Columbia Spy

Columbia Community Invited to Attend FREE Pancake Breakfast Dec. 1 from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

Healthy Columbia is proud to announce a FREE pancake breakfast for the community of Columbia, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 1 at Our Lady of Angels, 404 Cherry Street. Healthy Columbia is a community-driven initiative from CHI St. Joseph Children’s Health. The initiative is dedicated to providing and coordinating services and the investments necessary to create a thriving community in Columbia Borough.

“We’re proud to be a part of this community and we’re looking forward to spreading some holiday cheer by bringing Columbia Borough together to celebrate,” said Kelsey Miller, program manager of Healthy Columbia. “We are encouraging the community to bring their friends and family to this free event.”

The Pancake Breakfast is open to the public free of charge and will include Santa as a special guest, and children’s activities. Pre-registration is not required, but members of the community may contact Healthy Columbia at 717-397-7625.

About CHI St. Joseph Children’s Health and Healthy Columbia

Healthy Columbia is CHI St. Joseph Children’s Health’s community-driven initiative dedicated to providing and coordinating services and the investments necessary to create a thriving community in Columbia Borough. A location of Catholic Health Initiatives, CHI St. Joseph Children’s Health is a community-based organization dedicated to the health and well-being of children and families in the Lancaster community. The organization works in collaboration with community partners to assure access to appropriate, quality health services and benefits for every child in the Lancaster community. This mission in children’s health includes multiple efforts, programs and services committed to improving the health of children and families throughout the Lancaster community. Most recently, the nonprofit announced plans to open the St. John Neumann School for Children and Families in Columbia, Pennsylvania in 2020. To learn more about CHI St. Joseph Children’s Health, visit www.CHIstjosephchildrenshealth.org.

Local volunteers are working hard to ensure that all veterans laid to rest at Mount Bethel Cemetery are honored this December on National Wreaths Across America Day.

This year, the ceremony, held simultaneously across the country at more than 1,400 locations, will be on Saturday, Dec. 15, 2018. The goal: to place a live, balsam fir wreath at the headstone of every veteran buried there and spread patriotism and commemoration for the ultimate sacrifices they made for our country.  A ceremony consisting of a Military Color Guard, 21-Gun Salute and Taps will begin at noon.

Following the ceremony, a veteran representing the seven branches of service (Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine and P.O.W.) will present a wreath decorated with its respective flag. Volunteers will then place wreaths at the veteran’s grave along and state their name to remember and honor their service.

From now until December 3rd, volunteers will host various fundraisers to sponsor the 690 headstones wreaths needed to honor every veteran at Mount Bethel Cemetery.

“Every donation and wreath sponsorship is a meaningful gift from an appreciative supporter who knows what it means to serve and sacrifice for the freedoms we all enjoy,” said Karen Worcester, executive director of Wreaths Across America. “We are so grateful to the community of Columbia for participating in our mission to Remember, Honor and Teach.”

Three organizations are currently supporting wreath donations at Mount Bethel Cemetery. Friends of Mount Bethel Cemetery (PA0358P), Cub scout Pack 35 (PA0263P) and PSSDAR Junior Membership Service Project. Each of these organizations will be coordinating the fundraising event to raise money for both WAA and their organization.

National Wreaths Across America Day is a free, non-political event, open to all people. For more information, to donate or to sign up to volunteer, please visit www.WreathsAcrossAmerica.org.

About Wreaths Across America

Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992. The organization’s mission – Remember, Honor, Teach – is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at more than 1,400 veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond.

(Click/tap on photos to see larger, sharper images.)

Four major items came out of the November 7 extra budget meeting for 2019: a new property inspector, a hiring freeze, a freeze on certain raises, and a tax hike.

At the meeting, President Kelly Murphy said council had voted 6-1 at a personnel meeting to hire a full-time property inspector. Murphy said the position will be included in the 2019 budget and “the individual in question will be hired accordingly.” The individual in question is assumed to be Jay Frerichs, who believed he had previously been offered the job. As of last week’s meeting, Frerichs was still in limbo; council was not certain it could pay Frerichs’ promised $50,000 salary plus benefits due to lack of funds in its general fund account. Somehow, in the interim, however, the money showed up.

Although the sudden availability of funds was not explicitly explained, it presumably came from cuts in funding to organizations, a freeze on hiring and pay raises for department managers – and a proposed 21.2% property tax hike, all of which were announced Wednesday night.  Frerichs’ salary was not the only consideration, however. Council also had to meet regular operating expenses for next year. Since many of the numbers at last week’s meeting were left uncrunched, the budget and the hiring must have been worked out sometime between the two meetings.

The proposed tax increase will raise millage from the current 6.6 to 8 mills. The increase equates to an additional $140 tax bill on a property with an assessed value of $100,000. Taxes had been at 8 mills for several years until last year’s decrease to 6.6 mills due to the county-wide reassessment. (Taxing entities adjust their millage rates down in proportion to an increase in taxable assessment.) In November 2015, council shot down an opportunity to reduce millage a quarter of a mill, to 7.75. The vote was 4-3 to keep it at 8 mills.

In raising the millage back to 8 mills, Councillor Cleon Berntheizel noted that the borough had not increased taxes in a decade. However, even with last year’s decrease, Columbia’s municipal tax rate has long been among the highest in the county, second only to Lancaster City. Columbia’s current total millage [county (2.911) + municipal (6.6) + school district (25.8163)] is already the highest in the county – at 35.3273 mills – and this latest increase will push the total to 36.7273 mills. A property owner will bear an annual tax burden of $3,672.73 on an assessed value of $100,000, or $306.06 per month.

Councillor John Novak tried softening the blow of the upcoming increase by claiming that Columbia’s school tax is currently 88 cents for each dollar of tax, while the county tax is about 3 cents, and the municipal tax will be a mere 8 cents for all municipal services provided.  However, the school tax rate of 25.8163 mills divided by the total millage of 36.7273 is .70; that is, 70 cents for each dollar of tax, not 88 cents. The municipal tax will be 22 cents for each dollar of tax, not 8 cents. [Note: This is different from calculating tax on assessed value, in which 8 mills equals .8 cents per dollar.]

Although millages from the three taxing entities were the only factors used in calculations at the meeting, the borough and the school district also jointly levy a 1% earned income tax, a real estate transfer tax, and a local services tax, formerly known as an occupational privilege tax. In the final analysis, factoring these taxes (which are variable) into the calculations renders any estimate of number of cents on each dollar of tax unreliable. Suffice it to say, Columbia Borough property owners will be paying more in taxes in 2019.

[A link to a .pdf of current county, municipal, and school district millage rates is HERE.]

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