Author: SPY

Susquehanna Valley Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 745 Old Chickies Hill Rd, Columbia, received recognition from the Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce on April 30 for 40 years of service to the community. About a week later, however, the Department of Health conducted an inspection and cited the facility for “deficient practices that caused concern for the health and safety of the residents,” according to an ABC27 report. Inspections over the past six months found concerns about failure to investigate and report abuse, neglect, and misappropriation of resident funds, failure to provide a sanitary environment, allowing strong odors of urine to persist, and failure to follow physicians’ orders. The Department will release a full report in the near future.

The facility was previously known as Heatherbank Nursing & Rehabilitation Center.

According to an LNP article, Eastern Lancaster County School District plans to shuffle 31 teachers to different grades and between schools:

“One by one, 31 teachers were called into meetings and told they were either switching grades or moving to another school for the 2017-18 school year.”

Readers’ comments following the article were less than favorable towards the action, for which many blame ELANCO Superintendent Robert Hollister.

Currently, ELANCO and Columbia are operating under a shared services agreement. A commenter asks if teachers could even be switched between the two districts:

“Now that Elanco and Columbia are quasi-merged regarding administration, just how long until teachers are switched between these two school districts? Elanco school district already seems to have a large turnover of teaching staff.”

Don’t forget to thank a nurse this week! It’s a very emotional and challenging profession that touches all concerned on a personal level.

Columbia Spy caught a few quick pics of a convoy headed west across the Veterans Memorial Bridge this afternoon. The procession consisted of law enforcement vehicles from various departments on their way to a week-long observance in Washington, D.C. for National Police week.

National Police Week (NPW), held May 11 – 17 each year in Washington, D.C., honors the service and sacrifice of U.S. law enforcement officers. On May 11 and 12, surviving families and co-workers begin arriving in Washington, D.C. for the events.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed Public Law 87-726 designating May 15 as Peace Officers’ Memorial Day, and the week in which May 15 falls as National Police Week. The law was amended by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Public Law 103-322, signed by President Bill Clinton, directing that the flag of the United States be displayed at half-staff on all government buildings on May 15 each year. While the actual dates change from year to year, National Police Week is always the calendar week, beginning on Sunday, which includes May 15.

New council member Marilyn Kress Hartman is sworn in by Mayor Leo Lutz at Monday’s Borough Council Meeting.

In a 6-0 vote at Monday’s borough council meeting, Marilyn Kress Hartman was appointed to fill the council seat vacated by Dr. Sherry Welsh. The term expires on the first Monday in January 2018.

Hartman is a Columbia native and realtor with Lusk & Associates Sotheby’s International.

Resident Robert Thompson was also interviewed for the vacant seat.