Borough Council - Regular Meeting

Just look at that. I call uh the meeting to order Columbia Burough Council regular meeting for April 14th, 2026 7 p.m. Have a roll call, please. Here, here. here. Here

uh we have an invitation from Pastor Jeff Ingram. Just want to say good evening and uh thank you for affording me the opportunity to come before you all. It's my my first one. I'm part of the um Greater Columbia Ministerium. Um I'm pastor at Ironville and New Town United Methodist Church. And uh my ties here, my grandparents are from Colombia. I have many memories of coming uh and visiting them. They're the last 20 years of their life. So Colombia is near and dear to me. So uh I appreciate the opportunity. Um let's uh bow our heads as I pray. Dear wise and loving father, first let me say thank you on behalf of all who are gathered here today. Thank you for your many and abundant blessings. Thank you for life itself, for the measure of health we need to fulfill our callings, for sustenance, for your friendship. Thank you for the ability to be involved in useful work and for the honor of appropriate responsibilities. Thank you as well for the freedom to embrace you or the freedom to reject you. Thank you for loving us even so from your boundless and gracious nature. In the scriptures, you have said that citizens ought to obey the governing authorities since you have established those very authorities to promote peace and order and justice. Therefore, I pray for our mayor and for this assembled council. I am asking that you, heavenly father, graciously grant them wisdom to govern amid the conflicting interests and issues of our times. A sense of the welfare and true needs of our people, a working awareness for justice and rightness, confidence in what is good and fitting, the ability to work together in harmony and even when there are honest disagreements, and for

personal peace in their lives and the joy in their tasks. I pray for the agenda set before them today. Please give them an assurance that would please you and what would benefit those who live and work in and around our town of Columbia, Pennsylvania. It is in your honor and in your name we pray. Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all additions, deletions, and reorganization of the agenda. Um, Senator Malone is supposed to speak at number seven, but he's running through traffic, so he may get pushed around on the agenda. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda as published?

Second. I have a motion by Councilman Zinc, second by Councilman Murphy to approve the agenda as published. All in favor say I. I. post citizen comments. Uh, so Tom Steiner,

I lived at the West End Colombia where Pebbles was and I did talk to Derek and Heather before this meeting about the development of the land out there and standing water. Derek assured me to have somebody come out and look at it. Over this last three, four years, I had an uptick in mosquitoes out there to the point that I hired a service to commence spray even though I have no standing water. Um, now I have fans that on the deck in the front porch to help move the air. I started thinking about this when I seen this water out there. Then you have the quarry and I had many years of experience with the quarry from swimming there. The west end of the quarry itself is a dead man's land. Nobody ever went back there to swim. All the uh trees and the vines and everything were in there. any pieces of wood went back there. So, I'm thinking that as the mayor said, mosquitoes, they're spraying. That body of water, I think, has the potential to have breeding grounds for the mosquitoes. One to four miles, mosquitoes will travel for food. It's not only me, it's our pets, dogs, and cats. You have the fire company up there that has a beautiful deck out back that's setting h probably three 400 yards from the quarry. So I'm asking you to have somebody look at the quarry analyze it and see if it is a possible freeding ground. I understand there is some government agencies board of health that would pick

the tablet. So it would be no cost, but at least you'd be removing potentially something that's a menace for that end of town. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. Next on the agenda is Randy Skyre.

That's fine. Didn't mean to break it.

Anyway, uh jot up my notes down here to make it easy so I don't get squirreled. But uh my name is Randy Gistister and I am the president of Patriot Towing and Transport St. tennis towing as well as RC towing. A little bit about myself, uh, I am a devout Christian and a husband of 33 years and a father. I've lived in Mount Bill for 29 years. I've been an active firefighter with Mount Bill for 27 years, and I spent quite a few nights and days helping out in Colombia, too, uh, on different incidences. I am a critical incident chaplain serving the Lancaster County SISM team and Lancaster County Chaplain's Corps. Most of my life has been about service. Service to God, country, family, and community. In 2003, I founded Patriot Towing and Transport, which is a certified uh veteranowned business, which brings me here to this evening. In 2004, we joined forces with St. Dennis Towing, and for a lot of years, we tried to be able to provide towing services for Colombia. However, it was made clear that Jeff, the owner of Midway at the time, uh was the only approved tower. And even if we met the criteria, Jeff was still the sole provider for Colombia. He was your man. Jeff had the required fenced in impound lot within the burrow. We did not. Jeff also had the impound inside impound space available to store vehicles that the police requested him to tow and store inside due to police holds on the vehicle from the burrow. And again, we did not. As Columbia's primary tower, Jeff kept the business monies local to the community. He just kept it here. Much of Jeff's staff lived in Colombia and paid taxes to the bureau. Jeff was an admirable man, admirable man for fighting so intently against

outsiders for the for the success of his business. Since the passing of Jeff in 2021, we then quickly gained attention of Columbia Police Department and for roughly four years uh since Jeff's passing, Patriot Towing has been the primary company for all of Columbia Burough. We have acquired the required secured fenced in lot with surveillance located at 600 Avenue N which is inside storage facilities also if needed. We have full insurance coverage for commercial liabilities 1 million and two 2 million aggregate plus automotive on hook garage keepers and cargo coverages. Our staff are trained to nationally recognized RecMaster certification and standards. The history and expertise of our organization spans in excess of 60 years of service between Patriot, St. Dennis, and RC Towing. We are the primary towing company working with Columbia's neighboring police departments such as West Enfield and Manor Township along with the DR drug task force on general and sensitive jobs. We also assist uh police departments with the crash teams and district attorneys with inspections of vehicles involved in fatalities with our own licensed inspection mechanics. We also work closely with Colombia's fire department with training vehicles and exercises. We operate 10 light duty rollbacks, medium duty wrecker, two 35 ton wreckers, and one 50tonon rotator, plus three tractor setups capable of heavy hauling and recovery. Being a small business company in this area, we strive to keep our business monies within the burrow community just like Jeff did. We also have four tech

