COLUMBIA SPY

Monday, 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.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

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.