Allentown’s Americus Hotel Revitalization Suffers Major Blow

English: City of Allentown from east side (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Plans to revitalize Allentown’s historic Americus Hotel have suffered a major blow that could set the project back multiple years, according to the hotel owner.

Albert Abdouche said financing for the $16.5 million renovation project has fallen through due to an Allentown authority’s hesitation regarding his plans.

As a result, Abdouche said he is no longer seeking to tap into the Neighborhood Improvement Zone, Allentown’s 127-acre special tax district, to finance the project.

Instead, Abdouche plans to make $1 million in improvements to the first floor with private money, then perhaps return to the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development next year to finance the rest of the hotel renovations.

Read more: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/allentown/index.ssf/2014/09/allentowns_americus_hotel_revi.html

Pottstown Home Improvement Assistance Program

SEC Case Against Harrisburg Falls Short For Exempting Finance Pros, Some Say

Seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

HARRISBURG, PA – No one answered the phone or the door at former Mayor Steve Reed’s home Tuesday nearly 24 hours after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced a settlement with Pennsylvania’s capital city over fraud charges rooted in activity during his administration.

Some public finance and securities experts saw the settlement – dubbed “toothless” by one – as a warning to municipalities that consequences await them if investors are misled by false or incomplete financial statements from local governments.

Others, however, criticized SEC for failing to hold the city’s hired advisers to account.

“Reed ran the city, (current Mayor Linda) Thompson (is running) the city,” said Mark Schwartz, a former bond lawyer who previously represented Harrisburg City Council on its ultimately rejected bankruptcy petition. “There is a ‘buck stops there’ liability for (city leaders), but the people who do the work are bond lawyers.  These are bonds that never should have been issued.  Reed cannot issue bonds on his own.  Professionals were abysmal in terms of fulfilling their responsibilities to investors and they have gotten off scot-free.  They’ve made millions.”

Read more:  http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/05/fsec_case_against_harrisburg_l.html#incart_m-rpt-1

Scranton’s Parking-Garage Rates Won’t Decrease; Chamber Seeks Parking Input

As Scranton leaders are considering increasing hours, days and rates of downtown parking meters, some business owners want to see the city’s parking-garage rates reduced.

However, the court-appointed receiver in charge of the garages and their rates, Mike Washo, said he has no plans to lower garage rates, because a reduction would drain revenue from the authority and further burden city taxpayers to fund any shortfall that may arise from reduced rates.

“We don’t believe that any reduction in parking garage rates at this time will generate additional customers to justify the reduction in rates,” Mr. Washo said. “At the end of the day, we’ll end up with less revenue.”

In recent weeks, a plan by Scranton’s mayor and city council to hire a private firm, Standard Parking, to manage the city’s on-street parking meters has raised numerous questions and concerns among downtown businesses, residents and council members.  Citing Standard Parking’s estimates, council members think the city can net an additional $1.8 million a year by switching parking-meter management from the inactive Scranton Parking Authority to Standard Parking.  Under this plan, which was tabled Feb. 7 by council, meter hours would extend from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.  Ten-hour meters also would increase from $1 an hour to $1.50 an hour.

Read more:  http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/scranton-s-parking-garage-rates-won-t-decrease-chamber-seeks-parking-input-1.1444474

Bank Yanks Loan Offer To Scranton After City Council Allows Parking Authority To Default

The effect of Scranton City Council allowing the Scranton Parking Authority to default on a debt was immediate on Friday, officials said.

The bank that the city had been hoping to get financing from to be able to keep the city afloat this year, M&T Bank, backed out first thing Friday morning because of the default, said Mayor Chris Doherty and city Business Administrator Ryan McGowan.

On Thursday night, council voted against covering a $940,000 SPA debt that was due Friday, thus allowing the authority to default even though the city had backed the debt.

“The city defaulted on the guarantee. This default has left us with nowhere to go,” Mr. McGowan said of the city’s hopes for getting loans.

Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/bank-yanks-loan-offer-to-scranton-after-council-allows-parking-authority-to-default-1.1324183

Scranton Recovery Plan Won’t Meet ‘Soft’ Deadline

Scranton‘s revised recovery plan, which is supposed to be due today, will be late.

But the tardiness won’t mean much, Mayor Chris Doherty said.

“That’s not a hard deadline,” he said.

The deadline was imposed in January by a consortium of wary banks when they loaned the city an $11.5 million tax-anticipation note, because the banks wanted assurances that the city has a viable recovery plan to deal with its historical structural budget deficits and be able to repay any future loans, officials said.

While council members said Thursday a failure to meet the deadline technically could be considered a default, Mr. Doherty said there are no penalties for tardiness and the more important aspects are that the TAN is repaid and progress is made on a recovery plan.

Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/scranton-recovery-plan-won-t-meet-soft-deadline-1.1308000#ixzz1tXKaWkbb

Evidently Stupid Is As Stupid Does In Pottstown

Despite the enormous amount of time and effort put forth by the Task Force and the cross-section of people who were involved in the process; the Pottstown Hyltonville School District Board of Education has voted to maintain five old elementary school buildings in light of the fact that:  a. Hyltonville cannot afford them and b. in the long run taxes will increase more by doing nothing.

Great job!  Not!

Many thanks to the Task Force for their hard work and many thanks to the four forward-thinking school board directors (Huss, Hartman, Pargeon, Weand) who voted NO to this giant step backward.  Watch how many homes go up for sale now!

Please keep in mind the five school board directors (Harris, Hylton, Wausnock, White, Wilson) who voted for this stick your head in the sand “plan” so when your taxes spiral even further out of control you’ll remember who to blame!  In case you forget, I’ll remind you when the times comes.

Two gigantic Roy’s Rants thumbs down and a cyber raspberry.