police dogs | Near the end of last night’s borough council meeting (watch the video of the meeting at the borough’s facebook page), citizen Frank Doutrich and the mayor exchanged viewpoints about why Columbia should have and doesn’t have a police dog. There are lots of police dogs next door displayed on the Police Department’s window.

663 people “attended” | last night’s meeting via the live streamed and saved video and fewer than 20 people attended the meeting in person. All the councillors, the borough manager, the mayor, police chief, codes codes compliance manager and, for part of the meeting, the zoning and planning officer were present. Almost 30 percent (22 of 77) of the comments are from a borough apologist.

Solar panels | Lots of important discussion and conversation last night about rooftop solar panels and the difficulty of fighting fires and navigating rooftop panels. The discussion included videos and a graphics presented by the fire chief and codes codes compliance manager.

Parking is a problem | At last night’s council meeting, there was discussion about a parking study that will be accomplished for the entire borough. Part of the grant for the Market House includes parking verbiage. See the comments following this post at “What’s Happening in Columbia, Pa. and Surrounding Area” facebook group: “So how do I/we get heard around here? I’m super tired of not being able to park my ONE vehicle outside or close to my home. Some neighbors, I’m told, have 3+ vehicles and it’s just not fair. I’m thinking a permit situation would be nice, like they do in some streets in Lancaster. I just don’t know how to start the conversation with decision makers.”

deep web conspiracy? | “About 38 minutes before news outlets first reported Jeffrey Epstein’s death in prison, a 4chan user published a detailed post about it.” – BuzzFeedNews

“It’s Official! | The Early Intervention Program (EIP) is now the Strategic Management Planning Program (STMP). Though the program name has changed, it continues to do the same great work helping municipalities with their financial health.”

Another instance | “Millersville police chief hired in ‘permanent’ role to also manage borough” – Lancaster Online

Still a driving challenge | “​​PennDOT to Shift Single-Lane Traffic Pattern within U.S. 222 Work Zone to Northbound Lanes near Ephrata, Lancaster County” – news release

increasingly, it’s “pay to play” | Almost daily, Columbia news, views & reviews will provide links to articles that we believe are pertinent, topical or of interest to our readers. We try to avoid links that lead to paywalls, but increasingly newspapers are imposing paywalls.