Tag Archives: Mayor Eric Papenfuse

Sinkhole Report: Fractures Extend into Larger Area of South Harrisburg

December 10, 2014 | by Paul Barker

$A site plan from the most recent engineer's report on sinkhole activity in south Harrisburg, showing potential fracture lines and potential voids in the soil underneath the survey area.$

A site plan from the most recent engineer’s report on sinkhole activity in south Harrisburg, showing potential fracture lines and potential voids in the soil underneath the survey area.

A second engineering report of sinkhole potential in south Harrisburg shows additional areas of concern, in a region that a city official described as “fragile, but not unstable.”

The report, prepared by Camp Hill-based engineering firm Gannett Fleming, is based on an expanded survey of the surrounding neighborhood, as opposed to the single city block that was studied in a prior report.

The prior report, released in August, showed evidence of five fractures in the limestone bedrock and several potential voids beneath the 1400-block of S. 14^th Street, where a series of sinkholes opened in March.

For the latest report, engineers surveyed an expanded area bounded by S. 12^th Street to the west, Scott Street to the east, Hanover Street to the north and Cloverly Terrace and S. 13^th Street to the south, a neighborhood encompassing some 200 buildings, most of them single-family homes.

The latest report shows evidence that previously detected fractures extend across the larger area and also introduces evidence of possible additional fractures and voids throughout the neighborhood.

Limestone fractures can contribute to the formation of voids beneath the street surface, as soil subsides into openings in the rock. The voids can eventually migrate towards the surface, causing the street to collapse and sinkholes to open.

On Wednesday, city officials were quick to emphasize that the new report did not significantly change the status quo. “I don’t think the study changes the dynamics at all,” Mayor Eric Papenfuse said.

City Engineer Wayne Martin said that the report showed the area was “fragile, but not unstable,” adding that the city had determined it was safe to keep roads in the neighborhood open.

City Council will hold a public meeting to discuss the new report at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 22, at the public works building at 1820 Paxton Street. Councilwoman Sandra Reid, who chairs council’s public works committee, will host the meeting, council members confirmed at their legislative session Tuesday night.

The August report concluded that the “potential for future sinkhole activity” was “high” in the affected block of S. 14^th Street. The more recent study does not offer a conclusion about the likelihood of future sinkholes, although it does end with a handful of suggestions about ways to prevent them or to mitigate them if they occur.

The August report relied on site observations, drill samples and multi-channel analysis of surface waves, or MASW, a method of creating and measuring seismic waves to detect likely fractures and voids underground.

The latest report relied on site observations and an MASW survey, but did not include drilling for samples. Both reports also tapped historical records, including aerial photographs showing the development of the neighborhood over the years.

Meanwhile, the city has continued its efforts to address the more immediate problems facing residents of S. 14^th Street, where sinkhole activity has continued. Since March, the city has declared 10 homes on the block unfit for human habitation, according to Dave Patton, the city’s codes administrator.

Martin said the city hopes to submit an application this week to the county for $1 million in disaster relief funds. The city has already sent in a notice of intent to apply for an additional $3 million in federal disaster relief funds, he said.

Together, those applications would seek to secure the $4 million it would take to mitigate the problem on S. 14^th Street, according to an estimate provided in a third report by Gannett Fleming issued earlier this year.

The mitigation efforts will likely entail a combination of buying out certain homeowners and reconstructing the street, Martin said.

There was some question as to why Harrisburg officials did not publicize the report until Wednesday, two weeks after it was sent to the city, and only after the topic was raised during public comment at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

The mayor addressed this question Wednesday morning, saying there was “no decision to hold the report,” but that the city was simply “looking for a time to hold a public meeting.”

“It’s complicated,” the mayor said of the report, adding that the best way to inform the public was to have the document explained at a hearing by an engineer.

The choice of date for the hearing was left to the discretion of council’s public works chair, the mayor said. “We would have been happy to have met sooner,” he said.

You can download the complete Gannett Fleming report here: Expanded Sinkhole Investigation, 11/25/14. For the site plan of the neighborhood, click here: Sinkhole Report – Neighborhood Site Plan.

This story has been updated to provide a time and address for the public works committee meeting, which will take place Dec. 22 at 5:30 p.m. at 1820 Paxton St.

For Parkers, Pango Offers Convenience And Coupons—For A Fee

December 9, 2014 | by Paul Barker

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse, center, with scissors, cuts the ribbon at the unveiling of Pango's mobile app service in Harrisburg Tuesday morning.

