to know any better?”

If the party line is working well, “life goes on,” Patton said. But a sure sign of trouble is a backed-up washing machine, suddenly incapable of pumping out large amounts of water in a short time.

Homeowners can find that sewer party lines are “a little bit of a pain, but there’s a lot of them out there,” said Wizzard.

“You have to hope you have a decent neighbor, and you don’t have somebody causing you major, major grief, that’s all,” he said.

In that, blessed with good neighbors, Rowe was lucky indeed.

Park Work: Sewer project shuts down stretch of Riverfront Park

September 10, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

Sewer work has closed a portion of Riverfront Park in Uptown Harrisburg to visitors.

A large swath of Riverfront Park in Uptown Harrisburg will be closed until the end of October for a major sewer project, Capital Region Water announced today.

Andrew Bliss, community outreach manager, said that CRW has closed a five-block stretch of the park between Shamokin and Emerald streets to rehabilitate the Front Street sewer interceptor in that area.

Park users will be detoured to the sidewalk across Front Street, Bliss said. He said that “Road Work Ahead” signage has been posted on Front and Division streets to warn users.

This project will install 2,000 feet of new pipe liner, called “cured-in-place” pipe, to rehabilitate the 30-inch diameter clay sewer pipe, according to CRW. Aboveground pipes will be placed along the park in the project area to bypass flows during the cured-in-place pipe installation.

The 105-year-old Front Street sewer interceptor carries an average of 2 million gallons of wastewater every day from Harrisburg and Susquehanna Township, said CRW.

“Capital Region Water is committed to protecting public safety and the environment by properly maintaining our wastewater collection system,” said CRW board Chairman Marc Kurowski. “We appreciate everyone’s patience during construction while we address critical and aging infrastructure.”

New CEO Named for Capital Region Water

July 18, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

Following an extensive search, Capital Region Water has a new chief executive officer, the Harrisburg-area water/sewer authority announced this morning.

Mark Kropilak (pictured left) began work Monday heading up operations at CRW, which provides water, wastewater and storm water services to some 120,000 residents in and around Harrisburg, said Andrew Bliss, CRW’s community outreach manager.

“It is an honor to be selected CEO of Capital Region Water,” Kropilak said in a statement. “I have joined a team of employees dedicated to providing high quality water, superior customer service and operational excellence.”

Kropilak is CRW’s second CEO since it separated from the Harrisburg Authority in late 2013. He replaces Shannon Gority, who left last year.

According to CRW, Kropilak has extensive experience in both the private and regulated sectors of the industry, including as CEO, board advisor, general counsel and in business development roles.

“After a comprehensive search process, Mark impressed the board of directors with his 30 years of experience in the water industry and understanding of complex issues facing Capital Region Water, including infrastructure investments, regulatory mandates and utility resilience,” said Marc Kurowski, CRW’s board chair. “He is capable of taking these issues head on in the most efficient manner to best serve our customers.”

Kropilak holds a law degree from Columbia University, a master’s degree from Villanova University and a bachelor’s degree from Saint Vincent College.

For more information about Capital Region Water, visit www.capitalregionwater.com.

Growth Strategy: Onward and upward (mostly upward) for Harrisburg’s tree-planting efforts.

March 30, 2018 | by M. Diane McCormick

Trees have lives of their own, far outlasting ours, says Harrisburg Parks Maintenance Director Ronald Taylor.

“A tree goes from a seed to a sapling to a tree to dying,” he said. “Once it’s merged in the earth, it becomes carbon fuel, so it can become coal, so it can also become a diamond.”

Trees bring lots of good stuff to cities. They soak up carbon dioxide. They break up the urban hardscape. They provide shade that cools people and homes.

“Studies have shown that people buy more and tend to be happier in communities where there are more trees,” said Taylor. “The more green covering, the better.”

Happy trees, happy community. That’s why Harrisburg public officials and private citizens are pushing to revive the tree canopy citywide.

