By Bill Lucia
Route Fifty
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Sometime in August, the City Council in Pennsylvania’s capital city is expected to decide whether to borrow roughly $3 million to help cover the cost of replacing about 6,000 existing streetlights with more energy-efficient LED fixtures.
If approved, the lighting upgrade would be a milestone of sorts for this cash-strapped city of approximately 50,000 residents. According toMayor Eric Papenfuse, it would mark the first time the city government has borrowed a sizeable amount of money since emerging from a years-long financial emergency.
Around $360 million of debt connected to a troubled trash-to-energy incinerator located at the city’s southern end was a central factor in the crisis. The bleak fiscal situation drove the City Council to try to file for bankruptcy and eventually landed Harrisburg in “receivership” with a state appointee overseeing the city’s finances from late 2011 until March 2014.
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