COLUMBIA SPY

The last round of citizen comments from the August 18 Columbia Borough School Board meeting is presented below. At issue is the shared service contract between the Columbia and ELANCO School Districts that includes the hiring of former Columbia School Board President Tom Strickler as director of operations. Previous citizen comments from this meeting can be found  HERE  and  HERE . Tom Strickler Vern Detz : "I feel as though this is a disservice to the taxpayers of Columbia, and I think everyone that voted for this without doing the due diligence should resign. I really don't think you have the best interest of Columbia at your forefront. I believe that the intent may have been there. We rushed it. We didn't dot all the I's and cross all the T's. I believe it's going to cost more than 165 [thousand dollars] that's being thrown out there. Some of my questions earlier and the answers I got kind of justifies that statement. We need to have ...

GO HERE: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/columbia-teenagers-accused-of-trying-to-kill-police-officers-to/article_28843696-6ade-11e6-986a-2ba333d1319a.html

Please join us on August 26 for an exhibition of Kat Oliver's fine art Photography. Kat states, "I started photographing with my grandfather's 1942 Pentax film camera. I quickly fell in love with the art of photography, but most importantly- the delicacy of film. Shooting with film created this movement in me that allowed me to fall in love with ideas and concepts, rather than a specific photo I wanted to capture." Thanks for your continued support and we hope to see you at our 4th Friday opening. Susquehanna Center for the Creative Arts 224 Locust Street Columbia, PA 17512 717-576-9628 or 717-580-9031 www.sccaartstore.com

Columbia Spy recently obtained a copy of an email from an ELANCO Board member stating that the majority of comments received have been favorable towards the shared services contract. The email did not state the number of comments received, but residents opposed to the contract should also make their opinions known to the ELANCO School Board and administrators via email: glenn_yoder@elanco.org  (president) jonathan_dahl@elanco.org paul_irvin@elanco.org rodney_jones@elanco.org (vice president) dina_maio@elanco.org bryan_naranjo@elanco.org melissa_readman@elanco.org thomas_wentzel@elanco.org jennifer_zeiset@elanco.org ELANCO (and Columbia) superintendent: robert_hollister@elanco.org ELANCO chief of finance and operations: keith_ramsey@elanco.org

Regarding the recent school board contract fiasco  - and the twisted justifications and rationalizations - a lot of residents would probably agree with sentiment expressed by Fletcher in The Outlaw Josey Wales:

Residents voiced their concerns over Columbia's shared service agreement with the ELANCO School District, at last week's Columbia Borough School Board meeting. (Part One of the coverage is  HERE .) Quinn Hartman Resident (and former board member) Quinn Hartman : "First of all I'd like to say I've been on the board nine and a half years and never seen this many people in the audience. I wish it was like this every meeting. When I heard about this idea of the shared superintendent, I thought man what a great concept, it solves our problems. I'm thinking this should save us fifty, sixty thousand dollars a year, so when I heard it only saves $8,000, I was disappointed. This contract that the board agreed to, can we define Garden Spot as a third party vendor?" Attorney Michael Grab : "Well, they're a separate entity with whom we have a contract. Under certain circumstances a separate entity could be considered a third party vend...

GO HERE: http://www.townlively.com/edmond-recognized-for-outstanding-service/