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse, with scissors, cuts the ribbon at the unveiling of Pango’s mobile app service in Harrisburg Tuesday morning.

Starting today, drivers looking to park their cars in Harrisburg can use a mobile app to do it, thanks to a contract between the city’s new parking operators and Pango USA, a company that offers some form of the pay-by-phone service in several Pennsylvania municipalities.

The app, which is free to download, will require customers to establish an account and to register a method of payment. Once the account is established, a customer can purchase parking with a few taps of the thumb.

For each transaction, Pango will charge customers an additional 14 cents on top of the regular cost of parking. The service is optional and will not replace the city’s meters, Neil Edwards, president of the company’s U.S. operations, said.

Pango unveiled the new parking service Tuesday morning, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony inside and on the street outside Arooga’s along downtown Harrisburg’s restaurant row.

The choice of a restaurant was deliberate, as the app will include coupon and parking validation features that Pango says should help entice customers, offsetting the increase in hourly rates that many businesses fear are driving people away.

Businesses will be able to purchase bundles of validation codes, Edwards said, which can then be passed on to customers as a reward for making a certain amount of purchases. They can also submit coupons that will be exclusively available to Pango customers, and only redeemable while a car is actually parked, he said.

Though the app is free, customers will also be able to add extra features, such as an automatic alert by text 15 minutes before parking expires, for a monthly fee.

At Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting, Mayor Eric Papenfuse touted Pango as a “new and wonderful app” that would “make it both easy and fun to park” while simultaneously providing a benefit to local businesses.

Papenfuse said that his own business, the Midtown Scholar Bookstore, would be offering validations good for one hour of free parking on purchases of $25 or more.

As of Tuesday’s ceremony, the mayor’s bookstore was one of only two businesses offering validations, though Edwards said there would be “four or five” with similar offers by the end of the day and, he hoped, “30 or 40 by the end of the month.”

As an incentive for drivers to sign up for the service, Pango is also offering five hours of free parking to new customers for each car they register.

An individual account can be attached to multiple users and cars, Dani Shavit, Pango’s executive vice president, said.

Customers without smartphones will also be able to use the service, either by calling a hotline or by sending a text. Details about the various ways to use the service are available at the company’s website, Mypango.com.

Standard Parking, which became the new operator of Harrisburg parking after a long-term lease was signed last year as part of the city’s debt solution, had originally contemplated contracting with a different company, Parkmobile, for a version of the pay-by-phone service.

But Pango was able to offer a lower price and a wider range of features, Edwards said, and was ultimately selected out of a handful of possible providers.

Harrisburg’s 14-cent transaction fee is higher than Pango’s price in at least some other Pennsylvania municipalities. In the city of Butler, for instance, where Pango is available in two garages, Pango charges 10 cents per transient parking transaction and $1 for processing the purchase of a $50 monthly permit.

In Scranton, where Pango is available for on-street parking, drivers are not charged any transaction fee at all, since the city opted to pay Pango 5 percent of all receipts, forgoing the option of a 10-cent fee charged to drivers altogether.

“We didn’t want to ‘penalize’ parkers for the use of the system,” David Bulzoni, Scranton’s business administrator, said in an email.

Edwards said the company hoped to have between one-fifth and one-quarter of all parking customers in Harrisburg purchasing parking through Pango in the first year. In Scranton, where the service became available in May 2013, the app was used in about 16 percent of transactions, he said.

Pango USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pango Mobile Parking, Ltd., a venture-backed company headquartered in Israel.

The company website claims the service is available in “over 59 cities,” with “more than 1 million active accounts.” Its operations have recently expanded into Brazil.

According to a 2013 company press release, the Pango system is based on patents registered in several countries, among them a U.S. patent awarded in 1999.

A drawing accompanying that patent application details a rudimentary network connecting a customer—by way of mobile phone, payphone or computer terminal—to a central database that subsequently relays information to law enforcement.

The drawing, which predated mobile apps by a decade, is far from imagining a world where a driver could purchase parking by tapping an icon with her thumb. And it doesn’t make any mention of coupons like the Midtown Scholar Bookstore discount which, as of Tuesday, was one of only two coupons available to Harrisburg parkers.

“The mayor is a small-business owner,” Edwards said of Papenfuse, who owns the Midtown Scholar, in a phone interview prior to Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting. “I really connected with him on this level. The ability to have coupons or give free parking—that’s a real benefit. It turns parking into an asset instead of just a necessary evil.”

