COLUMBIA SPY: About Town - September 24, 2023

This week's photos of Columbia

(Click/tap on photos to see larger, sharper images.)

Cycling through on Bridge Street -

Columbia wants to be a bicycle-friendly town, but it's not there yet.

Here are some extra bikes, just in case it ever happens.

The shadow looks like some spooky, wrought iron Victorian gate - just in time for Halloween.

Sign repair in progress?

When even the train stops at the railroad crossing

New sign

More stonework at the Buddhist temple

Don't tread on him.

His neighbor is a Karen - allegedly.

Yet another bridge inspection. PennDOT is worried.

But won't all those vehicles on the bridge add to the problem?

Still lurking

Cosmic Bigfoot or Cosmic Albatwitch?

Just in time for Halloween, here's a black cat sitting sphinx-like at the Mifflin House.

Also in time for Halloween . . . a ghost?

Or a Ghostbuster?

No, just some guys cleaning out a vacated apartment

Here's another mural by anndope.

It's at Fragments of the Past on the 300 block of Walnut.

You'll find some real ghosts there.

Yeah, where is he? Columbia needs him now more than ever.

Here's a skeleton at Plane and Franklin. Good thing he's chained!

A witches coven uptown.

Here's a sign on Locust for the witches academy.

Jack o'lantern

Potential jack o'lantern

And a pumpkin with a message

True. Once you're there, there's no outlet.

(By the way, was anyone raptured this weekend?)

This sign, although beautiful, could apply to half the intersections in Columbia.

Speaking of intersections and the like, here are some figures on our streets, sidewalks, and alleys from Thursday's council budget work session.

31.35 miles of public roads in the borough!

And here's a look at revenue from the same meeting.

Since 1910

Hey, truck drivers!

Ornamental pepper plant along the 200 block of Chestnut

Last fall, council voted 6-1 to purchase this property at 700 Franklin Street to add it to its 58-acre tract formerly known as the McGinness airfield. The borough wants the land as part of its plan to develop the tract into an innovation park, a project originally estimated to cost $12 million.

Borough manager Mark Stivers said the hope is that someone will purchase and relocate the house off the property so that the borough can extend Franklin Street directly into the park. If the house is not sold and relocated, the borough plans to demolish it. The house is currently unoccupied.

It doesn't seem to have been advertised for sale anywhere recently, so count on it being demoed. Such a waste.