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8 | THEBURGNEWS.COM | 01.21 Harrisburg approved a 2021 budget last month, but not before making amendments to Police Bureau spending and personnel. During a virtual legislative session, City Council unanimously approved a $136.5 million budget, which does not include a property tax hike. e aggregate budget includes a $79.2 million general fund, a $17.9 million neighborhood services fund, a $15.3 million capital projects fund and a $12.5 million debt service fund. e budget utilizes about $15 million of the city's large reserve fund balance, which will draw down that account to $10.2 million by the end of 2021. e money will be used to add a number of positions and to pay down debt. Included in the budget is funding for seven new civilian positions within the community services division. ese community service aides will assist police officers with "quality of life" issues and work to improve relations with the community, said Mayor Eric Papenfuse. Originally, 12 aides were proposed, but after receiving comments from residents concerned about the positions, council decided to give the program a trial run for 2021 and, therefore, reduced the number of positions. In public comments, some residents stated that they didn't want to see extra funding go towards the bureau at all, saying that's not what the city needs. "ere are so many pressing needs in Harrisburg right now," one resident said. "More policing funding does not provide houses, food, education, medicine or security. More cops and more money for cops does not make communities safer." An additional amendment was passed 4-2 to remove the community policing coordinator position from the budget. Blake Lynch has held this job, but he's due to be promoted to director of community relations and engagement. Council member Westburn Majors said that he believes the community service aides can take on the responsibilities of the coordinator position. "To me, that could be seven heads being able to do a job that we had one individual doing," he said. Harrisburg has plans in 2021 to move its engineering and traffic departments to a former bank building on N. 7th Street. City Council last month approved the reallocation of 2020 funds to purchase the M&T building for $375,000. Mayor Eric Papenfuse said that the city received a significant discount as the building was appraised at $675,000. According to Papenfuse, the purchase was necessary because some of the city's public works facility will be lost to eminent domain as part of PennDOT's I-83 expansion project. e city's traffic department, which is housed in the building, will need to move. In addition, the engineering department will move out of the public safety building downtown, freeing up space for the new community policing team to have its main base there. Renovations and remodels of the building are part of the city's 2021 budget. Papenfuse said that it would likely cost around $192,000 for demolition, renovations, HVAC replacement and security additions, among other items. e annual cost of utilities and maintenance for the building would be around $60,200, he estimated. "is is the first new real estate acquisition for the City of Harrisburg, I guess, since the public works facility," he said. Utility bills in Harrisburg will be somewhat higher next year, as Capital Region Water has approved rate increases for both drinking water and wastewater. Late last year, the CRW board approved both the 2021 budget and the new rates. e board voted to raise the drinking water rate by 2% from $9.84 to $10.04 per 1,000 gallons, with a "ready to serve" charge of $7.93 for a standard residential customer. e wastewater rate will increase by 3% for 2021 from the current $7.99 per 1,000 gallons to $8.23 per 1,000 gallons. Under the new rate structure, the average Harrisburg customer consuming 45,000 gallons of water annually will pay about $1.80 per month more for water and wastewater services, according to CRW. e new stormwater fee, which began in October, is unchanged at $6.15 per month for most residential customers. Home sales and prices were up in the Harrisburg area in November, continuing a months-long trend. For the month, 728 houses sold compared to 581 in the year- ago period, while the median sales price jumped to $215,000 from $180,000 for the three-county region, according to the Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors (GHAR). In Dauphin County, GHAR reported that 353 housing units sold in November versus 280 the year before, while the median price increased to $185,750 compared to $162,000. In Cumberland County, sales rose to 327 homes from 244 a year ago, with the median price rising to $238,000 versus $195,500 in November 2019, GHAR stated. Perry County saw a one-unit increase to 36 houses sold in November, though the median sales price dipped to $165,000 from $185,000 a year earlier. Houses were also selling much faster this year, as GHAR reported that the average "days on market" fell to 26 days compared to 46 days in November 2019. Home sales and prices in the Harrisburg area have been strong all year long, especially since pandemic-related restrictions were lifted on the industry in May. HARRISBURG APPROVES 2021 BUDGET HARRISBURG BUYS FORMER BANK BUILDING UTILITY BILLS TO INCREASE IN 2021 HOME SALES, PRICES UP HARRISBURG TO COLLECT TRASH FOR BOROUGHS Harrisburg's neighboring municipalities will soon see new faces on trash pickup day. Harrisburg City Council last month approved two resolutions to begin collecting trash and recycling for Paxtang and Penbrook boroughs on Jan. 1. In total, the city now has intergovernmental agreements with three nearby boroughs for waste pickup. In mid-2019, Harrisburg began handling Steelton's refuse. "I really believe that this regional approach to the delivery of services is particularly well suited for Pennsylvania, where we have so many different municipalities in close proximity," Mayor Eric Papenfuse said. "We don't all need to be duplicating services." Over the next five years, the city expects to gain over $2 million in annual revenue from the agreements. An additional six sanitation workers and one sanitation manager will join the city's Department of Public Works to assist with the new routes. "I totally agree with the vision of shared services within municipalities as a benefit to the entire region," council member Dave Madsen said. In other action last month, council voted to continue a professional services contract with Harrisburg-based Maverick Strategies for lobbying-related services. e resolution passed with a 4-3 vote. e contract will last one year at a cost of $5,000 per month. Additionally, council voted to apply for a Driving PA Forward—Level 2 EV Charging Rebate. If granted, the amount of $36,000 would go towards installing four electric vehicle charging stations on City Island. Council also chose to continue an agreement with the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area to provide services to Harrisburg's Animal Control Program for another year. New condominiums may be headed for Midtown, as a Harrisburg-area developer is proposing over a dozen market-rate units in the former Salvation Army building. Wormleysburg-based Integrated Development Partners has plans to construct 16 efficiency, one-bedroom and two- bedroom condo units in the mid-century brick building located at Cumberland and Green streets, said Jonathan Bowser, a managing partner. e building would be renamed "e Lofts" due to the high ceilings in several of the units, he said. "It's a nice building in a nice, historic neighborhood," Bowser said. "For us, it's critically important to keep the character of the building, which maintains the character of the neighborhood." e Salvation Army Harrisburg Capital City Region left its long-time home in late 2019 after moving into a new, larger facility on S. 29th Street. e 18,500-square-foot building has been on the market for many years and includes a small parking lot on Penn Street and a second, larger parking lot on Green Street. Last March, another developer, Michael Lam, proposed a 25-unit apartment building for the space, but he bowed out as the coronavirus pandemic hit. Bowser, a former chair of the Broad Street Market board, said that his company pursued the building after Lam dropped out. "ere's the new courthouse and other plans that I believe are boosting the demand—the need—for housing," he said. "So, we decided to look into that opportunity." In addition, the market for housing in Midtown has improved immensely for both rentals and sales, driven in part by the relocation of people to Harrisburg from larger cities, Bowser said. Right now, the plan, Bowser said, is to build for-sale, market-rate condo units, ranging in size from about 650 square feet to about 1,200 square feet. However, that plan is fluid and could change if the company deemed rental apartments to be a better option, he said. "ere isn't enough condo product in the walkable downtown or Midtown," he said. "ere aren't a lot of vacancies there." He declined to provide a potential range of sales prices. e project includes 32 parking spaces on Green Street. A brick building on that lot probably will be converted to storage units or maybe a gym for residents, Bowser said. He hopes to begin construction in the summertime for completion in early 2022. His company has a contract on the building pending site plan approval from the city. CONDO BUILDING PROPOSED NEWS | All stories by eBurg staff

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