After slow start, Columbia tops Lancaster Mennonite 68-58 in District 3 Class 3A boys basketball quarterfinals

After twice beating Lancaster Mennonite in the regular season to capture the L-L Section Five crown, Columbia completed the season sweep of the Blazers with Monday’s win.

With the victory, Columbia (17-7) advanced to the district semifinals for the sixth time in nine years, second time under fourth-year coach Kerry Glover, and first time since 2017. Columbia also qualified for the PIAA Class 3A tournament.

Counterfeit $100 bill suspect | Columbia Borough Police Department

At 6:34 P.M. on Sunday February 16, 2020, a male suspect entered the Grand China Restaurant at 156 Lancaster Ave. in Columbia Borough. The male ordered food and paid with a $100 bill. The male returned at 6:55 p.m. to pick up his order. As he left the restaurant, an employee realized that the $100 bill was fake and followed the male outside. The employee confronted the male over the fake bill and the male ran away on Cherry St. toward 5th St. Attached photos are of the male suspect.

Anyone with information regarding his identity is encouraged to contact Columbia Borough Police through the Crimewatch app or by calling 717-684-7735.      
Date:  Sunday, February 16, 2020 
Case Status: Current Case 
Type: Criminal 
Source:  Columbia Borough Police Department

Sourced via CRIMEWATCH®https://lancaster.crimewatchpa.com/columbiapd/10552/cases/counterfeit-100-bill-suspect

What IS the name of that bridge, anyway?

A while ago, while researching the upcoming Veterans Memorial Bridge project, Columbia Spy contacted the offices of PennDOT.  A woman who answered the phone seemed confused as to which bridge we were referring to. We offered several of the well-known and correct names for the bridge, but she remained dumbfounded. When we explained it was the bridge where Route 462 crosses the Susquehanna River, she insisted it is called the “Wrightsville Bridge.” She said she knew this to be true, because she has lived in this area for years. We could not convince her that the bridge is not now – nor has it ever been – known as the “Wrightsville Bridge,” and that it is in fact the Veterans Memorial Bridge, previously (and sometimes still) known as the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge.
To assure our readers we are correct, we took the following photos of several plaques currently mounted on the bridge, three of which display the bridge’s name.
A plaque placed on the bridge at the completion of construction in 1930 displaying its name: COLUMBIA-WRIGHTSVILLE BRIDGE

A plaque commemorating Armistice Day 1930
(Armistice Day is now known as Veterans Day.)
 A 1931 plaque with bas-relief image of the Susquehanna and environs
A 1984 plaque from the American Society of Engineers denoting the bridge as a historic civil engineering landmark and calling it the COLUMBIA-WRIGHTSVILLE BRIDGE

However, the American Society of Engineers must have missed this 1980 plaque commemorating the rededication of the bridge as the VETERANS MEMORIAL BRIDGE.

Google Maps denotes the bridge as the VETERANS MEMORIAL BRIDGE.

Columbia's "Returned Soldier" has a twin brother in New York

Columbia History – Did you know?

Columbia’s “Returned Soldier” has a twin brother.
Did you know that “The Returned Soldier” in Locust Street Park has a twin brother? It’s true!

An identical statue, called “The Woodside Doughboy,” stands in Doughboy Plaza in Woodside, Queens, New York. The design was created by sculptor Burt W. Johnson and was dedicated on Memorial Day 1928, a decade after the end of World War I. The New York statue is the original. Columbia’s is a replica.

Columbia’s statue (above) is a replica of one that stands in Queens, NY.

The original (shown here), known as “The Woodside Doughboy, stands in Woodside Plaza,” in Woodside, Queens, NY.
(Photo by Cmprince, posted on Wikipedia)

Here’s the backstory: The New York monument was commissioned by the Woodside Community Council at a cost of $5,000 after Johnson’s concept took first prize in a war memorial competition. The purchase contract included a stipulation that a copy would never be made or sold.

However, Columbia wanted a war memorial of its own. After scouting around and discovering Woodside’s monument, a Columbia memorial committee contacted the sculptor’s widow, Ottilie Johnson. [Burt Johnson died on March 27, 1927.] The committee explained that it was impressed with her husband’s work and persuaded her to contact Woodside officials and revisit the contract.

With its payment of $1,000 to Woodside, the committee obtained permission to have a duplicate made for Columbia, thanks to Mrs. Johnson. In an agreement with Johnson, the committee contracted the Roman Bronze Company [now operating as Roman Bronze Studios] in Corona, Queens, NY to cast the replica.

As the statue was being cast, a financial committee collected funds for the work and “the citizens of Columbia responded loyally,” according to a newspaper report. The total cost was about $6,000.
The base was erected by Charles W. Knipe, who traveled to Vermont to select the stones.
The base was erected by Charles W. Knipe, then proprietor of Columbia Memorials. Knipe made a special trip to Barre, Vermont to select the stones. The base is reportedly nine feet thick and weighs 33 tons.

The monument was dedicated as a “Memorial to All the Wars” at a 4 p.m. ceremony on Memorial Day 1928. Over 3,000 people from all parts of the county attended, including veterans of the Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War I. It was the first permanent memorial to be placed in Columbia.

In 1928, the American Federation of Arts selected the Woodside Doughboy as the best war memorial of its kind, an honor that could also be bestowed on Columbia’s “Returned Soldier.”