Pango will be hosting an additional information session about its app at Arooga’s tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec. 10, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Mayor Previews 2015 Spending Plan: Balanced Budget, No Tax Hike, More Police and Firefighters

November 25, 2014 | by Paul Barker

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse. (File photo.)

Mayor Eric Papenfuse plans to propose a balanced 2015 budget that will include a $2 million investment in sanitation, nearly $250,000 in staff raises and the hiring of 14 additional public safety personnel, but no tax increases, according to remarks the mayor made during a “sneak peek” of the budget this afternoon.

The budget, which Papenfuse will present to City Council tonight at 6 p.m., projects general fund revenues of $59,370,699 and general fund expenditures of $59,359,748, a decrease of about $100,000 each from last year’s respective totals.

The 2015 budget, Papenfuse said, contains “no gimmicks,” a reference to a multimillion-dollar “plug” that was used to balance the 2014 budget without cutting certain unfunded, though vacant, positions.

The budget also commits the city to greater transparency, he said, by replacing several hundreds of thousands of dollars in off-book discretionary accounts with dedicated funds subject to oversight by City Council.

Papenfuse will also propose hiring 14 new public safety personnel: five firefighters and nine police officers. After the hires, the total number of city firefighters will be 81, up from 76 last year and 62 in 2013, including one secretarial post that will be changed from a uniformed to a non-uniformed position.

The police department hires will bring the city’s force to 147 officers, up from 138 last year and 129 in 2013. Five of the nine proposed police hires, however, are not scheduled to occur until the middle of the year, when they will enable the city to dedicate five school resource officers, or SROs, to protecting students in city schools.

Papenfuse said he has asked the school district to fund those five positions, including their cars and other equipment, in the amount of $1.4 million over the next three years. In the event the district does not come up with the funding, however, the city will seek outside grant money to pay for the positions, he said.

The budget also sets aside $2 million for investing in sanitation, to be spent on repairing and updating the city’s deteriorated fleet and adding equipment to provide more efficient service. The money will come from excess revenues from the disposal rates charged to customers, which were increased last year, although Papenfuse said he hopes to reduce them in the future.

Papenfuse said he hopes the investments in sanitation will allow the city to avoid privatizing the service, an option contemplated last year on the recommendation of the city’s state-appointed receiver. He said he hoped more consistent service from city employees would drive off competition from private haulers.

Papenfuse also promised a “major push” to increase rates of recycling.

The 2015 budget proposal will include raises for various city workers, beginning with a mandatory 1-percent raise for all union employees that will cost the city around $171,799 next year. Papenfuse also will propose $68,869 in raises for select management personnel.

During Tuesday’s preview, the mayor did not provide a complete list of management positions slated for raises, though he did say it would include increasing the police chief’s salary to $94,000 and the police captains’ salaries to $85,000 each, as promised during a council meeting on the subject earlier this fall.

Alongside these raises, Papenfuse said he would cut the salary of the arts, culture and tourism director, from $70,000 to $45,000.

The budget also recommends uses for the host fee, a $1-per-ton benefit that Harrisburg receives for trash delivered to its incinerator. The budget proposes spending $279,537 out of the host fee fund this year, broken down as follows:

-$124,537 for salaries of an arborist, recycling coordinator and planner;

-$50,000 for a recycling truck;

-$70,000 to pay for trash disposal after community cleanup events;

-$35,000 for grants to local environmental projects.

Teens Charged in Shooting, Robbery Implicated in Similar Incident

October 15, 2014 | by Lawrance Binda

Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter speaks as Mayor Eric Papenfuse looks on during today’s press briefing on the robbery and shooting involving four teens and two state legislators.

Harrisburg teenagers arrested today in an armed robbery involving a shoot-out with two state legislators have been implicated in a similar crime that took place Monday night at the foot of the Capitol building.

Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter said today that the same four teens would be charged in connection with an armed robbery at N. 3rd and State streets, in which three legislative staffers were robbed as they exited the Capitol grounds.

“I can confirm that it’s the same individuals,” said Carter during a press briefing this afternoon.

Zha-quan McGhee, 15, has been charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, conspiracy robbery and possession of a firearm by a minor after allegedly attempting to hold up state Rep. Marty Flynn (D-Scranton) and Rep. Ryan Bizzarro (D-Erie). His alleged accomplices, all charged with robbery and conspiracy robbery, are Jamani Ellison, 17, Derek Anderson, 17, and Jyair Leonard, 15.

All four suspects are being charged as adults, officials said.

The legislators were accosted as they walked down the 200-block of Herr Street at about 11 p.m. last night as they headed back to the house they rent on N. 2nd Street.

