Council votes to spend $1.4 million to acquire property for public works department

An abandoned factory sits along Ridge Avenue, which Columbia Borough plans to refurbish for its public works department. 

At its August 22, 2023 meeting, Columbia Borough Council voted to purchase three parcels of land at 1100, 1110, and 1120 Ridge Avenue at a price of $1,350,000, with the intent of moving its public works department there. Council also voted to purchase a .31-acre strip of land from a private owner at a price of $50,000, to access the property from the street. 

The purchase is necessary because a company, JG Environmental, wants to buy the borough’s wastewater treatment plant - and eventually the “borough sheds” next door to it, where the public works department is currently located. Moving public works and vacating the sheds will allow the company to complete the transaction and expand its operation. The company currently leases the wastewater plant from the borough.

Funding for the purchase of the 9.4 acres at Ridge Avenue will come from the borough’s investment account at Wells Fargo, according to Borough Manager Mark Stivers. Currently, there is $3,200,000 in the account, the majority of which is the “true reserve fund for the borough,” Stivers said. Selling off the borough's assets, including the wastewater plant, will reimburse the account. The sale price of the plant is $565,000, which the borough will receive by the end of September, when the plant will have been sold, according to borough solicitor Evan Gabel.

According to Stivers, selling off assets will allow the borough to purchase the land, purchase the right of way, build a road, and restore an abandoned factory there without dipping into the general fund or capital fund. At a previous meeting, Stivers estimated the cost of relocating to Ridge Avenue and subsequent clean-up and renovation of the existing building will be about $2 million, in addition to the purchase price.

Other assets the borough hopes to sell are:

* 137 Front Street (the former Columbia #1 firehouse, currently leased by KT Graham)

* 26 acres of the borough's Blue Lane property

* Residual Ridge Ave property (The borough will require only 3 and a half of the 9.4 acres and plans to sell off the remainder.)

At a previous council meeting, resident Frank Doutrich questioned officials' assertion that the move wouldn't entail any expense to taxpayers, since the assets the borough is hoping to sell were originally paid for with tax dollars.

At least part of the land is under Act 2 remediation, and there are test wells in place that are monitored by the DEP.

According to the Pennsylvania DEP website:
"The Land Recycling Program (Act 2) establishes environmental remediation standards for cleanups related to specific environmental laws. Remediation and the resulting liability relief provided by Act 2 is specific to the contamination identified at each specific site or sites."

Public documents show that RBLD Properties LLC purchased the properties for $1,000,000 from the Columbia Reduction Company in 2019. An abandoned factory, which sustained a fire on April 5 of this year, sits on one of the properties.

Initially, the plan was to move public works to borough-owned property on Blue Lane, but the move was deemed too costly - at around $5 million.