Year: 2016

The Arts at Hinkles is having a unique fashion show to benefit community art in Columbia. Participants are designing fashions made out of anything recycled or re-purposed. A “Best in Show” $100 prize will be awarded to the winning design of the night. All ages are welcome to this fun-filled evening! If you are interested in participating, there’s still a few spots left.

Call Vicki at 518-275-8299 for more information.

The Arts at Hinkles, 247 Locust St., Columbia, Pa
Sunday, October 30, 2016 7:00 p.m.
Tickets $15, at door & presold at Hinkles
Beverages & light food will be served.

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The smell of burning rubber saturated the air around the AutoZone parking lot along Columbia Avenue as clouds of smoke drifted overhead. About 100 people with over three dozen vehicles, including cars, trucks, and bikes, converged on the lot Saturday night. The Street Invasion Purge Meet featured revving and burnouts, most in the nearby McDonald’s parking lot. Squealing tires and roaring engines dominated the night for over an hour as drivers were urged on by spectators who recorded the action with cellphones. At one point a female employee of McDonald’s approached the motorists and shouted at them to leave. Although the crowd was high-spirited, no fighting or vandalism occurred.

Shortly after 9 p.m., a line of vehicles abruptly left the lot in anticipation of police arriving. After the mass exodus, two police cruisers – one each from West Hempfield and Columbia – appeared after most of the participants had left.

This video was shot by Angel Rodriguez

This video was shot by Angel Rodriguez

Units from Columbia and West Hempfield responded to the Family Dollar Store at 24 South 18th Street, Lancaster Avenue shortly after 7 o’clock this morning for a reported dumpster fire. Firefighters extinguished the flames and checked the building exterior for damage.

Industrial Designer Robert Irwin and two associates presented a proposal to borough council Monday night for an aquaponics operation in the market house. Aquaponics is a system combining conventional aquaculture (raising fish in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) with the aim of selling fish and produce year-round. They are asking the borough to invest $96,500 for the project.

The operation would consist of a market kiosk that would act as an automated farm for year-round produce sales. The crew would build and operate the system for the borough. From construction to operation will take about eight weeks. For example, using January 1 as the start date, the enterprise could be up and running by the middle of February, with a few additional weeks to get plants and fish operational. The proposal includes estimates of 3200 plants produced per year (10-11 harvests per year) and 500 pounds of fish per year.

Irwin suggested that once the project is operational, an agreement – possibly for five or more years – could be worked out. The plan is to use the kiosk as an “educational platform for the borough” with headquarters at the borough farm. During the winter months, the system would need to be kept above freezing.

The cost estimate shown below is good until the end of November. Irwin and his associates told council that they want to share liability with the borough and are not interested in taking a loan out for the enterprise. He explained that they did not seek private funding or investors. When questioned about the figures he presented (number of plants, etc.) Irwin said he has “no idea” if they are accurate.  He described the proposed financial arrangement as a business loan that gets paid back to the borough through a return on investment, with a projected 28-month payback time.

Judge Merrill Spahn sentenced Ashley Rose Curry, 33, to six to 12 years for felony aggravated assault, followed by one month to two years for ethnic intimidation, and one month to two years for simple assault, with the sentences to be served consecutively.

In July, a jury found Curry guilty of the charges which stem from a February 3, 2015 incident in the parking lot of the Columbia Plaza in Columbia, in which Curry shot Jamie Roland. Curry alleges that Roland, her sister Crystal Manfred, and Alicia McGowin charged at her “like a pack of wild animals.” The diminutive Curry claims that she felt “outnumbered” and overpowered” by the larger women and said the shooting was an act of self-defense.

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Larsen said the shooting was racially motivated and justifies filing the charge of ethnic intimidation, a misdemeanor. Curry is white, and the other women are black.

“I’d have shot her if she was white,” Curry declared at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing. “Race had nothing to do with this.”

 
Spahn told Curry that she “demonstrated zero remorse” for her actions. Larsen said she showed “not one expression of remorse.” Curry told Spahn, “Your honor, only guilty people show remorse. I’m not guilty.”

Curry’s defense attorney, Samuel Stretton, asked for leniency in sentencing, citing her lack of a prior record and history of abuse by her ex-husband. He said she has been a prisoner in her own house out of fear. Curry began to cry when talking about the severe abuse she has suffered at the hands of her ex-husband. She also said she never thought in a million years that she’d be in prison.

“I now throw Miss Curry on the mercy of the court,” Stretton said in conclusion.

Roland was not present to make a victim’s impact statement.

On September 8, Curry filed for an emergency motion for a new trial based on after-discovered evidence, alleging the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense – a potential Brady Rule violation. A hearing was held on October 5, but Spahn denied the motion on October 6.

Spahn also denied the use of “stand your ground” and reportedly disallowed certain evidence from the scene.

This screenshot from a video shot by Columbia Spy staff on February 3, 2015 in the Columbia Plaza shows the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Ashley Curry is standing far left and Jamie Roland is lying next to the rear wheel of the vehicle.