Borough Council - Regular Meeting

very streamlined.

Call to order, Columbia Borough Council regular meeting, September 8, 2026 at 7 PM. Pastor Martha Harris, will you lead us in invocation?

Before we pray, I just wanted to give a word of thanks on behalf of the Ministerium for all the support you as the elected officials of Columbia have offered to the displaced persons who were dislocated because of the fire back in June, and now the tornado in August. This community is incredibly resilient, and we really benefit from your leadership and the support of the Fire Victims Relief Fund. We're going to be meeting on Thursday, and our proposal is on the table to change the name to Disaster Victims. relief fund, since we now know that natural disasters can also affect the residents of Columbia. So together let us pray. Heavenly Father, send down upon those who hold office in the borough of Columbia the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice, that with steadfast purpose they may continue to faithfully serve to promote the well-being of all people, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

God bless you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Announcement of executive sessions. Council held an executive session on September 8th tonight at 6 p.m. to discuss a personnel matter. We need to do roll call. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. May I roll call, please?

Here.

Here.

Here. Here. Here.

Here. Here. Thank you. Additions, deletions, and realizations of the agenda.

Anybody have any?

Okay. make a motion to approve the agenda as published seconded a motion by councilman zinc second by councilman byers to approve the agenda as published all in favor say aye aye citizen commons keith williams

I'm coming back to see if anything materialized from the last two times I was here on August 11th with the problem down there on 3rd and Mill. Mr. Kaufman, you took my paperwork, you copied it. Did anybody else see that?

I actually met with the police chief, gave her the copy that I had, and... The only thing I talked to her about is, it's not my position to talk to her about police operations, but I mentioned your concern and my concern of leaving an officer there by themselves.

By himself. That should have never happened. Never.

Unfortunately, she's not here tonight. I wish she was. Yes. And I was on vacation last week, so I haven't had a chance to talk to her since.

Right. So, this gentleman, the lawyer, Is the paperwork done that you promised on August 11th to have wrote up for the next month for the three-strike rule? Would you call it something else?

Okay. So, Pete, please address counsel.

Oh, okay.

I will tell you, we have to have him this evening, and he said he'll have it done by the end of the month.

okay but the three strike rules is in effect yes it is it's in the current ordinance it's not dependent on the changes well they said that they'd call it a different name now they don't want to call it the three strike well no it's disruptive conduct but it doesn't preclude us from doing their step right now okay so

Neither of them are here. Maybe you don't know, but I'm going to ask it anyways. If the cops have been there all summer long since April, I only found out that two people got arrested in all of these brawls.

I just can't find that.

I find that really hard to believe.

Are you hearing the same thing? Only two people?

That's my understanding.

Yeah.

were there one night well you read my paperwork they were there one night for three brawls you know and then i told you about the baseball fast fight nobody arrested so the biggest problem that we suffer with in this office is i'm not going to blame the police i'm not going to blame coach but for that three-strike rule to work there has to be communication between the police department and and the codes department to have follow through on that I know the police have been overwhelmed so I don't want to make excuses for them I don't want to blame on me either it's just a policy we have to work on to make sure that that information is flowing

Keith, I wanted to also let you know we did have a meeting today with the attorney, the solicitor, the police, and also the administration about improving the lines of communication related to the three strikes or disruptive conduct process. So we are working on improving those communication lines.

Well, like I said to Mr. Kaufman after that last meeting out in the hallway, I told him, that he said we don't have nothing to do with them over there they're saying we don't have nothing to do over there and i said well why don't we just put a ping pong table out here and pat the ball back before i mean somebody somebody's got to take responsibility here for something yeah i mean come on two people being arrested well that's i mean that's not our side but the um writing up writing up the the disruptive conducts

That's on the free side, and then it gets passed on to the coach department on this side. And then that process gets followed through.

I understand a lot of politics here, but I just couldn't believe that when I finally heard that.

I mean, now, you know, it's calmed down a little bit.

It really has. But they have their spurts where they act up again, you know, because they don't like the way one person looks or one, you know. They're not fitting in down there. Well, thank you. Thank you.

Kaylee Thompson.

Good evening, Council. Hope you have a nice holiday weekend. Robert, my husband, can't be here tonight. He was downtown on Thursday morning meeting with several local businesses and then as a pedestrian defending himself from engagement with two separate drivers, he was arrested. At the same intersection where there have been two fatalities, and three injuries in the span of three weeks and one day. I'm not here to speak to the details of an active case, but I am here to ensure we, the citizens of Columbia, are heard. Robert's delivery is not to everyone's liking, but the message stands. It's not a personality contest, it's public safety. So we'll change the messenger but know that every pause is still a silent four letter word and this is an ongoing call for action. Reportedly a borough employee and representative of the community told Robert he's the quote, only one who cares about pedestrian safety in this borough. I didn't hear it directly, but I am personally offended by the idea alone. It raises concern for awareness and engagement as a community, nevermind the questions it creates for conduct as a public servant and representative of the borough. I would hope you also find it offensive, but I'm here to advocate. So we as a community are angry. We are scared, we are not safe, and we don't accept it. Pedestrians are treated as offenders and afterthoughts within the limits of the borough and beyond. Our only defense is to use the lights and crosswalks to be visible, to be loud, to make eye contact. The questions are not why is a car close enough to touch, but why would a pedestrian touch a vehicle from a crosswalk? You make eye contact, you hold up your hand, you say, stop. started columbia walks in may to raise awareness and to do my part i wanted it to be fun and i still do to do workshops with school kids and student drivers to give them tools to be responsible adults a mileage club a 5k a passport with businesses and discounts or prizes downtown to partner with ems and borough government on low cost and high reward changes near term and prioritizing long-term infrastructure improvements The problem is, as of August, it's not fun right now. People are engaged because it's heartbreakingly serious, and I can't encourage anyone to go on our streets right now. So why, as drivers, as citizens, would you point a two-ton vehicle at someone's child, someone's grandmother, and continue to approach? What's it gonna take? What if it was your kid, your sister, your father? Why wouldn't you step in and speak or protect someone else in the community? We're not more important, but we're all people. Pedestrians have less protection, less than bikes, less than motorcycles, less than cars or big trucks. Kids have less than adults, disabled less than fully able, short less than tall, slow less than fast. We've proposed a light and signal timing change. PennDOT confirmed for ownership of signals, but yes, there's a process to change the timing. Start it, pilot study it, I'm here to help with that. Six weeks, three months, whatever it takes. Leverage low-cost test builds to gather data for long-term improvements. Engage the community and artistic talents. Use events like the upcoming Art in the Park and Albowich and Fourth Saturday to close locusts for the day, if we can. Help people practice. This one's an easy lift, but the Walnut Street Road closure signs at 3rd and Walnut are literally in the Grouse Walk. I helped someone turn out of there and also see the pedestrian the other day because it blocks visibility completely. Come join me for a walk. Give me the time and I'll come to you. I would ask that Borough PD also invite a plainclothes walk with me to experience it as a citizen. A life is vastly bigger value than someone's ego or political career or individual family. So I ask all of you, what's your impact going to be?

And show up for yourself.

Thank you.

Kevin Martin.

Hello.

My name is Kevin Martin. Robert Thompson is my best friend. He is a good man and I'm here tonight because he cannot be here himself because the borough and its police department continue to make claims against him that do not match the evidence or the man I know. While I'm not a resident of Columbia, I used to spend a lot of time here visiting my friend Robert. We walked around town, We went out to eat, frequented Columbia's businesses like Kettle Works and Rocky's. Those businesses didn't drive us away. Columbia's streets did. My wife is no longer comfortable coming here with me to see my best friend and his family. Now when me and Robert get together, we meet in Mannheim, Lititz, E-town, practically any place except Columbia. we've even stopped coming to Columbia for Thanksgiving because of an incident that happened in front of his house when I was trying to park you know we just don't get together as much as we used to and when my wife watches the news she hears not only the events around tonight but the lewdness the assaults the rates stabbings shootings and just the uh open season on pedestrians you know i bet i admit i still come to you know roberts for christmas because i'm not going to miss his prime rib i just carry that um but yeah i mean this a pedestrian safety issue is also costing your town money in meals tips drinks that aren't being sold and it's costing lives and robert's been worrying you about it he's warned you for months and yeah i mean i know nobody likes robert's tone or language but he does have a good heart and when he believes someone's in danger he steps forward he'll help anyone he is a good man but your police department doesn't see that way yeah now we have you know people dead people hospitalized and You know, Robert can't even be here for himself to talk about because he's on house arrest. So, you know, you've pushed me away and my family away from seeing our friends. And that should just be embarrassing. I'm happy to be a member of Columbia Walks because I want to come here again, go to the new businesses like the commodity shop, but not until my family feels safe coming with me. So, you know, whenever Robert's permitted to come back, you know, if things haven't changed, he'll probably be louder. So, you know, I just ask you guys to fix this. You know, there's, it can be done.

