When last night’s council “committee of the whole” was brought to order by Borough Council president at 6:00 p.m., seven citizens (an eighth arrived some 30 minutes later) were on hand to observe and participate in the meeting. Four hours and 11 minutes later the meeting came to a close.

Five councillors, the mayor, the borough manager and the borough’s financial manager were in attendance. At 7:03 p.m., councillors Mary Barninger and Mary Wickenheiser arrived at the meeting.

Due to the length of the meeting, Columbia news, views & reviews has not yet had time to review the recorded notes from the meeting. Here, though, are some quotes and notes from the meeting.

• “Make sure you put in the minutes that the girls are here,” chimed the council president to the recorder of the minutes as Councillors Wickenheiser and Barninger took their seats.

• One councillor, a member of the Columbia Economic Development Corporation (CEDC), introduced an action to have the Borough turn over borough-owned property at 1020 Blunston Street to the CEDC so that organization could dispose of the property in a manner “like” the Turkey Hill Experience and the riverfront properties. Ensuing dialogue revealed that several adjacent property owners had indicated interest in buying the property; however, the interested parties did not want the property at the borough’s offered price of more than $100,000. An earlier appraisal of $122,000 was reduced to a figure somewhere around $70,000. Interestingly, the interested adjoining property owners are also members of the CEDC. The councillor indicated this “pass through” would help provide revenue for the CEDC to help pay for the recently hired executive director. Council approved the action by a four to one vote.

• Look like there will be a kayak “attainment race” sponsored by Chiques Rock Outfitters in July. Attainment: When a kayaker paddles upstream against the current to get from a point downstream to point upstream. Many whitewater paddlers do attainments for a workout or to train for extreme racing (see extreme racing). Chiquies Rock Outfitters will pay a portion of the receipts to the borough for “Phase III River Park Improvements.”

• Council approved the hire of a part-time police officer, Jeremy Lee Kauffman, at a rate of $20.00 an hour.

In 2009, officer Jeremy Lee Kauffman was named Susquehanna Regional Police Department Officer of the Year.

• A citizen asked how much debt the borough has; the councillor in charge of the finance committee replied that the current long-term debt stands at $15.3 million.

• A councillor expressed “outrage” at the borough’s failure to exclude a landowner’s property from the borough map due to the interpretation of “tree canopy.”

• Another councillor, who has pledged to represent all “10,400 people of Columbia”, stated that “we have to start taking back our town.” He continued that “I don’t know how we’re going to do it,” but “our town’s going downhill fast.”

• The mayor injected that he and the police chief are going to spearhead an initiative not unlike the school district’s to find out who is living where in Columbia. The mayor acknowledged that some landlords have been violating the borough’s codes and they do not know who is living in their rental apartments or houses. He stated that was, in fact, the case with the fatal shooting on North Third Street last week. The councillor responded to the mayor’s analysis by saying, “We’ve already lost it (Columbia.)”

• The mayor referenced the “homelessness of children” situation in the area as reported by WGAL’s Susan Shapiro.

• The last hour of the meeting was focused solely on last week’s sewer decision. A citizen’s intense questioning directed to the chairperson of the wastewater committee, about last week’s Municipal Authority decision prompted a lucid response from the Borough Manager that suggested that the Municipal Authority may have jumped to a hasty conclusion. (See “Columbia debates sewer plant options.” – MyColumbiaNews) Columbia news, views & reviews will have much more on this topic tomorrow.