Columbia Spy

Under the proposal, the borough would plan and construct a four-story parking garage behind the former Becker Potato Chip factory at 12 North Second Street that Cimarron Investments LLC is redeveloping into a 60-room hotel/restaurant. The garage will contain 100 paid parking spaces, 60 of which would be reserved for hotel patrons, i.e., one per room. The remainder will be available for public use. The hotel building would contain elevator access to the garage, and parking would be overseen by some sort of management entity, such as a parking authority.

At the meeting, Cimarron CEO Don Murphy presented a tax map overlay and updated design for the project, showing how the garage would be built on a parcel behind the hotel. (The original plan was for hotel rooms to be built over a parking area.) The parcel, which is currently owned by Cimarron, would be conveyed to the borough.

Garage construction would be funded through a Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program 1:1 matching grant. According to pa.gov: “The Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) is a Commonwealth grant program administered by the Office of the Budget for the acquisition and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic, recreational, and historical improvement projects.” If a $4 million RACP grant is approved by the state, the borough will pay half the cost of the garage: $2 million. [Editor’s note: The $4 million figure was quoted by borough manager Rebecca Denlinger at the meeting and differs from the $3.5 million presented in the summary. Denlinger told the committee that she uses a $25,000 to $30,000 per parking space to estimate the cost of a parking structure. Using those factors, however, the product does not equal $4 million.]

Murphy said the borough’s funding of the garage would make the hotel project more feasible for Cimarron, because the company would not be required to abide by prevailing wage laws (and would obviously be spared from funding, maintaining, and managing the garage). If the RACP application is denied, a combined hotel and garage project could still be completed but on a smaller scale, with parking available for hotel patrons only, according to Murphy.

Denlinger noted two other mechanisms available to bring funding to the project: a Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) designation and a Qualified Opportunity Zone designation. According to Denlinger, the KOZ issue is currently before the state legislature, and the borough should know by year’s end whether it will be approved. According to pa.gov: “Keystone Opportunity Zones eliminate specific state and local taxes within specific underdeveloped and underutilized areas.” A Qualified Opportunity Zone designation has already been approved, however. Denlinger said that quite a large area of Columbia has already received this federal designation, including the block where the hotel site is located. irs.gov states: “An Opportunity Zone is an economically-distressed community where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment.”

The finance committee voted to move forward with the next step of the RACP process to fund not only the hotel project but also a semi-defined project for the market house. If this second step is approved, the state will invite Columbia Borough to make a final, more detailed, application, at which time, the borough will be required to commit taxpayer funds.

Last spring, the borough briefly considered granting Cimarron $650,000 to help fund the hotel project until it was found that doing so would be unfeasible and illegal. Former borough manager Norm Meiskey and several citizens spoke out against the intended grant at the June Columbia Borough Council meeting. Columbia Spy posted related articles HERE and HERE.

Parade grand marshals Vinnie and Mary Wickenheiser.

The ear-splitting calliope.

(Turn your speakers down!)

This character was hanging out after the parade.

The 107-page Finance Packet can be accessed HERE.

 And here’s an emaciated devil dog.

 Looks like someone wanted to park – sign be damned.

 Multi-unit birdhouse – 

Well, at least one apartment building got built in town.

(North 4th)

 Glinda the Good Witch?

(North 4th)

Abandoned skull in Avenue G

 Permit for a retail pharmacy?

 Apparently, this is for sale.

(South 4th Street)

 Sticker shock

(North 3rd)

 Gallery on 4th – now with more gourds

 Magical Mystery Tour?

(South 3rd)

 Digging things up at Columbia Crossing

 A trench, in fact

A former councilman called the building, “The gift that’ll keep on taking.”

 Many-gloried street signs glorified

 When Lowe’s is all out of stockade fence

An alternative to those outrageous Comcast bills

 At the gazebo in Locust Street Park

 And there it is.

 Meanwhile, on South 2nd – painted flags – literally on South 2nd

 Must be some sort of revisionist history – two original colonies and no states?!

 And here, complete with sticker, is a cardinal-shaped birdhouse, big enough to terrify any bird in sight.

 Shadow company?

 Getting their “S” in gear

 That’s small change these days (but nonetheless acceptable)

 Alligatoring in Avenue E

 That’s strange – This sidewalk on Poplar Street ends here, skips over two front yards, then continues further up the street.

 And here it just kind of . . ends.

 On the other side of the street it ends but continues at the last house in the block – at the intersection of 5th and Poplar. So, if you walk over the front of someone’s lawn to avoid walking in the street, can you be cited for trespassing?

 Three flats; therefore, it’s in E-flat major

 But can you live on a hedge that lives in a hedge?

 Let’s hope he plugged the meter . . . because – see next photo.

There’s the reason.

Too bad he didn’t nail this one.

 Holy smoke?

 Clean it up!

 Pumpkin tree

(Manor Street)

Tree down on the unpaved section of Heritage Drive, most likely due to last night’s horrific winds

 Work in progress

 Artist at work

Another work in progress

Still another work in progress

Yet another work in progress

Street sweeper barely bypassing that nasty, unattended ditch on the 300 block of South 2nd

There it is – naked in the daylight.

