Last night’s Columbia Town Meeting drafted by mayor Leo Lutz and police chief Jack Bromer brought together an assembly of around 80 people … citizens, business owners, religious leaders, the new borough manager, the departing borough manager, all of the councillors, the codes officer, the Columbia Economic Development Corporation and members of the school board of directors. The Town Meeting began at 7:00 pm and concluded just after 10:00 pm. At the conclusion, just under 40 persons were in attendance.

Those assembled for the Town Meeting, held at the Columbia Borough School District’s headquarters at the corner of Chestnut and Fifth streets,  were welcomed by the mayor and police chief. Each shared Power Point slide shows. Chief Bromer welcomed the community’s shareholders then turned the program over to the mayor who began the meeting with a slide show showing some of the highlights of Columbia’s successes over the past years.

He identified the Yardwaste Facility, the Town Square, the Route 462 project through town, the new streets, the Market House, the added parking lots, the downtown streetscape, the River Park and more.

He then introduced Ray D’agostino, the executive director of the Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership (LHOP) and Jim Shultz, program development manager for LHOP. Each of them shared success projects about reclaiming neighborhood housing opportunities from the City of Lancaster. D’agostino and Shultz each spoke to the importance of bringing community shareholders together to develop planning to determine what they want their community to be in the future. D’agostino stressed that planning is great, but plans need resources to come to fruition.

He and Shultz announced and entertained questions about Community First Foundation initiative that will make some of those “resources” available – in the form of a grant opportunity of $100,000 a year for five years for the borough under the long-term creative solutions matching fund program: “To invest in creative solutions to benefit low-income residents in Lancaster City and Columbia.”

D’agostino continued by indicating that there is the potential for continuation and expansion of that program to maybe as much as several million dollars. Read more about the Community Foundation program in this Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era article: “Community First Funds get $15 million in tax credits for economic development projects.”

The police chief followed with a Power Point presentation about the Columbia Police Department’s staffing and resources.

Those in attendance applauded loudly when newly hired borough manager Sam Sulkosky was introduced by the mayor. Sulkosky made a few brief comments during which he introduced himself and shared his positivism about Columbia. The crowd again applauded as he concuded.

NOTE: Due to the lateness of this meeting, Columbia news, views and reviews will continue with more on this meeting tomorrow.