Thank you.

good evening my name is kyle thompson robert burton thompson this is my older brother this is a timeline what the borough supplied and what it did not we will attempt to save the borough the not fun issue of having this in the wild, insofar as this issue will be discussed, even if minimally, among counsel and direction be given to Brommer and Arndt in regards to Coleman Smith by the end of this council meeting. According to the 2013 labor record Robert was identified, Officer Brent Smith fought Columbia's requirement that police personnel acknowledge professional standards of conduct. pursued that fight to the state level and lost on may 22nd 2026 robert says smith smith threatened to arrest him while robert was demanding pedestrian protection robert also says smith's body cam recorded smith discussing how if robert became a crossing guard and was struck by a vehicle smith could find a way to arrest or charge him we have the body cam Watch it, and judge Smith by his own words. On May 28th, Smith called Robert at approximately 5.52 p.m. about a man allegedly involved in an incident that day on Lancaster Avenue with a rake. Robert denied involvement. At approximately 6.11 p.m., according to Smith, the rake became pitchfork, and the date became May 19th. Robert formally requested the calls and related video. Act 22, request 2026-015, 16, and 117, produced denial letter stating that the department does not record telephone calls. Request 2026-018, sought town camera footage. It was denied under Act 22 and redirected to the right to know process. Four requests. no recording supplied mr braumer then wrote repute repeatedly that the police department controls the community camera system yet no one has clearly identified who operates it who exports video who controls retention who receives preservation notices or who has legal custody of the files then came july 9. Smith was not identified as an eyewitness. Four days later, he filed two citations on information received, including the allegation that Robert remained in a crosswalk while two light cycles passed. Robert says Smith never interviewed him before filing those charges. That didn't stop Smith from posting on Facebook and Crime Watch that he arrested my brother. The charging documents were for Robert Burko Thompson. My brother has very loudly, very proudly unequivocally robert burton thompson the fifth he has a son six because he's the sixth of that name we have existed here since pennsylvania's founding not burto burton or for the lazy people you should all be embarrassed for that and that alone arrested whoever summary offenses never questioned just cuffed never arraigned just arrested Robert later recorded the signal timing. That recording does not conclusively recreate July 9th, but it estimates two complete cycles at approximately 157 to 159 seconds, more than two and a half minutes. He was in the intersection for 32 seconds, according to your own evidence. On August 30th, Robert called 911 and reported that a driver approached him, reached into a vehicle for an unidentified object, and then followed him through Columbia. Robert did not claim that he saw a gun. He reported that he feared the object might be a weapon. Les Hemfield contacted Columbia. According to Robert's contemporaneous complaint, Smith's earlier rape report affected how this new call was handled. What was not supplied was Smith's report, any warning or credibility notation associated with Robert's name. or any lawful explanation for why an old allegation that produced no charges affected a new emergency report. On August 31st, Chief Arndt opened Borough Report 2608038836 and Internal Affairs Matter IA 2026001. On September 1st, at the Department's request, Robert delivered his full complaint packet for Chief Arndt. Followed up in writing and said that he trusted you to review it in good faith. Trust you, Holly. You'll never earn that back. You cannot let my brother trust you and then break that trust. It does something to him. You lost your loudest, proudest ally. You should have seen the speech you wrote to polish that badge of yours to shine a little brighter. According to the service materials that will be released, Robert had also served the district attorney with his full complaint concerning Smith, including a Giglio notice and a Brady violations claim. On September 3rd, two days after the police complaint was delivered, Smith signed a new criminal complaint against Robert. He arrested my brother, this time as Robert B. Thompson Smith. That complaint gives the incident time as approximately 1136 AM. Smith's affidavit says approximately 1035 AM. That is a difference of one hour and one minute inside the same complaint. Smith also swore that he reviewed surveillance video from a nearby business. One typo does not prove retaliation. One incorrect time does not prove dishonesty, but the sequence cannot be ignored. August 31st, internal affairs open. September 1st, Robert delivered the requested complaint. Before the arrest, the district attorney received Giglio and Brady complaints. claims concerning Smith. September 3rd, Smith became an affiant against a person who complained about him, and Robert lost his liberty. I believe Smith knew he was under investigation and retaliated at the first opportunity. At the absolute minimum, the borough failed to screen an obvious conflict. Before this meeting adjourns, council must address this on record, identify the actual camera custodian, commit to an outside investigation, Remove Smith from further non-emergency matters involving Robert. Protect the rest of us from him as well. Direct the immediate public release of every video and record that can lawfully be released with an itemized legal explanation for anything withheld. Council does not have to complete the investigation tonight. Council must take some concrete action before this meeting closes. A motion, preservation directive, an independent review order, or a firm public release schedule. council adjourns without doing so robert will immediately release with legally required redactions complete complaint delivered to the police department complete complaint and giggle radio submission served on the district attorney the denial letters mr braumer's emails the charging papers every radio currently in robert's possession and a list identifying every recording and file the government has not supplied. The full package will also be sent to WGAL and LNP for independent review. Chief Farn, fix your sinking ship before Mr. Braumer leaves you to blame for the dumpster fire you seem bordering on unwilling to put out. You may have helped build this culture, but this is your watch now.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council.

I'm a relatively new resident here. I moved in, I'd say probably about three, four years ago, somewhere around there. I moved here because I thought the town was a great, great little town. My in-laws, they live right up the road, have lived there for God knows how many years. I thought that this was very terrible. And in the years since, I have been proven wrong. And I know this might seem drawn out at this point, so I'm asking you please to just bear with me and hear the words that I have to say, because a lot of this does come from a personal place for me as well. But I am also here as a friend of Robert Thompson's. I am here to speak on his behalf and my behalf and the behalf of my children and his children and all the other citizens in this community. Robert Thompson is a good friend of mine. I'm here to bear witness tonight because the borough, and particularly this police department, continues to tell a version of Robert's conduct that I know is not true. Officer Brent Smith charged my friend with disorderly conduct in obstructing a highway over what happened on July 9th, 2026. This borough should hang its head in shame. This borough no longer resembles an America that I am familiar with, an America that I put my life on the line to defend as a National Guard veteran. How many times do residents have to come before this council and beg you to listen? How loud must we speak before our safety as much as protecting our reputation of this borough and its police department? I am not here merely as Robert's friend. I am a father of a seven-year-old child. And I am the father of a five-year-old autistic daughter who cannot safely roam these streets without supervision. My family depends on this borough to provide the streets, provide streets that children can cross without being struck, threatened, or blamed for being in the way. We depend upon the police to protect pedestrians, not merely to defend the drivers after something terrible happens. but your police department has not protected us. That leaves families like mine dependent on ordinary citizens with enough courage and moral conviction, like Robert and Callie Thompson and the Columbia walks that they started to stand between a dangerous vehicle and another human being. Robert has repeatedly been one of those people. You may dislike his tone. You might think he's loud. He yells. You may dislike that he refuses to be quiet when someone is in danger. But when the painted lines don't protect us, when enforcement doesn't protect us, and repeated complaints do not protect us, Robert is still willing to stand there and say, stop. You are not going to hurt this person. This is not vigilantism. This is a citizen refusing to stand by silently while someone else is placed in danger. And instead of examining why residents feel forced to intervene, your police department arrests the person who intervenes. On July 9th at approximately 3.15 in the afternoon, I was there. I was downtown with Robert looking at a job. I recently was put on short-term disability for a back injury.

