Tag Archives: Tom Ridge

Setting Sail: New Harrisburg riverboat leader follows her father’s course.

Pride of the Susquehanna riverboat

Appropriately, Kim Rice landed upon a nautical term to describe the similarities between her and her late father, former Dauphin County Commissioner Fred Rice.

“We are both boat-rockers,” she said. “We are not afraid to rock the boat.”

It’s exactly that fearlessness that propelled Fred, back in the early ‘90s, to become the second chairman of the board of the Pride of the Susquehanna riverboat. And it’s the same fearlessness that now allows daughter Kim to follow in his wake.

Kim said that her late father inspired her own journey.

Fred Rice was outgoing, energized by people, and knew virtually everyone, she said. His hunting cabins in Dauphin and in Perry counties were full of friends, laughter and fond memories.

“He lived life to the fullest,” Kim said.

He was in the Lions Club and Safari Club, was a Gov. Tom Ridge appointee to the Mid-Atlantic Fish Commission, and chaired the Lower Paxton Republican Committee. A veteran of the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he was a successful insurance and investment consultant.

When Dauphin County Commissioner Jack Minnich resigned to become the court administrator in 1985, county judges selected Rice to replace him, and his journey to launch the boat began.

“He was so excited about it,” Kim said, citing her father’s friendship with one of the founding riverboat members, Mike Trephan.

“My dad was really good at wheeling and dealing to get people to do stuff for him,” Kim recalled, with a laugh.

The late luxury homebuilder, Stan Custer Sr., built benches. Then-Mayor Steve Reed offered aid. And his list of allies grew.

Fast-forward 30-plus years. After former board chair, local attorney Deb Donahue, approached her in 2019, Kim joined the board. Their executive director had just resigned, and a new executive director lasted only weeks.

“Deb and I were doing everything,” recalled Kim, who also holds down a full-time job with the commonwealth.

Donahue, whose father Bruce Miller was also a noteworthy local leader, served as president of the board from 2018 through 2021. Kim took the helm at the end of last year.

As the first female president of the Pride, Donahue had rough waters to navigate, including a pandemic, funding shortfalls, board resignations, internal power struggles, maintenance issues and more. Kim inherited much the same.

“I love the riverboat. I do enjoy riding on it,” she said. “I love going to City Island. I love going to meetings there. It brings me closer to my dad. He loved the river, and he loved the Pride of the Susquehanna. I am honored to do it.”

She is humble when considering her dad’s legacy.

“I can’t match my dad and his contacts,” she said.

 

Rough Waters

The last few years have been tough ones for the Pride. In 2018, high water repeatedly grounded the riverboat, which was just beginning to recover when the pandemic hit.

Board members have frequently paid for the operation and repairs of the boat out of their own pockets, Kim said,

“My goal is to get it to be self-sustaining and not be in such jeopardy,” she said.

Therefore, she plans to focus on grant-writing, marketing, expanding the board and fundraising. Exciting new programs for younger people also are waiting at the dock.

She said that COVID-19 and its two years of restrictions hit every nonprofit like a hole in the hull. In the first year of the pandemic, they had to operate at a 25-person limit instead of 110, complying with restrictions imposed upon bars and restaurants because they serve alcohol.

“We lost our shirt to cover the cost of the crew and fuel,” Kim stated frankly, noting the $300 per hour expense to operate the boat.

This year, she noted, the board already secured a gaming grant from the Dauphin County commissioners for $75,000. However, that is not nearly enough to help them swim long-term.

“This boat is 34 years old, and there are constantly things that need repair,” she said.

To help maintain the Pride, she is working with new board member Lorri Ribbans to utilize the skills of Dauphin County Technical School students.

This year, Kim and her board’s plans for the Riverboat include a first-ever 5K “Float the Boat” walk and run for the Riverboat on Sunday, May 15. Sponsors, runners and walkers are still needed.

A popular veterans’ cruise will be held on May 30, over Memorial Day weekend, and is free to veterans.

Public cruises will resume in May, only on the weekends, said Melissa Snyder of Daza Development, who is aiding in the daily operations of the nonprofit.

In June, the Riverboat is expected to start full week and weekend public cruises. Starting in June, they also will have:

  • “Princess” and “Superhero” cruises for kids
  • River School on Saturday mornings
  • Murder mystery dinners
  • “Dinner on the River”
  • Wine on Wednesday
  • Jazz and other music cruises.

