Press And Journal
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014 MIDDLETOWN
Council OK’s purchase of Handley home By Dan Miller
VOLUME 124 - NO. 47
16 PAGES
WILD
75 CENTS
BLUE
Press And Journal Staff
Middletown Borough Council voted 5-3 on Monday, Nov. 17 to allow the borough’s economic development authority to spend $150,000 plus closing costs to acquire the home of Councilor Tom Handley at 128 W. Emaus St. The Middletown Industrial and Commercial Development Authority has said that Handley’s house is among several properties the authority wants to acquire and demolish to clear the way for extending Emaus Street to West Main Street. Council President Christopher McNamara said that “everything on the south side of [West] Emaus to Wood [Street]” has been targeted by the authority for acquisition. Mayor James H. Curry III said the borough should acquire all the properties at once. By making public the $150,000 the authority intends to pay for Handley’s house, the borough has strengthened the hand of the owners of the other properties that the authority hopes to acquire. “My price just went up,” referring to the sales price of the other properties, Curry said. Replied McNamara, who also is a member of the authority, “I leave that to the ICDA and to those with experience in real estate.” Council’s vote on whether the authority can spend the money was necessary because the authority plans to buy Handley’s house using a $3 million line of credit the borough has with PNC Bank. All drawdowns from the PNC line by the authority are subject to council approval, since the credit is backed by the borough’s taxing power. Please See HOUSE, Page A8
In Lower Swatara, thieves find guns in unlocked cars
GONER
Please See Page A7
Quick
NEWS
Photos by Middletown Area Historical Society
The Personnel Processing Administration Reception Center at Olmsted Air Force Base, 1955.
Fifty years ago, the Pentagon closed the Olmsted AFB, and changed Middletown
By Dan Miller Press And Journal Staff
F
ifty years ago today, on Nov. 19, 1964, Middletown changed forever. On that day, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announced that the Pentagon would close the Olmsted Air Force Base in Middletown. Unless you were alive then, it is difficult to comprehend the impact of that announcement. Consider just a few facts. Olmsted was the biggest military installation in all of Pennsylvania. The base by far was the town’s largest employ-
INSIDE
er. Nearly 11,000 civilians worked at Olmsted. That’s more people than live in all of Middletown today. When you add in the thousands of military personnel assigned to Olmsted, the amount of people working on the base was greater than the population of Middletown in the 1960s, when the number of people living in the town was at its peak. More than half – 60 percent – of all students attending school in the Middletown Area School District had parents who worked for the federal government, nearly all of them working at Olmsted, according to then-Superintendent George W. Feaser. Please See GONER, Pages A4-5
• More on the 50th anniversary of the Pentagon’s announcement that Olmsted Air Force Base would close, including photos. – A4 and A5 • What do you do with an abandoned Air Force base? For Middletowners, success bloomed after the initial despair. – A5 Photos are courtesy of the Middletown Area Historical Society and the collection of James D. Peters.
Middletown residents who are behind in paying their electric bill will not have their electricity shutoff over the winter. Middletown Borough Council voted 9-0 on Monday, Nov. 17 to suspend electricity shutoffs from now until the end of March. The time period for the suspension is consistent with the no shutoff period imposed upon utilities that are regulated by the Pennsylvania Utility Commission. The borough had suspended electrical shutoffs in 2013. Last June, council voted to reinstate the shutoffs to try to collect an estimated $340,000 in unpaid electric bills.
Rape charge against student sent to court
By Eric Wise
Press And Journal Staff
A Lower Swatara Twp. resident reported a $300 semiautomatic handgun missing after it was left in a car with the doors unlocked, windows down and keys in the ignition, according to Police Chief Richard Brandt. “I can’t remember the last time someone actually broke in a car,” Brandt said, admitting that it does happen – just not nearly as often as thieves helping themselves to items in unlocked cars. When police questioned suspects in prior thefts from cars, the suspects admit that they check cars for unlocked doors, Brandt said. Two thieves took handguns in October among a rash of thefts from cars, all of which were unlocked, in the township. “If people would lock their cars, they wouldn’t go in them,” Brandt said. While there have been thefts reported in many areas of the township, Rosedale and Shope Gardens appear to be particular targets, Brandt said. Thefts were more frequently reported in September and October, he said. Another resident reported a Glock .40 caliber semiautomatic pistol valued at $600 and ammunition were stolen July 31 from a locked car
Council suspends electric shutoffs for the winter
A Penn State Harrisburg student charged with the attempted rape of another student saw the charges against him bound over to Dauphin County Court by a district judge. Yufan Yan, 19, is also charged with unlawful restraint, simple assault and indecent assault. He was ordered to face the charges in county court after a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 12 before District Judge David Judy. According to a criminal complaint filed by Middletown police, Yan allegedly tried to rape the victim, a 24-year-old woman, in her apartment in the Village of Pineford in September. Yan also lived in Pineford at the time, police said.
Borough seeks to hire up to six part-time cops
Planes sit in the Field Maintenance Hangar in 1955.
Please See GUNS, Page A8
Food Network’s Alton Brown hits Kuppy’s
Guess what he ate? Hint: It’s a central Pennsylvania dish. See our story on A8
Lower Swatara budget freezes property tax By Eric Wise
Press And Journal Staff
Taxpayers will not face a tax increase in Lower Swatara Twp. under a preliminary 2015 budget approved by the township commissioners on Wednesday, Nov. 5. The commissioners developed the spending plan, which increases spending by 4.8 percent to a total $5,395,500 for 2015. The proposed budget is available for anyone to review at the township office before a final vote on the plan, which is scheduled for Dec. 17. Municipal government services will cost about $651 for every one of the township’s 8,283 residents, based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s current figures. The township is expecting an increase in tax revenues without changing the tax rate. The realty transfer tax is expected to bring $175,000 in revenue, up $50,000 from the $125,000 budgeted for 2014. The realty transfer tax of 2 percent is paid when a property is sold. One percent is paid to the state, and the township and Middletown Area School District each
collect half of 1 percent. The township also expects an increase in building permits in the coming year. Real estate taxes remain at the rate set for 2013 at 3.25 mills in the township, in addition to 0.49 mills for the fire tax. A typical homeowner in the township, whose home is assessed at the median of $100,400, would pay $326.30 for the general real estate tax and $49.20 for the fire tax. While the assessed value determines a property owner’s tax liability, it does not reflect the actual value of the property. The median value of owner-occupied housing in Lower Swatara Twp. is $148,200. The township also collects .75 percent in earned income tax, a $10 per capita tax for everyone who lives in the township and a $25 occupational tax from anyone whose earnings exceed $5,000 for the year. A typical household with Lower Swatara’s $69,853 median income will end up paying about $524 in earned income tax to the township; another $873 would be paid
Middletown Borough Council voted 9-0 on Monday, Nov. 17 to again seek applicants for up to six part-time police officer positions. The borough will immediately begin advertising for the positions. Resumes from applicants must be in to the borough by Dec. 15. The borough had advertised for the positions earlier, but no one was hired. New Police Chief John Bey recommended to council’s public safety committee that the borough start from scratch with a new round of applicants.
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