The doctor said it would be better if I was

Robert stopped at that intersection because a vehicle was moving toward me. In stopping that vehicle from striking him, he also stopped it from striking me. I know this because I was the person in danger. The short video the borough produces does not show the full incident. I do not appear in it. It begins too late, ends too early, and does not establish the full reason Robert remained in the intersection he was legally entitled to occupy in its entity. despite that officer smith claimed that robert obstructed the intersection for approximately two complete traffic cycles that claim matters it is not a harmless mistake it was to justify criminal charges against a real person the available video and measured timing of that intersection does not support the claim that robert remained there for two complete cycles from what i witnessed it wasn't even one full cycle so i am asking counsel directly why is a serious factual contradiction in the police account being ignored Why has the complete footage not been treated as essential evidence? And why is the eyewitness standing before you tonight apparently less important than the officer's disputed description? And why is Officer Smith still being permitted to make allegations against Robert without an independent review of whether his prior statements were accurate? I'm not asking you to accept my conclusion without investigation. I'm asking you to conduct your own investigation. Preserve every video, preserve every report, preserve every body camera recording, dispatch entry, message, note, and communication associated with the July 9th incident and later charges against Robbins. have someone outside the police department compare officer smith's account with the footage the traffic signal timing the testimony of the people who were actually there and if that investigation establishes that an officer intentionally included materially false information in a report or testimony terminate him that's what my employer would do to me if i lied to him anyone else Have someone outside the police department. Oh, sorry. And if that investigation... Additionally, I want counsel, the mayor, and police chiefs to go on record tonight the exact wording we as pedestrians would take as an explanation of our rights within the crosswalk. The law states within define within, because Officer Smith states that a vehicle breached the crosswalk with the pedestrian in it. So define it for us. Make it unequivocal, unequivocal. What I want assault charges for every vehicle that dares to go close to a pedestrian within a crosswalk that they can touch the car is unacceptable. I want to clear ownership of our crosswalk state laws to yield to pedestrians within a crosswalk. How you how you keep not understanding that breaks my little brain. A badge should demand greater accountability, not to provide immunity from it. Chief Arndt, I am speaking directly to you now. I am not necessarily sure which one of you that would be. He's not here. Oh, okay. Alright. Fair enough then. I understand that you did not create every problem within this department. You inherited some of them. I also believe that this borough has been willing to let you absorb the blame while others protect themselves. But when you accepted command of this department, you accepted the responsibility for what it does under your leadership. That does not mean you personally caused every crash, injury or death. It does not mean that you were responsible for how your department responds to them. Two pedestrians died at 3rd and Chestnut. A child was hospitalized. And additionally, An additional pedestrian and bicycle-related strikes have occurred in the same area. Again and again, we hear explanations that shift responsibility toward pedestrians, bicycles, e-bikes, or scooters. It's always the pedestrian's fault. It's always the cyclist's fault. It's always the scooter's fault. It is everyone's fault, except for the person operating the several thousand-pound vehicle, the one who is legally required to be licensed, trained, insured, attentive, and in control. Then after all that, your department arrested the person who was standing in the streets demanding that the pedestrians be protected. Robert is not here tonight because he is on house arrest from charges pursued by this police department. Before that happened, he repeatedly asked you to intervene. He asked you to examine Officer Smith's conduct. He asked the borough to preserve evidence. He asked the department to stop treating him as the problem merely because he would not remain quiet. You did not resolve it. Now he is confined to his home and I am standing here speaking in his place. So here is what I am asking you to do. Begin an independent review of Officer Smith's conduct and dispute a July 9th account. Preserve and examine all available evidence. Create an actual pedestrian safety response for the school routes and the dangerous intersections in between them that are used by our children. And provide this community with a written explanation of what concrete actions will be taken. You have two weeks before the next council meeting. Use them. Because if there's no genuine movement, no preserved evidence, no independent review, no safety, no plan, no accountability, I'll ask Robert to come before you himself as soon as he is legally permitted. I will ask him to be forceful. I will ask him to be relentless. I will ask him to demand answers until someone finally provides them. Not because I enjoy confrontation, because reasonable requests have been ignored. Robert has my full support. He speaks for me. He speaks for families like mine. He speaks for parents who should not have to escort their children through dangerous streets while wondering whether the police will protect the driver, blame the pedestrian, or arrest the person who objects. You may not like how Robert delivers the message. That does not make the message untrue. It does not erase the evidence. It does not make our children safe. Chief Arndt, fix this, because tonight, continue, tomorrow, keep fixing this. Until this department protects these pedestrians as seriously as it protects its own reputation, Robert Thompson will return to this room when he is legally able to do so. Use the time between now and then wisely, because he speaks for me, he speaks for us, and we want him to continue doing what he's been doing, only louder. with language that makes you more uncomfortable, with demands that are more unreasonable, and because you have repeatedly refused to hear our reasonable ones. And just personally, on a side note, like I said, I'm a father of a seven-year-old and a five-year-old, five-year-old daughter with autism. I'm terrified to let her stay the night at a friend's house. because I think something might happen, that I'm not going to be there for her. I won't let her go out of my front door without me next to her. I personally look both ways on a one-way street. It's unacceptable. I thought this was a place that I could raise my family, and now I'm questioning even that. But thank you for your time, and I hope this improves things.

Good evening, you all. Is there a new person in the chairman's seat? You know, by you coming back from your cruise, it tells me the sharks don't like smoked meat. See, if you didn't smoke, you might not have come back. But anyway. Keith back here is a good friend. I knew his father very, very well. But I get to thinking, I remember way back when the three strikes come on the books. Now if anybody's been looking at that, it probably has a date there. Does anybody know how long that's been on the books? It's probably on, I'm sure the date is on there when that was implemented. And I remember coming up different times down through the years. I get to thinking maybe the police interpret this in different ways that there were very few that this ever affected. I never liked it. I never liked the three strikes and you're out. So along with that, somebody interpret how the ordinance is right now. How does it work right now, the way it is? You say you're going to change it, you're going to look at things. Somebody give me an off the wall thing.

So the way that it is, the definition of disruptive conduct right now basically says that if the police are called to a rental property, any time for three times within a 12 month period that that person the landlord is required to evict that person unless that person is a victim of domestic violence and there's a protection from abuse order that's that's what's written in the code right now in a general sense There was a law that was passed that makes some of that an issue, particularly there's some more protection that needs to be added to that exception for just victim, more than just victims of domestic violence that are under a protection from abuse order. So that's what we're trying to modify, but it's still in the ordinance and outside of that context. You know, we'd like to. That's why we met with the police today to take a look at some of that.

So it has to be disruptive conduct. It can't be for maybe a car that was parked the wrong way. They couldn't get out of the driveway or something. It has to be disruptive.

Yes, exactly. Disruptive conduct kind of encompasses several disorderly assaults, things like that. But yeah, I think it generally is something in that realm.

Okay, so they could... exactly so they couldn't the police could have been there numerous times but it has to be for them issues right there hmm I'm just trying to understand it just looking at this it looks like it was put in place in 2013 yeah that's pretty good you know I see the mayor and she Holly's not here The mayor we can do without, but Chief Holly, where has she been? I mean, she's missed so many meetings. She's our police chief. I know she's busy. I tried to make an appointment with her, and then I canceled it because I wanted to catch her here. But my bottom line question is, who does Chief Holly answer to?

Who is her boss?

The mayor. The mayor.

America so nothing now the mayor takes off too so Holly is not here tonight because there is mandatory training that is happening this week for the police department and she is conducting that training okay well I'm including the other times that she was missing too well I appreciate that that's what is happening there's mandatory training and she

Okay, I'm just curious. Thank you much.

Chris Weiss.

