COLUMBIA SPY

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Incident: Fight/Stabbing

On Tuesday, January 31, 2017, Officers from the West Hempfield Township Police Department, responded to the Speedway located on 1792 Columbia Avenue, Columbia, PA 17512, for a fight.

Officers learned that an adult male, Walter Smith, had kept asking the Speedway clerk for her phone number, and asking her wheither or not she liked him. The clerk became nervous due to Smith's persistence.

The clerk then called a friend and the friend's husband, Clarence McMinn, had responded to the store. Clarence arrived at the store and tried to get Smith to leave. A physical altercation broke out between Smith and McMinn, in the store, and during the struggle C. McMinn slashed Smith's arm with a survival knife that he was carrying on his person.

The officers reported that Smith was found sitting near the gas pumps bleeding when they arrived on the scene.

The officer reported that both males involved in the altercation were transported to the LGH for treatment of non life threatening injuries.

The West Hempfield Township Police Department, after consulting with the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office, will file Simple assault charges against both parties, at MDJ Miles Bixler's Office, in Columbia, PA 17512.

All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Incident Date:

Wednesday, February 1, 2017 - 10:19pm

Case Number:

2017-WH-00216

Location:

1792 Columbia Avenue

Columbia, PA 17512

Source:

West Hempfield Township Police Department

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Good Samaritan offers man a ride, winds up getaway driver in Columbia bank heist

A good Samaritan was an unwitting getaway driver in a bank robbery after offering a ride home to a man he met in a Columbia tavern Monday.
MORE:
http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/good-samaritan-offers-man-a-ride-winds-up-getaway-driver/article_ffc789a4-e8cf-11e6-af3f-5f2b7bfa5560.html

Columbia to pony up $100,000 to kick-start Land Bank projects

Columbia will front $100,000 to the Lancaster County Land Bank to begin its mission of buying and restoring blighted properties in the borough. The funds are considered "seed money," according to Borough Finance Committee member Kelly Murphy at January's finance meeting.

Explaining the borough's need to pony up the funds, Murphy said, “Lancaster County Commissioners created this [the Land Bank], but there is no funding mechanism for it at the moment.” The funding will require an extra line item on the 2017 budget, according to Murphy.

Murphy said representatives from the borough and the school board met with the Land Bank and targeted 18 properties, with an initial two, that could benefit from the program. All parties agreed that $100,000 is a suitable figure to get started in 2017. Murphy said that smaller, more manageable projects, which he termed "low-hanging fruit," will be undertaken first.

The Land Bank has a variety of options for a targeted property, including buying and reselling it to a contractor immediately, or hiring a contractor to complete renovations and then sell the property. The borough will control all terms of the transactions. After a property is rehabilitated and returned to the tax rolls, the land bank will get half the taxes collected in the first five years. One stipulation is that the properties must be sold as single family dwellings.

At the finance meeting, resident Sharon Lintner asked “Is that [$100,000] used to purchase, or to purchase and fix up?” Murphy replied that it was to purchase. Lintner cited the $5,000 fee to join and the $1,000 annual membership fee, but questioned the amount of additional funding. “I didn’t know about the $100,000, and that’s why I questioned you. I didn’t know.”

Resident Frank Doutrich said, “I didn't hear anything when this was presented - that we were going to be buying properties. My feeling was it was going to be the Land Bank doing all the buying.”

Murphy replied, “They are, but we're giving them, for lack of a better term, $100,000 seed money. They have no funding.”

Doutrich replied, “I never heard nothing about that, and I sit and I listen pretty good.”

Murphy said, “It’s like we’re gifting them $100,000 to start purchasing these projects to get them rehabbed on behalf of Columbia Borough. They’re just like another legislative body.”

Doutrich then asked what would happen if the Land Bank runs out of money. Murphy replied that they could ask the borough for more.

Mayor Leo Lutz said, "We aren’t giving anybody a dollar. We're putting that money in the budget. At some point and time we could say we want out of this - give us our money back," Lutz said.

The committee voted to take the matter to February's council meeting.

Columbia Spy reported previously on the Land Bank HERE and HERE.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

February Events at the Columbia Public Library

Monday, January 30, 2017

Will new code requirements backfire?

Letter from Columbia Borough explaining procedure for obtaining Certificate of Occupancy

Columbia Spy spoke with a Lancaster County businessman late today, who voiced an opinion about a recent ordinance (Ordinance 875-2016) regarding home inspections and certificates of occupancy. He requested that his name be withheld.

He believes the ordinance will lead to increased vacant and blighted properties. Owners will walk away from properties due to heavy-handed inspections and repair requirements, he said, leading to an increase in crime and a situation like that of Harrisburg, which he calls "the capital of blighted."

Citing one such home inspection lasting three-and-a-half hours and resulting in a 13-page repair list, he said that such scrutiny requires too many repairs for homes valued at only $30,000.

He surmises that every borough property decreased in value when the ordinance was passed, adding that it "borders on illegal." He said Columbia is in the shape it's in because it is mismanaged.