In 2018, the city expects to plant some 200 trees, with help from volunteers from United Way, Deloitte and neighborhood groups. Currently, Harrisburg’s 6,826 street trees—those that line streets in public rights-of-way—create a canopy that cover less than 30 percent of city streets, well short of the 47 percent goal set by the U.S. Forest Service.

Moreover, about 800 dead or sick trees in Harrisburg “need to come down,” said Taylor. Planting 200 in one year won’t close the gap, but with 300 slated for planting next year and more to come, the plan puts the city on target to full canopy in 10 years, he said.

Tree-Up

Harrisburg, like most old cities, has a legacy tree problem. Trees are aging, falling over, dying and, until relatively recently, little consideration was given to what makes a good replacement.

So, towering oaks, elms and other species that need a lot of room for their roots and canopies were stuffed into little tree boxes, surrounded by concrete and asphalt. That was bad for the tree, the street and the sidewalk.

“Right tree, right spot,” asserted Specialist Ellen Roane of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Urban Forestry Program

In other words, indiscriminate plantings often lead to complications later.

Indeed, some trees are better equipped to handle the stress of urban environments, and more specifically, each tree has its own microenvironment to deal with. Power lines are a big problem, limiting a tree’s maximum height. The once-popular Callery pear species, including the ubiquitous Bradford pear, has turned out to be prone to splitting, and it’s invasive. The city’s tree-up plan increases the diversity as well as the number of trees.

Another 50 pin oaks, given by an anonymous donor, will be planted along Front Street and Riverfront Park, where many existing trees “need some care,” said Taylor. Many others there must come down because “they have been, shall we say, sick for some time and are not in the best of health.”

This is a fight with no end. Victory comes through maintenance and vigilance, tree experts said. Everyone gets a feel-good rush from planting trees, but maintenance in the early years is crucial to assuring survival. Urban trees need a little nudging and pruning to assure they grow straight and have a single growth “leader,” instead of multiple leaders that grow simultaneously and make the tree prone to splitting.

“A large, mature shade tree’s potential lifespan is 80 to 100 years if it’s in a good location and properly cared for,” said Roane. “We’re trying to get (municipalities) to think about planting every year, and even more, pruning trees they’ve got and removing some. They don’t live forever.”

Clear Winner

Some municipalities have Shade Tree Commissions—state-sanctioned citizen panels that monitor and encourage tree affairs—but Harrisburg has a Tree Advisory Committee, a group of volunteers focused on urban forestry.

Members work on the ground, often taking courses offered by Tree Tenders, a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society program that teaches the basics of tree planting and care. They also work with the city on planning and tree selection, and they helped revise a tree ordinance now under city review to strengthen regulatory options. Committee Chair Pat Buckley hopes that a soon-to-be-hired city arborist will keep the city’s tree inventory, dating to 2013, updated so the committee can target areas of greatest need.

On the neighborhood level, Friends of Midtown has its own “Street Trees for Midtown” project, boosted by a $1,575 TreeVitalize grant from DCNR, in partnership with the Pennsylvania Urban and Community Forestry Council. Currently, the group is raising matching funds so it can plant 15 trees this spring. Following Roane’s mantra, all are “right tree, right spot,” a range of maple, oak and locust types that offer durability and growth that provides shade quickly “but not catastrophically.”

“I would love to have 15 more people come at me for next spring and the spring after that,” said Friends of Midtown Beautification Committee Co-Chair Rachel Reese. “What I really want is for people to continue to express their interest.”

The Midtown planting is planned for April 28, depending on weather.

Some homeowners “politely decline” to have trees planted in front of their homes, said Roane, but most “like being able to look out at a tree.”

“If the homeowners can keep them watered, we’re going to work with a cadre of Tree Tenders to keep them pruned,” said Reese. “We can prune so they’re not always being whacked by parked cars, or there aren’t limbs blocking pedestrians. If the trees are being watered and mulched, we can prune every three or five years as they establish themselves.”