Hey, everybody. I was hoping my first time getting up to speak here would be about something way more fun and cool. But this is really important. It's really important to me. It's really important to everyone in our community. I'm here to obviously support Callie and Robert Thompson. I come here today as a very concerned resident, homeowner, serial volunteer. I absolutely love volunteering. I'm currently the vice president of the Columbia Borough School District PTP and loving it. I was on the MAC board for a year. We had so much fun promoting downtown and the small businesses that exist here in Columbia and many other things. Helped Callie and Rob start the Columbia Walks project. And it's just been amazing to see what they have done with this project only since May, building an app. launching a website. It's incredible to see how far they've come with literally a tiny little ragamuffin bunch of people in such a short time. It's mind boggling to me. We moved from New York, upstate New York, a little town called Hudson. It is a little town that's filled with antique and vintage shops. So when we decided to move to Columbia, It was primarily because of the vibe here, the vintage shops, the little cafes, the restaurants, Henkels, all of the amazing places here that make it so incredible to just literally walk outside your front door and go out and walk to all these amazing places. the the reason why we purchased our home specifically was because of urban walkability and the walkability of this town um i loved being able to walk my kids to school being able to walk you know across the streets of boring barn hang out with with karen for a bit genie knows so this town was like a godson to me because it was it gave our family the ability to not have to get in a car we could walk anywhere we need to be and get anything we needed to get but this year again it's been the past year has been really eye-opening for me and i have to be honest with you i no longer feel safe walking around the way i did before especially with my children I have witnessed Robert literally save lives. I have witnessed him and others almost get hit by cars. I myself have almost been hit. I have also I was one of one of the people that was part of the last time he spoke that a car actually purposely tried to hit me, my kids and my friends children. This is not acceptable. It's just not. And this we have to have way more serious repercussions for drivers who purposely cause an unsafe environment for our pedestrians and our Children. So Robert and Callie, They were literally the first people that came up to me physically, came up to me and befriended me and my family. Of all the people in this town, I was very lucky that they came up to me first. And they were so welcoming. And I quickly realized what selfless, incredible people they were. They would say, hey, Chris, let's go to Roots. Let's go to Roots and hang out. And Robert would be buying food in bulk from the vendors at the end of the day to give to the local community food banks and the families here who couldn't afford to eat. These are the kind of people that I want in my town. These are the kind of people that I aspire to be like. They have taught me to say more and do more and be an active community member even more than I already was and speak up. with intelligence, experience, and also make it fun because, you know, it's not it's not always fun talking about this stuff. I know you guys are probably bored half the time, but look, Columbia Walks is the most incredible support to our community and our walkability, and especially the small businesses that rely on the safe walkability. This is so important. There are businesses in our town that are struggling. I talk to them all the time. They're not doing great. And it's because we're losing customers. And being on the MAC board taught me a lot as well. We are losing so many customers. I was at the Amos Herr Hemp Rec Flea Market on Monday, Labor Day. and do you know how many people i ran into from lancaster that i would say oh i'm in columbia now you gotta come down you come gotta come down and see us it's really such a cool vibe you're gonna love it do you know what they all said to me oh you're crazy oh you're nuts i can't believe you moved to columbia i can't believe you bought a house in columbia you've got to be out of your mind How do you think that feels? I get this feedback every day. Two of my best friends were like, why the heck did you buy a house in Columbia? You have lost your mind. Well, guess what? I love my house. I love my neighborhood. I love my community. I love the walkability. And the people care so much. Robert cares more than most. And Kelly and Robert together are such an incredible team. We are so lucky to have them here in Columbia and to have them here just rooting for us and helping us make a difference. And that's all it takes is a couple of loud voices making a difference in our community. We've you guys, we got to do better. You know that we all know that. And I think we can all work together to make it a better place. I think Columbia Walks is an awesome start to really getting people involved with pedestrian safety and driving with purpose and driving in a way that doesn't put people's lives at risk. Thank you. Thank you.

All right.

Thanks for approval.

Consider approval of the Borough Council meeting minutes for August 25th, 2026.

Second.

I have a motion by Councilman Cooper, second by Councilman Byers to approve Borough Council meeting minutes for August 25th, 2026. Questions, concerns? all in favor say aye aye consider approval of borough council meeting managed for september 1st 2026. so moved i have mentioned by councilman byer second by councilman cooper consider approval referral council meeting minutes for september 1st 2026 any questions or concerns all in favor say aye aye aye presentation second w a a n w a c c brad p award

good evening my name is david gray i'm joined by my colleague troy oakum we'll go from gms funding solutions and we work with the national association of puck and watch collectors to secure and administer state funding grant funding for their museum and tonight i want to briefly explain the background um later in the meeting you'll be considering items a and b on a new business that's related to this So back in July, the NAWCC received another award through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program of $250,000. This is to go along with another RACP award back in 2023. So in total, they have $500,000 in RACP funds. borough's role in this process is RACP requires a public applicant and grantee to serve in that role and Comey borough has traditionally supported the museum through that process by serving in that role not only in RACP but also through the local share account program the borough has served as the applicant and grantee for that program the museum's intent is to use the funding for HVAC improvements to the museum as well as improving their parking lot and potentially landscaping and facade improvements to the exterior so at this time i guess i'll open up any questions or concerns you may have anything i can address it's the clock tower so if the clock works i can i can ask that was daily by normal one day So just first you're going to be asked to consider a resolution authorizing the borough to serve as the applicant and grantee for the combined 2023 and 2025 RACP awards and then there's a revised cooperation agreement between NAWCC and the borough for the funding so again thank you again for your support of the museum and it's a very critical partnership. Thank you.

have motion by councilman cooper second by councilman murphy to approve the bill payments. Any questions or concerns? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Consider approval, we're going to consider the approval of budget payments to the following community organizations. The first one is for $5,000 to the Columbia Historical Preservation Society.

Do they all need to be separate motions?

I think they should be. They should be for audit purposes.

So moved.

And these are ones that we approved in the budget last year. I have a motion by Councilman Byers, second by Councilman Cooper. So approved. the award of $5,000 to Columbia Historic Preservation Society. All in favor say aye. Aye. The second one is Mount Bethel Cemetery in the amount of $5,000. Second. I have a motion by Councilman Cooper, second by Councilman Ziegler to approve the amount of five thousand dollars to mount peplum cemetery question all in favor say aye aye aye the third one is to the columbia public library that we now have twenty thousand dollars so moved second that motion by councilman byer second by councilman cooper To approve the payment to Columbia Public Library in the amount of $20,000. All in favor say aye. Aye. And the last one. This is $1,000 to Columbia United Veterans Council. So moved. I had a motion by Councilman Ziegler, second by Councilman Cooper, to approve the payment of $1,000 to Columbia United Veterans Council. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you.

Yeah, I'm not up here to dispute that. I just want to know if there's any more that we need to pay that we didn't budget for.

We didn't. These were all budgeted. We already paid CCAT.

Oh, okay. Sure.

I didn't know that. And there's still the second for the fire department.

We paid the parts for the fire company. There's still a second half of that yet, too. Thank you.

Yep.

When will that second payment for the fire department be done?

It's up to council. Are they asking?

No, I'm asking because...

I mean, if we're in a good position, we could do it at the next regular meeting.

So, the second half of that payment has to do with the ladder truck purchase. And we told them that we will approve giving them that money. We'd like to hold on to it as long as we can. So, unless they need it, I recommend you hold on to it as long as you can.

That's good.

Senator approval of participating in the alternate dispatch pilot program with Penn State Lifeline. Councilman Ziegler, can you fill me in on that a little bit?

So, we had a couple of representatives at our work session and they are considering are requesting that we participate in this alternative program in which it frees up skilled more advanced ambulances to allow others to have a 15 minute window to respond to less than emergency calls. The calls are broken down into three different classes. Code 3 is the lowest priority. 2 and 1 would still be responded to, as it always has. They're going to see if the Code 3 calls can be handled by less advanced units prior to their dispatch. West Hemfield, I believe, and a couple other corridor jurisdictions have already signed on and it appears to be working out and I believe the reason that is a cost-effective way for them to use their resources more more wisely in responding to these calls this has also been implemented in two other counties yeah do you remember the two i believe it was yeah dolphin and cumberland county uh we're not this is uh Definitely a trial period. We're not locked into this for the duration of our contract. If we find it unacceptable, this is us allowing them to try this and see if it's more effective than it has been. and this is actually linked to extra dispatch correct yeah so lex your dispatches of course all of their dispatches are trained to code these calls um they'll be dispatching the the calls that they always have been into different classifications and then assigning them to uh to the uh responders okay so this is labeled lifelines Because there are. Correct. There are contracted ambulance service, but it's going to go through Lancaster County as far as the dispatching goes. All right.

Thank you. I know one of the things they said, hopefully they'll be able, since they're contracting with us, they'll be able to serve us more than they have been in the past with special class and class recall. I was surprised when he described some of the class recalls. He actually said two things. I was like, what?

do you think people actually call oh yeah they call 9-1-1 for a tooth it's a good transport to the city yeah yeah the way he um described it it would basically give those less urgent um responders time to free up time to free them up before they have to this by the mutual

there was a 15 minute window that it's not as if they're adding on a 15 minute time to uh response time they're just giving an opportunity for other units to respond uh before they're dispatched so right and it's not like every class three call would have that 50 minute hold it would be only if all available minutes are i know one thing we'll have to be responsible as a council as

they had said they would report back. I thought that was like one, three and six months to make sure we get that report so we can really see how it's working.

