Harrisburg tornado funds: Final installment?
HARRISBURG—Over the past several months Disclosure staff has recounted the events that have taken place in the research of the usage of the Harrisburg Tornado Grant Funding. Unfortunately, this month we are reaching the end of the story as we know it now, but that does NOT mean that this is truly the end.
After Disclosure staff had review all of the documents that outlined the Grants received by the City of Harrisburg, as well as the pathetically obscure documents received from City Clerk and FOIA Officer Sally Wofford, it began to become clear that the answers to certain questions would not be easily found. Finding themselves at an impasse, the staff was forced to sit back and consider new ways of finding the truth of the Tornado Funds handling.
By that point, this series had begun running in Disclosure NewsMagazine for about two editions. As word reached the public of the research the staff was conducting, correspondence of all sorts began coming in to Disclosure. Emails, letters, phone calls and meetings were held with a number of Harrisburg residents, all of whom had a story to tell.
Horror stories
One citizen had lost his home in the tornado, and was lucky to have survived. He was left with nothing to his name. He was renting a new home via Harrisburg STORM (Social workers, Transitional services, One-stop, Rehab services and Money, each facets of recovery for tornado victims), and was told he would be given the home, as STORM was going to buy it for him. He was kicked out after STORM had not paid the rent they had promised to pay until closing. That home was then remodeled, according to this gentleman, under the use of the Harrisburg Tornado Grants for another person who had lost their home. This particular home was not even remotely close to the damaged area of town, yet it was “rehabilitated” under the grant funding. When Disclosure inquired of those who were managing the grant if this was acceptable use of the money, no answer was ever given by any of them.
A letter received by Disclosure told heartbreaking stories of an elderly woman who had been left through the entire winter, sitting in the frigid cold, waiting for the new windows that had been promised to her but never installed. Her home was hit, but the largest damage was to her windows. To keep the elements out, boards were nailed over her windows. After sitting all winter in the dark and cold, a local church paid to install the new windows that she had been promised by the city, but had never received.
These are only two of the many horror stories that Disclosure staff heard, and for every one story that was told to them, it began to become more worrisome on how many WERENT being told.
Still, due to the failure of the City fathers to explain the usage of the funding, the failure of Roy Adams to explain the work he had been contracted to do, and the stonewalling and pathetic displays from Sally Wofford, no new avenues to find the true explanation to all of this were presented.
New development
Only one new development has occurred, and that was at the first meeting of the City of Harrisburg Council Meeting in May. Commissioner John McPeek delivered the usual payment requests for Roy Adams Services to various contractors, and upon their payment announced that those would be the last of the bills, and that the money had been spent. In total, McPeek announced that 2.8 million dollars had been spent, and that 10 new homes had been built, and 35 had been rehabbed. Additionally, 7 homes had been rehabbed under the MARS handicap accessibility money received by the City.
This is the end of the investigation as it has happened to date, but that does NOT mean that Disclosure won’t be getting the answers, however, simply that there is no more to tell right now. Disclosoure attorneys have stepped in, and are ensuring that the answers will be given, and the runaround will stop. Disclosure still cannot say if there is foul play in the Tornado Fund expenditures, or if the funds were spent appropriately. Either way, something smells fishy. Check back every month for new details on the status of Disclosure’s investigation of the matter, as we will bring new details to you as soon as we break down the walls that are holding back the facts.