Bloomsburg Town Council is considering an ordinance that would require that any new development in the downtown commercial district provide off-street parking. This requirement could also apply to existing buildings with a change of use, such as if an office space became a retail store.
The intent of this change is to keep public parking available for customers. The Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Bloomsburg Inc. support this goal and feel off-street parking should be required for new housing in the district. However, developers should have the flexibility to provide that parking in other areas, so that existing buildings are not turned into parking lots.
We also feel that commercial developments in the downtown should not have to provide off-street parking, as such a requirement would deter business development and growth.
A hearing is scheduled for Monday, August 29th at 6 p.m. at Town Hall, followed by a special meeting of Council to vote on the proposal. We are asking that the proposed ordinance be revised in order to encourage long-term, balanced growth in Downtown Bloomsburg.
Click here for the proposed ordinance.
Click here for our complete statement.
On Tuesday, the Chamber issued a statement supporting Berwick Borough’s request to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) to monitor noise from establishments with liquor licenses. State statute prohibits any amplified music or entertainment from being heard beyond the property line of a licensed establishment. The Borough’s request is an attempt to support local establishments that wish to provide live entertainment to customers. The state statute allows municipalities to request an exemption and have a local ordinance apply in its place. A public hearing was held by the PCLB on Tuesday morning in Berwick to gather input on the request.
The Chamber Board approved a statement in support of the Borough’s request which was provided at the hearing. “The Borough has an established Noise Control Ordinance (99-3) to protect the safety and wellbeing of its citizens. It has demonstrated responsible application of this Ordinance in balancing the interests of citizens and businesses. It is therefore reasonable that the Borough take responsibility for enforcing noise violations at liquor license establishments as it does for all other entities, rather than subjecting these establishments to a separate, more restrictive set of guidelines.”
The PLCB can take up to 30 days to issue a decision on the request following the hearing.
From SEDA-Council of Governments
A major industry and employer in Bloomsburg is now protected from flooding, thanks to the Columbia County Flood Risk Management project. An Aug. 5 inspection of the U-shaped flood wall that surrounds Autoneum North America Inc. and the former Windsor Foods site showed that both places would be protected if there was a flood. With over 700 employees, Autoneum is the largest private employer in Columbia County. While the former Windsor Foods site is vacant, the building is now protected to maintain its potential for reuse, industrial development, and local employment. The $30 million project is on-budget and is 95 percent complete with full completion expected by November, said Glenda Ruch, who oversees the project for SEDA-Council of Governments (SEDA-COG) on behalf of Columbia County.
“It’s hard to believe that construction of the project started in March 2015 with the official groundbreaking in April, and we are now so close to completion,” Ruch said. “Achieving this project milestone is a tremendous accomplishment.” While work will continue on the project over the next few months, most of the major construction components have been completed or are almost done. Some of the remaining work includes the installation of lighting on the H-pile wall behind the fairgrounds grandstand, finalizing the storm water and sanitary sewer pump stations, installation of fencing, seeding, and paving. The completed flood wall is about 1 mile long and up to 16 feet high. The height is based on the highest flood on record ─ Tropical Storm Lee in 2011. The wall is 1.5 feet above that storm’s level.
The system consists of three types of flood protection. H-piles with pre-cast concrete panels inserted are used near Autoneum with openings in the wall and closures for high water situations. Mechanically stabilized earthen levees have been constructed along Schley and West 11th streets, along with conventional earthen levees. There will be eight closure structures in the system. To remove water away from the flood wall, a pump station for storm water was built along Snyder’s Run near Autoneum. Three pump stations for sanitary sewage also were built on Scott and West 11th streets.
Bloomsburg Town Council has advanced a recommendation from its Parking Sub-Committee to extend enforcement of metered parking spaces in the downtown to include Saturdays. The thinking behind the expansion is to deter people from “warehousing” vehicles in public parking spaces, keeping parking available for customers. With limited data, the Chamber is requesting additional study to determine the extent of the perceived problem.
The Parking Sub-Committee has recommended to Council that parking meter enforcement be changed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. In late 2015, Council was considering changing the times to 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. Area businesses joined The Chamber in expressing concerns about that plan and the Parking Sub-Committee was formed to develop more comprehensive strategies for managing parking inventory in the downtown commercial district.