technicians also uh which are here tonight um who have put down roots and are living in Colombia and also take advantages of the services that Colombia has to offer. Straight to the point. I am told there is an active attempt to modify the past towing requirements to allow outside towing companies from outside the burrow and Lancaster County since Colombia uh to service Columbia Burrow. Based on our service history and capabilities, I am hereby petitioning this council to name Patriot Towing and Transport Incorporated as Columbia Burough's primary towing service provider. In closing, Patriot Towing is a certified veteranowned business seeking preferred status with Columbia Burrow that can be found at ww.veterans.certified.sba.gov. Patriot Towing has a lot invested in this in this burrow and in serving the burrow, you know, by meeting all the needs and required qualifications. We are a 247 company with all the right equipment to handle light, medium, and heavy duty towing and recovery tasked without calling other towing companies from outside the area and other counties and and other areas. We are here to serve Columbia Burough and we are dedicated and we are invested. Please allow us to be your sole provider. Again, thank you for your consideration. Jesse,

good evening. How is everybody tonight? Good.

Um, just one minor issue. First of all, thanks for shing the garbage thing. Half the town appreciates that. Second issue is uh and and again, Ethan, how you doing? Um, I heard your mom was sick about uh 3:25. I had sent you an email and it was a really nice email, you know, wishing your your mom well and stuff and I just wanted to know if you got in it because you never answered me and and I'm starting to think that, you know, Heather didn't answer me, you didn't answer me, maybe you guys got something email going on here because I'm told by multiple council members to email you, but we don't get no response. So, I'm kind of wondering if a you got the email, you know, and b if you didn't get the email, you know, how can we resolve this that your IT company, you know, does their job that you can get our our citizen emails because I've been told by other people that they've also emailed several members of the council without a response. So, I'm kind of figuring something's filtering it out or something. You guys are having the the live issues going on here. You know, maybe you guys should should have a talk. I mean, cuz while I'm up here, I' I'd like to read the the email that I that I sent you if you

So, I did receive the email. Okay. Um, I was still in Lrobe at the time that I had it. So, by the time that I got back, it was a few days out. And I mentioned at the last workshop meeting, I did get messages from a lot of people. I didn't get a chance to respond to all of them, but I do appreciate it. And I do appreciate you sending Yeah. I was just generally worried about about your your family's wellbeing stuff. Yes, I did get the email. You know, it's it's just troubling. You know, I thought, you know, since I didn't get a reply from Heather and and you on top of maybe you had something going on cuz I carbon copied bureau manager Jack, but I didn't get a reply from him either. So, you know, I thought maybe an issue or just ignoring me, you know. So,

out of the office when when they're away, we don't necessarily have the computer with us. Yeah. So, generally So, you guys can only check the emails when you're here. We tr we want to keep our stuff separated because then if somebody needs, you know, to check in if there's like a uh right to know request that has to do with like files that could be on our computer, it's better to keep that stuff to our burrow issued equipment. And I did not take my laptop with me when I went to visit my family.

Okay. And and understandable. I just like I said, it was all the whole little coincidental thing. I didn't know if you guys had something actually going on, you know, because again, I didn't have a councilman, you know, Zinc message me back. I had sent her a nice apology letter and never got a respond back or anything. So, I just didn't know if I was being ignored intentionally or if it just, you know, what the deal was. But I appreciate the clarification. Um, you know, you offered I I didn't message you, email you, you know, but I'm hoping when I email you this week, I'll I'll get a response at some point, you know, just questions and stuff because I want to help it. And you know, good good luck having the burrow recognize you as a towing company because we're having trouble recognizing, you know, them recognizing as a news agency in here. And Joe and I have been doing news probably 10 years plus off and on. So, um, yeah, if you guys get the chance, maybe recognize him as a towing guy and recognize us as news people, you know, talk about it. If not, have have a good night, guys. Thank you.

Thank you, Jess. Jesse, I did receive your email and last time you came up here and you wanted a response from me and then you walked away just like you were doing now without giving me the opportunity. I'm sorry. I I didn't know if you were going to respond. Yes, I did receive your email. Okay. I I mean it it takes two minutes just to email me back. All right. Thank you guys again. Is there anybody else that would like to speak at the comment section at this time? Frank Delick. Hi Frank.

Yes, Frank Delick. Um, always good to see you. Uh, I look forward to this, believe me. Uh this afternoon, I don't know what time it was, but I got online and I seen one of the staff here checking out the streaming. U yeah, I don't know who it was. They were checking it out. But as far as the last meeting that we had in the streaming, three people I had called. They didn't call me because it was working and they said it's it's the best it ever worked.

All right. So, what did you do to get that working that meeting? Just a day before that meeting, Jack had the IT company uh that set it up come out and take a look at some of the systems and do some more testing. Um, I imagine that probably has most to do with it. Um, but we're keeping an eye on it to make sure we make improvements. But does anybody know what they did? So maybe we will be able to fix it or or not go through this again. I know they changed the the laptop out

and when they changed it out and we had the issue that we couldn't live stream is because there was software supposed to be on there that we didn't know was supposed to be on there. The IT company put that on the new the new laptop and everything seems to be working fine now. So we believe there's a laptop issue. Okay. Well, the people I talked to, I told them to hold their breath. Yeah. Because you don't know what has this gone on three years. Yeah. I know it's not funny, but I I keep bringing up hoping that we get it straightened out because the people there's more people listening to this than what you think

and and it's good. I'm glad that the bird does that. Uh my my next uh issue is Joe Williams. Do we all know Joe Williams? Shish Joe Williams. Well, Joe is the assistant for a manager. He's the one that you hired. It's Jim. Jim. Jim. Jim. Jim. Sorry. I thought it was Joe. Oh, okay. Yes. I don't know who Jim Williams is. When you say assistant for a manager, it's Jim Williams.

