Recording, Roadbotics, and Ruffled Feathers at the February 26 Borough Council Meeting

In another step towards livestreaming, Borough Council recorded Tuesday's meeting via a cell phone mounted on a small tripod and operated by the borough manager from her seat at the conference table. The tripod proved to be a more stable option than the suction cup used at the previous meeting when the phone fell from its perch above a window ledge and crashed to the floor 15 minutes into the meeting.

Columbia Borough has enlisted the aid of Roadbotics , a company that assesses road conditions via cell phone and special software. Previously, the assessments were done manually. The borough will use Roadbotics in a one-time contract at a cost of $5,000. The data gathered will be loaded into a program of the borough's called CSDatum. A previous study was done manually about five years ago, and the borough has since based its road program on this data. Borough Manager Rebecca Denlinger said, "Now it's time for us to get a new set of data on how the streets are - the conditions of the roads - so that we can put in place a new road program."

Breakdown in decorum? An exchange between Jim McGinness and Councilman Cleon Berntheizel became a bit heated:

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