According to Flynn, the pair had a late dinner at a downtown restaurant with several other legislators, then walked with two colleagues back to the Capitol. They were almost home in Midtown when they encountered the teenagers.

McGhee allegedly threatened both men with a handgun, demanding their wallets, said Flynn, who then pulled out his own, legally registered handgun. Carter said that McGhee fired once and Flynn twice, though no one was hit. Three casings and one projectile have been recovered from the crime scene so far, police said.

Officials said that police responded quickly, catching three of the suspects within five minutes of the 911 call. The fourth suspect was arrested early this morning.

Papenfuse attributed the rapid response to the fact that police had beefed up patrols in the downtown and Midtown areas following the robbery on Monday night. About eight additional police were on duty at the time, said Carter.

Papenfuse and Carter both lamented the “foolishness” of how the teenagers behaved, citing the dangerous mix of youth and guns. Three of the four were Harrisburg High School students.

“Don’t mess with guns,” said Papenfuse. “If you mess with guns, you’re going to jail.”

Officials at Wednesday’s press conference also suggested that the suspects had escalated from committing more minor crimes, such as auto break-ins, to Tuesday night’s attempted robbery, but did not provide details about prior incidents.

One of the suspects, Jyair Leonard, wrote on his Facebook page on Oct. 10 that he had been expelled from Harrisburg High. In a comment below the posting, he explained he “snapped” on a principal in the school office. A public relations officer with the district did not return a phone call requesting comment.

Papenfuse added that this incident lends more urgency to the need to reinstate Harrisburg’s school resource officer program, which was suspended several years ago for budgetary reasons. He first made that call last week after a student was sexually assaulted a block away from Harrisburg High School.

The city has drafted a proposal for rebooting the program to present to district officials, Papenfuse said. The school district would be expected to fund the cost of the program, which he estimated would be around $500,000 per year.

Staff writer Paul Barker contributed reporting for this story.

TheBurg Podcast, Oct. 10, 2014

October 10, 2014 | by Admin

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

Oct. 10, 2014: Editor-in-chief Larry Binda and senior writer Paul Barker discuss Mayor Eric Papenfuse’s “State of the City” address earlier this week, along with tax abatement, developments in public safety and the private meeting of the public-private partnership now running Harrisburg’s parking system.

City Council Approves Kipona Funding

August 27, 2014 | by Brendan Menapace

The Harrisburg City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to provide funds for the upcoming Kipona Festival.

Council approved a reallocation of $10,500 from the general fund to go towards supplies and services for the festival, including sound equipment, golf carts, street closure and the fireworks display, which alone will cost $20,000.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse called the vote “historic,” saying that this is the first time Kipona funding has been brought before council for approval.

According to Jacqueline Z. Parker, director of Community and Economic Development, the budget for Kipona this year is about $80,000, a cut from last year’s $100,000 budget.

Parker said that about half of the funding has come from contributors and sponsors, leaving $37,500. That leftover amount will be paid with $27,000 from a trust and agency account and the $10,500 allocated tonight.

Lenwood Sloan, director of Arts, Culture and Tourism, stated that the festival is “a first-class festival in a major city” and that the spending is a “sober, responsible management of limited funds.”

Papenfuse also said that he plans to bring festival spending “on book” during next year’s budgeting process, expressing concerns over the way the city has historically funded the festival with a special account outside the council-approved budget.

“Ultimately, I don’t think the city should be in the festival business at all,” Papenfuse said. He went on to say that he would like the festivals ultimately to be outsourced, with the city collecting a permit fee.

Unlike previous years, festival events will take place on City Island in addition to Riverfront Park. Riverfront Park will still be home to food vendors and booths, though City Island will also house numerous vendors.

The three-day festival will begin Saturday, Aug. 30, and conclude Monday, Sept. 1, with the fireworks display beginning at dusk on Sunday.

Theft Charges Filed Against Former Leader of Police Athletic League

July 22, 2014 | by Paul Barker

Harrisburg police officer Jennie Jenkins, second from left, at an event with children and fellow officers outside PAL's N. 6th Street headquarters.

Officer Jennie Jenkins, second from left, at an event with children and fellow officers outside the Harrisburg Police Athletic League’s N. 6th Street headquarters.

The office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane filed charges today against Harrisburg police officer Jennie Jenkins, who was placed on administrative leave last October over her alleged misappropriation of funds as the head of the Police Athletic League.