Okay. Thanks. Thank you for straightening it out. I mean, I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. I don't know where I got that from, but but anyway, Jim, um, I had the opportunity of meeting him down here in Third Street outside the office one day last week. Hell of a nice guy. I mean, he's he's one of the best.

And we talked some issues in that. uh he's going to be the assistant from January to the end of April. So I want to ask council uh would it be possible for him to come to a meeting not that we get to see who he is but to find out maybe what he's done while he was in there these couple months. Uh what was you working on? You know, I only met him because somebody pointed him out to me. It was me and another person that we confronted him and very very nice. He answered our questions. But it would be nice, I think, before the end of April that that we would get a chance to hear from him. What have you been working on? Uh, whatever he can tell us. Now, Ron Ut that was on before him couple months, he was at the meetings and we got to see really what he was doing and and he was very vocal. But I think it would be good for the public to to see that. Uh just one little thing here, Wall and Street, that's going to be done uh going to be uh redone. Is that going to be one way up or one way down?

Toward the river. One way down. Down. Toward the river. West. So people have to come up uh Locust Street. Yeah. I never I never dreamed it would be that way because I look at when you come out of the bedroom, you come out of the kitchen, if there's a problem, you're running into the door. So when you come up from the river, you're running into the traffic going down. I would think it would be the other way, but you have a reason for doing this most likely. You understand what I'm saying? Yes. Yes. Okay. I just I just had to clear that up because I got different different people told me different ways. So, it's one way going down. It initially started out coming up and they got changed to going down.

Yeah. Okay. And again is traffic circulation aside, one of the main one of the main benefits of having traffic going towards the river is you have the light to control the traffic at 441. It eliminates a lot of accidents that could happen with vehicles pulling up from Third Street on or excuse me up from Walnut on to Third because there's no there's no traffic signal there. It's just stop signs. Visibility's been visibility is a little bit challenging. So, we saw a real opportunity to try to reduce traffic accidents from vehicles that were pulling up from from Walnut trying to turn left, right, or go straight.

So, if you started at Third Street, you have second uh you can go left and then you can go second south out that way. You can go down. There's a side street there that goes over towards a bridge flushing you down to the red light that can go one way or the other. So, I guess it I guess it balances out. Yeah. Okay. I just I had to I had to ask. If I don't ask, I don't know. No problem.

Uh the other thing is we had our CAT meeting Tuesday night. Uh Bonnie was there from the market. Uh Jeannie Cooper was there and Mary Wikenheiser come before council twice with an issue. She come and she was well received. Uh it was a good night and and she got some some things that maybe might have helped her might help the neighborhood a little bit. It it it makes it good for for everybody. Uh I I guess my last thing is and I haven't I take notes during the I took notes during the the 26 budget and the CAT team is the only one that was cut funding and I I from going to these meetings I feel this is the bestrun meeting cat whatever you want to call it. I see no fraud. I I see nothing. It has just run absolutely great. And I'm just wondering if somebody could explain to me why you cut the funding to that. Or you can stop me anytime on the street, tell me your thoughts. I would appreciate because I that is one great outfit. Thank you for listening.

Thank you, Frank. Is there anybody else who would like to speak at the citizen comments? All right. M for approval. Consider approval for Burough Council meeting minutes for March 24th, 2026. So moved. Second. I have a motion by Councilman Cooper, second by Councilman Buyers. to approve burough council meeting minutes for March 24th, 2026. All in favor say

I. I consider approval of the burough council meeting minutes for April 7th, 2026. So moved. Second. I have a motion by Councilman Gezy, second by Councilman Buyers to approve the Burough Council meeting minutes for April 7th, 2026. All in favor say I.

I have it. Next, we have Senator Malone. Welcome to beautiful downtown Columbia. Hey, thanks for having me again. Uh, I appreciate it. Just make sure that's fine. This is the second Tuesday in a row.

I know, right? Got to get used to it, right? Um, uh, no, I'm I'm really glad to be here. I did want to come out, hear from all of you guys about um any issues that you uh currently have uh and uh ways that I can help. And as always, just to readvertise to everybody that, you know, we are available to all of our residents um for any issues dealing with the state. So, uh put that out there. And then uh do you guys have anything specific? I know uh a last few um municipalities that I've talked with um have had um issues uh they're trying to work out with the electronic bicycles and especially the the faster uh running ones and and kids on them and what have you.

Yeah, we're actually having a bike rodeo. Yes, we are. The date June the second weekend in June, I think. and we are going to go over the policies of electronic riding devices. Okay. Along with bikes, bicycles and everything else. Okay.

The police department and the parks and rec. going over like safety with helmets and we're giving away a lot of free stuff helmets and I think we have some bikes that we're giving away too to kids. So Oh, awesome. And then that'll give you guys a chance to talk with them about uh you know what's street legal, what's not and all that.

Um yeah, I will say um I have a a friend that has a uh athletic cyclist and the fastest they can do is 27 miles an hour. So, it's a little wild that, you know, a 10, 12 year old would be on a a bike that can hit 40. Um, I will say I was that person, but it was on a dirt bike and it was way way way outside of the town, so uh I don't know if that's better or worse, but uh less chance of hitting traffic, that's for sure. The dirt's probably softer than the asphalt.

Yeah. Yeah, that's another truth to it. I was at a four-way stop the other day at Walnut Street and Fourth and I was at Walnut going across the north and I was sitting there at the stop sign. I was just ready to go and two kids came whipping by on their scooters motor uh one stand and one sitting and they came whipping around the corner right through the stop sign right past me down the way I was coming out of. I think a lot of people don't realize that when you're on a bicycle, you also have It's like you're Yeah. You have to follow the stop sign, right? Absolutely. So, we'll make sure that we really have that hard.

That's pretty smart. There's a lot of problem with that. Just the last three weeks at Ethan Ethan, Ethan Locust, had I rec I had never saw him till the last second. two times get on a one of the motorized bikes and just flew by right through the intersection not stopped. I' I'd have killed them both if I just pulled out and without looking. So, the department has made several arrests. Okay. We have an ordinance that says we we can confiscate your bike. Oh, okay. and and we can sell it.

