When Drum Majorettes of America held its Nationals competition in Aiken, S.C., this summer, two Columbia girls took top honors for the second year in a row. Myrah Baker won Little Majorette Princess of America, and Gracelynn “Gracie” O’Dell won Wee Majorette Princess of America.
Both girls are students at Paula’s School of Baton in Mount Joy, and both have been twirling batons almost since they could walk. Now 9 years old and a fourth-grader at Our Lady of the Angels School, Myrah began twirling at age 2. That’s the same age Gracie, now 8 years old and a second-grader at Park Elementary School, also took up the baton.
The Columbia Economic Development Corporation recently awarded two Small Business Grants to local businesses. Each grant was for $1,000, and the recipients were Angry, Young, and Poor and Shupp’s Barber Shop.
Halloween Happenings will take place on Sunday, October 25, in and around the Columbia Market House, 15 S. Third St., from 3 to 8 p.m.
Coordinated by Create Columbia, a nonprofit that promotes Columbia as a creative and vital community, the festivities will provide an opportunity for spooky fun for people of all ages.
Huggens will be the speaker at the 11-11-11 Club’s annual luncheon. The event will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 11, beginning at 11 a.m. at the Red Rose Memorial VFW Post 2435, Fourth and Manor streets, Columbia.
The 11-11-11 Club event is open to all veterans and the general public, and it will begin with the tolling of a bell 11 times to mark the signing of the armistice agreement that ended World War I. That agreement was signed at 11 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.
The Columbia Borough School Board approved the resignation of member Thomas Ziegler at its October 15, 2026, meeting. The resignation took effect October 9, according to LNP | LancasterOnline.
Ziegler was appointed to the board in December 2025, according to the district’s website. His brief letter to the board did not give a reason for stepping down.
“We do thank Mr. Ziegler for the time and the energy and the passion that he put into his time on the board,” said Finance Chair Kathleen Hohenadel.
Under Pennsylvania law, the board must try to fill the vacancy within 30 days, according to the board’s website. Members said they hope to interview candidates and vote to fill the seat at their November 5 meeting. The new member’s term would expire in December 2029.
To serve on the board, a person must be at least 18 years old and have lived in the district for a year before being elected, the board’s website states. Eligible Columbia residents must submit a letter of interest by 3 p.m. on October 29 to be considered.
Letters can be mailed, hand-delivered or emailed to Superintendent Dr. Ashley Rizzo, Secretary Lindsey Blake or board President Charles Leader.
This article is based on reporting by LNP | LancasterOnline.
Lutz: “You need a plan… Then you need to find the finances for it. You need to implement the plan.”
JOE LINTNER | COLUMBIA SPY
Plan would prioritize school routes; PennDOT engineers to visit trouble spots next week
Mayor Lutz told council on Tuesday that borough officials are assembling a street-safety plan, and he urged council to pursue grants and set aside matching funds to pay for it.
Lutz said borough administrators, police, and members of the borough’s safety committee have been meeting on ways to make streets safer “in the near future.” He said he has briefed the school superintendent, who will be brought into the process, and that public meetings will be held as the plan takes shape.
“Several things have to happen as you put a plan together,” he said. “You need a plan… Then you need to find the finances for it. You need to implement the plan.”
Next week, borough staff and police will meet with engineers whom PennDOT contracts with to review problem locations, Lutz said. Among them is 11th and Spruce streets, where children cross Ironville Pike. “That’s a problem area,” he said. The other is 9th Street and Route 462, a crossing used by children in the east end.
Lutz said he also met last week with the Lancaster County Planning Commission about the Route 462 corridor, raising concerns about the 90-degree curve at 5th and Chestnut streets and the intersections of Lancaster Avenue with 6th, 8th and 9th streets.
County planners advised that improvements are easier to win if they are planned before the road is repaved, which Lutz said is expected in 2028. County planning documents rank Columbia’s Route 462 stretch, from Chestnut Street to South 13th Street, first among 18 municipalities in a 2025 effort to prioritize Complete Streets improvements alongside PennDOT repaving schedules.
Much of the presentation drew on a plan from Lancaster City, whose public works staff shared their slides with Columbia.
Much of the presentation drew on a plan from Lancaster City, whose public works staff shared their slides with Columbia. “I’m a firm believer… if we can work together as municipalities with some of our ideas and everything, we can obviously save some money,” Lutz said.
Lancaster maps all crashes, including those involving bicycles and pedestrians, into a “high injury network” layer. Lutz said the data could also support the traffic studies PennDOT requires before changes such as new stop signs, potentially saving money.
Other measures discussed included:
Signals: Borough staff are working with a contractor on a signal plan for PennDOT approval. It would include a brief four-way stop, followed by a pedestrian crossing phase with a countdown timer.
Crosswalks: Pre-cut “piano key” markings that are heated into the pavement, which Lutz said would be cheaper than painting them in-house.
Bump-outs: Lancaster’s quick-build curb extensions made with PVC posts. A concrete version was priced at $729,000, against about $6,000 for the quick-build version. The posts can be removed for snowplowing. “How do you put a cost on a life versus a parking space?” Lutz said.
Raised crossings: Lutz suggested picturing a raised intersection at 9th Street and Ironville Pike and at 6th and Locust, to stop children cutting across diagonally.
The discussion also touched on no-turn-on-red restrictions, which is credited with a 13 percent reduction in crashes, and speed cushions. Red-light cameras came up, but a speaker expressed doubt that a borough could adopt them.
Money and priorities
Lutz said the work would likely be phased, with children’s routes to school first. He recommended council pursue grants, including a recently identified ARLE grant, and budget matching funds in the highway budget. “There’s some things we can do without PennDOT approval and they’re relatively cheap,” he said. He did not request a vote. “The decision is yours,” he told council.
