Author: SPY

Here's what the Council candidates are saying

Here are links to Council candidates’ campaign pages. Find out what they’re saying:

  • Heather Zink for Columbia Borough Council
  • Eric W. Kauffman for Columbia Borough Council
  • Sharon Lintner for Columbia Borough Council
  • James R. Settle For Columbia Borough Council
  • Howard N Stevens Running for Columbia Borough Council
  • NEW: Kelly Murphy – Candidate for Columbia Borough Council

    • Sparrow Websites hosts $500 Instagram Contest

    Now through Friday, May 31, Sparrow Websites, a Columbia-based Web Design Company, is hosting an Instagram contest with a grand prize of $500. The contest is designed to encourage Columbia locals, employees, tourists, and other visitors to share on Instagram how they discover Columbia, using the hashtag #DiscoverColumbia.

    The Instagram entries will be judged on a combination of creativity and number of likes, so be sure to share the post with your friends and family.  In addition to the single grand prize of $500, other prizes will be awarded to deserving entries including gift cards to Columbia-based businesses and locally made goods. 
    Photo entries must be taken in Columbia and include the hashtag #DiscoverColumbia to be entered. However, participants do not need to reside in the city. 
    Contest participants are encouraged to post personalized captions of how they discovery Columbia, through nature, history, the local community, and more. 
    If you have any questions about contest details, visit www.sparrowwebsites.com/discovercolumbia. 
    Be sure to follow along with the hashtag #DiscoverColumbia to see contest entries and like the photos you think deserve to win. 
    For any other questions, please contact hello@sparrowwebsites.com or call 717-537-1311 and view our website at www.sparrowwebsites.com.
    [Source: Press release]

    Judge hands Columbia Concerned Citizens Association its first victory in lawsuit against the Columbia Borough

    Columbia Borough taxpayers scored a legal victory last Thursday when Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas Judge Leonard G. Brown III denied the Borough’s request for a stay of proceedings in a legal case. The Borough had requested the stay in response to a lawsuit filed by the Columbia Concerned Citizens Association (CCCA). The suit ultimately seeks to have the Borough’s Revolving Loan Fund and recent tax hike repealed. If the stay had been granted, the Borough could theoretically have delayed the proceedings indefinitely. The judge’s decision allows the suit to move forward.

    The Revolving Loan Fund, which was established last year by Ordinance 897, is a program by which Columbia Borough (through Community First) lends taxpayer funds to private business. CCCA believes that the Pennsylvania State Constitution and the Borough Code prohibit such loans. Columbia Borough, in an effort to push back, is asserting that Borough taxpayers do not have standing to file the suit. If standing is established, CCCA will request an injunction to prevent the lending of any more funds until the case is decided.
    CCCA’s lawsuit – and the organization itself – grew out of residents’ dissatisfaction with the loan fund and subsequent tax hike. In December 2018, petitions containing approximately 1,160 signatures were presented to Borough Council members. The petitioners sought a meeting with Borough Council to eliminate the $800,000 allocated to the Revolving Loan Fund, and to repeal the Fund and the tax hike for 2019. Council ignored the request for a meeting, and at its January 8, 2019 regular Borough Council meeting, it summarily dismissed the petitions, thus ignoring the will of Borough taxpayers.