The criminal complaint—which details charges for one third-degree felony and four first-degree misdemeanors, all related to theft—was assigned to Magisterial District Judge Lavon A. Postelle, in whose court Jenkins was arraigned Tuesday afternoon.

In it, the Attorney General’s office alleges Jenkins paid herself $7,000 for work related to PAL and falsified PAL time sheets over an eight-month period beginning in November of 2012. The Harrisburg police department’s own internal investigation of the matter, which was begun last August and concluded with the filing of charges, supported the AG’s complaint, Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter said Tuesday.

At a press conference in city hall Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Eric Papenfuse suggested that Jenkins’ alleged misuse of funds stemmed from a culture of favoritism and poor accountability in the police department, which his administration has sought to eradicate since he took office in January.

“You had individuals given special treatment,” Papenfuse said. He added that the people associated with this culture have left the city, and that “those who said ‘enough is enough’” had risen to positions of leadership in the new administration.

The mayor pointed to Chief Carter as an example, saying the city had “the right leader at the helm.” He declined to name former employees who might have been involved in creating the culture he condemned.

The 43-year-old Jenkins joined the Harrisburg police department in August of 2005, and was appointed president of the Police Athletic League in August of 2011, in the midst of the city’s efforts to revive the dormant charity.

The Police Athletic League, usually referred to by the acronym “PAL,” provides youth mentoring and other community services, relying on police officers to volunteer time in its various programs. The IRS awarded PAL its nonprofit status on Nov. 30, 2012, following an application by PAL the previous July.

The Attorney General’s complaint lists three offenses, all related to Jenkins’ actions in her two years leading the organization. The first offense, charged as a third-degree felony, relates to allegations that Jenkins paid herself $4,000 out of charitable donations to PAL for time she had spent working for the organization. According to the complaint, Jenkins submitted time sheets to The Foundation for Enhancing Communities, a local manager of charitable funds that served as PAL’s account administrator from November 2011 to March 2013.

The second offense, charged as three first-degree misdemeanors, relates to three alleged cases of Jenkins receiving checks totaling $3,000 from PAL’s account with PNC Bank in the spring and summer of 2013 in return for services she provided the organization.

The checks, for $1,600, $900 and $500, were dated May 1, July 16 and August 5, respectively. The first check, for $1,600, noted in its memo section that the payment was for “Jan-Feb Mentoring Pal,” according to the complaint.

The third offense, charged as a first-degree misdemeanor, involves Jenkins’ alleged falsifying of time sheets on 13 separate occasions between November 2012 and July 2013. According to the complaint, Jenkins was paid a total of $875 for hours she claimed to have spent working for PAL when she was actually working for the police department.

On Tuesday, Jenkins’ defense lawyer, Brian Perry, said that his client’s position is that she was entitled to compensation for hours she spent working for the organization. “She was basically running the Police Athletic League by herself,” Perry said. “The whole case is about the hours she put in. There are two questions: was she allowed to be paid? And did she double-dip?”

Perry declined to comment on the complaint’s allegations in the third offense, relating to the falsified time sheets, saying he had not yet seen the documents in question. But he did say that Jenkins reviewed all PAL expenditures with a board of directors, who approved every payment she requested.

Jenkins was placed on administrative leave on Oct. 18 last year, following the Harrisburg police department’s inquiry into her handling of PAL funds. Chief Carter said Tuesday that he opened the investigation after becoming interim chief in August and finding discrepancies in her accounting of PAL and police department hours.

Janice Black, the president of The Foundation for Enhancing Communities, said Tuesday that Jenkins brought receipts to TFEC whenever she requested reimbursement for goods and services provided through PAL. She said that investigators had visited TFEC offices and gone over all materials related to the PAL account, and that it was her understanding that there had been nothing inappropriate about payments TFEC had made.

“We had receipts for everything,” Black said.

Black also said that the Harrisburg PAL had received numerous charitable donations in the period that TFEC managed the account, including several from area banks. Jenkins was a “very good fundraiser,” she said.

Mike Dillhyon, the executive director of the National Association of Police Athletic/Activities Leagues, said that Harrisburg’s PAL was awarded a $15,000 grant in 2012 for its youth mentoring program. The grant was to reimburse costs for snacks and other program-related expenses in 2013, but expressly excluded payments to program mentors, who are supposed to be volunteers.

The Harrisburg PAL had to forward receipts and other documentation in order to receive reimbursements, Dillhyon said. He said that his organization had not detected any issues with the Harrisburg PAL’s filings, but did say he had forwarded several documents connected to the 2012 grant to investigators last year.

