Albatwitch Festival – the star didn't show, but the bands played on

Unfortunately, the star of the show – the albatwitch – didn’t appear, but many others did, at the First Annual Albatwitch festival in Columbia on Saturday.  The festival, a joint effort by Rick Fisher of the Museum of Mysteries, and Chris Vera, president of the Columbia Historic Preservation Society (CHiPS), continued the weekend’s festive events which featured the Fourth Friday “Feet in the Street” the night before.  
Saturday’s festival included live music, food, and a variety of talks by various speakers at CHiPs headquarters on Second Street. The event also included an apple pie contest (due to the albatwitch’s penchant for eating apples).  Deborah Clark took first place in the contest.
Free tours of the “dungeon” of the Columbia Market House were also offered.
An ET (a “gray”) watched the day’s proceedings on the 200 block of Locust Street.
Museum of Mysteries founder Rick Fisher talked about things paranormal . . . 

to a standing-room-only crowd at the Columbia Historic Preservation Society.

A sketch of . . . an albatwitch ?

Is Chiques Rock haunted?
Rick Fisher lectured about things paranormal at the Columbia Historic Preservation Society to a standing room only crowd.

Some views of the dusty, musty dungeon during a free tour in the basement of the Columbia Market House . . .

First place in the apple pie contest – Deborah Clark

Local churches help the needy

By noon on Saturday, over 50,000 pounds of potatoes were gone – not eaten on the spot, but picked up and shipped out for the needy as part of a cooperative effort between Columbia and Mountville churches.  Ken Sprout of Columbia’s United Methodist Church and Doug Warner of Mountville’s Saint Paul’s Church organized the event, held at Glatfelter’s Memorial Field in Columbia. Local volunteers, along with Boy Scout Troop 64, helped out.

200 50-pound bags of potatoes were taken to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank in Harrisburg, and 100 bags went to the Water Street Rescue Mission in Lancaster. Bags also went to food banks in Elizabethtown and Manheim, and to individuals who picked them up for their own use.
This is the second year for the endeavor. Last year’s was held in Mountville. 
The potatoes were grown on eight acres by a Rawlinsville farmer who wished to remain anonymous. Several months ago, he attended a meeting of the Columbia-Mountville United Methodist Men’s group asking what he could do to help. Saying it was a “calling from God,” he offered the potatoes, had them bagged, placed on skids, and shipped to the drop point in Columbia free of charge.  

The potato drop was coordinated by the United Methodist Men.

Ken Sprout of Columbia’s United Methodist Church

Volunteers loading a truck.

Trucks from Central Pennsylvania Food bank and Water Street Rescue Mission picking up potatoes for distribution.

Skids piled with 50-lb bags

Helping load a skid on a pallet jack

Brett Hamaker helping out with a tow motor.

Columbia considers police spending as 2015 budget talks begin

Columbia borough council began budget discussions last week and, as it has been in past years, spending on the Columbia Borough Police Department was in council’s cross hairs.

What I saw recently

 A poster for a memorial ride for Chad Noll, who passed away last year

 A visitor (?) at the visitor’s center (Northwest River Trail Services Building) at Columbia River Park on Saturday morning

 So that’s where the honeybees are – getting hopped up on the caffeine in Mountain Dew.
I saw this abandoned soda can at Third and Locust with what I thought were yellow jackets crawling on it, until I looked more closely. These are the first honeybees I’ve seen in quite a while. 

 It’s only September, and these geese are flying south already.
I hope that doesn’t mean we’re in for a nasty winter.

Road construction continues on Ironville Pike.

Fourth Friday Feet in the Street

The “Feet in the Street” event on Fourth Friday in Columbia featured art, dancing, food, music, and other attractions. The event was centered on the 500 block of Locust Street and Locust Street Park and extended to other areas of town.

 Dancers dancing

 Claire Storm with a mosaic of the bridge burning, created by participants at last year’s RiverFest in Wrightsville

Music in the gazebo