The above words and phrase were uttered during the “hastily convened” meeting this evening.

The special meeting came to order at 6:05 pm in the Columbia Borough council chambers with six councillors, the mayor, the borough manager and 10 or so people in the gallery. One councillor attended via a telephone connection; by 7:34 at the meeting’s end, all seven voted to at approve “an agreement with the Columbia Economic Development Corporation for the sale of the Borough’s property identified as parcel number 110-67558-0-0000.”

That happens to be the property on which the building occupied by Columbia No. 1 Fire Department at 137 South Front Street.

The meeting was called to discuss a “what if” scenario to put the pieces together to respond to this Pennsylvania Solicitation For Proposal (SFP):  “LEASE OFFICE SPACE TO THE COMMONWEALTH OF PA.  Proposers are invited to provide the Department of General Services with 32,923 square feet of office space for the Department of Public Welfare to operate a Statewide Call Center and Mail Processing Center in Lancaster County.”

You can read more about the SFP here, and you can read the entire 96-page document with the specification by clicking on the download link at the site.

There are a lot of pieces to this puzzle; after some prodding, a local real estate person said that some of the information is confidential, but he sketched out the scenario that the project will encompass the properties Columbia news, views and reviews suggested earlier today: properties along Front Street southbound to encompass the two properties that were going to contain storage units.

Here’s what we gleaned tonight; it all the stars conditionally align:

1. The members of Columbia No. 1 Fire Department and Susquehanna Fire and Rescue Company have voted to conditionally consolidate.

2. The more than $1,000,000 debt that Columbia No. 1 Fire Department has will be partially and significantly evaporated.

3. The CEDC and the borough will facilitate processes (zoning, planning, etc.) to enable the I.B.S. Development Corp to meet the submission deadlines.

4. The real estate person has an agreement in place to secure the property between the fire station and his properties.

5. The borough will take steps to try to close Perry Street to accommodate parking for 300 employee vehicles.

6. The borough and the school district will recognize very significant tax revenues and the borough will benefit with the 300 “well paid” and “college-educated” workforce that will occupy the call center.

7. The owner of Rivertowne Antique Center posed a question that produced no solid response from the councillors, the borough manager or the real estate person. What if, he asked, someone wanted to bid more than the current bidder? Who could that someone approach and how could the bid be tendered? Curiously, there was no concrete response. He continued, “Who is leading the horse?”

8. Near the end of the meeting, the mayor piped up and challenged the council to set a deadline for the fire companies to consolidate. His reasoning was that if the consolidation process lingered, and two of the companies have already consolidated, the borough would be on the hook for new radios to the tune of $30,000. Another conditional harbinger.

What’s next? Columbians will have to wait and see because other municipalities and real estate persons are actively competing in the securing the call center for their individual area.