Yeah. You missed it, Eric, but two gentlemen here explained that at the last meeting. I was totally lost. I mean, they went into so much information. I had no idea. But I get to thinking When I call for an ambulance, I'm in trouble. It's an emergency to me. So now I'm thinking, if these people agree to this, I'm going to call for an ambulance. So now who, I don't know who, is going to make the decision there if this is life-threatening or whatever. Hell, it might go on for a half hour until they decide to make a,

when they answer your call they have a series of questions that they'll ask you that will help them know whether you need somebody right away or whether you can afford to wait while somebody who's maybe having a heart attack needs somebody right away you may have a cut that needs stitches. And if you hold something over it, it can be okay for 10-15 minutes. So they get there.

So Frank, I have the same concern you do. Um, but I will say one issue that we do have, especially in Columbia, is once our rig takes somebody to Lancaster General or to Penn State, wherever they decide to go, and they're in that end of the county, they may not make their way back to the end of the shift. Because the county will always send the closest rig to that call. If you're in the city and they have 10 calls in the city, you're going to the city. You're not coming back to Columbia. This gives Columbia an opportunity for that rig to make it back because that rig may be a number one priority call rig, not a three.

Honestly, the prioritization all happens today. It happens today when you call. Because they're trying to decide which unit is most appropriate to send. They're not going to send paramedics when someone has a toothache. So that's already happening. The only difference is those that are less emergent may face... a delay in getting an ambulance out until for up to 15 minutes it may not even be that long until an appropriate rig is available yeah they said 15 minutes was also the maximum amount of time that they would delay anything it wouldn't necessarily be that if another vehicle was available yeah right they would send it right away so it's not necessarily

My next question, does the ambulance people assign so many units to Columbia? What happens if they're all being used regardless? When I call in, how do I know how long it's going to be until one of them get freed up?

I mean, they're both down on calls. And they'll call or they'll call LAMSA. And one of those ways will come in.

So it's like a response time won't be as quick either because they're coming for it. Rather than one that will be sitting here. Yeah.

and and how long was this pilot supposed to last one three and six months ago so anytime we could stop if you felt okay so if you agree to this uh to go with it and it becomes law or whatever um

lost my frame of thought sorry but we could cancel it tomorrow if we're not happy oh you can yeah okay we're not locked into a certain time period we're just getting reports at those times but if we're unhappy we can cancel us okay that was part of my question and are we we compelled to any funds of any kind for this no okay thank you i i will i will say one thing this is lexington county's direction

ice county controls dispatch so whether we agree to it or not they may eventually just go to it anyway we're kind of just like a testing pilot right there yeah so if there are problems it's good for us to identify them right right and i believe if they do find a way to control costs by using these pilot programs i think that saves the consumer when it does come down to us eventually having to provide funds for that right

Yeah, it's according to what the information is in the in the agenda for the season. Frank, it's a six. They're looking at this is a six month program at the end of six months are going to evaluate and say, hey, we're going to go with it or we're going to can it and And if you look in your gen, you'll see it has a certain data collection that they're really going to be specifically targeting on to see if this program's worthy or not.

Of course, Frank, we're not going to just rely on that. We're going to rely on the citizens' reactions with this new pilot program. That's going to be important. It'll probably be more important to get the citizens' reaction to what they're experiencing when they're using this new system.

I think Frank's answer about how long it takes because I'm a frequent flyer with the ambulance and I told them to put that behind my name besides foot. It's not long, Frank. It's not long at all because I go all the time with the ambulance and it couldn't be anybody. So it's not, you know, it's not long. It's really not. Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm going to make a motion that we approve this pilot program, the Alternative Dispatch Pilot Program with the Penn State Lifeline.

I have a motion by Councilman Bigler, second by Councilman Cooper. To approve the participation in the alternate dispatch pilot program with Penn State Lifeline. All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. Consider approval of memorandum of understanding with the Columbia Catholic College.

So moved. Second.

to have a little discussion absolutely so i mean we did look at it we didn't get a whole lot of time but this is with them folding mill street and completely and permanently into this project the 400 block the 400 i'm sorry the 400 block to make this happen right yeah

They would still need all of the necessary approvals from adjoining property owners and everything like that. But this is just kind of an understanding that, yes, you understand that may be part of the project.

Yeah, but that is all intent to move forward with vacation.

I'm Andrew Brown. I have a question for you. Do you know if Clean Right is okay with this?

I don't know that Clean Right is okay with it, but I do know there's been some dialogue.

What effect would it have on, like you said, on their building down there and getting their parking to improve?

I know there was discussion with Clean Right because their plan was to use the fourth and as an exit point for the trucks. So, I don't know if discussion is happening with Catholic Charities and Clean Right. I kind of would like a blessing. I would like a blessing before we approve this. Only because that's a large business in Columbia. Not on a block of traffic.

What's the option to be barber or plane? So, it's an impact there.

I kind of feel like it sounds like the Catholic Housing has already started that conversation with them

And I mean, I don't know, I don't know if it's necessary for us to wait to hear from that. Because I think it's, you know, this is just our Yeah, it's not like final approval or anything. Correct.

That's exactly like there is nothing in here that is legally binding, right? Like if you went through the process, and you got a lot of objections from clean, right, or any other adjoining property owner, there's nothing in here that obligate you to do the straight vacation so just to be clear on that but i i don't disagree with you thank you by approving this what what's the bottom line if you approve it what does it mean you're binding to where it is yeah you're not legally binding to anything that is in here it basically is a A written document that says we're going to work towards this end goal with you and we have an understanding of what that land development process is maybe going to look like. But there really isn't anything that is legally binding in this document.

Do you remember the presentation they gave us on the Trinity House, the second edition? The way they turned the lot beside Mill Street and Mill Street into a parking lot? That's what this is saying.

Did we ever do this before?

Block off streets?

No, this memorandum thing. What you're going to vote on tonight, did we ever do that before?

Yes.

Not that I know of.

Not with Trinity. No. So we have another memorandum. Yes. With who?

i don't know that you've done one for land development process since i've been here at least but there are other memorandum of understandings that that have been done i'm trying to think oh yes for the for the water line the water line we did the mou we also do mous with um with the neighboring police departments we have to do those

And the school district as well. It's kind of hard to explain because I know it seems kind of ridiculous to have a written document that doesn't really legally bind you to anything. But I think what this does is help give both sides the assurance that they can spend the money to start to move forward on this project. right like if the borough was going to say we will not vacate mill street no matter what right then there's not much point in them spending any more money on engineering or anything like that so that's kind of where this this is that we're saying we'll look into it we'll if the process you know moves forward in that direction everybody's okay with it we'll work towards that goal

And it gives them the ability to go to other people that they may need to discuss with and say the borough has given us this document. Specifically banks for financing and things like that.

Okay. Does council know exactly what they're going to do? I know Paul made a presentation here.

I don't think you're going to know exactly what they're going to do until they have submitted a land development plan and you go through that process.

But the main thing that they showed was using some of that street for additional parking. And it does say in here specifically that there is a public access easement as part of the land development process in that space. um they did say that they were fine with like if some through traffic like residential through traffic comes through there um but yeah they did they did give us that presentation with an idea of what they were hoping to have there so they're not going to build on the street no they're not going to build ours and we'll use that for parking but they're looking at vacating mill street that's the 400 block between fourth and fifth yeah

I just would feel better that you know, going into this just go slow and they're not building on for sure.

The mat with the presentation gave us showed us building back further.

And they would use that in that lot that there's an empty lot across the street from where we're working through the filming set for milk systems.

The streets right next to that lot.

They want to vacate. That street right across from Trinity House, they want to vacate to make the parking. Why can't they use that lot for parking and let the street open?

Well, the street will still partially be open, to be clear.

The whole point is to build another high-rise building to expand the number of units for

Do you know where that would be built?

On the existing parking lot.

On the current land.

Oh, they're going to take some of that parking away.

And then by adding a second one, you basically double the required parking amounts.

Like I said, I feel better if you know exactly what's going to be going in there. Thank you.

We have a good idea. We don't know.

You won't know for sure until, you know, they submitted something official, but based on what they've shown, the borough here.

So we're going to move forward with this. I have a motion by Councilman Byers, second by Councilman Cooper. to approve the memorandum of understanding with the Columbia Catholic Housing any other questions all in favor say aye aye new business consider approval of a sub-applicant cooperation agreement between the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, and the Borough of Columbia regarding the Rack B Award.

Second.

I have a motion by Councilman Cooper, second by Councilman Murphy. to approve a sub-advocate cooperation agreement between the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors and the Bureau of Columbia regarding the Rackfield Award. All in favor say aye.

Aye. Just a question before this gets, it looks like it is in in a resolution format so i'm not sure if it was meant to be like that but the first now therefore statement is a link that can't be used so that needs resolved with words and it needs to not be have to draft watermark

I thought that was part of the first one. I was looking down just as the resolution part starting with the pages.

Yeah, the wording can be the point.

Is that part of the resolution?

No, that is part of the MOU. No, no, that's that's the that's an agreement with the National Watch. It's very similar to the, I mean, that type of agreement is very similar to what you'd see in a resolution, but that's just how that's corrected.

Any other questions or concerns? a motion by councilman byers second by councilman cooper to approve memoranda of understanding what the club sorry a motion by councilman cooper second by councilman murphy to approve the sub-applicant cooperation agreement between the National Association of watch.

We did both. Oh, we did. Yeah, we're on.

Yeah. I'm sorry, we need a motion for me. Consider approval resolution.

Number 2026. To authorize the National Association of Washington

contractors to file a project management proposal for a RACB grant any amount of $500,000 for a museum renovation project.

So moved.

Second. I don't have any questions.

actually I do yeah well because in the thing it says authorizing the grant in the amount of five hundred thousand but then in the first whereas it says the grant is Oh, that's the original. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I got confused there. I just saw the numbers and I was like, wait a minute. Yeah, I know. That's the whereas.

The third whereas needs to be bolted.

Yeah, the third whereas needs to be bolted.

So we can't vote on this tonight. It's no good. No, we can. We can. I'm sorry.

The document was actually corrected. The correct document's in the packet.

All right. Sorry.

Well, now I just want to make sure you guys know where exactly. Yes.

Yes. Yep, it's awesome. All right.

Thank you. Thank you, Paul. Thank you. Thank you, Paul.

Consider approval of resolution number 2026-18 to authorize the National Association of Watch, and clocks to file a project management proposal for a rack feet grant in the amount of five hundred thousand dollars for the museum renovation project motion by councilman murphy second by councilman cooper all in favor say aye aye Consider approval of the Create Columbia Halloween Happenings event on Sunday, October 25th, 2026 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event will require the closure of South 3rd Street from Locust Street to Cherry Street for demos, food, and decorated cars.

So moved. Second. Second.

a motion by councilman cooper seconded by council buyers to approve the great columbia halloween happenings event on september 25th 2026 from 3 p.m to 8 p.m and including closure of south third street from roca street to cherry street all in favor say aye aye aye staff reports, comments, and announcements. So let's begin.

You guys obviously approved the amendment to the agreement of sale for 137, 147, and 149 South Front Street last meeting. As we were working through that, I spoke with Jeff Seibert from CEDC, and we are also going to start working on the agreement of sale for the Ridge Avenue property, the back portion of that. So I'm hoping that we can move through that. They've got a copy of the agreement to look at now. So I'm hoping that we can... we can move to getting that one um try to get that sold as well hopefully you know i don't know what the buy market is for that property but we'll see if we can get that sold as quickly as possible so just want to give you a brief update on that i'm confused i didn't i don't recall that we were selling the the javanite for the cedc

i thought we had i thought we said we were doing it was supposed to be an auction an auction or seal we talked yeah i i i'll be honest i spoke to the auctioneer and he said well yeah i know he's sitting on a public auction yeah but okay i mean that's i didn't realize as far as it went okay i didn't realize i will i'll pump the brakes on that then and we'll

yeah well no i mean if that's the way it's going i just i think we should have your approval before we bring it back i apologize i thought that was yeah yep okay and the one six six chapter one six six you're working yes i am hoping to have that done this week um and then we can get it in the packet for next meeting for you to approve that for advertising so we can get that if i may ask can we get that out to all the council that is a large document you are not kidding absolutely yep like i said that's my goal is to get it done this week so that way you have some time to review it before it goes into the packet so okay

And are you also then coordinating the 112 with it as well?

Yes, absolutely. Yep, that's part of that larger project. That's all I have.

Thank you. Engineer Bernardo is absent, but he said he had nothing to discuss. He was here. Borough Manager's Report.

A water pressure issue was discovered at the Maple Park restrooms, resulting in the temporary closure. So Columbia Water Company is aware of the issue, and they're going to hopefully remedy it sometime soon. But it's going to require actually opening up the roadway and getting into the main water pipe.

Do they tie it to that, or do we tie it?

I'm pretty sure they took care of the work. Yes. I also wanted to mention the budget meeting is going to be canceled for the 17th of this month. We're simply not prepared. We're still awaiting the insurance figures and the tax information. We haven't received that yet. And lastly, there's a special meeting that will be held on Thursday, September 24th at the high school auditorium. The purpose is to receive feedback from the community on a proposed data center ordinance.

September 24th at 7 p.m. No, it's 24.

It's Thursday. Yes, Thursday the 24th.

And that's the one specifically on the regulations, like the setback, the noise. That's a text document, yes.

So that's 7 p.m.?

7 p.m., right.

Again, I'm going to put something in.

anything else no yes this the one we're going to be discussing that meeting yes

Probably that Monday, when the agenda is done.

Yeah, we should be able to publish that agenda fairly early, because it's only one thing we're talking about. So, that will come out probably Friday or Monday. So, yeah, I'll publish that as soon as we can. boards commissions and committees upcoming upcoming meetings barb will be september 9th 2026 at 6 30 p.m parks and recreation september 10th 2026 at 7 p.m planning may be september 15th 2026 minutes approved manchester area sewer authority July 23rd, 2026.

Regular meeting minutes were approved.

Borough Council comments. I didn't forget. I wasn't told. CCAT is... I don't know. I think it is the second Wednesday. At the club to Washington's end. Liz usually sends me a reminder, she hasn't sent me a reminder in the last couple of weeks. So yes, CCAP meeting, Wednesday at seven. Clock can watch me then. 5.30, that's right, they do meet every now and then. Borough Council comments, let's start with Councilman Zickler.

Just very briefly, Public Safety, Councilman Byers, and I met with a group of representatives to include Mary Wickenheiser, our planning authority, Lancaster County Planning Authority, and a fairly good member of the school board, Jake attended, and representatives from the fire department and We're all out. Our focus was to look at some of the constructs of our pedestrian walking issues and also how we can incorporate the school board with their assistance or cooperation or feedback. And I'm not going to bore with all the notes, but our goal was to identify some of the things that we can work out, work on short term and then some of our long term goals. as we continue through the process i think councilman byers and i would like to open this up to the public at some point in time when we get everything uh get all our notes squared away and get some additional information so i'll let him fill them in anything he may have that i forgot thank you yeah i would just like to follow up

on what you basically touched on now i knew of the meeting i knew that there was good you know there's going to be good feedback coming from it um and cali i appreciate everything you guys are doing as well and you'll never hear me ever bad mouth anything that somebody does on a volunteer basis in this in this town what you're doing is is is ideal had to see it happening however there were some comments made this evening by people that spoke that i really take exception to one was that council doesn't care you don't care that was said repeatedly by people who came to speak in on behalf of it and the second was really disturbing was it's open season on people on people walking the streets that's just crazy okay um i walk the streets just like the lady said i moved here in 2002 one of the reasons we moved chose here was because of walkability i still i was walking my dogs today walked across many cross streets Hey, this is not strictly a council issue, but if everybody out in the audience thinks this is strictly a council issue, you are dead wrong. This is a community-wide issue, this is a school issue, and it is definitely a council and police issue. As far as enforcement, as far as cooperation between all, I'm being honest with you, the last conversation I had with school personnel, being the school board, their take on it was, hey, when the students leave the school property they're your problem they're columbia borough's problem that's been said to me repeatedly since i've been in council president back in 16 and 19 the same thing was said back then that's unacceptable we have to work together um i drive i'm sharing interviews focus you every day i drive in this town i and i took my granddaughter out I'm practicing driving on Sunday morning for her, working on her driver's permit. But, you know, you've got to be, your head has to be on a swivel if you're driving a car in this town. People will not, people cross routinely without pushing, whether we have the buttons or not, they don't push them, okay? They'll get out of their car. I've had one already. Two days ago, a person got out of their car in the middle of a block, just got out of the car, closed the car door, and started walking across the street. Never looked either way. I'm like literally 30 feet away. This happens all the time. Kids ride their e-bikes or e-scooters, whatever you want to call them, on the wrong side of the road. They will play chicken with you. Don't think they don't. Because they do. They'll come right at you and see if you want to stop. Because I've had conversations with a few of them already about their conduct and their behavior. So, I mean, at some point, you know, whether it's at a high school building or somewhere, we are, as a town, going to have to get together and talk about this. We want a whole much bigger picture about, you know, what are we teaching our kids? It starts in the home. Are we getting cooperation with the parents? Some of these kids should not be on the equipment that they are. Coming up, when I leave council a lot of times, I'll come up, and my wife helped me in the car with me. We go all the way up Cherry, turn left on 8th Street. There's a street that comes around the corner. There was a young boy, I swear he could not have been more than five. He came flying around the corner from the right, swung over that, going that fast, out of control, almost hit the curb on my side of the street. I had to stop dead, and he swerved his bike. and just missed hitting the front of my truck i was completely stopped he'd almost almost hit the front of my truck and as he whizzed by his eyes were as big as the moon so those are the type of things that happen all the time here and we have you know we can legislate it we can you know enforce it but you know we legislation enforcement's only going to go so far too we have to get cooperation from everybody in town to understand how big of a problem this is absolutely

So that is part of the purpose, is it does take all of us.