But that's not a warning to not get caught. That's a warning to not do it. That's pretty good. But uh Well, we had a ped we had a kid on a bicycle injured. Yeah. Just the other week. So, yeah, that that case was solved. It was um it was a hit and run and our officers did a really good job of catching an individual. He's very lucky. He's He's okay. He was hit by a truck. Yep. That's good.

It's wild. Well, that's uh good to know that you guys are working on it and then doing the education. I know a lot of other municipalities are trying to do education and trying to figure out, you know, how to how to manage it. So, um do you guys have anything uh with regard to the um uh the speed of bicycles on sidewalks? are not permitted all the time. Okay. So that eliminates it all together. Okay. All right. Just curious on that. Uh so what else is going on? Yo,

um there was a topic that came up a few months ago that I spent some time looking into which was questions regarding um paying for application fees before seeing a a an apartment. um in order to pay for the background check. Uh one of the things I was looking into is how Philadelphia recently changed their rules about that about instead they have an absolute maximum um that can be charged and it can't be charged by the same realator more than once every 12 months. Um I know that you know you're one vote you're not an entire uh governing body. Um yeah, I do know that there is a um a House bill that tries to address address that.

Yeah, I have no idea where it is right now, but I do know there is one. Okay. Um uh I think uh one of the uh big issues that will always go through um is trying to find out how that we um set baselines um without um without usurping the uh local authority that the folks have. So I know that there's always a bit of that debate.

Yeah. Um and the one thing I can say is that you know the um uh the uh hope to try to reduce costs and to uh you know not overrun um uh both private and municipal authority uh seems to be pretty um uh heavily um supported on both sides of the aisle. So at least we've got some common ground in those areas. Yeah. We had some people spending upwards of $200 before they even saw the Bible. Yeah. Just to see.

Yeah. It's that's egregious, but we'll have to figure out what what can actually be done about it. Thank you. I got one for you. Revisiting the uh sale of fireworks

in Pennsylvania when when you don't allow the use of them. It's kind of contradictory and we get stuck in the middle trying to enforce the Wild Wild West around the holidays. I've always thought it was weird because um in uh Pennsylvania by law you can make your own fireworks without any issue. So, which frankly is more dangerous than buying them, but just in case you're not aware. Um, but uh yeah, I mean, you know, when when I was uh on uh Burrow, uh we we had that uh conversation many many times.

And of course, say it again. It's your call. If you like to take questions from Sure. Sure. If you guys are willing. Do we have another microphone that citizens could use? Could you use the one down there? Just want to make sure it gets picked up on the stream as well. Oh no. Paula's getting low. If it works, No, I don't think so.

There you go. See, we should just always have that microphone available there. Court,

I want to tell you, I love this chair. This This has helped me so much. Completely my back. I think I might have seen this issue in the Sunday paper. I think it was. But noise these cars with these small mufflers. Uh I notice it more now because my central air is broke. I have the windows open. I tried to watch the news. Ain't no way. They just wind up out. I live on the Ironville Pike and they just wind it up and and there's got to be some way. They talk about the decimals. There's got to be a way of of curbing this somehow that that people will have peace and quiet. I realize you can't make it perfect, but it seems like there's there's nothing being done at this point.

I hear you. Well, as uh as far as uh looking at the uh the decibb of areas, uh we could definitely look into um if there's uh tests uh going on uh just to see um you know, I know sometimes folks get a little out of hand, but uh but there are there are tests that that we can do in in areas to check. Yeah, I can tell you who the neighbors are when they leave for work. He's like, "That's the 87 Chevy. That must be Billy." I didn't know if anything was in the works. I just thought I'd like to get it out there. I got you. And there's other people that I talked to downtown. It's not me.

Yeah, sure. They have to come forth. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you for listening. Yeah, of course. Is anyone else on the radar? Hey, I've I've been advocating for it for uh going on nine years. So, you know, we'll we'll have to figure out how to get it out of committee. So, goodness,

I've got some ideas, but you know, I still haven't gotten it there gotten that conversation yet. It would also be nice to have an opt out um added to an opt out option added to the burrow code to allow burrows to opt out of civil service process for police officers. It's I've been harping on this for, you know, six years now. Um it it really puts the burrows at a disadvantage to the township townships and the regional police forces.

Yeah, absolutely. We are at a serious disadvantage.

Yeah. And and I'll I'll just say for the audience so so everybody's aware um the uh the townships uh have a process that does include vetting and everything else so that they're um just as likely to not hire somebody who's been a bad actor in another state or in another region. Um, so this is this has been a long time uh debate um about why we still require uh burough identified municipalities to follow the civil service process. Um it's like an extra two months minimum. Um yeah.

Well, and third class cities also have that in the third class city code. Okay, there you go. I wasn't aware of that. Yep. Yeah, it's in the third class city code, too. But we're a burough so I just have Right. There you go. There you go. City is the third class city. Township also like certain township first class township.

Right. So there's um and the reason that it it ends up a problem is if you're a uh prospective officer um and you have a city five miles from you that uh can pick you up and get you started today or you have to be three months for um you know the place right next to you, you're more likely to take the five mile uh ride. Yeah. uh just to get employed. So yeah, we understand that that's that's an issue. Appreciate

the other part of that, Senator, is if if an officer working SS some of the townships, if that officer would like to come to Columbia Burough for to a burough, they have to complete the they have to go through the whole process just like anybody else. But if an officer in Columbia Burough wants to seek employment in a township, they can go and start tomorrow, right? They don't have to go through all that. So what what happens is

because we pay for the officer for new officers to go to school uh to get their act 120 certification. We're putting that money out. Then they go somewhere else to work. So they come here, get get the act 120 and then they go somewhere else and work. But yet we can't get one from there. Understood. Any other items?

