COLUMBIA SPY

Columbia Borough has scheduled its annual Spring Clean-Up Day along with a Large Appliance Collection for Friday, April 25, 2025, from 8 a.m. to noon. Borough employees will team up with community volunteers to clean streets, sidewalks, and parks throughout Columbia. In case of inclement weather, the clean-up portion of the event will be rescheduled to Friday, May 2, 2025. Residents interested in volunteering for the clean-up effort should contact Pam at armoldp@columbiapd.org or call 717-684-7735. The Large Appliance Collection will occur simultaneously. Borough officials emphasize that all items must be tagged for collection. . The Borough Office is located at 308 Locust Street, Columbia, PA 17512. For more information about either event, residents can call the office at (717) 684-2467.

At Tuesday's meeting, Columbia Borough Council voted to close on a $5.4 million loan aimed at developing the McGinness Innovation Park. The loan is paired with a $3.35 million grant. Both amounts, which total $8.75 million, are funded through a Business in Our Sites (BIOS) program administered by the Commonwealth Financing Authority, which provides funds to municipalities and other entities to prepare sites for development. In order to receive the grant, the borough was required to close on the loan. Columbia Borough purchased the 58-acre McGinness property for $1.5 million on August 20, 2021. Following is a breakdown of costs associated with the project: The estimate to develop the tract as of summer 2022 was $12 million, according to BizNewsPA (7/20/22). Columbia initially paid $1.5 million to purchase the property. The total of those two figures is $13.5 million. Along the way, the borough received a $1 million Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) grant from ...

This is a tale of two "cities": According to LNP/LancasterOnline, Tuesday's Lancaster City Council meeting was canceled due to technical problems. Council members decided to postpone the meeting until the problem is fixed. "Council President Amanda Bakay said the meeting recording, streamed to the city’s YouTube channel (CityofLancasterPAGov), was not picking up audio to broadcast to listeners at home. Residents have come to rely on a live recording of every council meeting , Bakay said, so council members agreed to delay the meeting until the problem is fixed," the article states. (The meeting was rescheduled for next week.) Columbia Borough, on the other hand, did not cancel its Tuesday night council meeting, despite similar technical problems. (In fact, Columbia Borough has never canceled a meeting due to such problems.) The borough’s livestreams have been plagued by audio issues for about six months, and this latest meeting was no exception. Officials are w...

700 Franklin Street   Columbia Borough Council voted unanimously Tuesday evening to approve the demolition of 700 Franklin Street, in addition to accessory structures remaining at the McGinness homestead site of 1020 Manor Street, to clear the way for a planned business park. Council awarded the demolition contract to Farhat Excavating, LLC, which submitted the lowest bid of $52,780.00 among nine contractors competing for the project. The decision comes after unsuccessful efforts to preserve the Franklin Street dwelling. In December 2024, the borough solicited bids for the sale and relocation of the 700 Franklin Street property, but received no offers, making demolition "the logical option to keep the project progressing forward," according to a borough executive brief. C.S. Davidson, the engineering firm handling the bidding process, publicly advertised the demolition contract in LNP/LancasterOnline and opened bids via PennBid on April 17, 2025. The complete list of bids rec...

A woman found dead in the Susquehanna River on Friday in West Hempfield Township was identified as April Wefler of Lancaster city, the Lancaster County Coroner's Office announced today.  Wefler, 33, of the 100 block of South Queen Street, died of freshwater drowning, according to the coroner's office, which reported her body was found on the shoreline in West Hempfield Township between the Wrights Ferry and Veterans Memorial bridges.   The coroner's office said Wefler was reported missing by her family Saturday. The coroner confirmed Wefler's identity via dental records.   The coroner said the manner of death is still under investigation.   West Hempfield police have not said if they are investigating the death and have not responded to requests for more information.  https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/lancaster-city-woman-drowned-in-susquehanna-river-over-the-weekend-coroner/article_55678552-dd2d-4358-9072-14d8be8da369.html  

Kate Haldeman (left) does yoga with instructor Beverly Kelley at the Columbia Animal Shelter. At 6:50 Monday evening, 14 enthusiastic people lined up at the Columbia Animal Shelter to participate in yoga. Once inside, enthusiasts rolled out their mats as furry felines wandered through. Obviously, this isn't your typical yoga class—it's "Cat Yoga," a unique wellness experience where relaxation meets animal interaction. A yoga practitioner is joined by a feline shelter resident. The idea behind cat yoga is simple: Participants do yoga conducted alongside the shelter's resident cats. They can choose to practice in one of four spaces—the kitten room, female cat room, male cat room, or the lobby.  Instructor Beverly Kelley typically guides the class through gentle stretches and positions, as shelter cats accompany participants. "We'll do a little yoga and a lot of playtime and loving on the cats and kittens while we're here - and hopefully an adoption or t...