Absolutely.

I'm meeting with Chief Arndt and Dr. Rizzo on Thursday to sit down and talk about that collaboration. We've met with several organizations in town, and it started as collecting everyone's perspective. We've done that part. So now it's going to be starting to bring everybody together. Unfortunately, the events of this summer, who's predicting tornadoes in Columbia? No one that I'm aware of, but can't make some of this stuff up. That is when the community shows its strength and pulls together to, I don't know how many people showed up to help clean out the Keystone Building, but it was a lot. I wasn't able to. Not everyone is able to participate every time, but it's an active conversation. Yes, kids need better education on safe crossing. So do parents, some of them need support. Some of them are single parents that work two jobs and can't walk their kids to school. So it's all of that, but it's also leveraging all of our departments, all of our resources together. Everyone's resources are limited. We know chief aren't short staffed. We know the school district is underfunded. We know the borough is underfunded, but we can't drive safe streets and economic development and what that means for the community without solving the safety issues first. So I hear you, you didn't hit them because you were paying attention. pennsylvania has passed the phone law the pedestrians do too veterans have to do their part too veterans have to do their part and that's a problem that's a problem the bikes are a problem we're not speaking to that as much but other boroughs have done registration programs with scooters and bicycles you know we're we're also trying to back up what we're saying you know i i

let my kids pick helmets the other day here's a good topic for you to bring up too safe routes to schools yes we established that we changed routes you know back i think at 18 or 19. that's one of the reasons why eighth and locust is a four-way stop now because they're supposed to be using locust they're not supposed to be using the alleyways the avenues when i can you know when i called it a school Again, it's, oh, well, you know, it's just the kids can't all be expected to use the safe route to school.

But third, fourth, and fifth are also two of, or three of the, like, highest traffic intersections in town.

And 462, I mean... God bless.

And if I could comment in just a second, I didn't have the same experience that Councilman Murphy did. The school board members that were here were extremely responsive and very willing to assess. They understand that student pedestrians are

priorities here in columbia borough so they were very willing to assist us in some problem solving and doing what they can and and they have also my understanding is dr rizzo has worked to make some changes as well and i've offered to help document that change log and decision making so that it's not a question next time we'll have we tried this

And I think that goes to our goal of opening up to the public so that we get those folks on board and then our public on board and then we can sort of congeal as a community and look at the biggest look at the ways that we can maybe start solving some of these problems.

I and just one last thing I do think it's very important to define what yielding to a pedestrian and a crosswalk is supposed to mean in the borough so that the police can be unified to enforce it and the pedestrians can also understand their roles and responsibilities you know the lights don't all work the same way and you know if there's buttons there you gotta push it they don't all work but we all know people are trying to get at least well and that's part of the app um we are starting it's only been live for a couple of weeks but we're starting to get some good data that we would be happy to to share like where those trouble spots are um and what the nature of them are um and like you said that's that's the conversation i brought up with the mayor i think that's what he kind of

did some investigation on that i've been in other towns where like you said when you push that button that should stop all traffic all four ways to give you i think it's 20 seconds or something to get across i mean you'll see a lot of towns you'll see like the countdown and and actually i'm driving through lebanon last week um they actually have i know it's for hearing impaired but still it's an extra kind of little thing to bring your attention to there's a like a bird chirping sound

there's an apa compliance you're not supposed to stop it makes a difference on it that's it's just something else that pulls your attention it's visibility it's uh you know and and there are organizations we don't have a lot of our own funding yet but i'm working on that too um the ptp is potentially interested in helping with the school side just like the little sign right out here that sits in the middle of the street it's enough that you're going to slow down a little so you don't hit the sign at a minimum

so thank you thank you hi i just have something to add my name is corinne and I appreciate all that you do, but the e-bike scooter situation is out of control. Is there some sort of ordinance where I've seen eight-year-old kids on their bikes with their phone, riding their bikes. Is there some sort of, we're not allowed to do it as drivers. Why are they allowed to do it?

They're not allowed to be on the road.

Okay.

They're not allowed to be on the road, period.

They're not allowed to be on the road, period?

Correct.

Well, they're everywhere.

I understand that.

Totally agree.

Yes.

two police officers were shipped.

It's hard to control the whole town.

I get that, but it is out of control. I mean, I've seen them play chicken like you said. Oh, I agree. And it's horrible. And they're riding two people on a scooter, which is not safe either, with no protection whatsoever. No helmet. No helmet. No, it's nothing. I use a bicycle helmet. My husband refuses to, but I use a bicycle helmet.

Isn't part of that the parent's responsibility?

Yes. Yes.

That's the message we've got to get out to the parents. All right.

before you buy your kids they can't use it so i mean should we report it if we see it i mean i i would yeah i would report it i don't i just i don't know how much can be done because again we're limited resources and you can clean up the 400 block of i don't know any street but i know what the 600 block is going to get

i quite frankly i don't understand how they afford all these things because they're not they're not cheap and they're letting their kids go without protection it just seems ridiculous i know chief or i don't know if you were there last week chief or instead about they actually think there was some kid that was very inappropriate with his with his electric bike and they actually got video of him found out who it was and they actually went to the house and confiscated it so the kids there's work you take videos of it does that no i mean it happened to be absolutely yeah yeah all right because it is a serious situation somebody's going to get video all right but they're not supposed to be on the street at all okay all right thank you

When I left here August 25. After the meeting, I'm walking down five points and this kid right in the middle of this street, flew through the stop sign and there's cars going on four street coming over. Whoa, right through and I'm like, Good way to get killed there, kid. I mean, it's unbelievable.

A lot of them don't have lights.

No, no, no. I've got to commend the ones that I'm taking notice to, the ones that have the ones that go faster are buying the helmets and everything and the stuff that they're supposed to have.

I get it. It's cheap transportation, and there's people who use it to get to work and everything else. I understand that. I really do. But these kids, I'm saying kids, there's been adults here too, so it's not just kids. But my concern is the children. As parents, we need to do a better job. I'm not going to tell another person you can't buy a kid that bike, but at the same time, you should be investing and understanding on how to properly use it Where to stop at stop signs, you know, correct speeds and everything else before you let your kid just go out and run. And that's not happening.

And it is true. They're playing chicken, too. I've seen them, too. I know. I couldn't believe it, you know. They come down the street right at you. Thank you. I'm going to love you.

Yes, you do. Is that a thing?

Councilman?

Councilman Zink?

I realize that for manager was that the September budget meeting will not be happening but I wanted to bring something up we've not done for this year any sort of goal setting or anything like that we've not set priorities so to ask staff to come up with a budget we've not given them any direction and i think we really need to do that we we also need to look at look at things with the lens of the budget constraints as we're each working on different different things in our area and everything we need to start we need to be thinking about how much does this cost how much i mean what is the priority just an example at our public works meeting i asked for if we could get some costs on the line painting, the improvements for crosswalks and things like that. How much does this cost? Because it's one thing for us to sit here and say, okay, we want all of these intersections to have piano keys, the piano key crosswalks, because they're high visibility. But what does that cost? We actually found out it costs about $1,000 to do one curb to curb with piano keys. So when you have one intersection, that's a four grand to do one intersection with piano keys. So it's those kinds of things we have to look at. I had someone else email about wanting piano keys. Wanting a bunch of ordinances reworked because of pronoun usage in that.

Not going to happen.

