No, just a worker removing lead paint from a house.
There’s a sign at the site.
Morning feline
Diving ducks
Truck, dumping at Rail Mechanical at 4th & Manor
Speaking of trucks, here’s one that got caught crossing the bridge.
The write-up
After the “weigh-in”
More bridge inspection this week –
PennDOT must really be worried.
A missing corner.
Rebar showing through
Possible leaching
(or maybe just seagull poop)
A crack down through the field of mystery numbers
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Sparrow convention
Draw your own conclusions.
A new sign for Flow the rock snake
Did someone swipe Flow’s head again?
Buzzard birthday
Many buzzards
Ready for winter
Game over
There are always interesting “artifacts” at Tollbooth Antiques . . .
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The roof’s on, and porches are sprouting at the Habitat project.
Beginning of the South 2nd Street CDBG project
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Todd Stahl of WhiteCap Water Rescue Training directed the Lionville Fire Company and Fame Fire Company (West Chester) in a rescue boat training session this morning (9/10/23) at Columbia River Park.
For $26,000, Marietta could become home for 12-foot-tall statue inspired by the Susquehanna River
A sculpture titled “River Spirit” was commissioned in 2002 by the late Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed. The artist, Steven Dolbin, has completed the sculpture but, according to Haneman, “he doesn’t know what to do with it.” The sculpture weighs 7,000 pounds and is 37 feet long, five feet wide and 12 feet tall.
More: Dolbin said he created the sculpture, which is made of high-grade stainless steel, to “honor our Native American brothers and sisters” and to “speak sculpturally” about that heritage of the Susquehanna River and region. Embedded in the steel, which is shaped like a winding river, are “sacred images of various cultures, tribal wisdom and tributes to original cave paintings,” according to an article from The Burg News website.
The cost: Dolbin is willing to donate the piece, but it will cost approximately “$26,000 to move it and to finish it when it gets to a new home,” Haneman said. In an email, Haneman explained that Rivertownes, “does not have a budget to support this project” and that it “was suggested that a fundraising campaign be organized to fund it.”
Sponsorship needed: Haneman reported that Create Columbia and Columbia Borough approached Rivertownes about sponsorship for the project. According to their website, Rivertownes is a nonprofit that “manages and preserves the Musselman-Vesta Iron Furnace Center and surrounding iron furnace remains” and cultivates “art, heritage, and recreation in the river towns of Columbia, Marietta, and Wrightsville.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, 866-366-3723, uses a risk-based inspection reporting process for restaurants and other food handlers.
Bootleg Antiques, 135 Bridge St., Columbia, Aug. 30. Pass. No violations.
Columbia VFW, 401 Manor St., Columbia, Aug. 30. Pass. Old food residue on the potato slicer.
Garth, 22 S. Second St., Columbia, Aug. 30. Pass. No violations.
Columbia Borough Fire Department (Hambones Social Club), 726 Manor St., Columbia, Aug. 29. Pass. Food facility does not have available sanitizer test strips or test kit to determine appropriate sanitizer concentration of chlorine bleach for the mechanical glass washer at the bars.
Columbia Borough Fire Department (kitchen), 726 Manor St., Columbia, Aug. 29. Pass. No violations.
An abandoned factory along Ridge Avenue that Columbia Borough plans to refurbish for its public works department.
At its August 22, 2023 meeting, Columbia Borough Council voted to purchase three parcels of land at 1100, 1110, and 1120 Ridge Avenue at a price of $1,350,000, with the intent of moving its public works department there. Council also voted to purchase a .31-acre strip of land from a private owner at a price of $50,000, to access the property from the street.
The purchase is necessary because a company, JG Environmental, wants to buy the borough’s wastewater treatment plant – and eventually the “borough sheds” next door to it, where the public works department is currently located. Moving public works and vacating the sheds will allow the company to complete the transaction and expand its operation. The company currently leases the wastewater plant from the borough.
Funding for the purchase of the 9.4 acres at Ridge Avenue will come from the borough’s investment account at Wells Fargo, according to Borough Manager Mark Stivers. Currently, there is $3,200,000 in the account, the majority of which is the “true reserve fund for the borough,” Stivers said. Selling off the borough’s assets, including the wastewater plant, will reimburse the account. The sale price of the plant is $565,000, which the borough will receive by the end of September, when the plant will have been sold, according to borough solicitor Evan Gabel.
According to Stivers, selling off assets will allow the borough to purchase the land, purchase the right of way, build a road, and restore an abandoned factory there without dipping into the general fund or capital fund. At a previous meeting, Stivers estimated the cost of relocating to Ridge Avenue and subsequent clean-up and renovation of the existing building will be about $2 million, in addition to the purchase price.
Other assets the borough hopes to sell are:
* 137 Front Street (the former Columbia #1 firehouse, currently leased by KT Graham)
* 26 acres of the borough’s Blue Lane property
* Residual Ridge Ave property (The borough will require only 3 and a half of the 9.4 acres and plans to sell off the remainder.)
At a previous council meeting, resident Frank Doutrich questioned officials’ assertion that the move wouldn’t entail any expense to taxpayers, since the assets the borough is hoping to sell were originally paid for with tax dollars.
At least part of the land is under Act 2 remediation, and there are test wells in place that are monitored by the DEP.
According to the Pennsylvania DEP website: “The Land Recycling Program (Act 2) establishes environmental remediation standards for cleanups related to specific environmental laws. Remediation and the resulting liability relief provided by Act 2 is specific to the contamination identified at each specific site or sites.”
Public documents show that RBLD Properties LLC purchased the properties for $1,000,000 from the Columbia Reduction Company in 2019. An abandoned factory, which sustained a fire on April 5 of this year, sits on one of the properties.
Initially, the plan was to move public works to Blue Lane, but it was deemed too costly – at around $5 million.
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Columbia Spy 