Plaque mounted on the front of the base
The statue is 7′-7″ tall and is made of bronze.
 Behind his helmet, the soldier is holding what look to be olive branches, a symbol of peace since ancient Greece.
 Detail of rifle and leggings

 Rear view showing cartridge belt

 Canteen

 Inscription of the sculptor’s name and the date the original sculpture was cast.
 This inscription on the base appears to read: “ORIGINAL OF THIS STATUE AT WOODSIDE LONG ISLAND NEW YORK”
However, the word “OF” is spelled “OE” an abbreviation used by artists to designate an “open edition.”

This inscription reads: ROMAN BRONZE WORKS NY”
The replica was cast there.

 Front view of helmet and olive branches

Side view of helmet, branches, and rifle
The soldier has a war-weary look. His head is bandaged and his eyes convey a thousand-yard stare. These features and the olive branches inside his helmet suggest the sculptor intended this statue as a tribute to soldiers of all wars but also as an anti-war statement. 
The crypt of Charles W. Knipe and his wife at Laurel Hill Cemetery. Knipe oversaw the creation of the base for “The Returned Soldier” memorial.

****************

More information can be found in the following clippings which were used as source material for this article. The clippings are from the Lancaster Newspapers archive.

Intelligencer_Journal_Lancaster_New_Era_Tue__Jul_13__2010

Intelligencer_Journal_Mon__Jun_18__1928

Intelligencer_Journal_Sat__May_30__1953

Intelligencer_Journal_Thu__May_31__1928

Intelligencer_Journal_Thu__May_31__1928

Intelligencer_Journal_Thu__May_31__1928
Intelligencer_Journal_Tue__Feb_14__1928

Intelligencer_Journal_Wed__May_16__1928

Lancaster_New_Era_Sat__Jun_22__1929

Lancaster_New_Era_Sat__Mar_3__1928

Sunday_News_Sun__Mar_18__1928

Sunday_News_Sun__May_27__1928

About Town 2/16/20

This week’s photos of Columbia
Boot Hill
Out near Plane & Barber . . .

Spiraling out of control

 Happy post-Valentine’s Day!

It’s OK to keep some knick-knacks around.

 Night at the museum

 Many bricks from the market house floor

The project continues.

Down but not totally out!

 Signs of spring?

 Missing pane

Glass beneath

Columbia Pregnancy Services is now Align Pregnancy Services.

Alleys on the south side don’t get much love.

Empty windows
Almost

 Ladders on the church, but that’s not how to get to Heaven

Likewise

 Speaking of ladders . . . ?

Good thing that strip of paper is there to keep people away.

 So there!

Uh . . .

Why?

 Time to replace the attic window cardboard?

  Airgas tank fenced in, as it should be

 Bugs about to be amorous

 Like the sign says!

 There’s some stones now.

 If you see a bright ball in the sky, just fly around it.

Off to Middle Creek!

'Total chaos': Many say York County intersection needs to be changed, but how?

The owner of Impressions hair salon describes it as ‘total chaos.’

The Wrightsville intersection that sits right outside of her shop is a 5-way epicenter of confusion with drivers not knowing where to turn, when to turn, or how to see oncoming traffic, she claims.

York County’s Planning Commission agrees the traffic where several roads meet at Hellam, Second, and Route 462 near Veterans Memorial Bridge, is a problem. But, the Commission and PennDOT are still discussing the best way to fix the traffic flow.

MORE:

https://www.fox43.com/article/news/local/york-county/total-chaos-many-say-york-countys-intersection-needs-to-be-changed-but-how/521-72530a64-e6e8-4e5a-8d49-15ef6d3fc151 

Columbia man charged with sexual assault from a decade ago

Todd Michael Lingafelt Jr.

A Columbia man who used social media to meet a girl nearly 11 years ago was recently charged with rape and assault, two months after a similar case against him moved to court, according to online court documents.

Todd Michael Lingafelt Jr., 25, of the 800 block of Barber Street, was charged on Feb. 5 for the rape that happened in July of 2009, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Police said that Lingafelt met a girl – 14 years-old at the time – on the website MyYearbook.com and the two met at the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia before going to the entrance of the Columbia High School and then into a wooded area along Laurel Hill Road, where the incident allegedly occurred.
Lingafelt was arrested and taken to the Lancaster County Prison on Feb. 7, 2020.
Later that day, via a bondsman, Lingafelt posted his $100,000 bail and is free, according to online court dockets.
It is unclear why, exactly, he was charged more than a decade later, but Brett Hambright, spokesperson for the Lancaster County District Attorney’s office, said that recent developments prompted the charges. 
Calls to Columbia police chief Jack Brommer and Lingafelt’s current lawyer, listed on court documents, were not returned as of Friday afternoon. 
This isn’t the first time Lingafelt has been charged with sexual assault. In March 2019, Lingafelt was charged for sexually assaulting a woman in August of 2010, leaving scars on her chest from his fingernails, according to Lancaster city police. She came to police in February 2019.
MORE:

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/columbia-man-charged-with-sexual-assault-from-a-decade-ago/article_d17f2f22-4f59-11ea-93db-c795e5f30a93.html 

Debris on cleaned food equipment, cigarette butts in prep area: Lancaster County restaurant inspections, Feb. 14, 2020 | Restaurant Inspections | lancasteronline.com