About Town - July 2, 2023

This week's photos of Columbia

(Click/tap on photos to see larger, sharper images.) 

Some flags for the 4th

The first 2 photos are from Centerville Road, where Fairway Independent Mortgage set up the flags.

Roadwork at 3rd & Poplar, the aftermath of a water main break last week.

And a few days later, it looked like this.

Can you do the math?

We get the message: You really don't want anyone in there.

A few more photos from this week's beer vat event

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

JUNK ON CALL

Ready to paddle

Out for a ride

Leaving the Watch & Clock Museum car show

The giant crane currently at Park Elementary

Workers were replacing HVAC units there.

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

More movement on the Habitat for Humanity project on South 5th

This tub was sitting at River Park for most of the week.

Here are a few more smoke photos.

There must not be any trees left in Canada.

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

Meanwhile, at the ol' airfield - more testing?

Doesn't the borough have this figured out yet?

Two towers

Bob Snyder out on the highway is retiring.

What happened to the back half?

Jimmy Jones added edging and more mulch at Mount Bethel.

But the sign says . . .

This killdeer was doing the "broken wing dance" to divert attention away from its offspring.

There's the offspring.

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

Giant bee attack!

A reaction to a recent Supreme Court decision?

A few more such decisions and we'll be in Taliban territory.

This van was parked on the 300 block of Locust.

E-bike riders are weak.

True or False?

1A auditor gives Columbia police A+ but fails Columbia Water Company

 

How did July get its name?

July was named after Julius Caesar, a Roman general and statesman - and later dictator - who lived from 100 to 44 BC. The original name of the month was Quintilis, which means "fifth" in Latin. Quintilis was the fifth month of the original Roman calendar, which began in March.

The Julian calendar, which is the predecessor to the Gregorian calendar that we use today, was also named after Julius Caesar. The calendar underwent modifications with the addition of January and February, leading to the renaming of the original fifth and sixth months. As an homage to Julius Caesar and his successor Augustus, these months were respectively designated as July and August. To symbolize their significance, both July and August were endowed with 31 days.

Columbia Borough nixes livestreaming in favor of YouTube

Photo: Christian Wiediger

Columbia Borough Council President Heather Zink said the borough will no longer livestream its meetings, citing technical difficulties, especially with Comcast and Facebook. Instead, meetings will be recorded and then posted the day after on the borough's YouTube channel, which can be found HERE. Zink made the announcement at the June 27 borough council meeting.

Poor sound quality, freezes, signal dropouts, etc. have long plagued borough council livestreams. In fact, sound quality was so bad for the June 13, 2023 meeting that it rendered the second half of the meeting unintelligible, due to frequent and sustained dropouts. The meeting was significant because six school board members attended to argue for the continuation of the Community Safety Officer agreement. Fortunately for the public, Columbia Spy recorded it and posted the audio HERE.

Other borough meetings (not borough council) have largely been spared difficulties but not totally. Some were unable to be streamed at all, according to Borough Manager Mark Stivers. Mayor Leo Lutz added that the last Planning Commission meeting "didn't work," but the posting shows that the meeting had been successfully livestreamed. Columbia Spy has found that such meetings, when livestreamed, are virtually free of problems. Stivers said the borough’s current system will be upgraded and will include a new camera better suited for its needs.

If the borough gets 1,000 YouTube subscribers, it will be able to livestream via its channel, according to Zink. She urged residents to subscribe to the channel in hopes of reaching 1,000 subscriptions, and to receive notifications of new postings. As of this post, the channel has only 10 subscribers. Several borough council meetings have already been posted on the channel.

A year or so ago, Zink threatened to pull the plug on livestreaming altogether due to online comments officials found unfavorable. The borough began livestreaming meetings several years ago after a suggestion by Sharon Lintner at the July 9, 2018 borough council meeting.