Taylor Funk of Columbia signs national letters of intent | CSN Philly

Taylor Funk, a 6-foot-8 forward from Columbia, Pennsylvania, signed a letter of intent and plan to enroll at Saint Joseph’s in Fall 2017. As a junior, Funk averaged 21.3 points and was a PIAA Class AAA All-State Third Team selection.

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http://www.csnphilly.com/ncaa/st-joes-basketball-hawks-sign-two-players-national-letters-intent

1,300 playground slides, manufactured in Columbia, are recalled after 2 children lose fingers

About 1,300 steel playground slides made by a Columbia manufacturer were recalled Wednesday after two children lost fingers because of a broken weld.
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http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/playground-slides-manufactured-in-columbia-are-recalled-after-children-lose/article_d090775c-bcad-11e6-add4-13833dfc3b44.html

Columbia moves to join land bank to handle troubled properties

Matthew Sternberg, executive director of Lancaster County Housing & Redevelopment Authorities, addressed a joint meeting of Columbia Borough Council and Columbia Borough School Board Tuesday night about the land bank. [File photo]
Columbia Borough Council and the Columbia Borough School Board voted to join forces with the Lancaster County Land Bank at a joint meeting Tuesday night. Columbia will be the first municipality in the county to do so. The land bank provides a means for remediation of blighted, vacant, and abandoned properties in the borough.
The agreement will not be binding until the land bank authority approves it and the ordinance is advertised. According to Matthew Sternberg, executive director of Lancaster County Housing & Redevelopment Authorities, the land bank authority plans to do so at its December 20 meeting. The ordinance authorizes execution of the inter-governmental cooperation agreement. Sternberg was present at Tuesday’s meeting and presented information about the land bank.
The land bank does not have eminent domain powers (as a redevelopment authority does), but it can assemble funding for blight remediation and site upgrades, and can acquire, develop, demolish, or otherwise dispose of real property. A land bank also has the ability to buy a property prior to a tax sale to properly revitalize it and can even extinguish outstanding liens. The objective of the land bank process is to rehabilitate a property and get it back on the tax rolls at a much higher level. According to Sternberg, the land bank is hoping to have properties redeveloped for single-family use. 
The land bank can hold a property tax-free during redevelopment. For the first five years after redevelopment, tax revenue will be split 50/50 between the land bank – and the borough and school board. After the five years are up, all tax revenue will go to the borough and board. 
Joining the land bank requires an initial fee of $5,000, and $1,000 a year thereafter. The Lancaster County Redevelopment Authorities will staff the land bank. The borough will recommend qualified properties, and the land bank will then follow through with acquisition. Since the land bank does not have the power of eminent domain, a property owner will have rights to a negotiated sale. Developers will be selected by the land bank and could include private citizens. A property must be approved by the borough and the school board before it is permitted into the land bank. 
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Columbia moves forward on land bank plan

Columbia Borough Council and the Columbia Borough School Board voted to join forces with the Lancaster County Land Bank at a joint meeting Tuesday night. Columbia will be the first municipality in the county to do so. The move will give the borough more options in dealing with blighted properties.

The ordinance to join the land bank will be advertised, and the land bank must vote to approve the move at its December 20 meeting.

MORE TO FOLLOW

Joint meeting of borough council and school board to be held Tuesday night

There will be a joint meeting of the Columbia Borough Council and the Columbia Borough School District at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, December 6, at the District administration Center, 200 North Fifth Street, to discuss a land bank proposal and other business. The legal notice for the meeting is shown below:

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Legal Notice is hereby given that both the Borough Council of the Borough of Columbia, and the School Board of the Columbia Borough School District, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania will hold a joint special meeting on December 6, 2016, at 7:00 p.m. at the School District Administration Center, 200 North Fifth Street, Columbia, Pennsylvania for purposes of considering and taking action to approve an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement between the Lancaster County Land Bank Authority, the Borough of Columbia and the Columbia Borough School District, to consider hiring two part-time park rangers, and to consider any other matters that may properly come before either body; it being noted that both the School Board and Borough Council may independently take any and all appropriate action to approve the matters set forth above which come before them at this joint meeting. Anyone with a disability needing accommodations to attend the meeting should contact Tom Strickler, Director of Operations for the Columbia Borough School District at 717-681-2616. Columbia Borough By: Barry N. Handwerger Borough Solicitor