Newly elected Columbia Borough president Michael Beury brought the year’s first regularly scheduled council meeting to order last night at 7:00 pm in the Borough Hall Council chambers as all the councilors and some 15 citizens were in attendance.

Since it was the first meeting of the year, the agenda line items were many. Several of the items generated a fair amount of discussion and this Columbia news, views & reviews article will only highlight some of the discussion; an article with more in-depth information will appear tomorrow.

Click here to see the full agenda. [NOTE: For readers who have slower Internet connection or who have  not installed PDF reader, scroll to the bottom of this article to see pictures of the agenda pages.]

Here is a bit more information about several of the agenda items:

• Mayor Leo Lutz read proclamations in celebration of Catholic Schools Week and Martin Luther King’s birthday holiday.
• Standing Council committee assignments are shown in Paragraph II. The committee chairperson is the first listed councilor; the alternate, last listed.
• Bill Kloidt  was re-appointed to the Vacancy Board (Paragraph III, 23, c.)
• Jay Lewis and Mary Virginia Abendschein were re-appointed to the Planning Commission (Paragraph III, 23, f)
• The Columbia Historic Market House Trust officially became the operating entity for the Market House. Several members of the Trust were in attendance as Trust chairperson, Dave Rupp, thanked the council and councilor Kelly Murphy, in particular, for entrusting the Market House operation to the Trust. Councilor Murphy was the committee chairperson for the council’s Market Committee which has been discontinued in 2012.
• Councilors Murphy, Mary Wickenheiser, the borough manager and mayor expressed that citizens and visitors to Columbia will be delighted to know that there now are three Market House stand holders open for business Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. Patrons can find “breakfast and lunch” at the Market House from the three vendors. Entrance to these stands is from the front doors on South Third Street.
• Borough Manager, Norman B. Meiskey III, provided a detailed narrative of L.E.R.T.A. in the discussion phase of items I, 5. Both Meiskey and Lutz encouraged taxpayers to encourage the Columbia Borough School District Board of Directors to embrace the new “boundaries of deteriorated areas for the purposes of tax abatement.” The Council approved the two L.E.R.T.A.  motions designating all residential properties within the entire borough as deteriorated areas and eligible for tax abatement application and “defining and authorizing tax exemptions from real estate property tax for improvements of deteriorated areas.  Several months ago, Columbia news, views & reviews printed this information concerning the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance program:
  “Communities may also utilize certain flexibilities within their property tax code to encourage reinvestment. Most common tools available are Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) and Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA). TIF allows a percentage of property taxes in a designated revitalization area to be devoted specifically towards public improvement which would benefit property owners. It requires support of property owners within the revitalization area and generally best succeeds in conjunction with a planning program which results in economic benefit.“LERTA is the form of tax abatement allowed under Pennsylvania law. LERTA permits communities to designate areas in which there would be up to ten-year abatement of taxes on building improvements or new construction.“Communities would continue to receive the original taxes on existing buildings or land.“In Pennsylvania, LERTA was originally designated to allow communities to specifically target certain areas within their entire boundaries. However, it has frequency been used throughout the whole community often subsidizing developments which would recur regardless of the system. LERTA, when used, should be specifically focused on areas where development may not occur without this extra incentive.” (SOURCE: www.elibrary.state.pa.us/dldoc.asp?fn=4208500000ccp0170.pdf