About Town - November 10, 2024

 This week's photos of Columbia 

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

The cow at the Turkey Hill Experience got its winter cap on Tuesday.

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Here's an owl reminiscent of a Rush album cover.

This hawk was hanging around on the 500 block of Chestnut Street on Election Day.

A murder of crows protested, but he mostly ignored them. 

Which way is it?

Captain Kirk's in town.

Lines were painted on Manor Street, from 9th to 12th for traffic calming, according to a source. 

Here are the lines. The first two photos are pointing west, and the last one looks east.

A biker gang blew through town the other day.

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Heavy fall clouds

Yard waste pickup ends November 12.

Colder weather is just around the corner, so this praying mantis is living out his last days in the meantime. 

The mural is almost done.

This is an artist's rendering of how the finished project will look.

The estimate for repairs to the Columbia Crossing building has risen from $250,000 to $400,000. The building costs taxpayers $140,000 to $200,000 annually just to run and maintain. (That's equivalent to about 1/4 to 1/2 a mill per year, since a mill currently generates $438,000 of revenue.) Columbia Borough receives no revenue from building rentals. Instead, all rental income goes to Susquehanna Heritage, which manages the building. (The photo above was published in September 2018 on Columbia Spy.)

A one mill tax hike is on the way, with another one possible by the end of next year. The increases are necessary, in part, due to council undertaking several boneheaded projects at the same time. A borough manager told a previous council that they have a spending problem, but the current council continues the trend, refusing to cut any big-ticket projects. Apparently, taxpayers are an endless piggy bank for council's whims.

The sign in the photo is at 9th Street & Ironville Pike and was hung in response to a previous tax hike in 2018.

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