COLUMBIA SPY

Underground Hotel brought its brand of classic rock to Locust Street Park on Fourth Friday to the delight of hundreds present. The band performed for about an hour and a half, belting out favorites from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Dave Grubb filled in for ailing lead guitarist Syd Bridgett, for whom vocalist Kevin Newcomer requested thoughts and prayers. Columbia's Kevin Newcomer   Bassist Rick Bender  Drummer Bill Swingler  Guitarist Dave Grubb Audience members listened intently to the sounds of Underground Hotel:

Columbia Spy is privileged to publish several articles by Columbia native Mike Clark, with permission of the author. The essays were previously published in The Globe Leader and 50-plus Senior News and will continue to be reprinted in the Spy over the next few weeks. It's Over So Soon By Mike Clark By now, most of us are back to our routine day to day. The Christmas tree stands lifeless in the corner of the room where, just days ago, it was imbued with a certain seasonal magic—a magic especially obvious at night when its lights glowed warmly, and the bright, shiny ornaments reflected the illumination in a colorful palette of red, green, blue, silver, and gold throughout the room. The electrical plug now droops over a bottom branch. Nobody notices; the lights remain cold. The tree has seen its best days, done its holiday duty, and will soon be stripped of its finery. The township mulch pile is the next stop for some trees. Others will be placed in giant bags and placed ...

The last round of citizen comments from the August 18 Columbia Borough School Board meeting is presented below. At issue is the shared service contract between the Columbia and ELANCO School Districts that includes the hiring of former Columbia School Board President Tom Strickler as director of operations. Previous citizen comments from this meeting can be found  HERE  and  HERE . Tom Strickler Vern Detz : "I feel as though this is a disservice to the taxpayers of Columbia, and I think everyone that voted for this without doing the due diligence should resign. I really don't think you have the best interest of Columbia at your forefront. I believe that the intent may have been there. We rushed it. We didn't dot all the I's and cross all the T's. I believe it's going to cost more than 165 [thousand dollars] that's being thrown out there. Some of my questions earlier and the answers I got kind of justifies that statement. We need to have ...

GO HERE: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/columbia-teenagers-accused-of-trying-to-kill-police-officers-to/article_28843696-6ade-11e6-986a-2ba333d1319a.html

Please join us on August 26 for an exhibition of Kat Oliver's fine art Photography. Kat states, "I started photographing with my grandfather's 1942 Pentax film camera. I quickly fell in love with the art of photography, but most importantly- the delicacy of film. Shooting with film created this movement in me that allowed me to fall in love with ideas and concepts, rather than a specific photo I wanted to capture." Thanks for your continued support and we hope to see you at our 4th Friday opening. Susquehanna Center for the Creative Arts 224 Locust Street Columbia, PA 17512 717-576-9628 or 717-580-9031 www.sccaartstore.com

Columbia Spy recently obtained a copy of an email from an ELANCO Board member stating that the majority of comments received have been favorable towards the shared services contract. The email did not state the number of comments received, but residents opposed to the contract should also make their opinions known to the ELANCO School Board and administrators via email: glenn_yoder@elanco.org  (president) jonathan_dahl@elanco.org paul_irvin@elanco.org rodney_jones@elanco.org (vice president) dina_maio@elanco.org bryan_naranjo@elanco.org melissa_readman@elanco.org thomas_wentzel@elanco.org jennifer_zeiset@elanco.org ELANCO (and Columbia) superintendent: robert_hollister@elanco.org ELANCO chief of finance and operations: keith_ramsey@elanco.org

Regarding the recent school board contract fiasco  - and the twisted justifications and rationalizations - a lot of residents would probably agree with sentiment expressed by Fletcher in The Outlaw Josey Wales: