Last night the Columbia Borough Council Meeting was convened at 7:06 pm by Council president Michael Beury; in attendance were: all the current councilors, except for vacationing councilor Kelly Murphy; the mayor; Borough manager; Borough financial officer; recorder of minutes and the municipality’s solicitor. Approximately 20 persons were in the gallery at the beginning of the business meeting.

As the evening progressed, several audience members left the meeting after they had the opportunity to speak to the topics in which they were interested or impacted. At the conclusion of the meeting at 9:12 pm, the audience consisted of about 14 persons.

– Agenda, page 1 –

 – Agenda page 2 –

An important topic for the evening was the “public hearing” of Ordinance # 828: A Zoning Ordinance Amendment Establishing an Airport District Overlay. Borough Manager Norman B. Meiskey, III, in a detailed, yet concise narrative, provided the  provided a lucid overview of the need for the Ordinance and key structure height stipulations. The Airport District Overlay is required because Columbia has an airport, McGinness Airport.

With some discussion, the Ordinance Amendment was passed.

A second advertised issue that was advertised for Council’s review for approval met with more debate among several of the councilors and the mayor. Because there were some ill-defined phrases and unclear definitions about which businesses would be impacted by the Ordinance #829 as presented, the councilors decided to take the Ordinance Amendment back into committee for language revision. The ordinance would require licensing and regulating certain actions “for Pawn Brokers, Antique Dealers and Second Hand Dealers.”

Each of the councilors presented very brief synopses of the separate committees which they chair or vice-chair.

In other agenda items:

• The organizers of the “Cruisin” Columbia Car Show spoke enthusiastically about the support provided by Columbia Borough public works personnel; the police officers; the outpouring of volunteer support; the Old Public Grounds Company; the exhibitors  and the citizens of Columbia. They reported a record number of antique vehicle entries, coupled with “perfect weather”, produced a year with a very large crowd. Each year, the producers of the Car Show use receipts from the show to bestow contributions to public service organizations in the community; they stated the checks and food stuffs would be mailed and delivered today.
• Representatives from the Pilot Club of Lancaster, Inc. were on hand to introduce the Project Lifesaver program to electronically locate individuals who wander due to conditions as Alzheimer’s, autism, developmental disorders, dementia and others. The Pilot Club distributed copies of this local Project Lifesaver brochure to those in attendance.

Due to time constraints, Columbia news, views & reviews has not yet had ample time to review notes from last night’s meeting fully. Look for more notes from last night’s meeting later in the week.