Also in the fight is Capital Region Water, which is developing its City Beautiful H2O storm water management plan. In community meetings for the plan, green infrastructure emerged as “a clear winner” among available options, said Community Outreach Manager Andrew Bliss.

“People were overwhelmingly interested, and it makes sense, where it’s cost effective, to invest in green projects rather than going underground,” he said.

Even greening with grass doesn’t prevent storm water from running wild, he said. Tree leaves hold and scatter rain as it falls and roots “infiltrate” it into the ground. Initial projects, sort of “early action” demonstrations, include greening at 13th and Market streets and streetscaping at 14th and Derry streets in conjunction with Tri County Community Action.

“This is stuff we’ve been talking about for the last two years,” said Bliss. “We felt we really needed to show what we’re talking about.”

CRW is also partnering with the city on green “bumpouts” for the 3rd Street overhaul, and it is funding street tree plantings at some residences, where the homeowners will be required to perform maintenance.

Harrisburg’s Taylor lauded the cooperation he’s witnessed among city officials, residents and community organizations to care for the city’s trees.

“All entities are working together to make sure our tree population is not only sustainable but continues to grow,” he said. “It’s a beautiful city in the summer. We want to maintain that and continue that growth.”

For information on upcoming Tree Tenders workshops, visit www.extension.psu.edu/tree-tenders.

To find out more about Friends of Midtown’s tree-planting efforts, visit www.friendsofmidtown.org.

To volunteer with the city’s tree efforts, email Ronald Taylor at rltaylor@harrisburgpa.gov.

To learn the species of tree outside your house, visit www.opentreemap.org/patreemap/map.

Stories on environmental topics are proudly sponsored by LCSWMA.

December News Digest

December 29, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda and Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg Finalizes Budget

Harrisburg last month passed a 2018 budget did not raise city tax rates, but added a number of new salaried positions and approved millions of dollars in capital investments.

The final budget did not differ much from that proposed by Mayor Eric Papenfuse in late November, which leveraged higher revenue from a growing tax base to increase the city’s operating budget from $61 million last year to $65 million in 2018. The city will also spend $9.2 million from its cash reserves, which will cover a $2 million debt payment and $7.2 million in capital improvement projects.

Expenditures in 2018 will increase in two main categories: personnel and capital projects.

On the personnel front, the city budgeted for $32.5 million in salaries compared to $31 million in 2017. That figure, which excludes healthcare costs, will create seven new management positions and two new sanitation positions. The budget permits the Fire Bureau to make five hires and the Police Bureau to recruit 20 new officers.

The additional personnel funds will also increase salaries for two positions in the law bureau and award raises to sanitation workers represented by the AFSCME union.

The city defines a capital project as any expenditure exceeding $5,000. In 2018, proposed capital projects include $1 million on new radios and patrol cars for police, $700,000 for work on the 15th Street police substation and $80,000 for police body cameras. About $450,000 will go towards renovating city playgrounds, and projects to renovate Reservoir Park will receive almost $1 million thanks to a last minute cash transfer by Council.

Composting Plan to Proceed

Harrisburg intends to move ahead with plans to build a composting facility in Susquehanna Township, despite continued opposition from some township residents.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse said that the city will apply for a facility permit with the state Department of Environmental Protection this month. If DEP grants the permit, which Papenfuse believes it will, the city will begin to convert the site to a compost facility.

City officials have campaigned to build a composting facility at 1850 Stanley Rd. since summer 2017. After they were met with fierce opposition from some residents in Susquehanna Township, they agreed to delay the permit application until they had more public support. Over the following months they hosted informational sessions and visits to comparable sites to teach residents about composting.

Papenfuse made his final pitch at a township board of commissioners meeting last month, at which several township residents expressed opposition. Nonetheless, he said he believes the project has won enough support in the community to proceed.

“There’s a handful of people from the neighborhood who oppose it, but it’s not overwhelming,” he said.