Still in the works are “Bourbon on the Boat” (bourbon tasting cruise) and “Trivia Tuesday.”

Popular country singer Garrett Shultz is on tap for a major fundraiser, Boat-toberfest, in October. A tribute to late board member, attorney Bill Cornell, is also planned.

Kim said that a leader can’t be afraid to ask for help, so she is. The riverboat needs welders, sponsors and donors.

When Kim was cleaning out her parents’ things, she found a Nick Ruggieri print of the riverboat, signed by Captain Jack and two other captains as a thank you for her father’s service.

The riverboat may still be buffeted by rough waters. However, that print reminds her that rocking the boat can keep them sailing smoothly up the Susquehanna for years to come.

The Pride of the Susquehanna sails from City Island, Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.hbgriverboat.org.

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David Black to retire from Harrisburg Chamber; nationwide search launched for new CEO

After two decades, David Black on Monday announced his retirement from leading the Harrisburg area’s principal business organization.

Black said that he plans to retire in mid-2021 as president and CEO of the Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC, following a nationwide search for his replacement.

“The people who I’ve met over the years have been great and hopefully we’ve been able to make a positive difference for our region,” said Black, during a phone interview.

Black, 67, took the helm of the organization in 2001, following a stint with the administration of Gov. Tom Ridge. Before coming to Harrisburg, he served as a county commissioner in Clarion County.

Black said that he’s proud of his lengthy tenure with the chamber and CREDC, both in terms of cultivating staff, many of whom have gone on to other leadership positions, and for promoting the region’s economy.

“The area economy was strong when I arrived here, and it’s arguably even stronger now,” he said.

He said that he’s also encouraged by the economic situation in Harrisburg proper. He said that state receivership and the financial recovery plan were vital to help straighten out the city’s finances and, nearly eight years later, there are promising signs.

“We’re starting to see some private investment again,” he said. “That’s good for the prospects of the city.”

He said that the last year has been one of the most challenging of his career, given the COVID-19 pandemic. Some types of businesses, such as those in the area’s large health care industry, can’t find enough workers, while others, especially in the restaurant and hospitality industries, have suffered enormously.

“Some businesses have done well, but other businesses have absolutely tanked,” he said.

Black said that he plans to remain in the area after retirement and may even continue to work in some capacity. However, he felt it was time to move on from his current position.

“Twenty years is a long time for an organization like this to have the same leadership,” he said. “It’s time to put a fresh perspective on things.”

To that end, the chamber and CREDC boards have created a search committee, aided by an outside firm, Greensboro, N.C.-based Jorgenson Consulting, to find the organization’s next leader.

“Many thanks to people from all sectors of the region and beyond for the support, collaboration and friendship,” Black said, in a statement. “I look forward to the successful transition of leadership in the months ahead and a bright future for the Chamber & CREDC and our region.”

For more information about the Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC, visit their website.

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Watching the River Run: Susquehanna Greenway Partnership works to create happy trails, happy people.

For 500 miles, the mighty Susquehanna River glides peacefully through rolling mountains and sleepy towns, past wildlife and wilderness, beneath cloudless skies and towering bridges of stone and steel.

From Otsego Lake in New York to Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, its glistening waters serve as the scenic backdrop for Kipona, Artsfest and the Pride of the Susquehanna riverboat, offering up the picture-perfect setting for picnics, boating, fishing, jogging and more.

Flowing in two main branches in a loosely drawn “Y,” the river has quietly connected the past to the present, the north to the south, the east to the west and the young to the young-at-heart.

Those connections fuel the mission of the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership (SGP), says Executive Director Corey Ellison.

“It’s all about connecting people,” said Ellison, an Alabama native who has backpacked and rock-climbed her way through Australia and other must-see points in the great outdoors.

She views the Susquehanna as the ideal natural accessory for recreation, economic development, history, culture and a healthier lifestyle.

“Studies consistently show that people want walkable, bike-able communities,” Ellison noted.

Embracing open space also attracts economic development and an influx of vibrant young people, raising the region’s quality of life and beauty quotient, she said.

 

Greenways & Blueways

The group’s seeds were planted in the early 2000s, when then-Gov. Tom Ridge challenged the state Department of Transportation and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to examine the potential of the commonwealth’s greenways. From there, a committee of 120-plus members developed the Pennsylvania Greenways Action Plan, and the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership was born.