You know, you can always give me a holler uh if you need. Uh same thing with uh any of residents. If there's an issue uh that you're having difficulty with at the state level, um you know, call our office. Our constituent services will set up a case for you, help you through it, and uh you know, get you set up. So, it's a definitely a a good tool and it's available. So, you know, definitely use it. Thanks. Thanks for coming out tonight. Thank you. Really appreciate you. Thank you very much. Absolutely.

Mayor Nuts. Yes.

Don't run away, sir. You You may help me out on this. I wasn't here last week. The reason was I was at an event celebrating Pennsylvania's accomplishments in helping to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. I was invited to that event and at that event the chair of the Chesapeake Bay Commission was there. The Secretary of Agriculture was there. the secretary of D was there and their staffs, four senators were there and four representatives along with members of the Clean Water Coalition uh and the county conservation district. Some other folks were there. So, it was it was a great event. Uh they were very happy uh with the results that were transmitted to them uh in as far as how Pennsylvania is doing. uh in relation to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. And today I was at Clean Water Partners meeting. There wasund some folks there at that and we were going over projects that are that have been completed and that are in the works here in Lancaster County. So there's been a lot of uh a lot of focus put on Lancaster County and Pennsylvania as far as clean water and cleaning up the bay. And I thought it was great that those folks chose Columbia Burrow and Columbia Crossing to have their event.

Yeah, that just goes to show you how important that place is down there to not only us but people around the state and even around the country. Senator, I don't know if you want to comment on anything was going on at that night. Uh I I think a lot of the a lot of the work uh that's been done is really uh magnificent, but I think the way that the uh the state has organized to support projects across the entire Commonwealth, not just the Ches Bay wershed is very good. Thank you, Senator. The other thing, uh, next Friday is going to be a very busy day in Colombia. We'll start out, I think it's 8:00 in the morning.

Yes.

Uh, with our spring cleanup. Uh right now uh Pam told me there are somewhere around 120 people signed up to assist volunteers signed up for the for the cleanup to scour the town and pick up uh litter around the around the community. That's it's growing every year. It's great. It just shows great community participation. And then uh later on that day at 5:00 the Go Green event down at Columbia Columbia River Park and Columbia Crossing will start and during that event at 5:45 will be Arbor Day celebration there. So it's going to be a big day in Colombia next Friday. Pam tells me that there are over she she has heard that there are over 600 people planning to attend right now. I know there's going to be food trucks there. There's going to be a band there that's going to play. Uh Maxwell I believe is going to play. So uh it's going to be a big time down at the river. Dan Sod and his group and the Shade Tree Commission have really they launched it last year and it it was fantastic and I told Dan I don't know if he continues to grow this event if if we're going to be big enough to hold what he has but he says he'll make it work one way or the other. So, it's going to be a big day next week in Columbia Burough.

And the trolley will be riding from uh I think it was 4 to 7 Friday night and then from 12 to 4 and uh to 6 on S Saturday. That's good. That's great. So, it's going to be a big big weekend next week in Columbia. That's wonderful. How are you guys? I think

um I think I might have mentioned this last time. We have nine applicants taking the PT test. Um just to kind of piggyback off of what senator said. So we had our written exam in February and we're now only taking the PT test and it's April. So we're now only at the second step and it's mostly because of grading the scores. And then we then have the oral interview which will be based on people that pass the PT test. So you're looking at February to May and then we have to do the background investigation. Right now we only have one detective. So if he's doing three or four backgrounds that takes months. Um the next academy classes in July. So that's why civil services it slows a lot of things down. Um but now that we have someone certified to do our PT test, that takes some time. It gives some time back to us. We can get that done quicker. But

and you want to mention who that is? Uh, Sergeant Sers is our and yourself. Yes. Well, I'm I'll be assisting. I mean, I'll do the test, too, but um yeah, we're having it at the high school, so hopefully we can get at least two good people off that list and get them in the academy in July. And then the academy is about six months. So, July, they'll graduate December. Um with before that though, they have to do the psychological test, the um the polygraph examination. So you're looking at five, six months until all that's done. So we started in February. Yes. And we could have an officer. We could starting by the end of the year. Yes. So we're talking 10 months.

Well, until they're out of the academy and then July, well, if they graduate in December, then they're on FTO for three and four months. So they're taught Wilkin next year. So it's almost a year-long process to get somebody hired through the academy and then on the street. So that's tough. It's very tough. But nine applicants, that's that's actually very good for us. Yeah, it is. That's really good. It's coming up. Anything else? No. Thank you. Thank you. Action items. Authorization to pay bill payments. I

make a motion that we pay the bills as presented in the packet this evening. I'll second it. All right. I have a motion by Councilman Murphy, second by Councilman Gezy to pay the bills. Any questions? All in favor say I. I. Finance report. Any package to finance reports? Does anybody have any questions?

Additional details. Nice to see. I actually do have one question. Um, at what point do we think we can expect to see the property taxes come in? It should be in the next few weeks. Property taxes are coming in. Mine's been in. I went in a couple weeks ago. Okay. Just so they go in, but they go, they go to county first, then we get them. We get it once a month. We get reconciliation from them. I think we have two checks from both. One was extremely small, but two checks once a month.

Okay. Yeah, that's that makes sense. Thank you. Um, any questions? Any questions? Consider approval of ordinance 965, the UCCC board of appeals. Evan, would you please? Yeah, sure.

So, um, the bureau has adopted the uniform construction code, which is a state statute that governs um, construction specifications. And as part of that law, you have to have a board of appeals. If somebody thinks that the decision of your building codes official was incorrect, um, the county runs that. So they have to have a board of experts that can look at these things and it's kind of ownorous for each individual municipality to have one of those. So the counties have kind of taken that that role on and done a county based one. Um the burrow is a part of that via an intermunicipal agreement and all this ordinance does is adopt some revisions to that about who can serve and who can appoint their legal counsel and things like that. It really I I've looked it over relatively innocuous changes. um shouldn't affect anything. It still allows them to function exactly as they're supposed to. So, and it was it was advertised um in the Lancaster newspaper on March 30th from for every municipality. So, um just wanted to throw that out there as well. So,

anyone else have any questions? No questions. And I have a motion to adopt ordinance 965 UCCC board of appeals. So moved. Second.

