COLUMBIA SPY

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Monday, December 12, 2016

Borough council voted to buy a trolley Monday night. The trolley will be provided by Elite Coach of Ephrata for $39,900. (Voting was unanimous among the five councillors present. Sherry Welsh was absent, and Stephanie Weisser has rendered her resignation, effective December 1.)

The trolley is a 1993 model with 53,000 miles and was used previously by the borough during the Columbia lantern tour. Public Works Director Ron Miller took a test drive/ride for several miles recently and described the vehicle's engine and transmission as "excellent" and presented council with an extensive written report. He called the venture "not a frivolous investment whatsoever." The trolley is air-conditioned and comes with a lifetime supply of vehicle filters. Councillor John Novak said the same trolley in today's dollars would cost $200,000-250,000 new.

Council had originally planned to employ the services of Rivertowne Trolley Company again in 2017 until a sudden opportunity surfaced to buy its own trolley. The issue normally would have gone through committee before being presented to council, but councillors felt the matter warranted quick action due to other parties interested in acquiring the vehicle. Columbia paid $30,600 last year to rent Rivertowne's trolley.

Councillor Cleon Berntheizel said, "I look at this as an investment in the borough."

Night lights

71-year-old woman charged with threatening neighbor at knifepoint

A Columbia woman threatened to kill a man in the 400 block of Locust Street on Thursday, Columbia police reported.

http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/year-old-woman-charged-with-threatening-neighbor-at-knifepoint/article_88c791e0-bf18-11e6-8843-9b62254a772c.html#comments

Draft Agenda - Borough Council Meeting December 12, 2016

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Christmas tree lighting at the park

The 50-foot tree was lit tonight at Locust Street Park as part of the Fourth Annual Columbia Winterfest celebration. The event was dedicated to Bert and Peanut Burkert, both of whom passed away this year. Cimarron Properties, the Slaymaker Group, Express Printing, and Union Station Grill sponsored.

Countdown!

Families enjoyed hot chocolate, music, and Santa Claus during hte celebration.

Our Lady of the Angels choir sang Christmas carols.

Santa (Walter Bosch) worked the crowd.

The tree stood forth in its illuminated glory

400 luminaries lined the sidewalks, thanks to the Columbia varsity cheerleading squad (and one honorary member) and the baseball team.

Peanut and Bert

A privy - Can you dig it?

Four diggers excavated the remains of a privy on Walnut Street this afternoon. What's a privy, you ask? The dictionary defines it as: "A toilet located in a small shed outside a house or other building; an outhouse." So, why would anyone be digging up such a thing?

In the days before indoor toilets, people used the privy not only to "do their business," but also as a trash receptacle. In other words, a privy is - or can be - a trove of artifacts from a particular era.

Rick Weiner, one of today's privy diggers, told the Spy that workers were retrieving objects from about the 1890s. (A previous dig in the same area yielded objects from the 1700s.) He said the privy (shown below) was especially large, measuring six feet in diameter. He estimated it could turn out to be 15 feet deep. Most privies around town measure about four feet in diameter and four feet deep, Weiner said.

Weiner added that the top layer of digging usually consists of lime that was applied to neutralize the soil and moderate the smell of the privy. The process of excavation is laborious and time-consuming, as workers in the hole dig and load buckets that are continually hauled to the top and dumped.

Rick Weiner's website is HERE.