Its charter was signed on City Island in Harrisburg with representatives from the state, federal, city and county governments on hand, along with local advocacy groups. Funded largely by state funds and foundation grants, SGP underscores the importance of greenways and “blueways,” as the march of development bulldozed over suburbia’s vast open spaces.

The strategic action plan, released in 2006, recommended the formation of a nonprofit. That same year, a board of directors was appointed, and SGP became a 501c(3) organization.

Since then, the partnership has been working to build out the idea of a connected greenway and to preserve and link strips of undeveloped land and the environment.

The planned corridor runs one to three miles on either side of the Susquehanna for the entire 500 miles of the western branch.

Based in Williamsport and Lewisburg, the partnership has concentrated its efforts on the central Susquehanna region, working to translate ideas into trails, parks and river access points.

SGP often uses Dauphin County as a model for greenway development and preservation.

Ellison pointed to the extensive county park system and the Capital Area Greenbelt, lovingly dubbed the “emerald necklace,” as proof of the capital city’s love affair with its greenways.

In and around Harrisburg, SGP often shares information at Greenbelt events and sponsors an annual photo contest.

The competition attracts photographers of all skill levels to the greenway. The images captured will be on display in the Capitol’s East Wing Rotunda through June 30. Picturesque landscapes, charming river towns, and panoramic sunsets are frequently captured on film, along with those iconic bridges of the Susquehanna.

“The greenway is so large and covers such a diverse geography that we are always surprised by the images that come in,” Ellison said.

 

A Resource

Ellison pointed out that many people who live along the river may know what’s in their own backyard, but not what’s upstream. And, of course, what begins upstream eventually flows down into the lower Susquehanna.

She acknowledged that the Susquehanna has a “storied past” that includes the good and bad—beauty and transportation, pollution and massive flooding.

In the recent past, swollen riverbanks and dirty waters caused people to move away from the river, both physically and mentally, Ellison said.

“They saw it as a risk instead of a resource,” she said. “It really is an opportunity, whether for recreation or economic development. We try to work with communities and groups to help see the river, not as a risk but as a resource.”

SGP offers a volunteer ambassador program for those who share the group’s passion. To grow the greenway, these ambassadors attend outreach events, talk to visitors, spread the vision and mission of greenways and identify access to trails.

Every year, the group also hosts a paddling event. This year, the Susquehanna Island Hopper event will allow paddlers to drift from outside Selinsgrove to the Mahantango Creek Fish and Boat Commission on Aug. 3. Early bird tickets are available.

Because last year’s pounding rains led to high river levels that forced the event’s cancellation, the partnership has formulated a backup plan. If the river is too high or too low, “hoppers” will go to a local lake and hike, but the trip is on—rain or shine.

The sojourn is suitable for all levels of paddlers, from beginners to experts and from teens to retirees. It is fully guided, complete with safety boats and naturalists who give “as-you-go” learning opportunities, pointing out wildlife and natural areas in a floating classroom.

Representatives of Selinsgrove will talk about its history as a river community.

SGP also offers day trips that can be found on its website.

Whether you paddle, picnic, picture-take or promote, you should know about this group and its resources. And its members invite you to visit their website, reach out and connect with them.

To learn more about the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership, visit www.susquehannagreenway.org.

Stories on environmental topics are proudly sponsored by LCSWMA.

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Leaving Act 47: The private sector has revitalized Harrisburg in the past. It can do so again.

Rep. Greg Rothman and Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse.

The Overlook Mansion on North Front Street stands after 117 years as if it is frozen in time in 1901.

William Reynolds Fleming, a mechanical engineer, built the home for himself and his wife next to the city waterworks. When Virginia Hammond Fleming passed away, she left the property to the Civic Club of Harrisburg, which was founded in 1898 with the mission of beautifying the city and improving civic engagement.

The Civic Club oversaw several citywide improvement projects, including maintaining the public water supply and the upkeep of the local jail. The Civic Club survived through two world wars, when the mansion was used as a supply site for the Red Cross. It remains active to this day.

The organization has been an outlet for generations of private citizens who care deeply about their city and invest their own time, energy and money to ensure their fellow citizens have pristine living conditions.