Well, each ordinance, if it's a simple one, I'm estimating takes at least two hours of legal cost. So it's not that there's no cost to do it. This is really expensive. We're talking thousands of dollars to do these things. Is that a priority? someone else email send out an email hey look at this look at this communication platform well where's the cost where's the cost analysis in that where does that fit into the budget is that one of our priorities because it's not just the cost there it's also staff attention and we don't have the luxury of having unlimited staff attention either so We need to really start thinking about where are our priorities for the upcoming year? What is most important? And giving staff direction on where we want money allocated. We can't just say everything's a priority because first of all, we don't have the money for everything to be a priority. And second of all, we don't have the time. So we as council really need to do that. And we have not done that yet. so that's all i'm asking is that we we do that we set our goals and our priorities the the budget One of the first things you learn in municipal budgeting class is that your budget, you should be able to look at that and have that be a policy document. You should be able to look at any municipality's budget and know what their priorities are for that municipality, what is most important to them, where they're making their investments. in order to do that we have to decide what our priorities where what is most important to us where we can't come up with a good policy but should uh the stuff that you talked about that shouldn't that be a wish list of council well it's a prior like prioritization like if we're saying okay we have we want We want crosswalks redone. We want the signals retimed. We want ordinances rewritten. We know all of these things. Which one of those is most important?

Well, my point is, my point is, they're working out their budgets as far as this is what they need to do their tasks as is, as expected. After that, it becomes our discussion of what parties do we want to add into that do we want to add crosswalks well at a cost of a thousand do we want to add uh website features do we want to add change ordinances through the pronouns and that's where we have to have that discussion and then we have to budget for that on top of it but to say that to say to the borough manager

make crosswalks all county keep throughout the borough this year that's our goal that's unrealistic right right but i mean we have to give them some direction i mean because it's always it's always the same thing they bring us the first budget and then we say we need to cut, we need to cut, we need to cut. Okay, well, but now you're saying they're gonna bring us the first budget and we're gonna say, add this on top of it. That's kind of backwards. have to give them more priorities but i mean we've always done it like that i mean we we've done like that for the last well not the last two years because we've been in flux but before that we've done that before we've given our priorities to the burr manager and they've worked those into the budget i understand that we're going to a negative not maybe not negative but we're close

The B is zero.

Sure. Why are you in next year?

Right.

Absolutely. So the first thing we have to do is figure out what are our operating expenses as is currently related to that. Once they figure that out, there's pay raises, automatic pay raises, contract, everything else. There's health benefits that costs go up and everything else. utility costs those are called must-haves you know a must-have need to have and wish list once they once they have that and we know what extra money we have available to us or don't have available to us is when we can add in our wish list and then they can take it back to them and say look at that how you gonna do it but for me to sit here and say this is the program i want to push this year to make sure they're already

may buy it copy any budget money for it but i don't know that so they come back with others i don't think that they're saying necessarily what the specifics are i think it's more let's say okay our goal is one of our goals this year is going to be we're really going to focus on safety okay so let's get all the bus tabs in line and then we start working on the need to have they're going to be more focused towards safety don't forget when you're when you're when you're doing every department what they're doing their budget has to be focused towards you know something what some goal right i mean you're not just you're not just out there just trying to get through the day it has to be focused towards some kind of goal right and they all need to be like she's saying they all need to be central centrally you know focused on what that primary goal of us is and keep our budget keep our budget within control and we're going to improve safety this year by doing x y and z and commit to it

You know we need to be able to give better direction if we want a better product.

Okay. I understand what you're saying and I don't disagree. Honestly, I just assume we won't go ahead and assume it's coming in because we don't have it.

No.

It's clear we don't have it. So we spend our reserve. It's not like we can say, We'll run right to the border, and if we had to, there is no reserve. We got by this year, we're getting by this year, but that may not be the case next year, right? That's right.

Yeah, I heard the budget meeting was canceled, but was there a new budget meeting?

There's multiple budget meetings, yes. It's a September meeting that's canceled.

Did you have a date?

They're all advertised at the beginning of this year.

Yes, they're on the calendar.

So just the first one, we're not going to do that. We're going to do the other one. Where does all this fall with the new police? We're going to have a new police contract.

No.

No, police contracts up next year. Oh, next year.

Wrong again.

They're not in uniforms this year. Not in uniforms. Yep. I'm sorry. Is that the answer?

No, that's it. Thank you. I just want to say, Callie, we appreciate what you're doing. We don't exactly always love the messenger, but he can be quite feisty at times. But I understand his message. We do care. We care very much. And it's hard to sit here and be told by six people in a row that we could care less about it. That's your time to talk, not ours. So it is important that you know that we do care and that we want to work these things out and that there are things going on that you just aren't aware of yet because they're in process. You know, like just trying to find out how much it costs for one crosswalk, the fact that it's $1,000 blows my mind. Absolutely. I'm sitting here going, I'll buy a can of paint and go out and paint for $100,000.

I'll do them for $500.

I'll do them for $500.

The paint won't last. The paint won't last. That's the problem. You need the thermo press thing. You need the thermo.

So... it's a project and it's got to have a certain amount of funding behind it to do that but fixing the lights at certain places we should be able to do that Oh, that would be awesome.

Thank you. And the biggest thing is local government works slow. And nothing can be done fast. So when We're given an ultimatum that if we don't see something within two weeks, we're setting us up to fail. And so we can already know that in two weeks, because you're not going to see anything visible within two weeks, we're going to have six people back here complaining because they haven't seen us do anything for two weeks. And that's disheartening to you and it's disheartening to us because we're not given any leeway and given any time to make things happen but now know and i think one of the things that the pen dot gentleman that responded to you you know i don't think any i don't think you guys realize that all of these things that you want to happen require traffic studies and the traffic studies take time and not only now Our highway guy, Jake, the highway manager, he can do a lot of those studies on his own, but it takes a lot of time because there is a large amount of paperwork and questionnaires and everything else involved in that. And when he's shorthanded and we have paving projects that need done, I mean, it's not something that happens overnight. So there's that to keep in mind as well.

I understand that also. And honestly, we need to provide hand power. And yes, some of it takes time. Education awareness, workshops, We haven't been enough bikes taken away yet to make them realize that we're serious. It's gonna take time. I thank you for everything you're doing.

and we will do our best to work with you we're not against you thank you is that it that's it thank you got some buyers a lot of this story been covered so i'm just going to hit some of the um the recap of the meeting that tom and i mentioned that we had um basically it it kind of came down to a couple things first of all the one of the priorities for pedestrian safety is going to be those safe routes to school So obviously making sure that they're identified properly. Secondly, making sure that the public is fully aware of that and doing what we can communicating that better to parents and students. Another aspect of this is also, Jack, we were kind of talking about it a little bit of what can we do to incentivize students to actually use those routes. We did joke about let's put an ice cream truck like on the route, but genuinely like, you know, there are other things we can do to help encourage the students to actually use those routes rather than just going up, you know, whatever avenue they pick. So that's one thing that we all kind of agreed on as a group is that that's going to be sort of the first place that we put a lot of our focus. Additionally, we did identify quite a few different grants that can help with this funding. So specifically, the Safe Routes to School program does do grants to help support building out and improving that infrastructure. But additionally, we saw ones for trails, which we could potentially use on 441, that three-way stop right there where the trail starts. We talked about another grant that I don't have the name of, but that is specifically for these funding quick build projects. that are in essence temporary, that then can become permanent based off of public feedback. But that's another grant that we identified. But yeah, obviously a lot of the issues that we came to at the end was resources, you know, not just people, but money. And also, you know, the capability to do things like these grant writings is obviously a challenge, but it's something that we are looking to address the best we can. and like tom said uh before the next time we all meet as a group we want to have some sort of public discussion um specifically to talk about what our priorities are what we're seeing what's possible for us and then to bring that to the community and then kind of say within these restrictions what are we thinking you know what are where do we see things that are preferred where can we, you know, maybe we have something wrong where actually it doesn't make sense for us to focus on this area, or maybe we should change the safe route because in actuality is used differently, you know, something like that. So that's something that we're hoping to put together before the next time we all meet as a group to specifically talk about pedestrian safety.

That's it. Thank you. I have nothing to add. And that's the next meeting. The regular meeting will be held September 22nd, 2026 at 7 p.m. The data center ordinance meeting will be held September 24th, 2026 at 7 p.m. at the high school auditorium. I have a motion for adjournment.

So moved. Second.

I have a motion by Councilman Barnard, second by Councilman Cooper for adjournment. All in favor say aye.

Aye.