Papenfuse told the crowd that composting leaves and lawn waste—which essentially involves letting the material decompose into the ground—does not carry any risks to humans, soil or water sources.

Some residents claimed that the facility would create odors or mar neighborhood views. Others worried about noise from the machinery and increased traffic from the Public Works Department trucks that transport the waste.

Papenfuse assured residents that the site would be unobtrusive when it opens. Public Works vehicles will use mostly Harrisburg roads to get to the site, and employees will operate the machinery on a limited, set schedule.

Allison Hill Substation

The Harrisburg Police Bureau is on track to open a police substation in Allison Hill in late summer 2018, but officials said last month that it would not be open around the clock.

During a hearing on the 2018 budget, Police Chief Tom Carter and Capt. Derric Moody told City Council that the substation will not operate 24/7 or have civilian staff when it opens in August.

Police may expand operations at the substation as they grow their ranks. The city hopes to hire 20 new officers and a community policing coordinator next year.

“Our goal is to have full service there, but, realistically speaking, we can’t currently achieve that with the manpower we have,” Moody said.

The plan is to use the substation as a staging area for specialized police units and an outpost for officers responding to calls in Allison Hill. The 1,600-square-foot building on S. 15th Street will include a space for police trainings and community meetings, as well as a squad room, break room, equipment room and locker room with showers.

It will also have an area for a receptionist, though there are currently no plans to hire one. Members of the public will be able to enter the substation for public meetings or interviews with police officers, but will not have access the same administrative services as the Public Safety headquarters downtown.

“We’re trying to provide a central location for officers,” Moody said.

Act 47 to Continue

Harrisburg is likely to spend another three years in the state’s Act 47 program for financially distressed municipalities, according to a state advisor who oversees the city’s finances.

Marita Kelly, Harrisburg’s Act 47 coordinator for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, last month praised the city’s “many achievements” since it entered Act 47 in 2011.

However, she believes that the city will not be able to afford to exit the program at the end of 2018, when it becomes eligible. While it would regain independent financial oversight, it would stand to lose some $13 million in revenue without the extra taxing authority allowed under the program.

Kelly added that Harrisburg has avoided some of the problems that plague other third-class cities across the state, such as difficulty financing legacy payments—healthcare and benefit payments for current and retired employees.

Bruce Weber, the city’s budget and finance director, reported that two of the city’s pension accounts are fully funded, but a third fund for police pensions is causing some concern.

“We only have one that’s slightly in distress,” Weber said. “We are contributing to it every year.”

Kelly will make a formal recommendation for Harrisburg’s Act 47 status in March. The only condition that would enable the city to exit the program would be a change to the third-class city code or a set of special taxing provisions for the city approved by the state legislature.

County Taxes Hold Steady

The Dauphin County commissioners last month passed a 2018 budget that keeps property taxes steady for a 13th consecutive year.

The three-person board passed a $241 million budget that contains no increase in the county portion of the property tax, which will remain unchanged at 6.876 mills.

The county does expect to spend more than it takes in for 2018, but plans to use as much as $12.5 million in reserve funds to make up the shortfall. The county stated that it still expects to have a reserve fund balance of about $25 million by the end of 2018.

Last year, Dauphin County also balanced its budget by dipping into its reserve fund. It estimated that it would spend $12.5 million in reserves, but will only spend about $5.2 million by year-end, according to current county estimates.

The county stated that it will add funds to the county coroner’s office in 2018 to deal with the rise in opioid-related deaths. Last year, there were 85 overdose deaths in the county, but the coroner expects more than 100 by Dec. 31.

Sewer Projects Begin

Capital Region Water began a new round of sewer replacement and improvements last moth, affecting several neighborhoods in Harrisburg.

Andrew Bliss, community outreach manager, said CRW is staggering the $700,000 project through the end of January. In all, CRW will repair more than 800 feet of aging and broken sewer mains and manholes at five locations.