Thompson: “We don’t need more presentations. We need action.”
The presentation came after resident Robert Thompson told council that safer streets require consistent enforcement of speeding, stop-sign and pedestrian-right-of-way laws. “We don’t need more presentations. We need action,” he said.
Thompson also referred to the deaths of Eric and Donna Lutz, who were struck by a pickup truck at North 3rd and Chestnut streets in Columbia, along with a girl who was taken to a hospital.
Borough Council on Monday ratified Mayor Lutz’s emergency declaration making the 100 and 200 blocks of Walnut Street one-way, and took the first step toward making the change permanent.
The mayor told council at its October 13 meeting that the street, which is part of a recent streetscape project, would reopen in the near future. He said the borough’s street ordinance needed to change “in order to ensure safe travel for motorists, safe travel for bicyclists and pedestrians.”
In the meantime, he said, he issued an emergency declaration designating the two blocks as one-way.
Council also voted to authorize advertisement of Ordinance 2026-968, which would formally designate the 100 and 200 blocks of Walnut Street as one-way.
Before the vote, Evan Gabel, borough solicitor, noted that the draft’s direction of travel had been switched from an earlier version. Gabel suggested the ordinance describe travel as running from Third Street to Front Street. “It gives you the impression it’s going up,” councilor Jeanne Cooper said, when the traffic would actually be going down. Council amended its motion to reflect that change and voted to approve.
Because the ordinance cannot take effect until it has been advertised and given final approval, council also voted to ratify the mayor’s emergency declaration to keep the one-way designation in place in the meantime.
The existing building at 1100 Ridge Avenue will be used mainly for vehicle storage and as a shop.
JOE LINTNER | COLUMBIA SPY
Vote clears the way for design work and for the sale of the old wastewater treatment plant and municipal services building
Borough Council voted 6-0 at its October 13 meeting to relocate the Public Works Department from its riverfront site to the Ridge Avenue property the borough has already purchased. The approval depends on the sale of the two riverfront parcels: the former wastewater treatment plant and the municipal services building that the public works department currently uses.
Officials said the two decisions are linked. A prospective buyer, working through the Columbia EDC, wants both riverfront parcels and won’t purchase just one. “They are uniquely tied together,” councilman Kelly Murphy said of the sale and the move.
The buyer has been waiting on the borough. “The buyers want an answer. They’ve been asking since July,” President Eric Kauffman told the room. “So, the question they have is, are they going to buy both lots or not buy any of them?”
Appraisals put the two parcels at roughly $1.1 million to $1.2 million, and the EDC contract sets a minimum price. “1.1 million sounds great for waterfront property, but that’s if it was uncontaminated and didn’t have a large wastewater treatment plant on it that had to be decommissioned and demolished,” borough engineer Derek Rinaldo said. An environmental covenant tied to the site’s former gas plant use restricts ground disturbance, and officials said the contaminated soil (radioactive due to the plant) can’t be remediated.
Above: Partial view of plans for the site
The latest estimate for the project is $2.362 million, down from an initial figure of more than $4.5 million. The design was pared back to hold costs down. “We kind of skinnied this project way down to keep the cost down,” Council Vice President Heather Zink said. The plan reuses the existing prefabricated building for shop space and vehicle storage and adds a separate block administration building with two offices, a break room and storage area, and two locker rooms.
A $1 million Local Share Account grant has been secured. Officials also plan to seek about $750,000 from a state RACP grant that requires a dollar-for-dollar match. The borough’s roughly $750,000 share would come from the riverfront sales. Officials estimated a net gain of $300,000 to $350,000 once the project is built and grants are reimbursed. A back parcel at Ridge Avenue is also slated for sale.
“1.7 million of it is being covered by grants and the rest of it is being able to be reimbursed by multiple different property sales,” councilman Ethan Byers said. “I think financially it does make sense to move forward with it.”
A standalone wash bay, about $54,000, would likely be bid as an alternate. Rinaldo said the utilities and pad could go in first and the building could wait.
Resident Frank Doutrich criticized the plan. “I feel sorry for the taxpayers of this town,” he said, adding that the borough should turn its attention to income. “Let’s talk about getting revenue back in and building the borough back up.”
What happens next
Public Works will stay at riverfront during preliminary work and would have about a year to vacate after a sale closes. The access road and fence relocation at Ridge Avenue could proceed separately from the building, though the engineer said finishing them this year may be difficult.
A small film crew will shoot a scene at Columbia River Park later this month, after Columbia Borough Council approved the project at its October 13 regular meeting.
Sarah Dewey submitted the application on behalf of “reverie,” a full-service film and commercial production company located in Lancaster. The working title of the project is “Independent Short Film.”
Filming is scheduled for Wednesday, October 28, beginning at 3 p.m. The scene involves two actors and about eight crew members in total. Organizers expect the shoot to take five to six hours, including setup and teardown.
The crew has not requested any borough services and does not plan to use borough streets.
LEBANON COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) — A Central Pennsylvania man was sentenced for possessing more than a dozen explosives inside a safe and causing a community-wide evacuation last year.
Online court records show, Timothy Sheaffer Jr., 41, of Columbia Borough, was sentenced Oct. 7 to spend a little over a year to nearly five years by Judge Bradford Charles. He will be under active supervision for the first three years of his sentence.
In August, court records show Sheaffer pleaded guilty to charges of weapons of mass destruction, risking catastrophe and recklessly endangering another person. He was facing more recklessly endangering another person charges but they were withdrawn.