The Harrisburg PAL is one of numerous members of the national organization, all of which pay a $400 annual membership fee in exchange for benefits including lower insurance costs and free website development.

Years before Tuesday’s criminal complaint, Jenkins faced disciplinary action on two occasions for having a service weapon stolen from her personal vehicle. The first time, the police union blocked any penalties, and the second time, in August 2010, she was placed on desk duty, according to prior reports by abc27.

On Tuesday, Chief Carter would not go into detail about either of these incidents, saying that he was eager not to denigrate Jenkins, who remains on the payroll on administrative leave.

“Our thoughts are with Officer Jenkins,” the chief said. “She’s still a Harrisburg police officer. She has been charged but not convicted, and we should be mindful of that.”

Harrisburg’s Awarded Grants Tally Passes $1 Million, With More To Come

July 21, 2014 | by Paul Barker

An aerial view of the Broad Street Market, whose renovation the city hopes to fund with a USDA grant applied for earlier this year.

Six months into the administration of Mayor Eric Papenfuse, Harrisburg is beginning to see the fruits of a revitalized grants-writing process, according to city officials who spoke on the topic this morning in city hall.

Errol Newark, a grants manager in the office of financial management, said that from January to June of this year the city was awarded more than $1 million in grants from outside agencies, including two first-time awards in amounts totaling $110,000. Not included in that figure are applications pending for an additional half-a-million in grants which, Newark said, the Papenfuse administration identified and pursued for the first time this year.

The $1 million includes grants for projects in public safety, public works, tourism and parks and recreation. The vast majority of them—$924,300—were awarded on the basis of applications made under the previous administration of Mayor Linda Thompson. These include $466,998 in Dauphin County gaming funds for the purchase of a new fire engine; $78,843 for an upgrade to police information systems; $250,000 from the state Department of Environmental Protection for a leaf collection vehicle and a recycling truck; a $13,619 state fire grant for firefighting equipment; and $114,840 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for advanced firefighter training.

An additional $112,500 were applied for in 2014 under the Papenfuse administration, including two awards that the city pursued for the first time, Newark said. One was a $10,000 grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for assessing the condition of five city playgrounds. The other was a one-time award of $100,000 from the Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau.

The remaining $2,500 came from an application this year to Walmart, for a grant to help fund the renovation of the playground at 4^th and Emerald streets uptown.

Joyce Davis, Mayor Papenfuse’s spokeswoman, suggested Monday that the recent awards reflect the new mayor’s leadership in the area of grant applications. She compared the $1 million figure with the $425,000 the city was awarded in grants in the first six months of 2013.

Newark, the grants manager, echoed this sentiment, though he suggested that Papenfuse’s real contributions would be felt in the months to come, as applications for newly identified grant opportunities began to show results.

“There are certain agencies I’d never heard about until this mayor came in,” Newark said. “New grants came to the table this year because of this administration’s priorities.”

Newark estimated that the city was on track to receive between $10 and $12 million in outside grants this year, in contrast to last year’s total of $7 million. Both figures include the $4.5 million in state grants to the city for public safety, a line item that the state legislature increased last year as Harrisburg and its advisors were negotiating the final pieces of the city’s recovery plan.

So far, in addition to those for which funds have already been awarded, the city has submitted applications this year for three large grants related to recreation and economic development. One is for another $148,450 from DCNR for the development of Reservoir Park. Another application, to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is for a $99,999 rural business grant to help renovate the Broad Street Market in Midtown. A third is an application to the state Department of Community and Economic Development for $250,000, to be spent on equipment for the five playgrounds being assessed under the previously awarded DCNR grant.

Newark, who started working for the city in June of 2012, has worked on compliance issues for city governments since 1998. Most recently, he worked as the compliance manager for the city of Baltimore.

During his first six months in Harrisburg, Newark said, he focused on cleaning up the city’s grants program, which was then in deep disarray. Among the problems was the chronic delay in preparing an independent audit of city finances, which outside agencies rely on for assurance that their awards will be appropriately spent and accounted for.

“Who wants to give grants to a city without an audit?” Newark said. “I told my staff, ‘We’ve got to fix our house before we apply for grants.’”

On Monday, Newark attributed the grant program’s recent successes to a combination of these cleaning-house efforts in the last two years and the leadership of the new administration. “We’re reaping the rewards of these two factors,” he said.

The money from the Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau, in particular, shows how the Papenfuse administration has left no stone unturned in its quest for outside funding. Traditionally, the HHRVB has spent city tourism money—which comes from a tax on overnight lodging in Dauphin County—directly on bills supplied by the city in connection with an overall marketing campaign.

