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Chapter 1
Permits!? We don't need no
stinkin' permits . . .
Antoun erects illegal
fence
On
December 11, 2000 Annette Antoun, "publisher" of the weekly
shopping guide, The Paxton Herald, erected a stockade fence around
one of her severely deteriorated properties located at 1008 North Sixth Street
near the state office complex in Harrisburg. Trouble is...the fence was illegal.
Before fences are
built in the City of Harrisburg, ordinary mortals are required to obtain a
building permit and, if the property in is an municipal historic district,
submit their plans for approval before the city's architectural review board.
Antoun, 76, isn't ignorant of the requirements ... only arrogant in her mistaken
belief that rules don't apply to her. On December 12, the City of
Harrisburg posted a "stop work" order on the property which prohibits
Antoun from doing any further "improvements" until she meets basic
legal requirements.
Land stolen from church
The permit requirement is in place to insure,
among other things, that proper construction techniques are followed and fences
are legally placed relevant to property lines. It is considered bad form
to put a fence on a neighbor's property....but that's just what Antoun
did.
Erected 18 inches over the property line, the
Great Wall of Annette sliced some 120 square feet from the lot owned by Bethel AME
Church.
Annette's standards of construction are on a par with
her journalistic integrity. The brand new
fence
appears to have been built without even the most rudimentary carpentry
skills, much less a level. The other reason permits and inspections are
required is to prevent the substandard, shoddy construction we have come to
expect from Antoun.
More empty promises?
Antoun's 25 year ownership of the rotting
building became a controversy after her September purchase of the Swallow
Mansion located at
1000 N. Sixth Street from Historic Harrisburg Association. HHA
officials claim to have been unaware that Antoun held title to the severely blighted property four doors
away from the Swallow Mansion.
Antoun told the Central
Penn Business Journal
"she has renovated numerous homes in Fox Ridge" and that the mansion
would be restored to house an African-American museum.
That may be a figment of the elderly "publisher's"
imagination. According to the Journal, Jacq-E Pinn,
president of the African-American Museum of Harrisburg said Antoun had engaged
in "informal" discussions with the museum, and declined further
comment.
Kathy Lemke, President of Historic
Harrisburg Association, noted the proposal to restore the Swallow Mansion as a museum was
made by Antoun herself and not by anyone representing a planned museum.
In a carefully crafted statement to the
Journal,
Lemke said, "A legitimate offer was made for the building we believed with
an intention, as described to us, to house the African-American museum there, as
one that would benefit the city. It seems like a plan that was thoughtful."
Historic
Harrisburg's Blunder
Regrettably, Historic Harrisburg Association
didn't examine the "plan" very closely before they agreed to dispose
of the Swallow Mansion to Antoun and her legacy of blight and shoddy
workmanship.
Chapter
2 . . . Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
