About Town 1/26/20

This week's photos of Columbia

 Something new has been added to the view at the Veterans Memorial Bridge Plaza.

 The "something new" is a several thousand-gallon liquid nitrogen tank that was delivered on Friday, shown here being filled that afternoon.

 The tank was installed on a 10' x 10' concrete pad next to the building on Bridge Street, which is being leased by Floyd's of Leadville.

The liquid nitrogen is used for freezing hemp, one of the steps in making cannabis oil.

Columbia Spy reported on the facility HERE.

Under normal atmospheric pressure, nitrogen exists as a liquid between the temperatures of -210°C and -196°C which equals -346°F and -320.44°F.

Note the ice on pipes and hoses at the back of the truck.

 Here's a zoning permit that was seen posted at the property on Friday. It states that it's for "Patch Roof - Concrete Pad w/fence - Ballards - Upgrade Elec."

 Shown here are some of the tank controls and fixtures.

 This device is mounted next to the tank.

 The top of the tank is visible above the Veterans Memorial Bridge.

****************

 Night lights

 Looks like Christmas is still hanging around.

 Winter is too.

 A Columbia bargain

 Something used to be here along Shawnee Run, near South 4th.

 Rock face

 Good policy, because the trains always win.

 River ice

 The river freezes, thaws . . . 

and freezes.

Here's what a little determination can do over time.

 A water line that extends from under a stone archway is leaking and has been for a few years.  They archway is near or is possibly part of one of the "Civil War bridge" piers.

Also seen this week:

 Sign down at the post office

 Peeling back the surface to show what's underneath

 Down at Hotel Locust

 Back in the day, kids used to deliver Sunday newspapers for Stover's News Agency from a cart similar to this. The Stover's cart might have been a bit bigger.

 Looks like traffic cones work like this, too.

River rocks over and under

 A new kind of river rock - or someone's old seat?

 Don't worry. They'll be back here soon enough.

 Just around the corner - and in the window.

 When your pumpkin melts, it might be time to get rid of it.

 Some folks build walls.

 Someone hasn't been paying attention here.

Not no way. Not no how.

 Tunnel under the tracks to let Shawnee Run ... run

MarinePlus getting the boat wet

Crane at the former firehouse on Front Street. Columbia Borough now owns the building, currently leased to K.T. Graham.

Movement at that shop on the 400 block of Locust

Reading, step-by-step

Busted fire hydrant being consoled by a traffic cone

*****************

 Here's what came rolling through town on Saturday.

 Some sort of humongous unit on a flatbed was being transported along Route 462.

 The truck was escorted by two smaller trucks, front and back.

 Columbia Borough Police also helped out with traffic control.

 There was a high pole mounted to the front of the lead truck to measure the height of power lines.

 The entourage proceeded eastward along Route 462.

Urgent messages on borough finances, missing records, $100K a year for Market House

In a recent series of Facebook posts, Columbia Borough Councilman Howard Stevens laid out "urgent action" items that were sent to him from the borough's finance manager. Among the items: an immediate need to create a "Debt Service Fund" to handle our $12.9 million bond debt. Finance Manager Kyle Watts said that currently we have no formal plan in place, according to Stevens.

Facts and figures
Stevens also relayed that the urgent message noted that the general fund balance Reserve Resurrection Planning needs to be addressed. He said that since his leadership role is finance for the borough that he takes this message very seriously. Stevens proposes taking $800,000 from the budget and putting it into the Debt Service fund, noting that this amount is not the whole $1.8 million in cuts he proposed recently. Those numbers are shown here:

30-434-001 462 lighting $500,000.00

30-438-014 Rotary Park $124,000.00

30-438-016 Parking Improvement Program $700,000.00

Parking study???????

30-447-002 Streetscape Master Plan $100,000.00

$1,424,000.00


Capital Fund 18

18-410-740 Police cars $ 80,275.00
18-410-741 Tire Machine $6,800.00
18-41-742 Zero Turn Mower $8,826.00
18-410-734 Hook lift Truck acc $142,095.00
18-410-744 F-550 $63,648.00

$ 301,644.00

Stevens said he posted this information to get feedback before a vote that could come at this week's borough council meeting.


No records exist on bids for lights
[Note on the Route 462 lighting project: Information obtained through a right-to-know request reveals that no record exists about bids for the lights, which were purchased in 2018 at a cost of $347,000. Columbia Spy reported on the lighting project HERE.

Right-to-Know response stating that no records exist about bids for lights for Route 462 lighting project

The cost of installation could be an additional $500,000. Stevens has proposed canceling the project and selling the lights. For about the past two years, the lights have been stored outside at the "borough sheds" along Front Street.]

Lights stored at "borough sheds" along Front Street

Market House could cost the borough $100,000 a year in school taxes
According to Stevens, the former Columbia Borough Fire Department building on Front Street is assessed at over $900,000. He said that the borough is paying the school district about $24,000 in taxpayer school taxes and warns that when the Market House project is completed, the building might also be taxed by the school district for an estimated $100,000 a year - for which taxpayers will be on the hook - unless the district exonerates the property. The district has not exonerated taxes on the firehouse. [Note: A few years ago, Columbia Borough paid off a debt of about a million dollars to acquire the property. The fire department could not legally sell the property because the building sits on borough-owned property.]

Artifact found at Civil War site may be a 'witch bottle' belonging to a Columbia man | kmov.com

Besides the bottle -- which was made in Pennsylvania between 1840 and 1860 -- archaeologists recovered a wealth of artifacts at the site: Canteen fragments, bullets, horseshoe nails, uniform buttons and ink bottle fragments, among others.

But perhaps the most tantalizing and most mysterious is the bottle, which is being stored with other artifacts for further research. The bottle is marked, "Charles Grove of Columbia, PA."

MORE:

https://www.news.meredithlmg.com/general/artifact-found-at-civil-war-site-may-be-a-witch/article_1d9c08e2-68ce-5c0a-b1a7-b62ecdc9a842.html 

Columbia Borough Meetings - Week of January 27. 2020

Agenda - Columbia Borough Council Meeting - January 28, 2020

Download the complete council packet HERE.

Seen today - January 24, 2020

A large liquid nitrogen tank was just delivered to Floyd's of Leadville on Bridge Street. Floyd's is a hemp/cannabis oil processing facility. Columbia Spy reported on the facility HERE.

UPDATE: The tank was being filled early afternoon today: