School District Superintendent Tom Strickler and Dr. Gregory McGough, director of curriculum, explained the Community Climate Initiative and presented a “climate survey.” Strickler said there have been problems with students after school and the district wants to get a handle on the issue and develop an action plan. The Pennsylvania Department of Education and IU13 are helping the district’s initiative.
McGough said that one of the first steps is to create a vision of what we all see the school as. He said the process began with preparation and planning at the school level, and we are now at Stage 2: Delivering assessments to all stakeholders. Stage 3 will be to understand the findings and develop an action plan. Next will be the implementation phase, working with short, defined goals. The final step will be to reevaluate and start the process over.
Programs and Funding
Mayor Leo Lutz mentioned Manos House and Benchmark Programs to help with problems with youth in the community. He said the programs can’t be possible or sustainable if the borough has to solicit funds to pay for them.
“This is a community problem, this is a problem we must address. We need to fund these programs so that they’re sustainable,” he said. “We can put lights in the downtown, but that’s not going to help these kids.”
He said the challenge is trying to find grant money and getting organizations to donate. “We will not arrest our way out of these problems,” he said.
Our Home of Hope
208-210 Locust Street
MORE INFO HERE.
Funding for Study to Relocate Borough Offices
Council authorized an application to the Municipal Assistance Program. The program covers half the cost of a study the borough is undertaking to consider possible relocation of the borough offices and police station from its current location to other sites in the borough, one of which is the school district’s administration center building at 200 North Fifth Street.
*Rotary Ave (Front to Commerce Street: East)
* Commerce Street (Rotary Ave to Walnut Street: South)
* Tenth Street (Ironville Pike to Spruce Street: South)
* Bethel Street (Ridge to Locust traveling North) changed to (Locust to Cherry traveling South).
Quick Ticket Complaints
Residents voiced concerns about quick ticket citations.
A resident argued that the borough should exercise discretion when citing residents for a small amount of snow on the sidewalk. Officials said that any amount of snow can be considered unsafe.
Councilwoman FitzGerald said that she received a quick ticket for snow as well and paid it.
Another resident said he received a quick ticket regarding his trash bag being out for pickup without being placed in a trash receptacle.
A landlord asked for a meeting with the borough manager and the code manager. He expressed concern about something said to him although he did not give details publicly. He said he was frustrated with the lack of response from borough officials.
Columbia Spy 
they just remodeled that building and the mayors office, up graded wiring etc….
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if only council thought that way..
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thanks for the great pics! now a few things. residents go to council mtgs and complain about the quick tickets and i'd put money on it that they get NO response from council. Correct? That's funny. COUNCIL are the ones who MANDATE and direct the Codes Dept. They have the say. another thing….NO NO NO to relocating the Boro offices. ESPECIALLY TO THE SCHOOL DISTRICT. THE SCHOOL DISTRICT MUST BE SHUT DOWN. The hardWORKING taxpaying homeowners can NOT afford to continue to carry ALL this baggage. and then, to top it off, this Council SPENDS MONEY LIKE IT HAS IT'S OWN MONEY TREE. Residents WAKE UP. Things will only get worse. Have you seen the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS THIS COUNCIL HAS SPENT JUST IN THE PAST 2 MONTHS??????Unbelievable. Unacceptable. spend that money on a couple of K-9 officers. or something for the kids of this town to do. and a huge shout out to Don And Becky Murphy for stepping up, believing in your town and continuing to improve the downtown every day. THANK YOU!!!!!!! What a wonderful example. We appreciate all these things that you are doing. Thanks 🙂
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HAHAHA! The reputation serves him well! What a deplorable thing to be known for.
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Can't even get a good donut in this town.
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He makes motherland Columbia proud.
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so what does she do? and what does the mayor need a assistance for?
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how about the damage the trees that the shade tree com. puts in. why don't the borough fix damage and trim the trees?
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40,000 fence 20,000 pad at river park 7,000 seal steps at river park 50,000 shore up of 208-210 75,000 more for 208-210 just the beginning, lots of money people
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police need k9s please number 1 cop reconsider
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The mayor has an assistant? Is that what you're saying? Or assistance? Please explain
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The mayor said we will never get a K9. No policeman wants to have one.
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he also said there WAS NO GUN in the robbery behind turkey hill. ??????
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75,000 4th and locust- 65,000 dellinger -45,000 river park 3 -hotel locust how much is in that, but wood make new muny building.10,000 cherry st ,they get all residents s/s checks.none profit??? maybe a state audit is in order.
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how about the market house? If someone is going to cut it up into small units it might as well be the borough.
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hotel locust would make a good muny office.
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Don't forget Columbia#1 building
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Columbia#1 building would make a place for club goodtimes close to new 37 apartment building for entertainment for younger crowd.
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BRING NORM MISKEY BACK
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Mr Smoker and Mr Kreiser had the respect of students. But then they got there jobs honestly, not the back door like these losers did.
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Does any one in Columbia borough have to live in town?????
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Columbia borough, council, Columbia school district,Stricklers follies,mayor, etc are quickly becoming the laughing stock of the county,and soon the state.
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On 208 210 property check the back article on may 22 spy, code manager stated NO WAY SHOULD THE BOROUGH GET INVOLVED its a money pit (126,000)- 1 dollar they sold it for.Who over ruled this at our council????????
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Columbia #1 wouldn't make a good fit for the police station due to the railroad tracks and would cause delayed response times. Would make a good fit for the boro offices or some boro departments. But that would be too easy for council to figure out.
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we need a state audit
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what is wrong with this group running Columbia
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They have money trees on the borough farm, or is that a campus?
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The borough should not place it's self with a failing school, they have enough going on themselves.
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Some say this site pits people against each other. You post what actions council took at the meeting, the critics need to look at council to see exactly who is pitting people against each other. The Spy isn't deciding how to spend taxpayers money. There's rarely more than a handful of residents at any meeting. If what happened wasn't posted here, the residents would have to wait on the minutes to know what decisions were made and the outcome of agenda items. They might get a few paragraphs in LNP, but again that does not always happen promptly either and information is limited. It's like a council woman said years ago when someone asked “How will the residents know?” Her reply was “Maybe they don't want to know.” And maybe she was right.Sharon Lintner
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I have NEVER heard of any home owner paving a borough street. That is misinformation. Our taxes pay for street paving. I want a refund if homeowners are now paying for street blacktop. If this is the case then the homeowners on Walnut Street need to get busy.
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AMEN
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The Columbia spy is the best,Cole does a great job letting people know whats going on . THIS BUNCH OF LOSSERS ON CONCIL SPENDS MONEY LIKE THERE IS NO TOMMORROW. $40,000 fence they need there heads checked.
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We no not need a costly survey to find out if borough offices/police should be moved. Why do we have a council if they cannot make logical decisions. Even I know what should be done here. Throwing money away on fences and Street lights again,what logic is needed here? They are not needed as we have other issues needing attention first. Now we are making a tiny piece of Tenth Street a one way when Spruce already is. This will cause accidents as it will be too confusing. Not getting the reason on this one. The schools, let the state take over. Arrest the kids throwing stones & sue the parents for damages. Perhaps they will parent better. When I was in school Kreiser & Wissler put the fear of God in you. And we are top heavy in administration. It's needs thinned out. We don't need these new people with large salaries. And why does such a small town need 4 codes' officers. Seriously this isn't Lancaster city. We need to wake up & vote these people out. Be insistent on what we want.
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Why don't the recycle cans have lids?
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