The Sub-Committee recently recommended the change in beginning enforcement time to 10 a.m. based upon when the majority of retail businesses open. Committee members felt consistency of hours for all six days was important to reduce consumer confusion. While the recommended changes were supported by a majority of Sub-Committee members, Chamber President Fred Gaffney suggested further study on the weekend parking trends before implementing any changes. A study conducted by Bloomsburg University students and faculty in 2014 shows a slight increase in parking utilization on Saturdays (56% compared to 46.2% Sunday through Thursday). However, the study did not examine the nature of the increased utilization, which could include customers. The concern is that Saturday enforcement could deter customers from coming to the downtown on Saturdays, harming the businesses the change is intended to help.
The final report of the Downtown Revitalization Plan will also be delivered to Downtown Bloomsburg Inc. this month and will contain recommendations on parking management and encouraging business development. A majority of the members of the Governmental Affairs Committee of the Chamber and Visitors Bureau agreed that no changes to parking enforcement should be made pending review of the Plan and further study of weekend parking utilization.
On Monday, August 8th, the majority of Council members voted to advertise the proposed enforcement time change. A final vote is expected within the next month. The Chamber is seeking input from businesses on this proposal through a brief poll. The results will be provided to Town Council prior to that vote.
The annual Block Party held in mid-April each year in Bloomsburg has a significant impact on the Town, particularly the downtown. In a recent poll of businesses in the Bloomsburg area, the majority of respondents indicated that the event is a negative both for businesses and the Town. The results of the poll are being shared with Town Council and the Town/Gown Relations Committee in discussing how to manage the event going forward.
Representatives of fifty-one businesses in the Bloomsburg area participated in the poll, with 47 of those being located in the downtown. Of those 51 respondents, only five restaurants reported an increase in business because of the event. Thirty-three percent of the total respondents reported some decrease in business. Nine businesses, representing 18 percent of respondents, did not open because of the event, while another 8 percent closed early. Only 10 percent, or five respondents, felt Block Party is a positive for local businesses, 63 percent felt it’s a negative. Only 4%, or two of 51 businesses, felt Block Party is a positive for Bloomsburg, 75 percent felt it’s a negative, 22 percent were neutral.
A summary of the poll results is available here.
As part of the final budget legislation passed last week, House Bill 1606 increases the amount of tax credits available in the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program by $25 million, providing a total of $175 million in both the EITC and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs. The EITC program provides tax credits to businesses which make contributions to scholarship organizations (SOs) offering scholarships to children in kindergarten through grade 12, educational improvement organizations (EIOs) providing funding for innovative educational programs in public schools, and pre-kindergarten scholarship organizations (PKSOs) offering scholarships to children enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs.
The Chamber’s Foundation has utilized tax credits from local employers to fund scholarships to Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week, the Tech Theatre program in local high schools, and other programs. Local early child development programs and private schools have also received funding from participating businesses. The new tax credits are allocated in the same proportions as outlined in the previous law. Scholarship organization credits increase by $15 million to $75 million. Educational improvement organization credits increase by $7.5 million to $37.5 million. Pre-kindergarten scholarship organization credits increase by $2.5 million to $12.5 million. The OSTC program, which was established in 2012 based on the model of the EITC program, provides tax credits to businesses which make contributions to opportunity scholarship organizations (OSOs) offering scholarships to children in kindergarten through grade 12 who reside within the attendance boundaries of “low-achieving schools” (those schools in the lowest 15 percent of their designation as an elementary or secondary school).
The OSTC program also directs scholarships toward low-income families by requiring OSOs to give preference to applicants whose household income is within 185 percent of the federal poverty level. Additional information on these programs is available on the PA Department of Community and Economic Development’s website.
From PA Chamber of Business & Industry
Last Sunday, Gov. Tom Wolf had a press conference announcing that he was going to let the General Appropriations bill that the General Assembly had sent him on June 30 become law without his signature. While Act 16A of 2016 was officially enacted at midnight on July 12, what had yet to be resolved was a plan on how to pay for all of it. This was the goal of lawmakers in the days that followed. By the early evening on Wednesday, July 13, the House voted 116-75 and the Senate voted 28-22 in favor of a conference committee report on H.B. 1198, the Tax Code Bill that enacted new revenue-generators to fund additional spending for the 2016-17 Fiscal Year. Shortly after the legislation made its way to the governor’s desk, he promptly signed it into law, saying in a statement: “Today’s passage of a revenue package means that we avoid another lengthy impasse, our budget is balanced this year, and we have greatly reduced the commonwealth’s structural budget deficit.”
