Sinkholes badly damaged these 53 homes on the 1400-block of S. 14th Street in 2014.
Harrisburg will move forward with purchasing houses devastated by sinkholes, even though the city hasn’t yet received the funds into its coffers.
Last night, City Council voted unanimously to move forward with the purchase of 53 of S. 14th Street properties while it still waits to officially receive federal and state grants.
At the meeting, council President Wanda Williams announced that the city received two letters yesterday from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), which said that the city soon will receive two grants, one for $2.5 million and the other for $600,000, for the sinkhole project.
“You will soon receive one copy of the grant agreement for this buy-out project,” read the letters from Stephen Bekanich, director of PEMA’s Bureau of Recovery and Mitigation.
The city received this letter from FEMA in September.
Acting on a letter, rather than a grant agreement, means that the city will front the $2.2-million project cost before a May 31 deadline while it waits to be reimbursed by PEMA and the state Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), which are acting as conduits for federal grants.
“We are doing this based on a letter, not a grant agreement,” Mayor Eric Papenfuse said, describing the risk involved.
He said the city is still waiting for the official agreement from the state, which both parties must sign.
“The city is not sitting on any money,” Papenfuse said. “We do not have a grant agreement.”
In September, the city received a letter from PEMA, which approved $2.2 million of federal and state funds for the sinkhole mitigation project. The city must spend this money by a May 31 deadline in order to be reimbursed for up to $2.2 million.
With the upcoming deadline, the city likely won’t be able spend, and be reimbursed for, the full $2.2 million on both phase 1 and 2 of the project, which covers the acquisition and demolition of these properties.
Federal Housing and Urban Development Agency funds for phase two, which would cover the demolition of the 14th Street houses, hang in limbo as the Trump administration has targeted the grant program in its draft budget.
“This is an example of a national election
The city received these letters from PEMA on March 27.
affecting local municipalities,” Papenfuse said.
DCED, the state agency that distributes HUD grants, acted under certain assumptions with grant funds under the Obama administration, said city Budget and Finance Director Bruce Weber.
“Those assumptions have changed,” Weber said.
In the worst-case scenario, the city would end up owning an empty city block without being able to demolish it, Papenfuse said. Council considered this risk before voting to move forward with this project tonight, he said.
“Basically, [this is] a promise we made to these folks,” he said.
At last night’s meeting, Papenfuse also discussed with reporters a new contract with the city’s Bureau of Police.
This contract, approved by the rank and file on Friday by an 89-7 vote, includes salary increases for all officers. In six months, officers will receive .5-percent increase. Six months after that, officers will see another .5-percent raise. Then officers will receive a 1-percent annual raise for the next four years, Papenfuse said.
The new contract also gives $1,500 bonuses for current officers as a “thank you for sticking with the city,” Papenfuse said.
“They have been working short-staffed for years, and they’ve suffered for that,” he said.
The bonuses come from 2016 funds slated for officer positions that were left unfilled, Weber said.
Under the contact, officers also will receive a day off for their birthday, which was “important symbolically,” Papenfuse said.
The contact also includes incentives for young police officers to stay with the force, Papenfuse said.
If a police officer leaves the bureau for another police department, he or she will have to give back training costs to the city. This “clawback” comes at $1,000 per year for up to five years, Papenfuse said.
Young police officers can more easily climb experienced-based salary jumps with this new contract, as well. The contract eliminated one rung of a five-part ladder to a top-level position, Papenfuse said.
A top-level patrol officer receives $62,591 while a trainee receives $46,943, according to the city budget.
These two items aim to prevent young officers from receiving training in the city then leaving for high-paying officer positions in the rest of the state, Papenfuse said.
This contract, if approved by council, means “four years of labor peace with the Police Bureau,” Papenfuse said.
“[This is a] clear sign there is more confidence in the future direction of our city,” Papenfuse said, adding that the city and labor union negotiated the contract without help from the state.
Also last night, City Council approved an insurance reimbursement for two pistols stolen from the National Civil War Museum. The city transferred the $175,000 received from the insurance company into a fund slated for Reservoir Park.
“This will be a nest egg we can use when they release the Reservoir Park master plan,” Papenfuse said, adding that the funds could be used to obtain matching grant funds.
Consultants are creating a master plan for the park’s future, which is slated to be released later this year, Papenfuse said.
The city purchased the two pistols that once belonged to President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War and Harrisburg native Simon Cameron in the 1990s for about $250,000, Papenfuse said. They were stolen from the museum about a year ago.
This story was updated at 12:30 p.m. to include details about a May 31 deadline for spending $2.2 million on phase 1 and 2 of the sinkhole project.
Author: Danielle Roth
