Columbia's decision to ban former employee from its property may be 'unconstitutional' [Lancaster Watchdog]
Chris Vera [Columbia Spy file photo] The following information is excerpted from a December 6, 2025 LNP Watchdog article by LNP | LancasterOnline reporter Jade Campos. Still reeling from an abrupt firing from his role as head of the Columbia Market House in March, Chris Vera was surprised to get a letter in the mail from a Columbia Borough attorney two weeks later telling him he was banned indefinitely from borough property. The letter gave no reason for the ban. Nine months later, Vera, who has served as president of the Columbia Historic Preservation Society for more than a decade and has helped with the borough’s comprehensive plan, is still banned from borough property. He believes the ban includes borough parks, which is part of the reason he moved his annual Albatwitch Day festival, which celebrates the myth of a local cryptid, to Wrightsville. Vera said he’s not sure why the borough went to such lengths to keep him away from public spaces given his termination from the borough s...
Comments
IF any of the councilors or boro manager,etc lived beside someone like this-THEY WOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. There is NO peace and quiet in my uptown neighborhood.
NUISANCE BARKING AND DOG WASTE NOT CLEANED UP SHOULD BE AN INSTANT CITATION FROM THE POLICE AND CODES DEPT.........IT'S A SERIOUS ISSUE....AS IS PEOPLE WHO TAKE THEIR DOGS FOR WALKS TO DO THEIR BUSINESS AND DON'T CLEAN IT UP
And then there are the others: Those who don't train or even try to correct their dog; or who tie the dog out to a dog box with 3 feet of chain and don't pay any attention as it barks endlessly out of frustration; or who let the dog run for hours in the backyard barking at everything in sight; or who let the dog run throughout the neighborhood, shitting on lawns and attacking other dogs; or who walk the dog without a leash and don't control it as it jumps on other people.
Over the years I've had various neighbors who let their dogs bark for hours. Funny thing is, they never seem to mind it - although everyone else in the neighborhood does. When you complain they act like YOU are the problem.
One neighbor kept what I swear was a timber wolf in a penned-in area in the yard. It howled intermittently all hours of the day and night.
I agree there should be increasing fines for repeat offenders who let their dogs run free but also for those who let their dogs bark continuously. The latter always seem to get off with a warning or two, with no real consequences, and so the behavior continues.
§ 82-12. Control and treatment of animals.
A. It shall be unlawful for any owner to fail to exercise proper care and control of his animals to prevent them from becoming a public nuisance. Excessive, continuous or untimely barking or noise making, smell, mischief, molesting of passersby, chasing of vehicles, habitual attacks on other domestic animals or trespassing upon private property in such manner as to damage property shall be deemed a nuisance.
B. It shall be unlawful for any owner, keeper or custodian to fail to provide animals with sufficient good and wholesome food and water, proper shelter and protection from the weather, and veterinary care when needed to prevent suffering and to fail to provide them with humane care and treatment. It shall be unlawful for any owner, keeper or custodian to beat, cruelly ill-treat, torment, overload, overwork or otherwise abuse any animal or to cause or permit any dogfight, cockfight or other combat between animals or between animals and humans.
I'll do a follow-up and list the numbers.