Year: 2016

Joint meeting of borough council and school board to be held Tuesday night

There will be a joint meeting of the Columbia Borough Council and the Columbia Borough School District at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, December 6, at the District administration Center, 200 North Fifth Street, to discuss a land bank proposal and other business. The legal notice for the meeting is shown below:

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Legal Notice is hereby given that both the Borough Council of the Borough of Columbia, and the School Board of the Columbia Borough School District, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania will hold a joint special meeting on December 6, 2016, at 7:00 p.m. at the School District Administration Center, 200 North Fifth Street, Columbia, Pennsylvania for purposes of considering and taking action to approve an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement between the Lancaster County Land Bank Authority, the Borough of Columbia and the Columbia Borough School District, to consider hiring two part-time park rangers, and to consider any other matters that may properly come before either body; it being noted that both the School Board and Borough Council may independently take any and all appropriate action to approve the matters set forth above which come before them at this joint meeting. Anyone with a disability needing accommodations to attend the meeting should contact Tom Strickler, Director of Operations for the Columbia Borough School District at 717-681-2616. Columbia Borough By: Barry N. Handwerger Borough Solicitor

Municipal Authority vs "Professional Services" – What's the bottom line?

Shown below is a September 8, 2016 letter from the Columbia Municipal Authority to Columbia Borough Council urging council not to dissolve the authority. The unanimous vote for dissolution subsequently took place at the regular council meeting on September 12. At the time, Council President Kelly Murphy said there was no animosity between the authority and the borough over the decision. According to an LNP article (“Municipal Briefs” 9/21/16), Borough Manager Greg Sahd said the entity was no longer needed because its chief responsibility was to manage the borough’s sewer system. [The wastewater operation was sold to LASA in 2015.] The authority’s letter, however, specifies numerous benefits to the borough in keeping the authority.
At a special meeting on Monday, November 28, 2016, council voted to fund a $75,800 study on the feasibility of converting the borough’s wastewater plant to a facility that would produce natural gas. The authority’s letter appears to assert the authority’s expertise in advising council on just such a venture – at no cost to the borough. 

Shown below is the authority’s October 20, 2016 meeting agenda that includes recent balances. All assets of the authority are to be turned over to the borough.