Lancaster City Council calls for 'prompt' creation of county health department (but Columbia Borough Council votes 6-1 against it)

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/lancaster-city-council-calls-for-prompt-creation-of-county-health-department/article_ba2d42e6-9cc4-11eb-9169-1f1e757b6e2f.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share 

Bibliomaniacs to meet on library terrace Wednesday, April 14

 

The McGinness project - What's going on? (Part 2)

Borough manager Marks Stivers wants Columbia Borough to buy the 58-acre McGinness property at 1020 Manor Street and develop for business and recreational use. At last week's council work session, he laid out the purported financial benefits that the development will bring to the borough. What he didn't dig into was the upfront cost to taxpayers. 

Here are a few figures: The purchase price is expected to be $1,495,000.  Add to that, $144,000 for environmental tests currently underway. If everything checks out and the purchase goes through, the borough will still need to construct roads, run utilities, and carry out other projects related to site development - the costs of which are unknown at this point but could easily run into hundreds of thousands. (By the way, if test results are unsatisfactory, the $144,000 will have been wasted.) 

And the return on our investment? At this point: a feeling that businesses will flock there to set up shop, build structures, offer jobs, and thereby help stabilize our tax base. After the land is developed, borough officials hope to sell the property.

Borough taxpayers will be responsible for paying school taxes on the land, which might increase as structures are built.  [As a reference, the former No. 1 fire company on Front Street costs the borough about $27,000 a year in school taxes. The newly renovated market house could potentially cost tens of thousands in school taxes when the building is reassessed.]

Where's the money coming from? According to Stivers, the borough will apply proceeds from the sale of its sewer treatment plant towards this purchase. [NOTE: LASA paid $8.6 million for the conveyance system in 2015. The borough still owns the plant. LASA also assumed $12 million of the borough's debt, as part of the sales agreement.] Also according to Stivers, there is a line item in the state budget of $3 million dollars in RACP funds earmarked for the borough. [RACP stands for "Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program," and is a state grant requiring dollar-for-dollar matching funds.] 

Stivers said the $1.75 RACP grant the borough was awarded [in 2019] came from the earmarked funds. Over $1 million of this grant was spent on market house renovation, and the remainder will be used for parking projects. 

Stivers claims there is an additional $1.75 million in state money earmarked for the borough. If that money is indeed available, there's still no guarantee the state will approve it for this project, but if awarded, the grant will still require matching funds [1:1] from the borough. If all "goes well" and the borough acquires and develops the property, it hopes to first lease plots and then sell the entire development in 5 years.

Engineering firms a no-show at McGinness, but there was a herd of goats

Engineering firms were once again a "no-show" at the McGinness property this morning, even though yesterday was supposed to be the beginning of the due diligence period for a possible purchase of the land.  A herd of goats did show up, however, and were seen trespassing there.

Columbia's Watch & Clock Museum Is Among Those Waiting Out the Pandemic, Managing to Keep Busy - The New York Times

In the United States, the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia, Pa., actually is owned and operated by its more than 10,000 members, who annually pay fees starting at $80 for individuals and $175 for businesses. "The memberships keep coming in throughout the year, so we were able to keep above water," said James Campbell, the acting curator.

The museum is one of North America's largest horological collections with more than 13,000 objects, including an 1814 gold Breguet pocket watch with a push quarter-hour repeater owned by Napoleon's sister, Caroline Bonaparte Murat, the queen of Naples, Italy.

Mr. Campbell, who said about a third of the holdings were displayed at any time, described how one gallery area was being redesigned to show public timepieces like street clocks and tower clocks when a lockdown was ordered last spring. Now, he said, "we are hoping to have some volunteers and members to come back," possibly this spring, to continue the work.

MORE:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/fashion/watches-museums-pandemic.html 

Borough of Columbia Bill List - This is where the money's going

 
Download the 9-page list HERE.

Borough condemns house damaged in hit & run

 The Columbia Borough Codes Department condemned a Columbia house this morning, after it was struck overnight by a hit & run vehicle. The house, at 458 Cherry Street, sustained serious damage to its front wall, causing the borough to deem it an "unsafe structure." 

According to the police report, "a wall partially collapsed onto a couch in the living room of the first floor apartment. The striking vehicle left the scene. A man and young child were asleep on the second floor of the building and were not injured. The striking vehicle was probably a Lexus and has damage to the front end."

Anyone with information regarding the crash is asked to contact the Columbia Borough Police at 717-684-7735.