Year: 2016

Yet another painting project, this time on the river

A much-needed and long-awaited painting project was underway at Columbia River Park this afternoon. Using duct tape, cardboard stencils and a small paint roller, this intrepid painter began reviving the faded numbers and level marks on the river level depth marker scale on the first river pier of the Veterans Memorial Bridge. He stood on the deck of a pontoon boat to access the lower numbers.  The higher ones will present more of a challenge. 
The last photo below shows the height of 1972’s Hurricane Agnes at 241 feet. Numbers indicate height above sea level. Not shown here but indicated on the pier is a mark denoting the normal height of 227 feet at this location.

Columbia holds community conversation on heroin

Last Tuesday, June 7, local leaders and others held a community discussion at Columbia Jr./Sr. High School to address the heroin epidemic in the area. Columbia Mayor Leo Lutz and Columbia Borough Police Chief Jack Brommer led the discussion. An audience of about 70 people listened to a panel of six describe their encounters with the drug and users under its influence. Audience members also addressed the panel in a subsequent question-and-answer session.
Go HERE for more information on the community conversation.
Columbia Mayor Leo Lutz lead the community discussion.
Judge David Ashworth explained that heroin addiction has reached a crisis point.
Joel Jakubowski urged parents to act in their children’s best interest.

Ghost sign brought back to life

Columbia Spy has been spying on the progress of a painting project at Bootleg Antiques on Bridge Street recently. Newly applied paint has revived a “ghost sign,” a faded indicator of a faded industry, in this case, the Superior Laundry Machinery Company. (Go HERE for links to the company’s history.) Various stages of the repainting are shown below.
Kudos to Bootleg for bringing back a bit of Columbia’s history.

Racist graffiti rears its ugly head

Columbia Spy recently received reader-submitted photos taken at the rear of a property in the 300 block of Avenue H, showing a piece of plywood with a spray-painted racial slur and two boys allegedly trying to damage it. The plywood appears to block a building entrance. A source tells the Spy that the graffiti was previously reported to the borough code office.

The entire area at the rear of this building is in disrepair and is an eyesore, clearly visible to patrons exiting Burning Bridge Antiques’ parking lot.

Victorian era building gets dutiful makeover

Columbia’s Cle Berntheizel at his Victorian era building at 22 South Second Street.

Cle Berntheizel has a special affinity for his building at 22 South Second Street. He believes it represents a significant piece of Columbia history and therefore feels a particular responsibility for its upkeep. Recently, under his direction, the building – part of Columbia’s Historic District – underwent an extensive exterior re-painting by Dave Knapp (and some interior painting as well).

According to Berntheizel, his grandfather, Lt. Colonel Cleon N. Berntheizel, helped found the American Legion and established the first Columbia post there on the second floor in 1918.  Berntheizel and Columbia’s General Edward C. Shannon founded the organization in Paris right after World War I. The Detwiler family, then-owners of the building (as well as the First National Bank just up the block), rented it to the legion for a dollar a year. (Years later, the organization moved to the former Strickler home at 329 Chestnut, where it’s still located.)

The building encompasses a century and a half of Columbia history, having housed the Boston Five & Dime in 1870, and it may have been the office of the original Columbia Spy newspaper. More recently, it was used as a bicycle showcase by Western Auto.

Today, the building, newly painted, houses Berntheizel’s Garth Gallery & Custom Frame Shop and the second-floor Cafe Garth and represents the newest phase of the building’s history.

A recent photo of the building, before painting.

And after.