Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Sunday, August 2, 2020
About Town 8/2/2020
This week's photos of Columbia
Here are a few from Todd Stahl:
Bike brigade
Ghost Tours on Locust
Time for a change
Brush up on your holds
Sunflowers on display
Someone got the boot.
Vehicle counter at the bottom of Locust
Looking through Living Stones on Front Street
Limit on personal freedom or just a good idea?
At the Tomato Barn
(Washington Boro)
Playing chicken
(Washington Boro)
(Washington Boro)
Here are a few from Todd Stahl:
The white cliffs of Conoy,
overlooking the Susquehanna River
overlooking the Susquehanna River
Borough worker Jimmy Jones on the job
Rail trail, Columbia Borough Highway Department trimming weeds along the trail.
Further up the trail
Women for Trump on Staman's Lane
PSP in town for the rally
The light at the end of the tunnel
Friday, July 31, 2020
Columbia Life Network is hosting School Supply Drive
Collection boxes are located at Columbia Life Network, 18 South 4th Street and the Columbia Borough School District Administrative Center, 200 North 5th Street. If any local businesses or organizations would like a collection box please email jamie@columbilifenetwork.org to coordinate.
Items needed are a bit different than usual so please see the list provided on the flyer below and financial donations are welcome either by mail or in person at Columbia Life Network.
Please share this post and thank you for supporting our students!
Coroner confirms identities of men killed, found in burned truck
Dr. Stephen Diamantoni identified the bodies as Jonathan Rivera, 29, of Lancaster, and Eugenio Morales-Torres, 33, of Columbia.
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Thursday, July 30, 2020
Activist demands $1.5 million in police funds be reallocated to affordable housing and public transportation
To justify his demands, Jimenez presented figures from two large nearby cities. According to Jimenez, Washington DC, with a population of 706,000, spends $145,709 per officer per year and experiences 37,720 crimes per year, 82% of which are non-violent. Philadelphia, with a population of over 5 million, spends $122,746 per officer per year, and has a crime rate of 63,597 per year, 77% of which are non-violent. Columbia Borough, however, with a population of only 10,500, spends $164,516 per officer per year, with 195 crimes per year, 90% of which are non-violent.
"How does it make sense that this small town in PA spends more money per officer than the capital of this country when the capital has 6,996 violent crimes a year and we only have 19?" Jimenez asked. He subsequently demanded that $1.5 million from the Columbia Borough Police budget for 2021 be reallocated to affordable housing and public transportation for the community. He called for a decision on the changes by August 28, 2020 and demanded that the borough's plan concerning these demands be released to the public at a council meeting within the next three months.
"We expect the city to take this more seriously then they did the use of force policy which was heavily redacted and is quite honestly a joke," he said. Jimenez, the organizer of several recent protests in town, also accused officers of using unnecessary force and engaging in unjust treatment of people of color. "Change needs to happen and we're planning to see it here."
How much does the police department cost?
According to the Columbia Borough June 2020 Finance Report, the costs are as follows:
At a recent Columbia Borough Council meeting, councilman Howard Stevens stated that the cost of the police department is 107% of the annual municipal property tax revenue.
Columbia Borough mayor defends against release of full police policy; citizens have mixed stances
Police budget demands: Jimenez, who said he was an organizer of the Lancaster protests following the killing of George Floyd, demanded that the borough reallocate $1.5 million away from the police department and into affordable housing and public transport in the 2021 budget. He requested that the borough make a decision on those funds by Aug. 28.
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