I have a motion by Councilman Murphy, second by Councilman Gezy to adopt ordinance 965 UCC board of appeals. All in favor say I. I. Consider approval of the award to Ramstown Excavating Incor Incorporation in the amount of 251,831 for the 300 block of Union Street CDBG Improvement Project. Mr. Ronaldo, would you like to take it away? Uh just that uh we had competitive bidding on this project. Uh Reamstown came in Reamstown and SM John's within $10,000 of each other to qualified contractors that we've had history with in the burrow. Um after I think with the application my estimate was around $300,000 till everything was said and done. I was thinking we'd be around 280. So I'm very satisfied that we got

we got two bids. So, two bids under that and of course you get two bids over that at 314 and 319 also from two qualified contractors. So, um without rambling anymore, uh I recommend you accept a bid. Thank you. Anybody have questions? Yeah, a known a known construction company we used before and 36 grand under estimate. I like that. I have a question.

Now, I might be wrong. Okay. But did we not have some kind of big piece of machinery that could repave roads a few years ago that cost a lot of money? Do we still have that piece of machinery? Why aren't we using that? We are using We are using Weave roads every year. Okay. Because I haven't heard nothing about it. I was just curious to see if a we still had it and b you guys were using it because I know it cost a lot of money to to pave the street, you know, um what are we using that machine for exactly? Road paving. Road paving. Okay. What are they doing exactly on on just bring me up to date. What are they doing? Are they paving also?

This is this is the road will be paved as part of this project, but the main scope of the project it's a full curbon sidewalk replacement. Right. Are are we paving the road or are they paving the road? No, they'll pave the road. Why can't we pave the road in and save some money? Um, it's questionable whether you would save money having the burrow crew pave the road after a contractor came in and did the curb and sidewalk. Okay. In general, you try to bundle this all together, have one contractor do the entire street, it makes the responsibility very clear. Uh the issue that I've run into in the past on other projects is if the burrow comes in and paves the street after we have a contractor do the curb and sidewalk, if there's something wrong with the paving or something wrong with the sidewalk, pay what warranty it.

Well, there's always a there's always a fingerpoint as to who did what. So, the the benefit here with this type of approach is we have $200,000 in CDBG money. That money was awarded to the burrow, mainly for the curb and sidewalk improvements. So, we're taking that money to spend to pay for a bulk of the project. There's another 50 grand in there that will pay for the rest of the street that comes out of liquid fuels. So, I just I I respect your I respect your question. I think I think in general it is it's probably easier in the long run a better product to have one block at a time done by one contractor. Thank you.

Absolutely. And I and I think it It should be explained Jesse that this is community as Derek said this is community development block grant monies. Okay. So it's not bur money. So we're applying for that and we get awarded. Now there's only certain areas in town that we can apply for community development block grant monies. Other streets in town we can't. those streets that we can't get grants for community development, we pave ourselves. Okay. So, so it's kind of like we pave some and we get some at a lower cost because we're getting a grant.

We're getting a grant. No, I understand. All right. Thanks again. You can also you can find the list of streets that are planned to be paved by Burough Cruise in the um public works report that was in the packet for the workshop. Lisa's still doing that, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I I talk to Lisa frequently. So, okay. I I appreciate the information. Uh we'll we'll take it and uh we'll work with it. Thank you guys. Thank you. Six streets. I have the list. I can get

Would you please? Sure. The streets that we're paving, Jesse, are the We can we vote on what you you have a motion on the floor. I just want to get that taken care of. I don't think I have a motion. I mean, okay, you second. I'll second it. I have a motion by Councilman Murphy, second by Councilman Gizy to award Reevestown Excavating in the amount of $251,831 for the 300 block of Union Street CDBG improvement project. All in favor say I. I

now what we saying? Yeah, if you want the list, I'll give it to you. Uh, South Second Street, the zero and 100 blocks. Same thing for same blocks for South Third Street. Uh, Maple Street, the 500 block, Popular Street, 600 block, Locust Street, 600 block, and Tan Avenue from Langster Avenue to Elbow Avenue. Do they have a time frame for all that? Um it's just throughout as a year as as throughout the years in according to schedule according to manpower and you know if no other issues pop up during the year Murphy at Columbia

um I one one thing that we did not note um that I wanted to let everyone know um last week when we found outtown was um the low bidder. Engineer Ronaldo did reach out to them and ask them if it would be a problem to hold off on starting the CDBG project until after the fireman's parade and they said that is not a problem. That was last year. Yes.

So we are not worried about the fireman's parade going down a to street. Okay, next we have nominations of two council members to represent and the burrow at the PSAB the voting representative. Yes, there's a there's a there's a voter and an alternate for uh county burough. So, can I ask you who's all going up to the PSAs? I am. I'm going I'm not like to get the one session out. Can't promise it.

There's some good sessions this time. And actually, one of the sessions they're doing I'm really excited about. Um they're doing one of the NIMS classes. Nice. Do they do that online? Because I've been taking their online trainings. Yes. We're not going to talk about right now. Okay. Cuz I'm I'm not a good test taker. Let's just leave it at that. So, with understanding that Heather and Jeanie are going to be full-time representatives up there, do I have a nomination for the main voter? Heather,

I'll nominate I'll second the nomination for Heather. I have a motion for Heather Zinc to represent the burrow in voting at the PSAB conference for 2026. Uh motion by Councilman Cooper, second by Councilman Buyers. All in favor say I. I. Congratulations, Heather.

Yeah. I'll also note that I am representing the Lanster County Birds Association on the um policies and resolution committee as well. So, as soon as I get whatever we're voting on, I'll let everyone know to see if anyone has any specific thoughts one way or the other. We'll make the alternate. Yeah, I'll make a motion to have Jean be the alternate. Second doesn't need a motion. Wow. record.

Um, I have a motion by Councilman Byer, second by Council Murphy to uh have Councilman Cooper the alternate representative for the PSAB conference in 2026. All in favor say I. I. All right. Thank you both. Yes sir. Evening. How long will this conference go? It's Sunday to Wednesday. Okay. You know, you can get paid travel, lodging, plus food.

I I do not I do not get paid for any of that. The It's all included. The food is included in the thing. And I do not lodge. I drive back and forth every day. It's in Hershey. Yeah. But you could though you could get that if you so desire. Yeah. I just read up on that today. We're not doing that. Yeah. I don't I don't do that because Well, not only that. I mean, Tuesday night it's always a council meeting. So, I always come back for the council meeting. Just the hotel 6, not the hotel.

It's always good food though. All right. Thank you. New business. Um, consider special event Memorial Day parade May 24th, 2026. I believe we um, can I get a motion? So move. I have a motion by Councilman Murphy, second by Councilman Gizy to approve the special event Memorial Day parade on May 24th, 2026.

All in favor say I. I consider special event action. Hold on, Mr. President. Thank you. on the back page of the permit. Estimated burough cost for Memorial Day praying.

Is council officially going to weigh those costs or not? Well, I think these are these aren't costs that they're paying. These are are expected costs from the police and highway time. I see what I see. But but we talked about doing that to wave the right so that we have an official record that this is what Columbia B is donating. So I I agree with that. Thank you. Okay. Um my estimated cost to the burrow so that people can see it's not cost.

Yeah. Right. that some of those costs are not right. Like I'm salary so I don't get overtime so I don't know. Well, that's close enough. It's an approximate value. I'm like, "Oh, I got all we're doing is showing what the bros getting back this week. Just chart those numbers." Yes. The total is $1,591 and that's based off of an estimate from last year. So, I have a motion on the floor to wave

a motion on the floor to wave the fees for the Memorial Day parade uh by Councilman Murphy, second by Councilman Geese. All in favor say I. I. Thank you. Approved and yes. Yes, we approved it and then we approved it with waving me. Consider a special event. Ashley Tabernacle block party June 20th, 2026.

This is an annual. Yeah, this is an annual. Just want to see if there's any fees attached to this. We don't we don't use any cost. No, we just give barriers or something like that. Yeah, they put they dropped the barriers off. Yeah, they dropped the barriers off the day before and then they took them off on Monday. How many years has this been going? Not quite sure. I say probably about was it four? I think so. Yeah. Okay. So, can I have a motion to approve special event for Ashley Tabernacle block party on June 20, 2026?

So moved. Second. I have a motion by Councilman Cooper, second by Councilman Murphy to approve the special event of Ashley Tabernacle Black Party on June 20th, 2026. All in favor say I. I. Consider special event Mount Bethl Cemetery Last Bride June 20th 2026. That's extension. That's actually one block extension to the current car show. I have to say that. Yeah. And there again, there's no cost incurred.

I'll make the motion. I'll second it. A motion by Councilman Gezy, second by Councilman Buyers to approve the special event Mount Bethl Cemetery last ride, June 20th, 2026. All in favor say I. I consider special event Riverfest lighting of the peers June 28, 2026.

I'll make a motion. Second. I have a motion by Councilman Gizy, second by Councilman Zinc to approve the special event for Riverfest Lighting of the Peers. A note that says the approval is continued upon uh PENDOT's approval. Do we know if anybody heard anything from Pendot yet? Although I know I thought I saw Megan here. No, she wasn't here. But I know Megan put in for state. Don't know the answer yet whether it was approved or not. Yeah. West Hemfield did approve it. West Hefield approved it. We not, right? Are we talking about the 462 bridge?

Who will be building that? The national heritage and he received a gift from the Von Hass Association. I don't know. The last time they did it was way back they did they just bars at both ends. Was it 06? It probably was around there. Yeah. Y for some reason that that was a big year when they had all this stuff right here. Yeah. Yeah. My cousins was lighting.

I said, I'll make a motion to approve the I do have a motion. Oh, okay. Never mind. You've already done that. Was I one of them? I forget. No, we're not. We were just talking. I have a motion by Councilman Gizy, second by Councilman Zinc to approve verifier of June 28th, 2026. All in favor say I. I. Thank you everybody. Staff reports, comments, and announcements. Solicitor Gable, I do not have anything further to add this evening. No, zero. zero.

It's all right. Engineer Ronaldo. Uh I'll just note that uh we are continuing meeting with DCNR to give us a better shot at getting the grant that we're pursuing for Columbia Crossings. Meeting with representatives this week and that grant is due April 30th. So that is the number one thing on my plate right now to get that done for you in the next two weeks. Thank you. Mr. Mr. President, if I may. Yes. Derek, I happened to go down Chester Street today. The 800 Rocket Chest Street. And is that a CDBG project?

It was not. That one was that one was burough funded through liquid fuels.

Okay. It's absolutely great what was done there to protect those two big oak trees that bump out and all. I to me that should be a something that we should look at from time to time to save those trees. I I drove down there and looked at that and I think this is absolutely fabulous. Yeah, I'll I'll remind everybody that that bumpout solved a lot of problems because it not only it not only protected the trees, it gave us uh ADA compliance on that corner, which was really challenging with the the brick gutter that used to flow around there. And you'll notice that at the front at the basically the uplest stream side of that bumpout is where a storm inlet is that captures all the water that used to run down and around that corner. So, there's a lot going on in that little bump out. I love that it's protecting the trees,

but there's some engineering behind it, too, that's really helping the burrow and helping that street work, too. So, it was really a It was a win on a lot of different a real curb the water, too. You got it. Y was there. Thanks. Thank you. That's it.

Um boards, commissions, and committees upcoming meetings. Planning Commissions, April 21st, 2026, Shade Tree Commissions, April 27th, 2026. Minutes approved lasted for February 2026 and parks and wreck for March 12, 2026. Burough Council comments. Let's start with Council Murphy. Actually, I have nothing to add this evening. Talked out from last week. Councilman Gazy,

I don't have anything other than bike rodeo is May 2nd from 11 to 1. Thank you. May 2nd, 11 to 1.

I council Zinc. Um yesterday at planning like county planning commission, we had a presentation from the uh Lancaster County Agricultural Council and some interesting facts. There are 4680 farms in Lancaster County. The average size is 81 acres. Lancaster County leads the nation in farmland preservation efforts with more than 122,600 acres preserved in the county. And uh where where is it? Lancaster. Lancaster County ranks first of all PA counties and 15th of over three county 3,000 counties in the United States in value of agricultural products sold.

How crazy is that? I mean, I just I was blown away to think out of the entire country, we are ranked 15th in in the uh value of agricultural products sold. Um and agro tourism has a huge economic impact in the county. Visitors annually spend upwards of $2 billion dollar in our county on agro tourism. That's like cherry crest farm corn maze and and that kind of stuff. Um, so yeah, how crazy is that? I I know. Um, so I just thought they were some neat facts to to bring back and uh share.

That's it.

Um, I do have uh an email to send you all with um most of my people on the homeless committee. So um I'll get that out to you afterwards. I just couldn't get it open before the meeting. Thank you, Councilman. Uh yeah, just two quick things. Uh one is tomorrow I'll be uh doing a webinar uh from PSAB on common parking issues and curbside management. Me, too. I'm doing that too.

Oh, you're doing that, too? Yeah. So, I was uh I initially had spo uh spoken to Commissioner Yoder at an event about a month ago talking about um you know what we can do as far as improving parking situations in really dense areas like Colombia. Um she sent me over some more information. So, um plus this training uh I'm just trying to learn a bit more about it as we were discussing it with the current changes to the rental ordinance. Uh kind of sparked my interest in it. So, I'll uh have a bit to talk about at the next workshop as far as what I've learned from this stuff. Um, and the other thing I wanted to mention, um, I mentioned it at the end of the workshop last time, but, uh, we have been working on a communication plan for the burrow, and it does include a section on communicating with local news organizations. As we get closer to having it finalized and working with staff, we'll be including, you know, folks like you and Columbia Spy and LNP into those discussions as far as how exactly that communication is going to work. Okay. I negotiations out

people and of course I'm not here to make trouble for anybody. I'm here to actually do good things also. So you know radio April April 24th is another day. Yeah. That that's why I wanted to bring it up just to make sure that you you were aware that that's something that we are working on. We've been working on for a few months. We appreciate that we work together so we know everybody else. Yeah. U but that's it for me. I have nothing at this time.

Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot there was one more thing I wanted to I wanted to bring up. I know your time was up. You're gonna have to wait for two weeks. Last last week we had we had the previd meeting for McInness, right?

Um I just wanted to to give everyone a little a little update as I suspected. Um I was worried about this going in and at the pre-bid meeting talking with um the lady there. This whole 60 days to close from the bid award is is killing us. Um it is not only is it um reducing the number of people that are interested, but it will adversely impact our um sale price because they have to close within 60 days of the bid award. Um, so I'm just throwing that out there to prepare people that we may not see the bids because people are scared away by that 60 days and there is no way to get around it. Um, it's it is ironclad in the burough code. I forget seven chapter 17 or 12

12. It's 121 121.1. Yeah. Yeah. Uh it it it specifically says real transferring real estate must be done within 60 days of the bid has to be conditioned upon yes full price payment within 60 days. Yes. So uh I'm just letting you guys know we if we do not see bids that is why. Yeah.

And and just to really quickly put some perspective on that, this is something that we talked about back in January and February, that might happen. So, we are prepared to deal with that situation. And Evan's been looking into what exactly we can do in order to make it more appealing and easier for people to uh submit bids or, you know, potentially purchase the property in a separate way in the future. Um, but it's something that we were aware could happen. So it's not, you know, and I mean we we have no doubt that if we do not get the bids here, we will be able to work with realators after the second bid.

Yeah. We can work with a buyer directly after we've bid it twice. Yeah. Oh yeah, we have to bid it twice before we can work directly with and get. So, do we do we have to we have to do the RFP again? Well, what we'll do, we'll just have to advertise the RFP and we have to give um a minimum of 15 days. I think it's it is it's a minimum minimum of 10 days. Minimum of 10 days. If you went within EDC, you didn't have to do that. Correct. The EDC was not willing to to do it.

You have a CDC They they had two projects on our hands now. That's fine. Yeah. And just to reiterate, what's the date of the bid opening? The date of the bid opening is currently scheduled for May 18th at 10:00 a.m. here at the burrow office. Okay. Yep. Um if there is nothing to open, there will not be a bid open. Yeah. Bid bids are required to be submitted by 4:30 p.m. on May 15th. That's a Friday. And then May 18th is the Monday when we will be opening those bids. Okay. And just to reiterate again, there's only one person eligible to put a bid in. Correct. I just want to make sure we hold to them. Absolutely.

Frank, weren't you? Your friend was there. Brother, he he did not he did not want to be. We asked. Trust me. Let let the record show I did give Frank the opportunity to sign the bidder sheet. He likely declined. I I tried. He did that. Market it to the best of the my ability. I don't know where you got that thought that I was in that category. I'm a fisherman, but yeah, we were optimistic. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Announcement. Next meeting is 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28th, 2026. Council will hold a regular session meeting. We will be adjourning to executive session tonight to discuss a personnel issue. Can I have a motion for second? I have a motion. Motion by Councilman Gez, second by Council Murphy to adjourn. All in favor say I. I.M. 8:21 p.m. 8:21 p.m. It's a record.