Columbia Spy

Columbia’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) trailer

“Why wasn’t our incident command center used?” That was the question raised by Council Vice President Eric Kauffman at Tuesday night’s Columbia Borough Council meeting in regard to last week’s tragic fire at Tollbooth Antiques. Kauffman was referring to the borough’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) trailer for managing responses to emergencies in Columbia. Kauffman said the fire went to six alarms. Council President Heather Zink also wondered why the unit wasn’t used and said that a lot of money was spent on the equipment. After a brief discussion, the question went unanswered by other officials present.

The EOC trailer, purchased for $40,200, has seen limited use since its acquisition in early 2023. Former Borough Manager Mark E. Stivers bypassed council to secure a grant toward the purchase, as documented by Columbia Spy HERE. Lancaster County Commissioners subsequently approved the grant of $28,140 in ARPA funds towards the project aimed at establishing a mobile Emergency Operations Center in Columbia.

In addition to the county’s contribution, the borough’s ARPA funds supplied $12,060 for the purchase, which includes the trailer and technical equipment. Ongoing costs for maintaining the EOC will fall on borough taxpayers. Currently, the trailer remains at the borough maintenance building along South Front Street.

TextMyGov

On a different note, TextMyGov was not used during the Tollbooth fire. Although it was discussed at Tuesday’s meeting, no explanation was given for why it wasn’t employed for the emergency. Council President Zink noted on the night of the fire that nothing appeared on the service. “Shoot, we don’t have anything on TextMyGov, and none of us have the ability to do that,” she said. (It’s unclear who has that ability.)

TextMyGov is an emergency alert system designed to inform the public about emergencies, road closures, etc. Council had voted in 2022 to implement the service, at a yearly cost of $5,500.

ARPA funding documentation for EOC trailer 

Workers from LandStudies, Inc. began maintenance on a stretch of Shawnee Run today.

Two areas have experienced bank erosion due to deposited sediment from upstream areas exerting pressure on the newly stabilized banks. These areas of erosion needed to be addressed to maintain the pollution reduction credits associated with the project.

Columbia Borough has been using LandStudies to complete the monitoring and maintenance of the site as required by the US Army Corps/DEP joint permit.

The borough, in collaboration with the Columbia Catholic Housing for the Elderly (CCHE), completed a stream restoration project along Shawnee Run between the Mill Street and 4th Street bridges in the spring of 2021 which served to provide credits towards the borough’s MS4 required Chesapeake Bay Pollution Reduction Plan.

LandStudies, Inc. provided the quote of $21,885.00 and proposed to remove areas of deposited sediment and stabilizing stream bank sections with large placed stones. The borough and CCHE are splitting the cost of this maintenance work 50/50 consistent with their cost share agreement.

[Source: June 11, 2024 Columbia Borough Council meeting packet]

The resignation of Finance Manager Tammy Bennett (above) was announced at Tuesday’s Columbia Borough Council meeting. Highway maintenance worker Robert Warfel also resigned. 

During last night’s Columbia Borough Council meeting, two more employee resignations were announced. 

Finance Manager Tammy Bennett, who also served as the borough’s deputy tax collector, has tendered her resignation. Bennett has been with the borough since May 2021. Council voted to hire a temporary accountant to fill the finance manager role until a permanent replacement can be found. Council appointed borough employee Laurie Gerfin-Lutz as deputy tax collector.

Additionally, Robert Warfel, who joined the public works department in July 2022, has resigned. Council voted to advertise for the position.

The resignations follow the recent departure of Borough Manager Mark Stivers, who resigned effective July 3 of this year. Other office personnel have also left the borough since the beginning of the year.

When resident Frank Doutrich asked about the reason for the high turnover, Council President Heather Zink stated that personnel matters could not be discussed. No other explanation was offered for the recent departures. Doutrich said he heard that morale, especially in the office, is bad. “Why are we having such a big turnover of employees?”

At the end of last night’s meeting, council adjourned to executive session “to discuss personnel matters related to replacement of staff,” according to the meeting agenda.

The meeting packet is HERE.

The owner of a Columbia Borough antiques shop that burned to the ground last week said Monday that a Pennsylvania State Police fire marshal told him they probably won’t be able to pin down the cause.

David Doolittle, co-owner of Tollbooth Antiques, said a fire marshal listed among the possible causes fireworks, as empty firework containers were found behind the building. 

“They took a hard look at those and said they can’t really say for sure that they were freshly lit off,” Doolittle said. “They could have been a week old, two weeks old; they couldn’t determine the age of the fireworks.” 

Doolittle said the fire marshal told him that he expects the fire’s cause to be classified as “undetermined.” When Doolittle was asked if he thinks he knows what caused the fire, he said: 

“No, not any more than anyone else.”

MORE:

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/tollbooth-antique-owners-work-toward-reopening-cause-of-fire-unknown/article_9db47536-4896-11ef-af89-5f867dca78a7.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

“COLUMBIA” is visible on a wall behind the  burned-out elevator shaft at Tollbooth Antiques, seemingly unaffected by the recent fire.

Breahna N. Booth and Brandy R. Whited conveyed 1014 Walnut St., to Dylan L. Bair and Brandy L. Bair for $235,000.

Valley View Capital LLC conveyed 507 Union St., to Kerstin Phipps for $168,000.

This week’s photos of Columbia

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

A huge fire caused massive damage to Tollbooth Antiques last Thursday. The next morning, crews began demo and clean-up, as shown here.

 

Video

 

The front of the building looked largely intact Friday morning (above).

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Earlier in the week, a fierce storm ripped through town, knocking down wires and tree limbs.

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A look at the former Colonial Metals – 

Is anything still going on in there?

Lights were added to the Route 30/Linden Street billboard this past week.

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This seagull was hanging out on a buoy near Columbia River Park.

And here’s a black eyed Susan (or two or three).

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There will be lane restrictions Monday on eastbound and westbound Route 30 at the Columbia/Marietta/Route 441 exit in Lancaster County to allow for the installation of traffic management equipment.

Weather permitting, there will be left lane restrictions in place at the exit from 9 a.m. to approximately 3 p.m. so a newly installed contraflow gate, situated on the east side of the Route 30 (Wrights Ferry) Bridge spanning the Susquehanna River in Columbia, can be demonstrated, according to the state Department of Transportation.

The contraflow gate is an incident management tool that allows two single lanes of traffic to be directed onto either the eastbound or westbound Route 30 bridge should an incident occur that shuts down traffic on the opposite structure. The gate would only be used in the event of a long-term closure related to an incident.

The gate will be used in conjunction with traffic control devices to separate opposite lanes of traffic and a median crossover located on the west side of the bridge in York County.

Motorists should be alert and drive with caution.

This work was included in a project to improve the median barrier on the Wrights Ferry Bridge.

JD Eckman Inc. of West Sadsbury Township, Chester County, is the primary contractor on this $5,247,787 project.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/route-30-lane-closures-in-columbia-boro-on-monday/article_a1c643ce-4608-11ef-a25f-3b416f15d85a.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share