The individual projects are:

– Mid-December to early January
S. 13^th Street, between Market Street and Howard Street
New manhole, 18 feet of new sewer pipe

– End of December to early January
Cameron and Market streets
Spray on concrete liner, 18-inch sewer pipe

– Early January to end of January
Magnolia Street between Cameron and 12^th streets
New manhole on Cameron Street, pipe lining

– Mid-January to end of January
Derry Street between 13^th and 14^th Streets
New manhole, 13 feet of pipe, pipe lining

– Mid-January to end of January
Fulton and Hamilton streets
New manhole connection

Potential impacts of the construction include street closures, parking restrictions, construction noise and temporary sewer service interruptions. When the pipe replacement is complete, the road will be temporarily patched until final street restoration is completed in the spring of 2018, Bliss said.

Customers with questions can contact Capital Region Water by phone at 888-510-0606 or by email at info@capitalregionwater.com.

So Noted

Harrisburg School Board last month tabled a motion on whether to search for a new school district superintendent. The board is expected to revisit the issue again later this year, as Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney’s contract expires in June.

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology last month unveiled its new, expanded campus in central Philadelphia. HU is sharing the 38,000 square feet of space at 1500 Spring Garden St. with Hussian College.

Harrisburg Young Professionals last month selected Suzanne Patackis as president of the 2018 executive board, replacing outgoing President Joe Tertel. HYP also announced that Jeff Copus and Adeolu Bakare will serve as co-vice presidents, Brittany Brock as secretary and Jeremy Scheibelhut as treasurer.

UPMC Pinnacle last month named Dr. James Raczek as its new chief medical officer. In that role, Raczek leads quality and safety programs, medical education and medical staff relationships and contributes to strategic planning and implementation.

Changing Hands

Barkley Lane, 2502: US Bank National Assoc. to S. Vetock, $32,000

Barkley Lane, 2507: R.C. Medellin to R. Medellin, $48,000

Boas St., 406: A. Heisey to S. Higginbotham, $115,000

Briggs St., 270: M. Ennis to E. & A. Williams, $228,000

Brookwood St., 2435: R. House to I. & K. Mita, $56,000

Calder St., 262: J. Goldberg to R. Yaegle, $118,000

Calder St., 500: W. Tatar to S. Hoffman, $125,000

Conoy St., 115: A. & C. Stoudt to R. Rodino, $145,000

Conoy St., 121: A. Spisask to K. Russell, $92,500

Cumberland St., 214: D. & E. Zampogna to M. Santalucia, $141,000

Fulton St., 1709: J. Ganeva to C. Messner, $110,000

Green St., 1624: K. Lewis to P. & M. Rowan, $192,000

Green St., 1817: T. & L. Sopcak to B. Scelta, $129,000

Green St., 1826: D. & J. Kalbach to D. Ober, $165,000

Industrial Rd., 3300: Pennsylvania Terminals Corp. to 3300 Industrial Road Associates LP, $865,000

