A borough resident told council that the newly repaved 100 and 200 blocks of Walnut Street cannot legally be enforced as one-way without a formal ordinance.
Mary Wickenheiser raised the issue during the October 6 Columbia Borough Workshop. (The two blocks were recently repaved and fitted with new sidewalks. The area is still technically a work zone, with crews finishing line painting and road markings.)
Wickenheiser asked whether the borough had ever adopted an ordinance converting the blocks from two-way to one-way traffic.
“That can’t be enforced without an ordinance,” Wickenheiser told council. She said she had checked the borough code earlier in the day. “It’s Article Seven, Section 207-48, and I’m not seeing any kind of amendment there indicating that those two blocks are now one-way headed west.”
Mayor Leo Lutz said council should talk to the borough solicitor (who was not present) to have the ordinance done.
The planned rehabilitation of the Veterans Memorial Bridge (Route 462) has been pushed back again, and Mayor Leo Lutz says the emergency plans developed for the closure need to be revived and updated “if and when” work begins.
Lutz briefed council on the project at the Columbia Borough Workshop on October 6. The rehabilitation was originally scheduled to start in 2027 but is now expected to begin in 2028. No reason was given for the delay.
Lutz said extensive planning had already taken place for the 2027 start, including emergency management plans meant to handle traffic and other problems on the Route 30 bridge while the Route 462 span is closed.
“There were a lot of meetings, a lot of plans, emergency management plans drawn up to handle whatever may come to pass out on the Route 30 bridge when the Route 462 bridge is shut,” Lutz said.
But those groups have not met in some time, and the new timeline has left the work in need of attention. “We haven’t met for quite some time, and now they bumped it back to 2028,” the mayor said. “And a lot of the people that were involved in that planning are not around, so those plans seriously need to be updated.”
Lutz said he plans to work with Jay Barninger (Emergency Management Coordinator) and to contact PennDOT and the project contractor to restart inter-agency discussions. The talks would include Lancaster County and York County emergency management officials.
Lutz expressed confidence in the existing groundwork, noting that Barninger remains involved. “I think we’re still pretty solid because Jay Barninger is still here, and our plans probably just need some updating,” he said. He acknowledged, however, that “there’s been a lot of changes made” to the overall project package.
Lutz suggested the planning group meet on a regular schedule, possibly quarterly, to keep the plans current as the project approaches. “’28 isn’t that far off,” he said. “So we need to keep that emergency plan up to date. So, if and when they ever shut that bridge down, we’re ready to go.”
No dates have been announced for the renewed planning meetings.
Two vehicles collided Saturday evening at the intersection of North 5th and Chestnut Streets in Columbia Borough.
The crash was reported at 7:14 p.m. Saturday, and police and fire personnel responded to find a gray Honda coupe and a white Subaru Forester nose-to-nose in the roadway, both with front-end damage. No injuries were reported.
Unlimited Towing transported both vehicles from the scene, which was cleared in about half an hour.
LANCASTER, Pa. — More than a month after a patient fell from the sixth floor of Lancaster General Hospital, the family of 26-year-old Johnathan Leed is still seeking answers.
Family seeks answers after patient’s death “They’re just beside themselves in grief. They’re very, very upset. We’re dealing with trauma. And the message that I’m receiving from them is it’s a tragedy that may have been prevented. And we just want answers,” said Attorney Thomas Kenny, who represents Leed’s family.
The Albatwitch, according to local folklore, is a small hairy primatelike creature that lives around Chickies Rock north of Columbia. The creature was described by speakers at the festival as being roughly 4 feet tall and known for stealing apples and throwing their cores at people who get too close.
Organizer Rick Fisher, an author and paranormal investigator, said he had a sighting of what he believed to be an Albatwitch in 2002 while he was driving on Route 23 toward Marietta and was inspired to create a festival around it after seeing the success of the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
For over a decade Fisher had organized an Albatwitch festival in Columbia with Chris Vera, president of the Columbia Historic Preservation Society. Following disputes between Vera and Columbia Borough Council, the event was moved to Wrightsville in 2025. Fisher bowed out of the festival when it moved to the west shore of the Susquehanna. Over the past year, Fisher said he was told by residents and Borough Council members that the event should move back to Columbia, where it started. MORE:
