Borough Council - workshop

I'd like to call the order of December 1st, 2026, from your borough council meeting. Could I have a roll call, please?

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here. Here. Here. Here.

Does anybody care to offer an invitation? Any addition to the agenda? I have a motion to approve the agenda as published.

Second.

I have a motion by Councilperson Cooper, second by Councilperson Byers, to approve the agenda as published, following date. citizen comments. The first sign-up is Sharon Linder.

Good evening. I had a call today from a former borough official who was talking to me about the Walnut Streetscape project. And he was asking what I thought the goal was. And as I recall, it was to push the trail traffic up locusts to the businesses. Is that correct? Fair assumption or not? that was the purpose of that project okay well his question was since it's Walnut Street has now been closed to traffic for the whole summer and he asked if we've seen if the businesses have actually seen an increase like with people coming up that way because they can't go on Walnut Street so they're being forced up locust has anyone heard if there's been any changes Do you think a survey of the businesses would be in order to see what they're seeing? Should they're seeing more foot traffic? OK. I promised them I'd ask. Thank you. Oh, one other question about that. Can you clarify the cost of that project now?

Well, the borough is not paying for the construction portion. part.

Okay, so what is the engineering part about?

I'm not sure at this point.

Okay, because the numbers I recall probably aren't accurate.

No, they're not anywhere near accurate. I mean, it was initially going to be $600,000, I think, or $800,000 for construction, and now it's like $1.3 million.

Okay.

Alright, thank you.

The next sign up is Anthony Teresa.

I'm going to just quit. I wasn't anticipating talking today at all about this matter. Some of you might know of an accident that happened here about two years ago, a new bike on Front Street. That was me. It was a pretty bad accident. I'm lucky to still be here and it took me, well, still to this day that I'm not the same person. I see traffic on that road every time I ride my bike still from Marietta to here. um and back and whatnot and i just see people speeding um not really paying attention as well on their phones um and i just i get anxiety from that not only because i was through an experience like that but also because i see the pedestrian traffic crossing to go to the visitor center, you know, families, kids, animals. And I just see construction trucks, people in their cars on their phones, again, speeding and going through. If there's anything that can be done to make that a safer zone, I see the writing on the wall for future other incidents happening. And it could be something as simple as flashing lights to make people aware of the fact that it's not 50, it's 25. Even thank you signs for not speeding if there's such a thing probably out there. I know and I understand that that street is regulated by 10-DOT directly, so it involves a little bit of working with them. So, you know, as a person who's affected by that area, I'm willing to do it in my time, whatever would be needed and everything, but if someone could help start or initiate a process of working with PennDOT to just improve that zone and I feel do us all a lot of good. E-bikes are, there's more and more of them on the streets all the time and bikers in general on that trail. I would hate for more instances like that to happen. I would hate for that to become something that is on the news constantly. We want people feeling safe to be here, frequent here, to be on that trail, and to, you know, tourism, all that, and get effects. So, anyway, those are just my comments.

Thank you.

If I may, we had a meeting last Thursday with Ice County Planning Commission, and some PennDOT folks are also here. the past couple weeks the management team and I have been meeting about areas throughout the community that we need to do more for pedestrian safety and obviously We talked for a long time about that crossing you're talking about. We talked with PennDOT. And so we're putting a list together right now of intersections where we can put pedestrian crossing signals. And we're trying to get some prices. Am I right, Jack? That's correct. We're trying to get some prices on those pedestrian crossing signals. And also, we were just made aware of a possible grant that we can see. We're talking with county about that, where we can probably seek a grant to help defer costs to the Columbia Borough. We're looking at right now, with school just starting, we started to focus on safe routes and the most common travel routes that our school kids are using and trying to make them safe. What it works, this strike, most of the intersections, I think they're still trying to finish some of them up. But we want to go back to the intersection. We have identified travel partners that we want to put what we call the piano keys in. The white blocks inside the crosswalk. They do shine at night, but they call motorist attention to, hey, there's a crossing there, not just two flat We're trying to get some costs on putting those panic teams and we'll start installing them throughout the community. That's a good area for that, too. That area is perfect for one of those pedestrian crossing rights. If you don't know what I'm talking about, with the Safe Routes to School grant we had 20 years ago, Mary, on 9th Street, we installed one of those pedestrian traffic the planning commission we identified several locations in my right jack uh along the 462 part where they're going to be they're going to be uh looking at also heather i don't know if you want to join in on this but we found out there's a problem with with traffic signals today i was just talking with wgal about when you when you push the button And you get the little guy up on the screen, the little guy says, is it safe for you to walk? Okay. There's two red lights, but there's green lights the other way. And that's exactly what happened at that fatality. Yeah. You get a crossing signal saying, okay, you can cross, but there's traffic 90 degrees from you, either in front of you or in back of you, that's making that turn. What we would like to see is the traffic signals rework so that when you push that button, all four red lights turn red. For a period of time, say 10 seconds, and then I saw it down in the city where all four red lights would turn red. Now, theirs is the same as ours, but you'll see it count down. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. You'll know as you're going across there how many seconds you've got to get out of the way. But the key to it is that all four red lights need to pause. There needs to be a pause. And to me, right now, with the investigation we've been doing, that seems to be one of the safest things we can do. Other than get the state to allow us to use radar, and then we can do a job too. Because a lot of this is due to traffic speed, especially on the part of your company.

Yeah, it's 55 right after you get off that intersection.

741 and then it goes down to 25 now or like during that at that point also also just mentioned on thursday we're having a pedestrian safety meeting and one of the things we're talking about is um traffic calming measures that we can in the short term begin to implement um and that would that's one of the things that we're looking at is trying to reduce speeds um in those

most dangerous areas.

So right now, it's just going to be municipal staff on this upcoming Thursday, but in the future, we're going to open that up to public comments and everything.

Well, you have my contact info. If you want anyone speaking from a place of storytelling experience, I'm more than willing to be there for anything like that to get used to help develop that way.

sign up is very good. Tall people.

Okay. First, I'd like to thank Public Works back in disguise. They were down there Twice this year now, they've been down clear of the river bank. It really looks nice being cleaned off down there again. We've got a good view going out over the river. After the meeting the other day, Jack, manager of Brahma, had approached me and said that they had had complaints about mosquitoes out in the area in the Guinness. Susan said they are horrible right now. I don't know if any of you were out there. Well, for one thing, it's this high. You're going to lose a kid in that field. There's no way. But before all that came up, next to her house, it's almost like there's a retention basin in it, that it's water and land. And it's not just there in that field. There's different parts in that field that there are pools of water there. And she's been trying to figure out why they're having so many mosquitoes out there. And then I relayed her comments to her, and she said they're horrible. She said Sunday night was terrible.

Yeah, Mary, just to repeat what I said to you the other night, Jake and I escorted a mosquito expert from the county to the quarry. We had gotten a complaint. She had conducted some testing. There were no mosquito larvae found at all in our quarry there. However, uh but there was like you said it's sort of like a marsh that's near 12th there she did treat that she spent time treating that there were some other spots throughout the property that she also treated but there are some problems out there with mosquitoes jake also does have plans to cut the weeds in certain areas

When I told her about this one item on here about switching to McGinnis for the fireworks, she said, they're either going to these kids in the field or the mosquitoes are going to carry them off. Last night we had possums in our yard because of the neighbors leaving caffeine. Yeah, I'm back here about cats again. My railings are being torn off. Who in heaven's name ever allowed cat colonies on either side of me? Who would allow cat colonies to be established with an unwitting or a person who wants nothing to do with cat colonies? You know, when there's zoning changes, everybody gets posted around there that this is going to happen. But this was done without anyone in that neighborhood knowing about it. You've got to go back and no feeding of cats outside. This is ridiculous. I had three on my back porch and four in my yard when I came home from walking the dogs. Plus all the cats shit in my garden. My quality of life has been diminished. Thank you.

Is there anyone that wanted to speak who did not get a chance to sign up?