Market St., 1923: K. Griffith to D. Thomas, $70,000

Mercer St., 2430: PA Deals LLC to R. Buehner, $63,900

Mercer St., 2464: C. Hobbs to T. & J. Knaub, $60,000

North St., 232: E. Finkelstein to G. Kramer, $125,000

N. 2^nd St., 812: A. Meoli to Diocese of Harrisburg, $212,000

N. 2^nd St., 2234: Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. to C. Eisner, $43,200

N. 2^nd St., 2527: GRSW Stewart Real Estate Trust to K. & D. Maltzie, $174,000

N. 2^nd St., 3211: E. & J. Daschbach to K. McRae, $99,900

N. 3^rd St., 925: D. Bobinchek & 921 Home LLC to 921 Home LLC, $105,000

N. 3^rd St., 2340: T. Wadlinger to D. & S. Houck, $168,265

N. 5^th St., 2736: PA Deals LLC to MidAtlantic IR LLC & Jennifer Fernandes IRA, $63,000

N. 13^th St., 139: Falco Inc. to Round the Horn LLC, $45,000

N. 16^th St., 914: J. & H. Wilbur to JB2 Properties LLC, $59,900

N. 16^th St., 916: PA Deals LLC to Z. Kissinger, $69,900

N. 17^th St., 1122: MBHH RE LLC to S. Garcia, $31,000

Peffer St., 228: N. & L. Chohany to B. Matuszny, $173,000

Peffer St., 263: Members 1^st Federal Credit Union to E. Patry, $49,900

Penn St., 1715: S. Dunn to BencMarq Holdings LLC, $77,001

Pennwood Rd., 3160: J. & M. Bush to T. Wylie, $150,000

Rumson Dr., 2983: C. Shenk to J. Jones, $69,000

S. 14^th St., 314: J. Reichwein to E. & B. Katz, $62,000

S. 14^th St., 1415: D. Fahie to City of Harrisburg, $47,000

S. 14^th St., 1419: H. & C. Pollard to City of Harrisburg, $50,000

S. 14^th St., 1439: R. & S. Dighe to City of Harrisburg, $50,000

S. 16^th St., 435: M. Bui to L. DiGiacomo & M. Ganci, $48,000

S. 17^th St., 140: Allison Hill Partners LLC to Hamilton Health Center Inc., $250,000

S. River St., 304: D. Havior to D. Ogden & Pear Tree Revocable Trust, $40,000

State St., 1406: R. & A. Sharp to JRC Properties, $80,000

Susquehanna St., 1614: J. & S. DeMuro to S. Brandon & L. Fisher, $152,000

Susquehanna St., 1701: R. Ambrose to R. Covington & T. Pean, $137,000

Susquehanna St., 1711: Susquehanna Valley Properties to N. DeMuro, $113,000

Harrisburg property sales for November 2017, greater than $30,000. Source: Dauphin County. Data is assumed to be accurate

Capital Region Water Set to Start 5 Projects in Harrisburg

December 12, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

Capital Region Water at work installing new pipes on Green Street in Harrisburg last winter.

Capital Region Water will begin a new round of sewer replacement and improvements next week, affecting several neighborhoods in Harrisburg.

Andrew Bliss, community outreach manager, said CRW will stagger the $700,000 project through the end of January. In all, CRW will repair more than 800 feet of aging and broken sewer mains and manholes at five locations.

The individual projects are:

Mid-December to early January
S. 13^th Street, between Market Street and Howard Street
New manhole, 18 feet of new sewer pipe

End of December to early January
Cameron and Market streets
Spray on concrete liner, 18-inch sewer pipe

Early January to end of January
Magnolia Street between Cameron and 12^th streets
New manhole on Cameron Street, pipe lining

Mid-January to end of January
Derry Street between 13^th and 14^th Streets
New manhole, 13 feet of pipe, pipe lining

Mid-January to end of January
Fulton and Hamilton streets
New manhole connection

Construction hours will be Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“Every business, office and resident in Harrisburg relies on our sewer system every day,” said CRW board Chairman Marc Kurowski. “These critical repairs will help ensure reliable wastewater service for the next several decades.”

Customers with questions can contact Capital Region Water by phone at 888-510-0606 or by email at info@capitalregionwater.com.

Water Work: CRW starts main replacement project.

October 4, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

Capital Region Water announced today that it has kicked off a $830,000 water main improvement project.

The project will install 2,915 feet of 6-inch diameter water main to improve water quality, service reliability and flow for fire protection in Harrisburg, Penbrook and Susquehanna Township, according to CRW.