Almost a century after the Civic Club was founded, five of my colleagues joined me in creating a similar organization. Together we founded the Harrisburg Young Professionals in 1998. This year, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of HYP and are proud to have watched it grow into a thriving organization.

After we returned home from college, my friends and I noticed that the city we once knew for its popular bars and restaurants was becoming run down. The YMCA, the local Presbyterian Church, the Gazebo Room, Lombardo’s and Harry’s Bar, which had been staples of the community, were barely recognizable.

To combat this, as president of HYP in 1999, I focused our group on encouraging hundreds of people to move back into the city and create jobs. Mayor Stephen Reed called for all hands on deck to help bring Harrisburg back to life, and the business community heard the call.

As a real estate broker, I was determined to revitalize the real estate in the city. RSR Realtors was involved in the expansion of Restaurant Row, Market Square Plaza and Capitol Heights residential.

This private-sector stimulus, combined with the signing of legislation by Gov. Tom Ridge in 2000 for the city rescue of the schools and the later implementation of Act 47, catapulted the city onto a healthy pace of economic growth.

Act 47 required Harrisburg to comply with certain recommendations issued by the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, which allowed the ICA to withhold all or part of the city’s revenue if these were not met. It also put a taxing authority in place for an enhanced earned income tax (EIT) and local services tax (LST).

This fall, the General Assembly will be voting on whether the city will be allowed to exit Act 47 while keeping the taxing authority.

Since stepping down as president of RSR Realtors and becoming a state representative for the 87th district, I have continued my work to help the city of Harrisburg come back to life. Although I represent the suburbs of Cumberland County, many of my constituents commute into the capital for work. They are only a portion of the more than 40,000 commuters who work in Harrisburg. I also understand the impact that a capital has on its surrounding neighborhoods in terms of crime rates and real estate value, among other factors.

I want the city of Harrisburg to succeed in the long term. My bill, House Bill 2557, would allow the city to continue its taxing authority while being free of Act 47. This would ensure that no job-killing tax hikes, such as the proposed 100-percent property tax increase and 2-percent commuter tax, would be necessary. Harrisburg would also be more attractive for businesses and investors because it would no longer be an Act 47 municipality once under state receivership.

The city has sold the troubled incinerator and its parking system, and the Harrisburg Water Authority was transferred to Capital Region Water. It has worked to renegotiate union contracts with police officers, firefighters and AFSCME.

While these solutions have aided in ridding the city of its debt, residents have been facing tax increases, especially from the Harrisburg School District.

This is detrimental to a city when 50 percent of the real estate is tax exempt, mostly due to state ownership, and when one-third of its population has salaries less than $30,000. With half of the city’s population near or below the poverty line, we must eliminate the current harsh climate for economic opportunity.

My bill would ensure that the city’s credit rating would improve and that residents, businesses and commuters would be given tax relief.

Scranton and Pittsburgh were able to diversify their tax structures when they were in an economic crisis, and, as a result, have attracted new industries to their communities, including natural gas.

For over a century, the residents and neighbors of Harrisburg worked hard to grow the city. To finish the work of revitalizing it, we must allow the private sector to develop free from heavy regulations and taxes.

As a member of the General Assembly, I have partnered with state Rep. Patty Kim of the 103rd district in helping the city. I have long admired Rep. Kim’s passion for Harrisburg. She has been a crucial advocate for the city and believes that our bill is key to its future prosperity.

The capital of Pennsylvania should be its shining city on a hill, overflowing with commerce and visitors. It has the potential to be an inspiration to the rest of the commonwealth for how to attract businesses and working families.

It is time to let the city be free to focus on how to ease the burdens facing business and property owners. There is no time to waste.

Let’s work together to make Harrisburg fruitful and inspiring again. We did it before and we can do it again, but this time, for good.


Rep. Greg Rothman represents Pennsylvania’s 87th legislative district.

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Not Our Fault? In Harrisburg, there’s plenty of blame to go around.

Screenshot 2015-06-01 08.14.19I don’t often get into screaming matches, much less in public places.

But, a pint or two in at my favorite new Harrisburg brewery, a friend and I began raising our voices over something we actually agree about—that we’re both angry, really angry, at John Campbell.

For sure, we’re not alone. The disgraced former Harrisburg treasurer upset plenty of people who had trusted him with their confidence and their money.

