COLUMBIA SPY

At Monday's special borough council meeting, residents questioned council's intent to fund a $75,800 study for conversion of its wastewater plant. Council is looking at converting the plant into a facility for producing natural gas from food waste. [See previous article  HERE .] The plant has been idle since the borough sold its wastewater collection system to LASA. Resident Ron "Ollie" Fritz opposed moving forward with the project, citing the cost of conversion. "It's going to be an enormous cost," he said. He asked council to "put a hold" on the project. Fritz read from  a 2015 LNP article  in which Public Works Director Ron Miller said, “We want to be the first. We like being first...We’ll be the guinea pig.” [Miller said the newspaper quote came from a phone interview with a journalist and implied that his words may not have been accurately reported.] "I don't want to be the guinea pig," Fritz said in response to Mille...

At a special council meeting Monday night, Columbia Borough Council voted 6-0 to contract with AIM Advisors and project partner Rettew Associates to undertake a study to determine the feasibility of converting the borough's wastewater treatment plant into a natural gas production facility. The study will cost $75,800 and could be completed by March 1 of next year. David Nikoloff, principal at AIM, told council that the enterprise could be a "public-private partnership" and would entail restaurants and other businesses providing food waste as raw material (known as "feedstock") for conversion to gas. He said the study would determine if there is enough feedstock available in the area and whether there is enough of a market to purchase the gas. Nikoloff added that such a facility could be up and running in about two and a half years. The issue was previously visited during a presentation at November's regular council meeting, when a motion was made to ...

A worker hung lighted garlands on Locust Street light posts this afternoon. Christmas is less than a month away.

A group of Columbia High and Middle School students used their artistic talents to brighten a window at Stover's News Agency this morning in observance of the holiday season.   The finished product

Special Borough Council Meeting Legal Notice – Notice is hereby given that a Special Meeting of Columbia Borough Council will be held in conjunction with the monthly Finance Committee Meeting on Monday, November 28, at 6:00 pm in the Borough Hall, 308 Locust Street, Columbia, PA to discuss re-purposing of the Waste Water Treatment Plant into a Bio-CNG Facility and any other necessary Borough Business. If you are a person with a disability wishing to attend and require an accommodation to participate in the meeting, please contact the Borough Office at 684-2467. Zoning Hearing Board Meeting LEGAL NOTICE – The Zoning Hearing Board of the Borough of Columbia will meet on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, at 7:00 P.M., in the Municipal Building at 308 Locust Street, Columbia, PA, to consider the following application(s) and/or appeal(s): Steven & Beverly Funk is requesting special exception(s) and/or variance(s) to convert a dwelling into a life skills house at 443 Union Street in ...

A MetroPCS cellphone store will be coming to Columbia in the near future. A 2,100-square-foot office building that will house the business has been under construction recently at 846 Lancaster Avenue, next to Little Caesars Pizza. MetroPCS is leasing the building through Bennett Williams Commercial. The store is expected to open by the end of the year.

                    Joseph William Rineer Walnut Street man said he wanted to go out with a bang. MORE: http://abc27.com/2016/11/26/columbia-man-charged-at-officers-knocking-officer-off-a-porch/

(Poster design by intern Meg Brace) From SCCA: Please join us for our Holiday Art Show at the Susquehanna Center for the Creative Arts, opening Friday, November 25, 5-9 p.m. We will have excellent gift items in a number of media produced by some of the area's best artists and craftspeople. Our weekend Sale: Friday, Nov. 25, 5-9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 26, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 27, 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. The show runs thru December 23, so if you miss the above dates, there will be other opportunities to view the work and purchase Holiday Gifts. Regular Hours: Wed. 1-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Thanks, and we hope to see you at the Show! Susquehanna Center for the Creative Arts 224 Locust Street Columbia, PA 17512 Tel. (717) 576-9628 or (717) 580-9031 www.sccaartstore.com

Could a life skills house, more self-storage, and higher radio tower be in Columbia's future? Columbia Spy spotted the following notice on Front Street on Thursday: The text of the notice is as follows.  (The Spy has included map information for reference.) LEGAL NOTICE The Zoning Hearing Board of the Borough of Columbia will meet on Wednesday, November 30, 2016, at 7:00 P.M., in the Municipal Building at 308 Locust Street, Columbia, PA, to consider the following application(s) and/or appeal(s):  Steven & Beverly Funk is requesting special exception(s) and/or variance(s) to convert a dwelling into a life skills house at 443 Union Street in a High Density Residential (HDR) zoned district.  Associates Properties PA, LP is requesting a modification of conditions from zoning decision #12-051 to obtain a building permit for self-storage unit development at 243 S Front, 319 S Front and 109 Perry Streets in a Riverfront Commercial (RC) zo...

Recently, there have been several incidents involving racism and religious intolerance at Pennsylvania schools. As your Governor, I want you to know that this is unacceptable to me and my administration will do everything it can to end it and prevent it from happening in the future. MORE: https://www.governor.pa.gov/pennsylvania-has-your-back/

 Can the republic survive?  One for the land bank?  Big sky over bridge?  Bus stop?  New sheriff in town?  Gone but not forgotten? (House at 1042 Lancaster Avenue)  Monday it stood. Tuesday it fell. Today it disappeared entirely. The other town clock? Autumn road? Making America great again?

Two electrical transformers were installed underground on the 100 block of Locust Street today - one on each side of the street.  Abel Inc and JMF Underground, who were contracted by PPL, installed the transformers under the surface of each sidewalk. Resident parking spaces were temporarily unavailable on the block due to the large number of work trucks and personnel. 

A 1.34 percent increase in the legislative salary will increase the rank-and-file member's annual pay by $1,140, to $86,478.50 for 2017. This increase will boost legislative leaders' pay to between $98,609 to $134,998, depending on their position. MORE: http://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/11/it_pays_more_to_be_a_pa_state.html

A Columbia man accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend's husband has withdrawn a pretrial motion to suppress certain evidence two weeks before his trial is scheduled to begin. MORE: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/columbia-man-withdraws-motion-to-suppress-evidence-before-homicide-trial/article_ef032f98-b0d9-11e6-be37-ab186b92f690.html

Recent pics about town . . .  Backlit tree at River Park  Out for a walk  Ferals of Avenue H  V   Carpet of the Sun  Path to the gazebo Too soon? Ferals of South Fifth . . .  Stubby cat  On the run  Undercover   Under car Saturday may have been the last "nice" day of the year . . .  The day was off to a great start . . .  but soon went awry as afternoon winds brought rain and sleet.