Potential impacts of this construction include street closures, parking restrictions, construction noise, temporary water service interruption and temporary roadway patching, CRW said. Project locations are:

Swatara Street between 21st Street and 22nd Street, Harrisburg
Hoffer Lane between 28th Street and Market Street, Penbrook
Hoffer Street between 28th Street and Market Street, Penbrook
Motter Street between Hoffer Street and Boas Street, Penbrook
Shell Street between Schoolhouse Lane and Rustic Drive, Susquehanna Township
Locust Alley between Cloverfield Road and N. 39th Street, Susquehanna Township
Rauch Street between Sterling Alley and Plainview Street, Susquehanna Township

Construction already has began at the first location at Hoffer Street between Market and 28th Street, said Andrew Bliss, CRW community outreach manager. He said all pipes will be installed by year-end, with final street restoration in the spring.

Construction hours will be Monday to Friday, 7 a,m, to 5 p.m. This project will not require access to customers’ homes, and additional details will be provided to properties adjacent to the project locations in advance through door-to-door outreach, said CRW.

“This project is just one example of Capital Region Water’s proactive efforts to provide the highest quality water and reliable service while operating our system efficiently,” said CRW board Chairman Marc Kurowski. “We appreciate our customers’ patience while these improvements are made.”

Customers with questions can contact CRW by phone at 888-510-0606 or by email at info@capitalregionwater.com.

Drink Up: Volunteer crews head to the DeHart Reservoir this weekend to protect Harrisburg’s drinking water source.

May 16, 2017 | by Allison Moody

Volunteers will visit the DeHart Dam and Reservoir this Saturday for DeHart Day.

Volunteers get the chance to see where Harrisburg’s drinking water comes this Saturday at Capital Region Water’s second annual DeHart Day at the DeHart Reservoir property in Dauphin County.

Located about 25 miles north of Harrisburg in Clarks Valley, the 6-billion-gallon DeHart Reservoir provides the city’s potable water. Volunteers will collect litter, tour the property and eat a pizza lunch at the free event.

“DeHart Day is our opportunity to show our customers firsthand where their drinking water comes from, the work that goes into safeguarding the pristine DeHart Reservoir, and what they can do to protect this valuable resource,” Capital Region Water CEO Shannon Gority said in a prepared statement.

The event begins at 9 a.m. at the DeHart Reservoir property. Attendees will spend the morning gathering litter from a segment of Route 325, CRW’s adopted highway that runs adjacent to the reservoir.

At 11 a.m., attendees will receive a free lunch from Dauphin Pizza and a tour of the DeHart Dam and Reservoir. The event gives Harrisburg residents a rare opportunity to tour the secured facility’s inner workings.

CRW will provide transportation to the reservoir from its customer service center at 100 Pine Dr., Harrisburg, leaving promptly at 8:30 a.m. T-shirts will be provided.

“We didn’t want transportation to be a barrier for anyone to participate, because obviously the DeHart facility is not in the city,” said Tanya Dierolf, CRW sustainability manager.

The first annual DeHart Day in 2016 had 40 participants, and organizers expect attendance to rise this year. This growth in popularity has positive effects, said Dierolf, but the event has a registration limit for safety and logistical reasons.

“Because we do have people on the road, we have to be very careful,” she said. “Safety is paramount.”

CRW took over Harrisburg’s drinking water, wastewater and storm water systems in late 2013 as part of the city’s financial recovery plan.

DeHart Day falls into CRW’s greater effort to protect the reservoir and surrounding forest. Last fall, it gave up development rights to preserve the DeHart Reservoir area.

So far, CRW has permanently preserved almost 4,000 of the property’s 8,200 acres by partnering with Fort Indiantown Gap, the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation and the Nature Conservancy.

While CRW receives financial compensation for giving up these rights, “it does provide us the opportunity to continue owning and operating as we have been,” said Dierolf.

Capital Region Water also hosts monthly “Two-Minute Tuesdays” in partnership with local volunteer coalition Clean and Green Harrisburg.

“DeHart day is protecting the source of our drinking water,” said CRW community outreach manager Andrew Bliss. “This Two-Minute Tuesday cleanup is more about protecting our local waterways and our local infrastructure here in Harrisburg.”

