Player of the Week | Congratulations to Matt Gambler, Crimson Tide lineman – Lancaster Online

No-o-o-o-o | There’s a photo in today’s LNP – Always Lancaster of a wreath hanging on a light stanchion in Lancaster. Even before Halloween and Thanksgiving, the thought of pushing Christmas is abominable.

H.A.R.B. rejects concept; Council will decide | Sound familiar? That’s the situation in Lancaster as its Council will have a special meeting tonight to take up the design proposed for the downtown’s new showpiece at Barney Ewell Plaza (the former Lancaster Square area). “Council is scheduled to discuss it at a special committee meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, and could take a vote at its regular meeting 90 minutes later, at 7:30 p.m.” – Lancaster Online

Quotes that make sense | From the opinion pages in today’s LNP – Always Lancaster:

• “Over the past two years, the school board itself has also significantly improved. Gone seem the days of the all-too common off-the-record meetings and side conversations, leaving the sunshine laws sitting in the dark and the board publicly rebuked for holding illegal meetings.” – letter about the Manheim Township School Board.
• “No farms, no food!” – from another letter-to-the-editor.
• “Elections matter. Nothing could be more important.” – from another letter-to-the-editor.
• “Only a government-run institution could come up with that.” – From the editorial, a Lancaster Online commenter makes this comment about the State University system looking for taxpayer funding to fix their own failures. Columbia news, views & reviews asked about this piece of raw stupid on Sunday: “Bail out time again | Hey, taxpayers! We did not see the future coming! We need you to help help us reorganize our lives. Give us money, lots of money. – The Philadelphia Inquirer”
• “York had not fallen. The Georgia infantry approached from the south, coming up the river after bypassing York. The battle of Gettysburg was going to happen no matter what happened in Columbia. The GAR took up positions in a blocking maneuver to prevent the main force of the confederacy from moving further north towards Harrisburg. While the Georgia infantry was in Wrightsville, another advanced unit had taken up position on the west shore of the river across from Harrisburg in the area of Camphill/Wormleysburg (which was the true highwater point of the confederacy). But neither the west shore or Wrightsville will get credit for turning the course of the war because, the war had already turned with the loss at Gettysburg. Had Lee been able to win at Gettysburg, or had he not encountered the GAR there, then the main battle would have been in Harrisburg. The main purpose of capturing the bridge was not related to the Harrisburg campaign. It was to A) capture the foundries along the river to resupply the southern forces with cannon balls and grape shot (which were produced there, and they were very short of), B) to move into Lancaster County just as the produce farms were beginning to yield food, to feed the (near starving) southerners, and C) to (eventually) move eastward towards Philadelphia once Harrisburg was secure. Remember, the southerners were dangerously short on supplies, and had been raiding towns along their way to keep fighting. They confiscated all of the shoes from shoe factories and homes alike in Chambersburg, then burned the town down. As it turns out, Columbia’s role in the war was diminished greatly because, win or lose Lee would have still ordered the confederates in Wrightsville back to Gettysburg to assist in his losing cause. They arrived just in time to find Lee in retreat. Fate rules that the bridge at Columbia was actually burned for no reason, because Gettysburg ruined the need to capture it. Columbia’s real claim to fame is still that Gen. Washington wanted it to become the capital of the United States, but it was an interesting footnote in the Civil War that could have been a deciding factor. Sorry to burst your bubble.” – Prudent response to the Lake Wobegon perspectives that the burning of The Bridge in 1863 turned the tide of the War. 

Legal Notices | Posted at the Columbia Borough Website: “The Zoning Hearing Board of the Borough of Columbia will meet on Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at 7:00 PM, in the Municipal Building at 308 Locust Street, Columbia PA, to consider the following application(s) and/or appeal(s): Cimarron Investments LLC is requesting special exception(s) and/or variance(s) … ” also published in today’s publication of general circulation, LNP – Always Lancaster.