About Town - December 4, 2022

Recent photos of Columbia

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

Activity at the former airfield

The borough manager said they're locating test pits.

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More ferals - just off the 200 block of Poplar Street

Get weighed and measured

Tree and shadow

Aftermath of yet another vehicle accident at 4th & Poplar

Mayfly at the Watch & Clock Museum

Cart on Linden Street

Cow, decked out

'Tis the season

Nature's imprint

Spalling, leaking and cracking on the bridge

(The rehab project starts next year.)

Another cart

(Tollbooth Antiques)

No snow yet, but here's a flake.

The town needs more of these zones.

Skulls

This base is all that remains after a fiery crash at this location on February 15, 2021.

It's now become a handy trash receptacle for trail users and others.

Another sign at the bridge plaza, where it's not supposed to be.

Continuing roadwork on Lancaster Avenue.

3 wise guys on Franklin Street

C17 over Columbia

Meanwhile, in Hempfield - a divided flag for a divided nation

This can of paint has been sitting along Bank Avenue for the last week or two.

Giving the ol' steam engine a workout at Rail Mechanical, 380 South 4th

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Hanging the decorations on Locust

The water intake project is almost at an end.

Santa's coming to town

He brought his cones.

He'll be camping next to Rotary Park.

A trailer for toys

Aftermath of a trailer fire near South 9th & Wright 

The week's sunsets and the like . . .

Monday

Monday

Wednesday

Wednesday

Friday

Friday

Friday

Saturday

Saturday

Saturday

Saturday

Saturday

Columbia Borough determinedly facing challenges posed by oldest market in Lancaster County [Lancaster Watchdog]

Borough Manager Mark Stivers said the municipality will need to operate the 9,400-square-foot facility at 15 S. Third St. for a full year to truly evaluate costs and revenue generated by the stand leases and events. Currently, the market house is operating at a loss.

"Right now, things have definitely improved and with 2023 being our first full year of management, we expect it will cost the borough about $140,000 to operate the market and hope to generate $105,500 in revenue," Stivers said, pointing out that "the difference of about $34,500 will come out of the general fund."

He said the borough's intention is to at least get the facility to break even, but there is no date set to meet that goal.

There's a lot of work to do.

Almost all the initial 15 vendors at the market when it reopened on Memorial Day weekend 2021 after a $3.5 million renovation project have left. When it reopened, the market was open for business Wednesdays and Saturdays; however, after a few months, the borough council voted to close Wednesdays due to vendor absences, a move that also played a role in some of the vendors moving on.

To make matters worse, the market's anchor restaurant, Gypsy Kitchen, permanently closed in June 2022 without fulfilling its five-year lease agreement.

"We looked at the kitchen equipment of the restaurant and came to a mutual agreement with Gypsy Kitchen where they would pay one-month's rent and would also leave the equipment behind so we wouldn't have to hold them to the full lease term," Stivers said.

About the same time, CHI St. Joseph Children's Health, which managed and operated the market house, announced that it was leaving its management role at the end of June, citing its need to focus time and resources on other mission-driven projects.

CHI, which was on its first year of a five-year agreement, was not penalized for backing out of the agreement.

"From a growth perspective, this is not a setback at all for the borough. This is an internal issue affecting the management of the market house. The importance and influence of the market to downtown businesses is still strong," Stivers said in an article published by LNP | LancasterOnline in April.

MORE:

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/columbia-borough-determinedly-facing-challenges-posed-by-oldest-market-in-lancaster-county-lancaster-watchdog/article_873cadb4-726e-11ed-92c1-73227a87be38.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share