One Tuesday a month, CRW uses social media to post about litter clean up in Harrisburg. Later that day, representatives go into a Harrisburg neighborhood, knock on doors and try to get as many volunteers as they can to participate in a 30-minute litter cleanup in their area.

“It’s amazing how much you can really clean up in just 30 minutes,” Bliss said.

May’s Two-Minute Tuesday will be held in the area of 13^th and Walnut streets at 5:30 p.m. on May 16.

Registration for DeHart Day 2017 closes today. To register, visit https://capitalregionwater.com/dehartday/#sthash.MhwScxk7.dpbs.

Author: Allison Moody

Going Green: Capital Region Water unveils a green solution for city’s storm water problem

December 7, 2016 | by Danielle Roth

Capital Region Water Community Outreach Manager Andrew Bliss speaks with a resident about CRW’s storm water plan.

Harrisburg’s water infrastructure has a problem that affects nearly every resident.

When even moderate rain falls, the combined sewer system overflows. This overflow causes storm water to mingle with sewage, which leads to pollution and flooding caused by system backups.

On Tuesday, Capital Region Water released a draft of its long-term community greening plan to address these storm water issues. It’s called “City Beautiful H20,” a play on words from the City Beautiful movement, which added parks, sewers and basic infrastructure to turn-of-the-century Harrisburg.

“We want to be a community-driven plan,” said City Beautiful H20 Program Manager Claire Maulhardt. “We are 100 percent behind that statement. We want projects to happen organically and in the aesthetic that the city want to happen.”

Green infrastructure uses nature as a model to filter storm water. Streets lined with specially designed trees, planters and pervious surfaces filter and reduce storm water runoff. Business and residential property owners are also encouraged to plant rain gardens and install vegetation on their roofs. Larger businesses and institutions might install wetlands, basins or bioswales, a down-sloped landscape installation, to filter the storm water, according to the draft.

Starting next year, three pilot projects will kick off City Beautiful H20, Maulhardt said.

In the draft, a rain garden, two storm water planters and porous basketball courts will be installed at the 4^th and Dauphin playground near the Pennsylvania National Fire Museum. A bioswale will remove pollution from the runoff water. Along N. 6^th Street, storm water planters, rain gardens and a storm water storage trench are planned for the Camp Curtin YMCA and the adjacent block.

Jamien Harvey, executive director of the Camp Curtin YMCA and member of CRW’s community ambassador workgroup, said the proposed draft will “build what’s been the cornerstone of this neighborhood.”

“The environment we raise our kids in is crucial,” Harvey said. “They deserve the best of everything.”

The third project features water bump outs, rain gardens, tree trenches and a community garden in the Summit Terrace neighborhood along N. 12^th and N. 13^th streets.

Maulhardt said partnerships with existing community organizations and community input led to the decision for choosing these three pilot projects.

“We want the community to drive what they want to see,” Maulhardt said. “Our vision is to be a key facilitator in helping find partnerships, link it up with potential funding and be that player in moving the pieces around to make projects happen.”

Funds from CRW’s 2017 rate increase and grants will support the three pilot projects. CRW also is developing a fee system to support long-term storm water management.

CRW Community Outreach Manager Andrew Bliss said the community voted for a fee that reflects the amount of storm water a property generates, which would incentivize green infrastructure. Bliss said CRW will work to educate the community before any fee is decided on or implemented.

CRW’s board will review The City Beautiful H20 Community Greening draft later this month before moving forward with projects.

“This [draft] is a snapshot of the process that we’ve been going through the last 18 months,” she said. “We will continue to update this. It’s a living document”

To learn more about Capital Region Water’s City Beautiful 2.0 Community Greening Plan draft, visit https://capitalregionwater.com/cbh2o/#sthash.4m3xRick.dpbs To provide input on the draft, visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YYGQVV8 or attend the next meeting on Dec. 15, 6 to 8 p.m., at the Lincoln School, 1601 State Street.

Author: Lawrance Binda

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