Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Monday, February 24, 2025
Procession for fallen Officer Andrew Duarte passes through Columbia Monday morning
Sunday, February 23, 2025
About Town - February 23, 2025
This week's photos of Columbia
Click on photos to see larger, sharper images.
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Friday, February 21, 2025
Restaurant Inspections - Columbia Borough - February 21, 2025
Knights of Columbus Home Association, 400 Maple St., Columbia, Feb. 13. Pass. No violations.
Mr. Joe's Steakhouse, 348 Perry St., Columbia, Feb. 11. Pass. Observed raw shell eggs stored above milk in the reach-in cooler. Employee personal items, echinacea and a type of drops, observed stored in the reach-in cooler above food rather than stored on the bottom and segregated.
Parma Pizza & Grill, 256 Market St., Elizabethtown, opening, Feb. 11. Pass. Raw ground beef was stored above ready-to-eat products in the bain-marie; corrected. Observed a moderate amount of static dust on circulating fan at three-compartment sink. Women's toilet room is not provided with a covered waste receptacle for sanitary napkins. Lights are not shielded or shatterproof over the grill area. A working container of caustic oven cleaner was stored above or on the same shelf with food equipment in the main production area.
Chef Lex, 404 Cherry St., Columbia, opening, Feb. 10. Pass. No violations.
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Columbia School Board Votes to CUT Property Tax Rate
Columbia taxpayers are about to get a break on their taxes. The Columbia Borough School District Board of Directors voted Thursday night to decrease the district's property tax rate by .4 mills. The measure passed unanimously among the seven directors present. The decrease will reduce the current millage from 26.46 to 26.06 mills.
Borough property owners will save approximately $40 per $100,000 of assessed property value.
The tax reduction was made possible by a $179,600 block grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Ready to Learn Block Grant Tax Equity Supplement. The funds cannot be used until the 2025-26 fiscal year.
(The 2024-25 fiscal year marked the fifth year in a row without a district tax increase.)
The board had discussed five available options for using the grant before choosing Option 1:
1) Mitigating or preventing an increase in the millage rate of real estate property taxes levied by the school district
2) Supplementing the amount calculated by the school district for the homestead and farmstead exclusion under
3) Establishing, maintaining or expanding a program provided by the school district that supplements senior tax rebates
4) Mitigating or replacing the loss of revenue received by the school district resulting from a decision of a court of this commonwealth from previous five years relating to an assessment appeal