Following the governor’s action, the PA Chamber issued a statement expressing concern that increased spending was agreed to before the enactment of public pension reform legislation, which remains the state’s No. 1 cost-driver. PA Chamber President Gene Barr also voiced apprehension about the decision to cap the vendor’s allowance, which helps retailers recoup the costs associated with collecting the sales tax on behalf of the state. The statement also spoke to several matters related to education policy. “While we applaud the expansion of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program, additional education reforms need to be part of the conversation – including changes to the ineffective “last in, first out” teacher seniority rules and measures that aim to offer every child a high quality education,” PA Chamber President Gene Barr stated. “We urge lawmakers to tackle these critical issues when they return to session in the fall and finalize a long-term, comprehensive pension reform plan that shifts a substantial amount of the risk of increasing pension obligations away from Pennsylvania taxpayers.”
House and Senate lawmakers are scheduled to remain in their districts for the remainder of the summer, with the House scheduled to reconvene on Monday, Sept. 19 and the Senate on Monday, Sept. 26.
Last week, in the days leading up to the end of the 2015-16 Fiscal Year, the House and Senate engaged in a back-and-forth with S.B. 1073 – the General Fund budget bill. First, the House voted 132-68 on a $31.55 billion spending plan that represented a 4.8 percent increase in spending, which House Republicans proposed be funded through a combination of higher tobacco taxes, a tax amnesty program, gambling expansion and revenues through the new liquor reform law.
When the Senate received the bill, amendments were adopted before they passed the legislation 47-3. The amended bill appeared to spend $20 million less than the House-passed version while increasing higher education funding by $39 million, or 2.5 percent (the House plan level-funded higher education for the upcoming Fiscal Year). The Senate accomplished this by moving $95 million for the Commonwealth Financing Authority out of the General Fund into a restricted account, which is why the total spending figure appeared reduced. On Thursday, June 30 – the last day of the 2015-16 Fiscal Year – the Senate-amended version of S.B. 1073 was passed on concurrence by the House and sent to Gov. Tom Wolf, who applauded lawmakers for coalescing around a budget agreement and said he would sign the legislation once an agreement over revenue was reached.
Notably, the House and Senate votes on the budget bill this year earned strong bipartisan support. The bill substantially increases funding for basic education (a priority for the Wolf administration) with a $200 million increase, to a record $5.985 billion; and authorizes $15 million for the governor’s initiative to address the Commonwealth’s heroin and opioid addiction crisis.
However, to date, there has yet to be a final agreement on the revenue package to pay for this increase in spending. While a sales or Personal Income Tax increases appear to be off the table (increases to both were originally proposed in the budget plan Gov. Wolf put forth in February), a number of other revenue enhancers are being discussed. The House and Senate both stand in recess and are on a six-hour call of the Chair. They are expected to reconvene when a revenue agreement is imminent.
Penn National Insurance has announced a one percent dividend for the fourth program year of the ChamberChoice Business Insurance program. Members who placed their insurance coverage with the program during the 2014/2015 program year will receive a dividend equal to one percent of their total premium. Over the past four years, Penn National Insurance has returned an average of 7% in dividends. In the four years of its existence, the program has returned over $132,000 to participating local member businesses of the Chamber.
An important aspect of this group insurance program is preventing loss and controlling claims costs. Because dividends are based on the group’s collective loss experience, a business that may have had a significant loss may still be eligible to receive a dividend. The program is sold exclusively through local, independent agents who can offer Chamber members a variety of coverages and pricing on property and casualty insurance, including business owners, commercial auto, general liability, inland marine and workers’ compensation. Dividends are paid on all of these coverages. In addition, through safety consulting, Penn National Insurance and local independent insurance agencies encourage member businesses to develop safety practices to substantially reduce or eliminate workplace injuries. Check out this link to know more on insurance.
The Business Insurance program is just one of many benefits of Chamber membership. For more information about this year’s dividend, contact Fred Gaffney at fgaffney@cmpartnership.org. To sign up for the program, call the Chamber at 570-784-2522.