And finally – the former Embassy Hotel – apparently after a fire

https://lancaster.crimewatchpa.com/columbiapd/10552/arrests/tavares-jose-luis-receiving-stolen-property

Tom Feltenberger expressed frustration about an ongoing water leak and scum problem along Grinnell Avenue, between 10th and 11th Streets. The source of problem is reportedly water flowing from an outlet pipe from a basement sump pump at a residence near at Grinnell and 11th. (Columbia Spy previously reported on the issue HERE.)

Feltenberger said that due to the water on the street, cars are sliding and people are falling. He said he got the runaround from several agencies, having contacted the national office of the EPA, who referred him to its state office, who told him to contact “Harrisburg,” who sent him back to Columbia Borough, which “sent him nowhere.” He said he then called State Representative Dave Hickernell, but “he does nothing.” He said he then talked to a “street superintendent,” who told him there are legal problems “out there.” When asked what the plan is, the superintendent allegedly said, “I don’t know the plan,” but admitted the borough has known about the problem for years. Feltenberger said he then called the highway department but got no calls back. “This is a very serious problem,” he told council.

Borough Manager Rebecca Denlinger said the borough is aware of the problem and that the next step is to identify that the water is coming specifically from a “homeowner’s home.” The borough will then determine what role, if any, it has in fixing the problem. 

Gerald Hawn, who owns a building at 501 Walnut Street, said water is running into his property from a neighboring property. He said a code enforcement officer responded to his concern “but nothing ever happened.” He said he has called the borough office several times but got no results.

Hawn also said that drain pipes were improperly installed on the 500 block of Walnut Street during a recent road and sidewalk reconstruction project. He cited one example in particular, in which a drain line leading from a building to the storm sewer was two inches lower than the sewer inlet. Hawn said he pointed out the problem to a job foreman who told him the curb would be replaced. Instead, workmen jack-hammered through the curb to fit the pipe in, according to Hawn. “A lot of the drains have been put in wrong,” he told council.

Hawn also said that drain lines leading from downspouts are supposed to have a “positive grade,” but water in some pipes doesn’t make it out to the curb due to an incorrect grade. Hawn also said elbows have been added to some lines that don’t line up with the hole in the curb, which increases the likelihood of clogging. In other cases, lines were run crooked, Hawn said. He said the engineer is supposed to inspect all the forms and all the drains. “My sidewalks look pathetic, and nobody is checking them,” he said.

Council President Kelly Murphy said that if it is found that the job has not been done correctly, it will have to be redone. “We’ll look into it,” he said.

Nick Meley once again reminded council of ongoing issues with slumlords in the borough as he has at several recent meetings. He said there have been three recent tenant changes at rentals in his neighborhood and asked if property inspections are on hold, claiming none of the properties were inspected after tenants moved out. He said one property in particular has bathroom problems.

Code Enforcement Manager Steve Kaufhold told Meley that inspections are still being done but that he was unaware of the tenant changes. “If you had called me, we would have come out,” Kaufhold said. “I only heard about it now.” Meley responded that the borough can’t count on a concerned citizen monitoring all the slumlords in town. “You have to get out in front of these things,” he said. He told council it must make it uncomfortable for slumlords to be in this town. He said the borough must “hammer them” and enforce the three-strike rule. “I’d like you to do something about this,” he said.

Kaufhold said that if the codes department finds out that a new tenant has come in, the landlord will be notified of an upcoming inspection and a $250 fine will be imposed for any new tenant who moves in without a proper inspection of the rental. 

Joanne Fritz told council about problems with an Air bnb in her neighborhood. She has been vocal about the issue at several recent borough meetings. She said the borough is allowing a business to operate in a low-density residential neighborhood and said the house at 1102 Locust Street is supposed to be rented out as a single family home. She cited an incident from the Friday before Labor Day, in which raw sewage was running down the street from the house and said the issue wasn’t addressed by the homeowner until Sunday. She said people are still renting the house – most recently four women from Florida, who she said are not a single family. Fritz also cited noise problems associated with visitors at the property. 

Frank Doutrich cited an improperly installed drain line at his property on Lancaster Avenue that he said he had to fix. He said contractors sometimes do work incorrectly and it is not checked afterwards. “When they come to do a job, they just get the job done,” he said. “They don’t care.” He agreed with Gerald Hawn that the borough engineer is responsible for inspecting jobs when they are completed. He blamed council for signing off on jobs without proper follow-up. “Is it wrong for the citizens of this town to ask that they be done right?” he asked.

Doutrich also complained about both street sweepers often being out of operation at the same time, claiming the problem is due to mismanagement. He also cited a weed and grass problem at 1020 Ironville Pike, where the weeds are over six feet tall. He said a neighbor of the property told him she came to the borough office three times to report the problem, because she couldn’t see above the weeds to back out of her driveway safely. Allegedly, an employee at the borough office told her to back into her driveway so that she could see to pull out onto Ironville Pike.