Good evening, Frank Delford. comment on the cat situation. I have a friend in Vietnam which I went over there vacationing a couple times and I speak to him occasionally. Two nights ago we talked on the phone and we could see each other, see the pets and everything that he has. He has three dogs. And one of his dogs is old and it's about ready to be put down. And he says, he's telling me, I got a new dog. He said this old one. He said, I'll turn this over to my neighbors and they'll eat that. And he said, they eat all their cats. He said, the cats is a special thing when they eat a cat. When I was there, I seen a moped, a moped, I was standing on the corner. It had a bag, a plastic bag, five foot high with live cats in it. And I asked this guy, what's the story with that? He said, they're going to market to eat all their cats and dogs. So I don't know if that's a consolation, Mary, or not.

Eat up, Mary.

presentations the first one we have is the alternate dispatch pilot program Keith McMinn and Dr. Nesbitt from Penn State Blood Client yeah good evening thanks for having us again my name is Keith McMinn I'm the senior director of Blood Client with me is Dr. Chad Nesbitt he's the division chief I feel like this is a follow-up to some previous discussions we've had with the council and some recent information I sent to Jack and wanted to first share with you that we were able to follow through with the commitment in July of adding additional resource to the community. So we now have a paramedic squad running out of the building here in addition to the ambulance. That does relate to alternate dispatch, and I'll get there in a minute. We're really trying to make emergency medical response more sustainable by sending paramedics only to emergencies that require that level of care. We know from national data and even looking at our local data that of the 911 responses, in our area the area that we're responsible for only about 10 actually are emergencies um that does not mean that the citizens in columbia borough or their surrounding municipalities don't need some form of help So I want to be clear that we understand that when somebody calls 911, they need some sort of connection to a doctor, an urgent care. Telehealth, as you know, has become very popular and things of that nature. But most of the responses are non-emergencies. We are here to do emergency response for heart attacks, for strokes, for severe trauma, seizures, things of that nature. We will always be here for that. But the current system nationally is really struggling, nationally, statewide, and locally is really struggling with the demand. So there are some changes that are being made have been made in other areas uh and um and we're proposing that the council consider uh those changes as part of a pilot that the 911 center is uh has proposed here here in lancaster and actually Let me back up for a minute. The actual EMS Council in Lancaster, of which I'm the Vice President of the Council, has proposed this to the 911 Center, and the 911 Center has some requirements of how we would do alternative dispatch. recognizing that class three calls are really not emergencies. There is a pilot being proposed for Lancaster City, Lancaster Township and the Columbia West Hemfield Township corridor that would attend Class 3 calls, non-emergency calls, for about 15 minutes to give other EMS resources the opportunities to potentially free up and then still respond to that residence or that business for what would be classified by the 911 Center as a non-emergency call. As you're aware, Dr. Nesbitt and I oversee Lifeline across a seven-county area, over 70 municipalities. This alternative dispatch model that we would like to try here in Lancaster County has been successfully in place for over two years in Dauphin and Cumberland County, which are areas that Penn State Health Lifeline also operates. And we've received no complaints about it. It's really been implemented seamlessly and has made a big difference of keeping ambulances available for emergencies, still getting help to citizens that need help, but it's made a big difference in those EMS systems. Again, we referenced some of this in our previous meetings with the council that these were some of the changes that we were going to be recommending to the current emergency response system. But it really is a borough decision how response is done here. As you're aware, we're a vendor and we're very fortunate that you know you uh you the borough has continued to want to partner with us we're very appreciative of that but it does come down to a borough decision of how you want response um this has required some education to the citizens uh because uh if the borough were to move forward with approving this pilot for columbia borough If they call 911 and it's classified as not an emergency and the ambulance isn't immediately available because it's out on other calls, it would be kind of staged for about 15 minutes to see whether one of the lifeline units, the service that you've contracted with, could respond. And then after 15 minutes, they would then go to a mutual aid service. They would go to the next closest at that point after about 15 minutes. So that's the alternative dispatch that's being proposed. We know the mayor of Lancaster has approved this for Lancaster EMS. We know it's been approved in Lancaster Township. West Hemfield had it on their agenda about three or four weeks ago and they voted and sent the required letter to the county that they wanted to opt in on this. We did get word from the county solicitor Thursday or Friday of last week that they would require not only for it to be published on the agenda like you did here, but they will require a vote from the council to opt in for this. So I wanted to stop there and answer any more questions that you may have about this proposal.

Isn't that the way you operate right now? If you can't make the call, someone else can do it.

So, but they come in right away. Yeah, the difference is, the difference right now is there is no alternative dispatch. Any call, class one, two, or three, if the lifeline service isn't available, they immediately bring in mutual. Okay.

Then there's some other questions I have.

Hmm?

The person makes a call for the 911 service. It's determined...

in conversations who makes that 15 minutes who initiates that to control that 15 minutes the the dispatch center would they they we've worked the council has worked with them they have a way in their cad system to start a timer i guess you'd say um and then and then go from there but it's the dispatch

going in other words because this is an emergency we will have someone there for you in 15 minutes there's going to be some i don't some message in other words if i'm calling and i'm saying okay i don't have a my emergency is deemed to be class three okay and they said okay They put it on a 15-minute time date. They need to come back to me and make me feel good, really, that, hey, it's going to take 15 minutes for them to get there. So I know that 15 minutes, okay, I can handle that. And there again, so that I know that if things escalate, I can call them back and say, no, you need to get someone here sooner.

There's going to be some scripting from the 911 side to that effect.

I can't tell you exactly what that looks like. I can live with it if I know that there's that correspondence. Because I don't want people freaking out if the ambulance isn't coming. They don't know.

And this is only on Class 3. Class 1 and 2 would stay the same. This is for Class 3, which are non-emergency. They're triaged by the dispatchers as non-emergency based on, you know, they use EMD and they follow the questions and all that. Yeah, could you give some examples of Class 3? Toothache. Okay. People do call ambulances for a toothache. We do get those responses. Okay. I mean, it is, you know, a common cold.

Yeah, well, maybe a fall with no reported injury and essentially helplessness. Okay.

You know, what would be, you know, a non-emergent case of life support? uh, type call with, uh, the way that dispatch works is through priority questioning. There's no priority questioning. There's no, you know, no priority systems that filter out, uh, anything that, that could even conceivably be considered to be an emergency. And, um, by design, uh, uh, dispatch systems, uh, tend to heavily over-triage, uh, to, uh, by design should not miss essentially anything that could conceivably be a virgin. So if my mom fell and broke an arm but we couldn't get her up, would the broken arm be a class 3 or would that be a class 2? Depends on you know, that's one of those things that could go either way depending on kind of how some of the questions are answered

and by the way um you're asking some great questions um one of the components of this alternative dispatch is that there's a quality assurance review after we start this pilot if you were to opt in to the pilot that uh physicians would be reviewing some of the classifications of the 911 Center. That goes on to a degree now. The 911 Center does have physician oversight in how they classify calls, but this would get particular focus to make sure we're not missing the mark. It certainly is not going to be perfect. And we are still... under regulatory requirements we must respond okay that's a requirement uh we must transport if a patient needs to go to the hospital what we're seeing nationally some of those rules are changing also they haven't changed here in the commonwealth yet but it's coming we have to the current system is just not sustainable with the volume of calls, the financial aspects of the system. What this is transitioning to is what we spoke to you about is emergency medical services in the future is going to be well positioned. We're starting to position our teams to help with the overall health care delivery system of keeping patients out of the hospital, keeping patients away from emergency departments that are already overcrowded that don't need to be in the emergency department. If you go to an emergency department now and wait five or six hours, what patient experience are you going to have with that? EMS really has to transform and has been to help the overall health care delivery system. Paramedics are being used more in the communities now for what we call post-acute care. Somebody's discharged from the hospital. We go see them in the home to try and make sure they understand their medication regimen and all that. That is what we're starting to see that transformation and we're working to do that with our team.

I have two additional questions. About how long would you suggest the pilot program run in order to get enough data for your analysis, I suppose? Typically, how long does it run before you would suggest moving out of a pilot program?

We agreed to really do a really heavy review of the program after a quarter, so three months' worth of data. I don't think we'll have enough content there. I expect us to run this for probably a year and then look at all the data. Cumberland and Dauphin County, There wasn't a pilot. They saw what was happening and jumped right into it. The leaders in Lancaster wanted to be a little bit more, you know, a measured approach to it.

And then my second question is, can we see some of the before and after for the other counties to see how the transition went? Do you have data available for that?

I certainly can gather the number of Class 3 calls that are staged or penned i certainly can get you that for a lifelong uh for areas that we cover in cumberland um we've gotten no complaints so i don't have i don't have that end of it everyone's getting an ambulance that needs an ambulance um areas are less reliant on mutual aid which As you know, when mutual aid comes into an area that you have an agreement with, there's potential billing discrepancies and things like that. And none of those things matter when it's an emergency, right? But when it's not an emergency, it does make a difference with who's getting a bill and that type of thing. Mutual aid is always going to be needed. I will tell you, Lifeline's mutual aid, in this area is now below 10%, which is what I committed to when I first started to interact with the council because we put more resources in the area. And this is gonna help drive that number down. Well, as you know, we feel that our service is an extension of our hospital, which we feel very near to your community. And, you know, we appreciate the agreement that you renewed earlier in the summer. We really appreciate that. So any other questions for us about that? Again, to opt in, the solicitor from the county is requiring it be published on the agenda what you did and then and then the vote and it really is your decision we're here to just advise you advise you and make recommendations

Yeah, I'd like some time to think about it.

I'll have to. I'm not sure. I'll have to reach out to the 911 centers for Dolphin. What I think I can get is just the number of times that a lifeline unit in another county is staged, that the response of a non-emergency is not immediate. I think that's the information I can provide.

And I'd also like to see the change in mutual aid calls, if you guys have that information as well from before the program to after, just because I know that part of the idea is to reduce mutual aid. So I just wanted to see how much that ended up dropping, if it could.

I'll have to see what I can do there.

OK. Thank you.

Yeah, that would likely be harder to do. Right.

Yeah.

wanted to share one more one more topic and we will Dr. Nesbitt and I will be at the tornado after action which is my early sleep we with CONCURRENCE OF THE FIRE CHIEF, THE INCIDENT COMMANDER OF THE TORNADO, WE BROUGHT IN FOR THE FIRST TIME A NEW RESOURCE THAT PENN STATE HEALTH IS DEPLOYING. IT'S A PHYSICIAN GO TEAM. OKAY? SO AND WE JUST RECEIVED APPROVAL FROM PENN STATE. SO WE HAVE NOT DONE OUR ROUNDING YET AND EDUCATED. There is a resource that we're calling the ROAR team. It is a GO team, and what these are are trauma surgeons, EMS physicians, and lifeline paramedics with special training in search and rescue extended type of operations extra extrications you hear about you know things that you know good good bad things happen to some good people sometimes uh entrapments informed equipment things like that but it's a deployable team of physicians have been trained to come out and assist our crews you're going to be hearing more about that over the next couple weeks or months but the first deployment of that team was when we heard the tornado we I came to the command post, made sure that it was okay to bring them in, and we brought them in as a resource. Thank God that was not needed, but we'll be here for the after action.

All right. Thank you. Thank you.

The next presentation is

I also did not plan on being the one to propose this whole thing tonight but Eric was feeling ill and had to back out last minute but we wrote the whole thing together so I'll do my best to to cover it all. Before I get started on this, I want to take a minute, hopefully no more than two, just to go over who we are, who Susquehanna River Creative Conspiracy is, um we're a we're a non-profit here in town um we're a legitimate 501c3 and we do music and art and facilitate the creative space for those types of people to have space to create in um we have a music studio down on lancaster ave with an art studio communal art studio we've been around for three years at that location and it started about four years ago at a warehouse actually on Avenue H and that warehouse just didn't end up working out so I had to vacate from it and find a new spot so here we are. Didn't start out on this with the intention of being a non-profit it just kind of organically went that way and now I'm enjoying it. I'm stepping into it and just following up on that whole thing. And real quick. The tragic situation with the Hook and Ladder building, the historic building, I've had my eyes on that building for three years as being like the perfect place to bring SRCC to and turn that into a music and art center. And I mean obviously three years ago I wasn't in a place to even be considering it. It was just kind of like a, well, wouldn't that be cool? But literally the day of that storm, I was meeting people in Lancaster City and putting together, assembling that plan and trying to find investors and take it seriously to figure out and navigate what would be needed to do that kind of a thing. Like I was familiar with how much it was, you know, on the market for and everything had kind of a, like to think a pretty good plan and it was just insane that like two hours later my phone blew up and i saw the images earlier than after that that tornado so weird just weird um so anyway i'll get into this proposal um you might also be aware of like the pianos that that we're bringing into town i have one at columbia or um COFFEE AND CREAM AT THE COFFEE SHOP AND THEN AT THE VISITOR CENTER AS WELL AT THE COLUMBIA CROSSINGS. SO FAR, FEEDBACK FROM THAT HAS BEEN AWESOME. WE'VE HAD SO MANY DONORS DONATE PIANOS, MONEY, FUNDS, AND CURRENTLY I HAVE THREE IN MARIETTA. I'M ADDING A FOURTH SOON. I'M ADDING A THIRD HERE. PLANS ON THE FOURTH AS WELL. You know, I'm very, I know Lancaster City is known as being like the city full of painted pianos. Music for Everyone is actually the organization that got me turned on to that whole program. And I'm bringing it out here as much as I can. So this is a continuation of that. In the park here, Eric came to me with an idea. And that was to put murals that are pop up in our park system here in Columbia. And it was just an awesome idea. I went with it immediately and we started making a plan, kind of got enough people involved that we knew we could do this. So our vision is to start with the park. and rotate these pop-up murals throughout other parks too and cycle them through like a time period. I'm just going to read the proposal because it's really short and otherwise I'll probably forget something. The Columbia Mini Mural Fest, the mission is, the Columbia Mini Mural Festival is an artist-led, community-powered public art initiative dedicated to transforming local parks into spaces of creativity and connection. Summary, the Columbia Mini Mural Festival, kind of a tongue twister, is a proposed public art initiative to be held at the columbia crossing river trail center in early summer of 2027 with the intent of having its full schedule every year in the spring after the first year the festival has the potential to expand an additional borough park such as local street park rotary park creating a rotating and scalable public art program throughout columbia festival will feature potentially up to 12 selected artists creating temporary mini murals on constructed outdoor panels in a highly visible riverfront setting the initiative is designed to activate public space support working artists enhance columbia's cultural presence in the long-term vision and the long-term vision is to establish an annual arts event that contributes to place making tourism and community identity while potentially leading to larger permanent murals throughout the borough. I'll go over to the . So our pre-festival launch idea that we would like to pitch is to build momentum and generate early excitement for the summer of 2027 event The SRCC, that's our nonprofit, will construct a prototype of the freestanding mural structure to debut at Columbia Albuquerque Festival in September, which is this month. We're going to be working with Parks and Rec to bring the music component of that program, that festival, and it would just be cool if we could do that, launch a little pilot basically, like the prototype, while also doing music. That's what we're known for, music and art. I'm excited about that. This prototype will serve as a tangible, highly visible advertisement designed to draw attention and foster community interest in the upcoming Mini Mural Festival. Throughout the Alba Twitch Festival, members of SRCC Mini Mural Fest Committee will be present and structure to engage directly with the public, share information about the 2027 festival, answer questions and connect with potential local sponsors and future participating artists artist participation an open call will be issued with a 20 submission fee as part of the application process artists will be asked to submit a concept design for their menu mural that adheres to guidelines provided by the borough Potentially up to 12 artists will be selected based on these submissions. So basically, we're working with Parks and Rec and you guys to get approval for these before we just start putting art that knows what is on that art in the park. Both Susquehanna River Creative Conspiracy, SRCC Studios, and Switchboard Studios and Gallery, another very well-known music and art center here in town, will serve as a home base for mentorship. and artist coordination, logistical support, and volunteer organization, and all materials will be supplied by SRCC. So we plan on, well I think it goes over this next one. So to give an idea of what the festival's gonna look like, it's pretty much the same thing as Albuquerque has been here. art music vendors food trucks just community a place for family of all ages to be engaged in the present um and uh yeah i'll spare you all the details are reading through that but um basically just what we know already works really well um hopefully we'll be able to raise a lot more awareness for these programs and things that we're doing all the other activities that we're doing um through our organization and create more cultural excitement here. So the next page on this is kind of like the blow up of what the pop-up mural will look like. It has a map of the grounds and where the X's are are where we're proposing putting these structures. We've already talked to Parks and Rec and kind of got their input on all of this to do something that would be in the best interest of everybody and they support this proposal and kind of approve that layout. There's another on the next page, there's like a graphic rendering of the walkway or the pathway that we propose putting those structures. so that they're out of the way of guests at the visitor center with their view of the river, but some component of the place that it's still something you're seeing while you're spending time there. I think somewhere in here goes over how it'll be constructed. These are details that will work with the borough for approval. The materials will either be plywood that's sealed and treated so that it is lasting or PVC panels. It all kind of depends on how much funding we can get for this, which we do plan on achieving with donations, local business sponsors and such, so that we can provide all these materials, the labor, and even we plan on maintaining it as well. So if there's any vandalism, We're using materials that make it very easy to wipe that kind of stuff off and tend to it So it'll really make it flow as easily as possible to not end up being a potential burden on any department And again with the burrow To be able to install these structures, we plan on using four by four posts in concrete, just like the permanent posts. They can be removed at any time, really. But we'll get approval with all the other building plans that there are for making sure we don't disrupt or disturb anything that's underground. And just make sure that the installation is done properly it's yours, the test of time as well. Yeah, so the the posts are going to be the permanent structure, but the actual art is going to be put on with like, so that it can be taken off and rotated to other locations, pending further approval that we can bring them to other park areas. And, and, you know, we hope to launch initial program at the visitor center and and then expand that next year and kind of revisit what options we could have for maybe bringing it to other parts and it'd be easily interchangeable so they're not permanent but they're semi-permanent So it depends on the orientation. I like the idea of having them be double-sided so that it's one piece on one side and a whole different piece on the other. That effectively would double how many entries we could have as well.

um so that's the hope i would love to knock it out that way yeah well when you showed you when you showed the drawing yeah of the road to the field yeah up to the meadow yeah yeah both ways i can see people walking one way look at them turn around

yeah yeah so perhaps we would just only put one up if we have both sides like already have submissions and everything for both sides and then expand from there I think that would make the most sense yeah I like that just a concern I mean I like this I like it a lot however

thought of having something there semi-permanent that may end up being damaged within a year because that walkway is for all intents and purposes, going to be out of commission for at least five years when they're filling the bridge.

Oh, OK. Yeah.

Because they're more than likely going to be using that to get across to the field and down underneath the bridge and everything else. And I would hate to see us putting something in the ground there that won't be able to .

There's probably not going to be .

If they're pressure treated with the proper materials, they should last a while. I mean, that's what deck supports are done out of.

No, I know, but what I'm saying is if you're going to pour concrete into the ground, I would hate for you to do that, only to have it being run over with heavy equipment and have it shifted and not reusable.

Yeah, I'm... I'm glad you're bringing this up because it was actually this rendering was a little bit of a miscommunication actually. I was hoping that and I believe there is room to have them actually more towards the driveway and that way it's more visible to the actual traffic coming in and out of the park and more so catering to the bikers or people walking that trail which I don't know, to my knowledge, doesn't really seem to be that much heavy traffic. No, it's not.

Jack, can you go back a couple pages? Because I think you also, yeah, you in that, yeah, there. You had also posted a couple other places down closer to the river where they could potentially be as well.

And also... like the side that is parallel with the Columbia Water Company, because there's not really a whole lot to be looking at over on that side too. They could go in there along the lawn. We wanted to keep them away from the river because we don't want photography and all that other line of sight view to be in or disturbed. But we're open to suggestions of where to put them. This is just kind of what our initial thought was. But, you know, I think there's somewhere around it. I even had an idea of the chain link fence that is all along the bottom of that structure. They can be mounted on that chain link fence. But then somebody, I forget who it was, mentioned that that floods sometimes from the river if there's ever flooding. However, I think depending on the materials we use, that wouldn't affect the actual mural itself. If we use PVC, it won't. If we use wood, I mean, how sealed it's gonna be, probably wouldn't either. I'd like to consult somebody else that knows a little more about those building materials, but that's just another idea too.

Did you say you have a mechanism in place to approve or disapprove where the borough can approve or disapprove? Yeah.

We don't have a mechanism currently drafted, but... Before anything ever would get approved, we would figure out what that would be, with who we would need to talk to, how you would want to proceed with approving the process. But we'll definitely draft something up and create a form that needs submitted so that there's another rendering or a sketch or a description of what it is that's going to be painted. And if they go outside of it, don't put it up would you would you forbade any advertisement even if it's done artistically yeah i mean it's supposed to be more art than like a business or somebody trying to create that level of of of uh i mean i wouldn't say i wouldn't say there would be a hard yes or no to that but i mean that's where their approval process could end up being really you know pivotal to this but um i yeah i wouldn't want to look like that i don't think that would reflect the community trying to do as well so um you know we want to work with everybody in this process to make sure everyone is okay with it and i really think that's possible i don't hit any snacks thank you jake and derek can take a look at that and

give a pretty good estimate of the width that any machinery is going to need and will it then work.

I have another concern. I don't like the borough being involved in selecting what can and can't be there because that leaves us open to risk of freedom of speech, freedom of expression. And that is not something that I would advocate for. I mean, we have that problem with our sign ordinance. We can't be we can't be the arbiter of that choice.

I hear that. I hear that because I'm the organizer of a collective of artistic people, which could make me feel like I want to pull my hair out quite often. My idea for that, I think that's a very good concern. would be more maybe a committee that grants a committee that approval and trust to select things that are gonna make sure and ensure things are family friendly, certain rating, all that kind of stuff. And something that isn't like overly too controversial, because that's not what we wanna be out here triggering.

Well, and I think as long as your organization says, yes these are these these are the values that we're espousing in this project you know by us saying yes we'll let this go through we are entrusting you that you know you're going to uphold that commitment absolutely the borough wants to see the value

Yeah, but we don't need to approve each art piece. You don't need to approve the art piece. You don't see the value.

Right, because we don't... I'm pretty risk-averse. Yeah. I'd like to, you know...

i'm sure there's examples that we can draw to um because i mean this is the kind of stuff that's happening all throughout lancaster and other cities and such i don't have any experience managing something of this level this is our first step into this terrain but um generally i i go and i consult what that process would look like what's working everywhere else and then you know implement that so um yeah i don't have an answer for that but but definitely I'm on your page.

As you start working through this, I don't want it to be planned that a group of council members are going to be approving the artwork.

Yes, and also I think if there ever was anything that ended up being a you know a talkative issue or whatever it takes you guys off of being the ones that approved it and they can put it on our organization and i'm cool with that i'm cool with that too so well yeah you guys just get criticized we get sued yeah it's hard it's harder to criticize a non-profit that's doing everything that we're doing already so right yeah

I just want to say, Anthony, I really love this idea. I'd love to talk about it more with you in the future. Jack, if you could send out the presentation to all of us so we can get a copy. But, yeah, let me know. I'd love to work with you on getting this, you know, the attention that it needs to get set up for next summer.

Awesome. Cool. And I don't know if this will be something that we would have to – go through, whether it's just Parks and Rec or whatnot, but would it be acceptable to at least do that temporary one where we bring that to the Albatwitch Fest and, like, It's the pitch of what is coming to just generate a little bit of awareness.

I think as long as the first one isn't a buried one. It won't be.

Now it'll be freestanding. I think that's fine. Yeah, it'll be just popped in, popped out.

Yeah, that's more up to Rick than us.

Okay. And yeah, I'm... Well, my plan for that was it would basically just be like the logo you saw on this proposal and then like a little bit of what's in store. Like this is what's coming. And my hope is that it gets artists that hit us up and are like, hey, inquiring about it. Other people, if generate a donor, you know, like get a little head start on getting some of that funding already built so that we can really hit the ground running with it when we get all the details, you know, straightened out.

But after that, I mean, you can work with the borough manager to get the paperwork filled out and everything that we need. I mean, it would come through us as a facilities use request. So what do you need to get for the Apertage?

No, not that much. That's cool. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll see you all at Apertage.

Yep. Thanks.

All right.

leadership committees legislation totally yeah i did uh early earlier today excuse me um email with Evan. He has 166. And I would ask him since our final approval, he's going to give us the final looks on anyway, if he could look through what we had thus far. And if he could, you know, we have some questions that we don't quite have the answer to what person or individual will be doing certain steps. So I ask him for his feedback on that. So you're going to be working on that. I didn't think you'd be able to get it today, obviously, but hopefully in a week or two. And also, I'll have to do one, because when we do that, we approved 112 a while back. And I think Paul said there might be some minor changes to 112. I'm not sure. If there were, you know, they should happen at the same time because the two of them are tied together. uh i would also say i've recently been online um i don't get a lot but people that i was drawn into by a request from somebody um as far as uh um line painting and the things with not just with 462 but around town uh things you can do to make things safer and i did i did point out that the meeting was last thursday and also uh there's a significant push from people i've talked to around town that really would like to see the alley the avenues and i know it's not a popular thing we like to see the avenues and i you know we talked about this many many years ago mary was on council we talked about this make the avenues one way like in a certain direction and it should go block by block has to be if you're going to make avenue i one way north to south it's the whole way it's not just two blocks and then one about two blocks and we have it would it would obviously would detail some signage as well so i'd like to look into that as well but something might be here for a little

that's underway i thought we were working on yes and um along with the 166 spelling um i spoke with evan last week and his office has a new tool for um being able to It's basically an AI tool that will take an ordinance and evaluate it for... Yeah, and discrepancies and things like that, and it will give suggestions as to, you know, this may be an issue, this may be an issue. So he was taking 166 and putting it through that tool as well, so...

So he has a final look at it.

Anyone have any questions on legislation or thoughts? Finance. We have the finance reports and the monthly accounts summary report. Are there any questions? I think, you know, I signed paperwork for the general fund today.

That's all of them. It should be all of them. Is the general, is everything going into the general?

Well, I think that's for opening an account and then having different shares.

That's just an account. We would have accounts.

From Truist to...

Okay. Any other questions on finance? Frank?

There was a...

Good evening again. On your report page nine. The second issue down there. There's a bill there road for the koz koz property. It doesn't say where this is for. Does anybody know? $4,121. The way I understand back in 24.

Now, it's not from 24.

I don't think so. It says there.

And I don't always understand this. So I'm to be corrected.

Jack, do you know anything about this?

I don't.

Frank, I can look into it and get back to you.

Yeah, because it says, you know, it has what the balance is. But if you go to the far right, 180 days, whatever, it says not due. It also says 412170 is not due. Well, the issue... Well, I know why it says that.

Because prior to getting the AR module, when bills were sent out, sometimes they did not include a due date. So when the AR module went in... they had to put them in there with no due date. So that's why it says not due. So when it says not due, it either means there was no due date on the invoice or it's an invoice that has not yet gotten to its due date. So like if we send it out September 1st, but it's not due until September 30th, on here it would show not due because it's not due yet. It's the 2528. Actually, this one was mailed in February of 2004.

So does anybody know where this is for? What property? So that's the hotel?

Yes.

So am I to understand how much longer does this have to go?

What do you mean?

How long was the KOZ? How long would they get the tax benefit?

I'm not sure. I don't remember off the top of my head when that was done.

The end of 2028.

2028? Okay. Okay. I couldn't remember. I knew it was 10 years, but I couldn't remember.

So my understanding is then when the hotel opens, we won't be collecting any taxes on that till 28.

We will be collecting taxes at the rate, at the unimproved rate. We will not get the improved rate until after 2020.

I'm with you. Yes. Is there any way All the years I've been coming to council, I don't fully understand some of these reports in the finances. Is there any way I could sit down with somebody that could kind of enlighten me? I'm sure I'd be willing to bet there's a lot of other people that don't understand either. But rather than come and take up council's time, I would like to understand a lot of this.

Is there any way council could direct me to somebody?

manager okay i'll take that up when we do the other thing then uh does anyone on council know if there's any other koz properties in effect yes there is yes do you know where right the um yeah the burning thank you i couldn't remember the name i kept wanting to say count hers

the uh the bernie bridge antiques okay just them too i believe so yes okay all right thank you Yeah, the parking lot.

And Frank, I wanted to mention when we come up to the budget season, one of the things that Tom and I have been talking about is making the budget more digestible for people, making like a simplified version of it that we can publicize with the drafts that's a bit more digestible for the public. So it's obviously not the monthly reports, but in the future, we're trying to make that easier to understand, at least for the upcoming budget.

would be great any any way you can make it easier yeah we'll do that when it's done well i remember they used like in 2008 when i first got on board frank 10 times worse yeah i mean we do make it digestible at the end because when it's published it's that very read it's the public version how we can, what you're saying.

We're talking about basically a middle ground between the full size budget and that one page that also has some of it broken down into different graphs and charts that make it a little bit easier for somebody to just at a glance, look at it and understand where money is coming in, generally where it's being spent, broken down. So kind of a mid ground between that one page and the full budget.

Yeah, I mean, that's generally what we task manager with.

doing to present.

That usually comes out in the presentation. Yeah. What you're asking for?

Yeah.

That's where it comes out. We didn't see that last year. You didn't see that last year. We were in class. Thank you.

Anything else, finance? Community development. There's the zoning, planning, and harm reports. Are there any questions on those? Homeless shelter committee.

We met and we're looking at still trying to find somewhere to make more. beds for all those people to be. So I'm tasked with calling St. Peter's to find out about their school and also to see if Justin is still interested in the in-beds because it's going to the sheriff's cell next week or sometime this month. So that's where we are. Salem. Yeah, that's not a holy shelter.

No, but they gifted.

It's not done yet.

Right, to the. Yes. But they're going to somebody's church. Right. It may be worth a discussion to have it. Worth having a discussion with them. Or the parish hall. The church hall.

Yeah, yeah. Well, that's not part of that church. The church is up on the second floor.

Right, but that piece is there. Yeah, but that's where they're going to put offices and everything in.

They said first floor. Yeah, he's talking about the building behind the church.

Oh, okay. Yes, now I know what you mean.

I think someone ought to have that discussion.

Yeah. We'll be talking about all kinds of things.

Any questions, comments, or concerns on that?

No?

All right. Discuss the MOU with Columbia Catholic Housing.

Who wants to lead this discussion? Would you like to lead it to discuss? I don't know. some evidence.

Paul Nicholas is here this evening. If you'd like to hear from him. Sure.

Good evening, everyone. Paul Nicholas with Columbia Catholic House and for the elderly. So I wanted to come tonight just to be a resource having seen this on the agenda for tonight. We certainly appreciate the follow-up from the June 23rd council meeting for the formal presentation of Columbia Catholic Housing's plan to add additional senior housing to Columbia Borough on the Trinity House site. We're looking forward to meeting with the Planning Commission and the long journey that it takes to develop a new project and certainly just want to express our appreciation for your follow up. Evan, we think did a great job and I'm not sure the level of distribution of the memorandum of understanding, but it's well written and we think it's good. We can't believe it's September already, right? So the first line We need to change to September instead of August, but that's pretty much it. So, again, thank you. But if I can answer any questions, feel free.

It was very clear. I didn't really have any questions.

I thought Garo did a great job in crafting it.

It was very good. Do we have to take a vote on it? No.

shall we place this on the agenda the next meeting yeah so that's for the eighth excellent thank you thank you very much public works report kelly uh let's complete your back and anybody have any questions i know uh like it was mentioned earlier jake's been having the crews going around you doing the crosswalk paintings just make sure they're they're there um uh getting you know like in getting ready you know hey two things i'm gonna get prepared for school number one number two with all the rains we keep continuing to have and have and have and have it better really fight to keep these storm storm drains open with all stuff that flushes down into there anybody have any questions i would like to add unfortunately we received an email that uh we had some vandalism at vehicle park again over the weekend that one of the basketball rims was completely busted out of the back where it was found laying on the court. So we're going to be looking at cameras, see if we can find there. Obviously, I'll put an insurance claim to get it repaired again. This is really a very frustrating thing to have to deal with. It's over. over and over again and really like to see some you know some neighborhood ownership of that as has been promised many times but doesn't seem to fall through well i think you know i agree that i mean i'd like to see the neighborhood take

ownership of their area.

And I mean, there's been a lot of money put into that. And that bathroom costs a lot of money and to have that vandalism in that bathroom at the very first summer is just ridiculous. Would you like to have porta potties back there again? It can be arranged.

We knew you'd be back here with us, Kelly. Do you think it seems like it's isolated? It's covered by other buildings, and people can go in there and do whatever the hell they want to do. And we can't post the policemen up there. You're going to put cameras there.

Well, I'll tell you, Frank, if you go around the county, you'll find lots of places where their basketball courts literally have... like 10 or 20, you know, I've seen 20 chain link fences around these things. You're going to go up there and do some bad moves. You're going to keep getting in and getting out.

So what's the council's answer?

I wish I had one. I just said I'd like to see some more ownership. I'd like to see some more ownership of it.

How much more are we going to spend that we don't have?

Get one last... Well, let's as I as I took this to be for me personally, this is my one last chance. We can't keep redoing it. There is a list last time. There was a backboard. Yeah, we put metal ribs with change.

We decided we will not replace that backboard. And before long, one of our one of the neighbors ran a fundraiser and they replaced the backboard with the money that they raised and it wasn't cooking again. My answer as soon as I heard about it was don't replace the backboard. Those who put it down pay to have it put back on. One thing the borough and everybody needs to be aware of We get money from the state to do these parks in the form of grants. When we get the money and we build the park or we recondition the park or whatever have you, that's not the end of it. They come back periodically and inspect those parks or any project that you may have gotten state money from. If those parks or whatever are not taken care of to their satisfaction, you're not going to see any more money. So it's imperative that we, Columbia Borough, all of us, do what we can to see that these parks are maintained or we won't see any more money. Excuse me?

We just put more cameras there.

We're putting more cameras there. We cut the trees so that cameras were not impeded by the leaves.

There are plans to add additional cameras. We just don't have the funding at this point in time.

I have a question on Macle Park. This is the first I've heard about the most recent vandalism. Now, I live on South 5th, which is basically on the opposite side of 5th, looking toward Macle Park. those lights supposed to be on at all hours of night because i look out the bedroom window the second floor and i see the lights on at like 11 12 o'clock at night and there it appears as though it's basketball court lights

There should be some security lighting on. It's a new lighting system or controller, and we're working through it. In fact, we had to have the installer actually come out to give us some instruction on it. So if you're seeing the basketball court lights on, those should not be on. It should just be the security lighting that's around the perimeter.

does the public have access to either the basketball court lights or the security court lights they do not okay well then i guess i'm gonna have to put some clothes on and go across the street and check it out because i've often wondered i see it through the bedroom window and it's like really, did some kid or somebody leave the lights on? But I'm glad to hear that they don't have access, and I am proof.

As a matter of fact, the management team has been talking about this issue, and Wilson, after this meeting, is going to drive over there to check it out.

Okay, I am profoundly disappointed that there is yet again more vandalism over there. And for the bathrooms... Any kind of bathroom is a pretty good coin to drop. And for them to be vandalized, as I've said online previously, my son slash grandson, and I don't go over there too much, hardly any anymore. We'll either go up to Janssen or we'll go to Rotary or someplace else. But we don't too often go over there because, quite honestly, the clientele. We go up there, we hear cussing, we hear... disrespect we hear stupid stuff we see stupid stuff and it's just we I just assume not subject into that and you know hey as adults we're all big boys and girls we've heard it before but it's our choice not to hear it also so I'm very sorry that there was more vandalism but I often wondered about that and thank you all for shining some light

on that issue thank you i think i think councilman murphy might have something that's worth discussing put a fence around the place i mean open it open at certain hours close at certain hours i mean i think our lining really has to be aligned with our our cameras as well i mean you know so we're getting yeah so so you're you're putting a camera up to see something and a lot of people don't want to hear it but You know, there's a lot of areas outside of here. Go down to, like, Springisbury Park and something in Bryce-Livenberg County. Basketball courts and the tennis courts, if you wanted to use that, they would be open to a certain time. If you wanted to go at 8 o'clock, at 9 o'clock at night, in October, when it was dark out and planned, you could. There's a machine right there. You pump the money in to turn the lights on. It'll give you 30 minutes. You know, 30 minutes, boom, the lights go out. So, you know... I'm not saying that's the way we go too, but I certainly think some kind of fencing needs to be done. Not popular, but how long do you just keep letting it go? You just say, all right, this is it. When it falls apart, you're not getting it again. That's not fair to people who might move here a year or two. Absolutely.

Absolutely. On the public works side, I just want to give a shout out. I know everyone You know, all in gratitude for the first responders and everything that came out during the tornado and everything. But I personally also that night saw our public works crews out clearing off roads and everything else. So I just wanted to make sure while Jake was here, we gave them a shout out that they were out there as well and not necessarily in the building that was falling down. but they were all over cutting up and clearing them out. So thank you.

be interesting to see your report for august yeah see how much tonnage you get taken up there you brought up a good point about the fair house up there uh i know there's been a lot on the internet but still there's a lot maybe you know that we don't know uh the latest that i got is they're going to tear down the firehouse manually by taking the roof off and I guess bring it on down. Are they still going to use a crane? They're going to bring a crane in?

I don't know how they're doing it. There's two cranes there now.

Say it again.

There's two cranes there now.

We've got to be very careful about it because the post office is right next door.

Somebody said it's going to take a month to take it down because they're starting to take the roof off by hand. That's why you might have more information.

That's what I heard too. Anything else, Public Works? I did notice in the finance reports we're selling an awful lot of material. So that's good. All right, public safety, we have the police, fire, EMS, EMA, and the code report. Any questions on those items? I have a question on, condemnation report because i was actually approached by two different people and asked and i said i was not exactly sure um what was going on but 1320 ironville pike Our thing says in progress. Is that actually in progress or does anyone know?

But they have been working there. When I go by, I had seen them work.

Maybe not recently.

They're still waiting for insurance clearance, right? Yeah, they are.

Is that the issue?

They're still waiting for word from insurance, and I know it's been a deal.

Yeah, it's been two years. Okay. Thank you. That was live. Yeah. Actually, two different people asked me about that this weekend. I was like, I don't know, but I will find out.

You know, Heather, that's a real good note. I'm going to go off track a little bit. That's a good comment and a good question. What remains to be seen is how insurance companies react to the damages that were incurred during the tornado. That's, you know, I know we've had issues and Paul has been working on one. We've had issues with one property.

numbers react and allow the properties to be fixed up and we'll have to keep an eye on that oh you know what that brought up another another question I had on the condemnation um the 290 South 5th Street unsafe structure that's the one where the foundation that it's been three years Like, at what point is something going to get done?

Something is done. I'm looking to see now if there's going to be a report.

I don't think there's a report.

It's up remaining in there. I'm not sure if this just happened at the end. is it is it in the lamb bank program i that was one of the addresses that i put forth they have not been I think that was all I had.

Anyone else have public safety questions? Market House. You have the Market House report. Any questions, comments?

How come, I haven't seen it like this before, how come some of these places are always summertime? I mean,

The last time I saw, that's the amount for rent.

That's what the rent is for one morning.

Now there are several that are on the aging report. But yeah, that's what their monthly rent is.

Bunny presented me with two contracts at the end of last week. It is my understanding that all of the stands are now filled. We did have a little bit of turnover.

I did have something that Councilwoman Giese sent to me asking me to bring it up during the Market House discussion. So it says, following up on the parking challenges brought to Council's attention by Mr. Wolpert, I've been considering how we can accommodate more parking on Saturdays for Market Day. After discussing the matter with market manager Link and borough manager Brommer, we knew that the vendors currently have to plug meters on market days, sometimes paying $12 or more and risking a $20 violation if they get busy. To resolve this, I proposed utilizing the third street lot for vendor parking on Saturdays. This would involve updating the signage and issuing specific market day only car permits. Additionally, we could park all unused police and borough vehicles in the front street lot. Together, these changes would free up parking spaces in both the Market House lot and the adjoining streets. Market Manager Link and Borough Manager Brommer both agree that this approach would successfully free up parking on market days. I submit this suggestion for your consideration.

The Third Street lot. was to be used by vendor actually it's open to anybody the vendors were to be parking down down front down at the front but the third street lot can be used because it's open to anybody it is when the offices are not open right

and i mean the vendors if they're open early they're going to get there and use that space yeah so i don't understand yeah to me it's they should be using that a lot well yeah i think that part of it is if we would have um a some sort of uh market vendor permit for parking rather than having them take up and have to pay, plug in the meters constantly, instead of having them get a permit.

But if they park in

the third street lot they don't need they don't need a permit they don't have to plug the meters yeah well what i yeah i agree with that um i think another way we could do this is also potentially give them a parking pass and ask them to park further away from the market house but with the free parking for being a vendor which would clear up more space in the immediate area That's also a potential. But, Jack, you already had a conversation with Joanne on this.

Yeah, I believe what she was proposing is to make that lot vendor parking only on Saturdays and issue permits. So close it to all others, you know, including the public.

I believe it would accommodate most. Yes. One of the problems we have.

vendors wanted to use this lot because it's closer for them to walk right they can pull in they can unload and park over there and that's where they're talking they're not talking about slugging meters on local street they're talking about slugging meters right and i i mean i think that's part of it too is that

You know, we have the free parking available. They're choosing not to use it because this is closer or whatever. And you know what? It's no different than being in the city. When the closer you park to someplace you want to be, the more expensive it's going to be. You know, I go to the Fulton. I can park in the parking lot across the street. Or for half the price, I can park a half a block down in the parking garage.

I can handle that administratively if council desires. Okay.

But I also agree with the excess borough vehicles back there should not be in that lot. They should be out for the weekend.

The problem is one shift uses one set of vehicles, another shift uses another set of vehicles.

well they're all parked along the building but there's like the parking enforcement vehicle is back there does that really need to be i don't know why you're you know like that those things could be in the in the employee lot then well well i would agree also but if they absolutely have to be close to the building, then they can be there, not taking up the metered spaces, right?

It depends on how many spaces are over there and how many vendors are parked.

Right.

Yeah, I think that was...

But honestly, that's going to... There are... There are citizens that park in that lot all weekend. And I think... It'll be signed. Yeah, I think we're really going to have to do a good job with signage

Not only Sonny, you'll need enforcement too on Saturdays.

Tell them, tell them. Tell the vendors you've got to park in this lot, not in that one. Right. Period. We'll take care of it.

All right. Anything else on the market? Parks and Recreation, location of the September 26th fireworks display.

trisha weaver with parks and rec and the 300th committee michelle kaufman asked me to speak do you mind adjusting the mic please thank you as you are probably all aware the 300th committee when we had our fireworks display supposedly for fourth of july got rained out we are looking to have it on september the 26th in the evening We were hoping, with some help from the borough, someone has suggested that we use McGinnis Field. We were told that the weeds would be mowed, grass, whatever it is out there. There would be a viewing area for the public that would be directly out from the deck at the fire company, if anyone's familiar with that area. There will be no parking on McGinnis Field. That's a Saturday night. I'm not sure if the fire company's club, the deck, will be open that night. If it is not open, there may be some parking spaces there in the fire department's parking lot that the public can use. If not, they'll have to find their parking on the streets. We do have handouts for the public, which we've had for the Fourth of July. little things to give out the set off time will be between 8 15 and 8 30 by schaefer fireworks they have looked at the area of mcginnis field they have found the spot to set off the fireworks we just wanted to bring this to the boroughs to get approval since it is borough property it's up for sale we're hoping that we can still have the fireworks there How come it's not going to... Up to Ridge? To Gladfell. It really was not originally on Gladfellers. It would have been up to Burr Property on Ridge. I'm not sure if we have gotten any feedback from Gladfellers to have it there. If we could use that as a viewing area. I don't know the answer to that.

Oh, so that's the issue, is the viewing area. Viewing. Okay. The park closes at dusk. Sorry, I wasn't following that. Right, it's for viewing only.

It's impacted by football. Well, they don't have lights for football, from my understanding.

Okay.

That's what I was told. Yeah, they fell down.

Fell down? Yeah.

We wanted to have it up at Laurel Hill. We had their blessings. We had a meeting last month. High school at that time told us Saturday night is the night of the homecoming dance. They weren't receptive to having it that night. So now we're asking to move it to McInnes Field.

and I know the public is waiting anxiously for these to happen they've been promised the money has been raised we'd like to present them uh same thing I said when the email first came through I think it's a great idea to have them at the Guinness I mean yeah I don't see any problem as long as it's not too difficult to take care of the the weeds that are out there currently so when I was a kid

Fire company had a festival out there every year, and they had fireworks in the airfield every year. I sat on the bank and watched them.

We have your blessing. I think so. We can publicize it. Okay. Thank you all very much. Appreciate it.

Albitridge Harvest Festival update.

Rick, were you going to give an update on the Albitridge?

Yeah, on the fireworks. When the high school had their first fireworks for their kids that had graduated, it was towards the evening and I was sitting in my rec room And they set that first one off. That was heart attack. That was heart attack weather. I'm telling you, I didn't know what happened. I had a German Shepherd. It went crazy. First thing we did was went outside and looked at the building. I thought, sure, I was bombed. I am so glad that you're moving it out to McGinnis. Now, in doing that, are we going to have to bring a landscaper in and cut the grass or what's going to happen there?

Public Works is going to take care of mowing and cutting down the weeds in the areas that are needed.

okay and you're talking about viewing well the fireworks everything's up there what is it to view down below the tree line lots of times you lose some things like and look up i i don't know why i like to be out okay yeah well over my years i had enough fireworks and i don't care if you don't have any it's just my opinion and i don't want to take that away from other people that that's what you want it was also my understanding that they believed that the fireworks might be a detriment to their new track up there so they were being reasonable so that's understandable okay which harvest festival update

Good evening, council members. I'm Rick Fisher. To give an update on the Albatridge Festival, it'll be September 26th down at the crossings from 11 to 5 p.m. We have four speakers. We have four different musical bands with Cracker Bees, the more popular one starting at 11 o'clock to 2, and then from 2 to 5, the other three bands will be playing. Never heard of them before.

I think they're from Susquehanna.

Yes, they'll be from there. We have 31 vendors, five are non-profits, eight food vendors, and 17 craft vendors and such. Between the speakers, there's a 15-minute break. We have 11 members on our staff. And during those breaks, they'll periodically be going around and checking the trash, pulling the bags out. I understand there's going to be a dumpster there.

There already is a dumpster at the River Park you referred to?

I don't know. Somebody said there'd be a dumpster down there for us to put the trash in.

We'll discuss that.

Okay. And also, we partnered with MAC to access to the trolley where it alleviates some of the traffic problems down at the crossings. It'll pick people up at Coffee and Cream, come up Locust Street, all the way up to 6. Drop them off at the corner. know people from columbia don't have to drive down there they can go go over to locust street on any corner and wave the trolley down it'll take them back down to coffee and cream so hopefully that will alleviate some of the traffic down there uh i haven't heard if we have access to the meadow or not i don't know if we can use that for parking or sure it should be okay i just haven't heard anything if we had access to that or not so uh we had t-shirts made sold six of them at the market this past saturday we have posters made uh money from the vendors the t-shirts and posters and all all the proceeds go to parks and rec after the festival i'll be telling ghost stories from my book goes to the river towns at the market house from six to eight and all the proceeds from that are going to go to the parks and rec as well so We're hoping to draw a big crowd. I can't answer how many will be coming. Again, it missed a year in Columbia. It's back now. So hopefully we get a good crowd and more vendors. I know before we had between 80 and 100 vendors. And again, right now we only have 31. Hopefully next year will be a little better. So I hope everybody comes out and enjoys it. The speakers are fantastic. They're from across the state. They talk about cryptids. You know, they've been out in the woods looking, you know, for big footprints, you know, things like that and stuff. So you'll enjoy the speakers as well as the music. So that's all I have. If anybody else has any questions.

Thanks, Rick.

all right new business um we normally do not vote at workshops however we have a few items that need attention and before next week so we're being asked to vote on them first we have the revised agreement of sale of 137 South Front Street to the Economic Development Corporation in the amount of $1,500,000 and authorized the borough manager and borough council president to execute all necessary documents to effectuate the sale. Does anyone have a motion to approve that?

I'll second that.

I have a motion by Councilperson Cooper Second by Councilperson Ziegler. Are there any questions? We had previously had this agreement in place and based on some feedback from the Columbia EDC, there were some changes that we wanted to make. We discussed that last week in, an executive session. This is to get the old firehouse sold. Are there any questions, comments, concerns on this?