Recently, the bureau committed around $70,000 to the “Summer in the City” promotional campaign, which the Papenfuse administration has used to highlight Harrisburg’s seasonal arts and leisure offerings.

But months before that, Papenfuse wanted to ensure the city received its full share of tourism money, a portion of which Harrisburg is entitled to under county ordinance. Early in his term, he requested additional funds from the HHVRB, which the HHRVB awarded in the amount of $100,000. Ostensibly, the money was for marketing purposes, though it was not attached to any formal campaign and went directly to the city’s general fund.

“HHRVB views it as a one-time… allotment? process? A one-time…I can’t use the word ‘grant,’” Rick Dunlap, the bureau’s public relations director, said, adding that the bureau has no process for receiving or approving grants.

But Davis, the mayor’s spokeswoman, said that as far as the administration was concerned, the money was a grant. “That money did come to the city,” she said. “And we’re defining ‘grant’ as any money that came from a source outside the city.”

City To Replace Downed Light Poles on Front, Seek Bids for Citywide LED Upgrade

July 18, 2014 | by Paul Barker

The city will soon be replacing 15 downed light poles along Front Street, Mayor Eric Papenfuse announced this morning at a press conference along the 2900 block of the road.

The project is a prelude to a larger campaign to replace missing street lights across the city, as well as to upgrade approximately 6,000 existing ones to cost-saving LED bulbs.

The Front Street replacements will be partly funded by a $22,000 donation from Lighten Up Harrisburg, which in partnership with the Historic Harrisburg Association raised the money through sponsorships of its first annual “Glow Run” on June 7 this year.

The work will begin at the north end of Front and proceed with the installation of 15 poles over the next week. Installing the 29-foot poles will cost around $2,000 apiece, the administration said, with the city matching the charitable donation with labor and the cost of additional poles.

On Thursday, city engineer Wayne Martin issued a request for qualifications to design and install the LED-conversion project. The RFQ went out to 48 interested parties, Martin said, with applications due Aug. 15.

The LED bulbs are expected to generate significant cost and energy savings. In May of this year, according to the RFQ, the electric costs for the city’s 6,161 existing mercury-vapor and high-pressure sodium lights totaled around $64,000.

More information on the Glow Run and the city’s lights can be found in “Let There Be Lights,” a feature story in the June issue of TheBurg.

A Place to Romp: Sunday in the park with dog.

June 30, 2014 | by Amy Worden

Sometimes, a dog has just got to run. Or sniff around or wrestle with a pal in the grass.

That’s certainly the case for my Jack Russell rescue, Olivia, whom I’ve owned for just over a year.

We live in the Harrisburg exurbs, on three acres 25 miles west of the city. I fenced in a section of our barnyard for her, which makes a nice play area, providing our resident snakes aren’t sunning. But with only a house full of cats to terrorize under our roof, I like the idea of her having a chance to socialize with, well, her own kind.

So, we headed off to the dog park nearest to our house—the Lower Allen dog park. It’s a good two-dozen-mile round trip, but it’s worth it.

After registering with the township (that means providing basic information and proof of vaccinations), we parked ourselves in the small dog (under 30 pounds) section of the park. Segregating dogs by size is really a must lest the little ones end up as doggie bait for the 100-pounders. The park provides “doggie bags” for waste and trashcans, chairs, picnic benches and water fountains.

The park is heavily used, as evidenced by the bare spots in the otherwise grassy fields and the occasional leftover, chewed-up toy. However, I’ve never found it too crowded, and people generally abide by the cleanup rules.

Not everyone is a dog park fan. Several folks I talked to say they avoid the parks because they are concerned about disease from unvaccinated dogs or parasites when waste is not cleaned up or the possibility of injury in a fight.

I’ve witnessed a few altercations in the big dog park at Lower Allen but owners responded quickly to break things up.

I find the dog park is a great place for socializing for owners too. On a recent visit, a woman told me about the monthly pug “meet up” event that draws about two-dozen pugs and owners. Another woman said she and her dog last year drove all the way to Lancaster to try out the stunning new Beau’s Dream Dog Park, a veritable Disneyland for dogs, with its obstacles, water sprinklers and animal sculptures.

But perhaps you can’t get all the way to Lancaster—or even to Lower Allen.

Harrisburg proper lacks a dog park, though many residents try to make due. For instance, while cycling in Riverfront Park recently with a friend, I asked her where city residents take their dogs to play, and she gestured to the little strip of green near where we were riding and said, “This is the dog park.”