Heck, two months before Campbell’s arrest on theft charges, TheBurg helped host a party in his honor as he departed Historic Harrisburg Association, where he had been executive director. And my friend and I both were members of organizations where Campbell has been accused of taking money.

So, I guess we needed to vent, which we did, loudly, in contrast to the sounds of folks happily enjoying their La Dolce Vita drafts and their mutual company and the din of the jukebox at Zeroday Brewing.

We vocally debated Harrisburg’s version of “he who must not be named,” but, in the process, disagreed about something fundamental.

I hold many of us at least partially responsible for the phenomenon that was John Campbell; my friend doesn’t.

“He was a con man,” my friend said. “How could anyone have known that?”

Con man, no doubt. But I insisted that Campbell never should have had such positions of authority in the first place.

“He was a 21-year-old kid still in college when he was hired,” I countered, insisting (without success) that Campbell should have been flagged as too young and too inexperienced to serve as director or treasurer of anything important.

A person, I believe, is responsible for his own actions. However, that also pertains to the supporting actors, those who played lesser parts in a situation that goes spectacularly wrong.

I feel largely the same way about the city’s financial collapse.

Former Mayor Steve Reed, without question, tops the list of people responsible for Harrisburg’s fiscal chaos. However, in a flow chart of blame, you could list, in descending order, Reed’s direct underlings; the professionals who advised him; the Harrisburg Authority; members of City Council; the Dauphin County commissioners; numerous state officials; the supine media; and the voters.

Not that anybody has accepted this blame. A few years back, during a state Senate committee hearing on the city’s massive incinerator debt, every witness called upon, including Reed himself, denied responsibility. Evidently, Harrisburg’s near-bankruptcy happened without anyone causing it.

In fact, during the Reed administration, signals abounded that his consolidation of power was troubling and that the city’s finances were increasingly out-of-whack. Some residents tried to sound the alarm, but they invariably were shouted down, mocked or ignored.

You could make a long list of the ill-advised projects that the Reed administration championed, often financing them through strange, convoluted deals. For the sake of this column, I’ll limit my focus to what might be the most surreal—Reed’s attempt to build not one, but “five nationally scaled museums” (his words) in a poor, tiny city in central Pennsylvania.

New museums typically are born in one of two ways. In the first, a group (usually a non-profit board) tries to raise money for a building and/or its contents. In the second, a wealthy patron donates items—and sometimes foots the bill for the building, as well.

Harrisburg didn’t follow either path. The museum idea originated in the mind of a single man, Steve Reed, without any of the detailed preparation and painstaking planning needed to embark on a massive venture like starting a world-class museum (much less five of them).

In a nutshell, Reed got hold of public money and began buying stuff because he wanted to—and because he could.

Over a decade, he packed an enormous warehouse (and several other buildings) full of thousands of items from his sprees, spending untold millions on things that ranged from the genuine and valuable to junk and fakes. Lacking expertise, he vacuumed up lot after lot, often overpaying for the good and the bad.

The majority of objects were for an Old West museum he wanted to build, but some were for an African-American heritage museum he proposed and others for a Sports Hall of Fame he hoped to construct on City Island. There also were artifacts that didn’t seem to fit into any category—wood from a Colonial-era ship, transcripts from the Nuremberg trials.

Eventually, he got one “nationally scaled” museum built, the National Civil War Museum, but only because he learned that former Gov. Tom Ridge was a Civil War buff. So, according to project architect Vern McKissick, Reed quickly carved out a Civil War collection from his vast Old West stash and, though luck and salesmanship, got the state to foot the bill for the building.

This is local government gone completely off the rails. I half-laugh, half-cringe when I imagine Reed and his surrogates darting around the country attending auctions, sweeping up inventory, packing it all up, shipping it to Harrisburg, unpacking it and storing it in whatever dusty corner they could find for future museums that had no realistic path to ever existing.

But that’s what happened, and a lot of people knew about it—officials and politicians, consultants, city workers, the media, some in the general public. Yet year after year after year, it went on.

Typically, I’m not big on assigning blame, as I find resolving a problem more important than determining who’s at fault. However, in the case of Campbell and Reed, I believe it’s important to examine if we, as individuals, are in some way responsible. By understanding our own roles, we lessen the chance of a future rogue mayor, thieving treasurer or whoever might try to scam us next.

We all know the cliché that it takes a village to accomplish something good. Well, sometimes, it also takes a village to screw up royally.

 

 

Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.

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