I tried. I tried.

Good evening again. What is some of the revised changes

No, one of them was the price, correct?

Right, the terms of payment. The due diligence period. Due diligence period, the closing, and also the transfer tax. The amount of, what's the word I'm looking for? The fee. The amount of the fee that we are... Realtor. The realtor fee. Thank you. I don't know why I'm struggling to see things.

I don't feel bad. That happens to me all day long. How much was the initial asking price?

It was 2.1, I believe.

Why do we drop? And what is the assessed value? I know I'm asking too many questions, but I'm just wondering why we're...

I don't know what the assessment is. And don't disclose the appraised value. It damages our position.

Now... There was a lot of damages inside, I think with the roof, the ceiling, and everything else. Does anyone have an idea what we're going to walk away with with this agreement that you have here?

We're going to walk away with 1.5.

How much in our hand?

1.5 minus whatever the piece of it is.

Well, that can be an awful lot. It's 4%. Somebody should have that.

So I couldn't remember, and I knew I couldn't find it. It's 4%.

Yeah. It's 4%. We're not getting 4%. We're not sure of the transfer tax.

So 4%.

That includes the transfer tax. I'm sorry. 4%. 4%.

okay but why why did we drop the asking price didn't we have an agreement with them all of a sudden we're dropping it is it because we need money no we couldn't get what the original agreement was because there's a subprime lease on the property the subprime lease hurts the subprime lease is killing us the there's that and plus work that needed done in the building and you know

The same people was buying it, correct?

No.

Who's buying it?

We can't say.

The Columbia EDC is buying it. That's who we're transferring it to.

They have somebody who is interested and they were talking about with our discussion last week is why we decided to make these changes. And specifically, still with the money that the borough has put in to the property, it is still a profit. I don't remember how much has been put into the property as far as like purchasing it. Or is all of it just pure profit? I don't remember.

I don't have the numbers in front of me.

Yeah, we assumed a million dollars. Yeah, we bought it for one, well, we assumed the old number one part of these debts of one million dollars.

Yeah, so even at 1.5, it is still a profit.

don't forget the whoever buys it from the cedc we'll have to honor the current leases in play and that leaves lease runs out so i believe it's like february 29th well just just so i understand i'm i'm i'm up in the air is this agreement between the burr and cedc or is this with cedc and somebody else and cedc okay So then they'll own it. Do they or how much do they get or what percentage or whatever does the CEDC take the place of the realtor? How much do they get for handling this? Four percent.

They're getting four percent.

They are getting four percent. Yes. So I'm still unclear how much we're going to walk away with.

about jack you just had it up 60 000. yeah yeah 1.5 million minus 60 000. that's four percent is only gonna be sixty thousand the rest of it comes to us

I know regardless of what I say it ain't going to go nowhere but why are we always hush hush and we go behind closed doors when we talk about this making these agreements and stuff and it just pisses me off so bad.

Because when we do real estate we have to do it in executive session because if we tell certain things it messes with our ability to get a good price.

I know there's a lot of things we have to do, but we always don't do them. Well, we can bend the rules, you know.

We also don't want to be sick. If you were interested in it, and we had a post, just for an example, we had XYZ posted for $3 million, and you knew, and we said, oh, yeah, but we'll accept $2.2. Are you going to be dumb enough to still offer $3? I doubt it. You'll offer $2, too. That hurts our position.

Right. Are there any other questions, comments, or concerns? Yes.

You said that it was revised for the due diligence. What was it before that you changed it from?

I think it was 60 days and that was it. I forget what it was.

It was originally just 60 for the closing, but we added in 180 days of due diligence for the buyer. Six months. Yeah.

Wow. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? Great. I have a motion by Councilperson Cooper, second by Councilperson Ziegler. to approve the revised agreement of sale of 137 south front street to the columbia economic development corporation the amount of four million five thousand dollars and authorized the burr manager and burr council president to execute all necessary documents to effectuate the sale all in favor aye anyone opposed all right next we have two items um two barb items three three barb items sorry um the first one is uh should we get an appropriateness for replacement of front door at 333 cherry street do you have a motion to approve the coa so moved second the motion by council person buyers second by council person cooper to approve the coa for replacement of front door at 333 cherry street are there any questions comments a hard recommended approval with no oh yeah thank you i was trying to get down there and um we do have a member of harp here brian brandt if there are any questions with any of these he is able to speak the any questions comments I think this is great to give back to the new the closer to original style if there's no uh questions then i have a motion by council person buyer second by council person cooper to approve the certificate of appropriateness for replacement front door at 333 cherry street all in favor anyone opposed all right is the applicant here all right uh if you would like to go over to um Paula, she can have you sign that and you're all set to go. Right next to have a motion to approve a certificate of appropriateness for installation of new window signs and review removable mural at 137 Lucas Street.

So moved.

Second. motion by council person ziegler second by council person byers to approve the certificate of appropriateness for installation of new window signs and removable mural at 137 locust street yes okay yeah i It was going to be real on the board, but then Max said they wanted it on the bricks. Right, okay. CARB recommended approval with the condition that the mural be painted directly on the brick handful. So, I would like, are you guys okay if I change the motion to approve the certificate of appropriateness for installation of new window signs and with the condition that the mural be painted directly on the brick camp wall and the applicant is aware of that yes yeah i'm good with that yeah i'm good with that too I did notice that was slightly different than what the Historic Preservation Trust had said. Can I just ask why that change?

I'm just curious. The board listened to the applicant. We felt that the removable panels they wanted to place there would be, for lack of a better word, rather tacky. Okay. That area is starting to be developed very nicely. We feel this will fit in even though it's not going to affect the historic landscape of that entire area. In fact, I think it's going to actually enhance it a bit because we now have the hotel. We have a more modern building across the street from it. i think it's actually going to be kind of an attraction maybe people coming to hotels see this mural maybe getting pictures in front of it we felt that you know putting it as tacky panels up with this would not fit so that was our mindset that makes sense yeah that does and i mean i know typically we don't paint unpeated

masonry but in this case that's not really attached to the building it's kind of a freestanding wall it is the wall could be removed at some point it's we you know we would have different considerations they were putting it on the side of the building itself right this is completely different all right thank you yeah i was i was just i was thinking that it's a cool looking mural okay yeah it really is it's on the next page yeah i know i'm pretty excited that mural artist is also the same person that's involved yeah nice i recognize the maze yeah oh yeah any questions comments or concerns I have a motion by Councilperson Ziegler, second by Councilperson Byers to approve the certificate of appropriateness for new window signs and a mural painted directly on the brick camp wall at 137 Locust Street. All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed? all right next uh certificate do i have a motion to approve the certificate of appropriateness for installation of new window decals for business at 477 locust street so motion by council person cooper second by council person murphy uh to approve the should get appropriateness for installation of new window decals for business at 477 louis street questions comments it's pretty hard but our part that recommended that approval Any other questions, comments, concerns on that? No? Brian, anything you wanted to say about this one? No? Yeah. Yeah.

Alright.

Questions or concerns? I have a motion by Councilperson Cooper, second by Councilperson Murphy to approve a certificate of appropriateness for new window decals for business at 477 Locust Street. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? all right um boards of commissions we have one vacancy on the parks and rec board well we have all one alternate position on the zoning hearing board three alternates on planning commission volunteer applicant two alternates one permanent on planning commission And volunteer applications will be considered through the 20th of each month. Borough Council comments. Councilperson Ziegler.

On the third, safety committee is kind of hosting a, not for necessarily public, and I think we touched on this earlier, meeting for pedestrian traffic safety discussion basically some long-term short-term goals that we can begin right away I think kind of overlaps with the mayor's doing but we're gonna I think we need to look to address this in a real way so uh that's going to happen on thursday six to eight yeah six to eight um as summer closes here i do want to say um and you can read in the newspaper how busy our emergency services have been all summer long our police department our fire department uh even our public works i just want to my most sincere appreciation for all the hard work they did this summer so thank you again

I do not have any upcoming meetings The announcement of next meeting at 7 p.m. I

on tuesday september 8th council report a regular scheduled meeting i have a motion to adjourn second by council person cooper to adjourn at 9 10 p.m all in favor

Aye.

Aye. Anyone for it? Hold on. Put the signs up.

Does he need paperwork?