About Town

Some shots around town today . . .

Columbia's a busy town, and today it was bustling:

 Pole work on Barber

 "Fixing a hole where the rain gets in" on Locust

 Installing sidewalks on Eighth

Trimming trees at Locust Street Park

Meanwhile . . .

 This truck appeared in the parking lot of a local business. Among other things, it contained portable electrical boxes attached to hand trucks.

What?

 Time to break out the Geiger counter to count rems and rads?

Yes, probably. 

TMI: It's never good when those letters appear together, whether they stand for "Too Much Information" or . . . something else.

Route 441 bypass might take longer than expected

At Columbia Borough Council's October 26 Meeting of the Whole, Acting Borough Manager/Public Works Director Ron Miller announced that the Route 441 bypass project might not be finished by Monday, November 2, as previously planned, and could take an additional week for completion. A walk-through is still planned for Sunday, November 1, 1-3 p.m.

Here are some shots of the project from today:

Agenda - Meeting of the Whole October 26, 2015

About Town

Some scenes from around town today . . .

Checking a light at the plaza

Route 441 bypass work

 

The commemorative bench in front of Stover's is gone.  Sources tell the Spy it was taken away due to ongoing vandalism and loitering.

Work continues at 855 Chestnut.

Leaf pickup

Now, that's interesting.

Meeting of the whole tonight

Columbia Borough Council will hold its monthly meeting of the whole tonight at 6 p.m. at Borough Hall, 308 Locust Street. Department managers are scheduled to be present to discuss the 2016 budget.

The next budget meeting will be held Tuesday, November 17th.

Takeaways from the budget meeting

A proposed 2016 budget was presented at Columbia Borough Council's Tuesday night budget meeting. Among the items discussed were the following:

• The annual police department budget of $2.8 million is approximately equal to the annual amount of property tax revenue. The borough is exploring various options, including regionalization, to contain costs. Several councillors noted that the current situation is "not sustainable" and services may need to be cut in the future if no other options are implemented. According to council, infrastructure improvements and various services have routinely been paid for largely by grants and earned income tax revenue. 

• The borough is looking at filling several positions: full-time codes department employee, highway one level employee, borough manager.

• The proposed millage is 7.75, a reduction of .25 mil, as recommended by the borough auditor. (.25 mil generates $85,000 per year for the borough.)

• The borough was recently informed by their solicitor that the fire company cannot sell the former Columbia No. 1 building on Front Street, because it is on borough land and is therefore borough property and must  be sold through a bidding process or other means.

• Pam Williams requested $6700 to show a series of four movies. The proposed series is an expansion of the recent Movie Under the Stars presentation held at Columbia River Park. Council referred her to the Parks and Recreation Board December 1 meeting.

• Beth Troxell of Susquehanna Center for the Creative Arts requested $3900 for a series of free art classes for Columbia students.

• Department managers are scheduled to attend the meeting of the whole, Monday night, October 26, at 6 p.m. for further budget discussions.

Columbia Happenings today Saturday, October 24

1-4 p.m.