She has a laid-back Labrador retriever that has never strayed far off the leash and loves to swim in the Susquehanna. But ask any dog expert, and they will advise you to keep your dog on leash all the time for safety reasons.

Might the situation in Harrisburg change?

A few years back, a group of residents lobbied the city for a dog park in Midtown, where, at times, it seems that dogs outnumber the human population. The Thompson administration, though, never acted on it.

Now, the mayor himself has resurrected the idea.

Speaking recently before the Pennsylvania Press Club, Mayor Eric Papenfuse brought up a dog park as a way to improve the quality of life for both the city’s four-legged and two-legged citizens. He also mentioned possible locations, including a temporary play area on the vacant lot where the future federal courthouse is planned at N. 6^th and Reily streets.

“In his public remarks, the mayor has suggested the land might be used in a variety of ways, including having part of it used as a dog park,” said his spokeswoman Joyce Davis. “These were some ideas that he floated, but nothing is yet confirmed.”

Hopefully, one day soon Olivia and I will be able to attend the ribbon cutting at Harrisburg’s first dog park. But until then, when we need a little adventure, we’ll head on over to Lower Allen.

After our play dates, she and I usually take a leisurely walk along the park’s neatly manicured nature trail by the Yellow Breeches and listen to the chorus of frogs in the wetland.

We stick our toes in the creek and watch the passing parade: the seafaring dogs floating by in kayaks and canoes and the water-loving dogs bounding past us to chase sticks in the current.

Dog Park Dos and Don’ts

Do make sure your dog is a good candidate for a dog park. Dogs that are overly excited or exceptionally shy or nervous around other dogs or people might not enjoy the dog park experience.
Most parks have a website with posted rules, so check before going and make sure to register if you need to.
Make sure your dog is up to date on her state dog license, vaccinations and heartworm medication. Most parks require dogs to be spayed or neutered.
Clean up after your dog. No one wants to dodge doggie doo in the park. Most parks provide plastic bags and trashcans for disposal.
Keep an eye on your dog not and not on your mobile device. Casual sniffing can turn violent in an instant, and you want to make sure you can react quickly to prevent or break up a fight—or just make sure you have the plastic bag ready when a potty break calls.
Bring fresh water if none is available

Midstate Dog Parks

Happy Tails Dog Park, Dowhower and Union Deposit Rds., Lower Paxton Township. Located on two acres inside Kohl Memorial Park, it has separate areas for large and small dogs.

Lower Allen Township Community Park, 4075 Lisburn Rd., Mechanicsburg. The popular dog park has large and small dog areas, water fountains, shade trees and chairs. The larger community park sits along the scenic Yellow Breeches and has picnic areas and ball fields. After your yard play, take a walk along well-manicured nature trails and wade in the creek by the boat launch. Another nice feature for humans is the restrooms inside the old barn that is now a community center.

Shaffer Dog Park, 1700 Carlisle Spring Rd., Carlisle. This beautifully maintained, shaded park is a membership-only facility. Members pay $50 a year and receive key fob to access the park, which has dedicated areas for small and large dogs, benches and water fountains.

Biglerville Dog Park, 2880 Table Rock Rd. Located at Oakside Park in the heart of Adams County’s apple orchard region, this park, which just opened last year, features separate areas for small and large dogs. Trees, benches and agility equipment are being added over time.

West Manheim Park, 245 Bartholomew Rd., Hanover. This large park sprawls over the hillsides near the Maryland border. The park has separate areas for large and small dogs. There are many trails, ball fields and picnic areas, so you can make a day of it.

Beau’s Dream (formerly Buchanan) Dog Park, 905 Buchanan Rd., Lancaster. Once a well-worn city park, it won a $500,000 makeover two years ago in a contest sponsored by Purina/Beneful. Today, it can only be described as the Taj Mahal of dog parks, with obstacles, water sprinklers, sculptures and astro-turf footing. It is the vision of celebrity TV interior designer Nate Berkus.

The Canine Spa, 140 Ore Bank Rd., Dillsburg. Need a change of pace, a place to rehab an injured dog or just a fun spot to exercise in bad weather? The Canine Spa, in a former horse barn, gives dogs a place to frolic in the water or try dock diving on a pay-as-you-go basis. There’s even a bathing area to lather up and hose off when you’re done.

Amy Worden is a staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer and author of Philly Dawg blog. https://www.philly.com/dawg.

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like

You May Also Like