Monday, October 18, 2010

Other business

At last week's meeting, council heard:
*Heard questions concerning the use of the street sweeper, which isn't running its normal routes, which COLUMBIA TALK first told you several months back.
"We are limiting the use of the sweeper to prolong its life. We hope that people will clean the gutters out on their own so we don't have to purchase another sweeper," Mike Buery, councilman said.
"We are doing it in most areas of the town at least once a month," he said.
* On a question about the proposed relocation of Route 441, a citizen reported seeing three tractor-trailers run a red light recently.
"Why doesn't our police department sit out there and observe this. It is something to take a look at," said Tim Swartz.
* Learned the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority gave the borough $1,500 for escorting the windmills down to Turkey Hill and received $100 for a wedding ceremony performed by Mayor Leo Lutz.
* Heard a request from a citizen to look into safety issues on Ninth Street in the area of Locust Street.

Letter of intent sent

By a vote of 5-1-1, Columbia Borough Council, at its meeting last Monday, approved sending a "letter of intent" to the Safe Harbor Water Power Corporation so that the borough can officially accept the gift of three parcels of land along the Susquehanna River from Walnut Street south to the Lancaster Water Company.
The three parcels are currently housing the Columbia Water Company and the river front cabins.
Voting to send the letter were Mary Wickenheiser, Mary Barninger, Sandy Duncan, Renae Sears and Mike Buery. Voting against the motion was Kelly Murphy, while newly appointed councilmen Jim Smith abstained.
In the letter, Wickenheiser explained the potential purchase of the three parcels will most likely involve the Columbia Economic Development Corporation or another entity, the Columbia Water Company and the Columbia Heritage River Cottage Association.
"Not all three parcels will be transferred," Wickenheiser said.
Duncan said the motion to send the letter was council doing "due diligence."
"This is the safest way (for the cottage owners) to protect their property," said Buery.

Important meeting on Thursday

There will be a joint meeting Thursday night at 6 p.m. between Columbia Borough Council and the Municipal Authority to discuss the pending bond funding for a new waste water treatment plant and other projects in the borough.
The meeting will be held at the borough hall, 308 Locust St.
At last week's regular meeting of borough council, the meeting and the bond funding was discussed.
Earlier this year, council approved a bond issue for $16 million to construct a new plant to bring it up to state code. Recently, Borough Manager Norm Meiskey wanted to add another $5 million in a separate issue to include projects such as replacing old sewer lines in Columbia, constructing a building at the River Park and street construction projects.
There was some reaction to the plan.
Former Councilmen Tim Swartz said the plan would add too much to the borough's debt.
"The marina at the river front is not a necessity. It is more of a want," Swartz said.
"We are spending money in the wrong areas and we need to stop," he said.
He suggested reevaluating the projects that are planned in Columbia and prioritize them.
"You need to be cautious with what projects you move forward with," Swartz said.
Frank Doutrich, another former member of the council, also questioned the spending.
Mary Barninger, council's vice-president, also questioned the wishes with the bond issue, stating it also might be "more of a want than a need."
It was already discussed previously that with the construction of the new sewer plant, sewer rates will double within the borough. With the additional bond funding, it could cost taxpayers at least a mill in taxes.

Week seven notebook

Not much offense
The Crimson Tide scored 13 points in the first half on just 13 offensive plays.
The Tide had scoring drives of one and two plays.
The first, their first play of the game was a 63-yard bomb from Tyler Harrison to Michael Burke. The second late in the first half, came when Harrison against the wind threw one up on a scramble from his own six, which Burke corraled near midfield and raced into the end zone.

A-C on the other hand
Had two scores in the first half as well. They missed a field goal and had a pass picked off it the end zone with 28 seconds left in the half. At one point, A-C ran 47 offfensive plays to the Tide's 10 in the first half.

Standout stars have big games
The two "Prine Time" Section 3 players in the game -- the Tide's Burke and A-C's Rickey Snyder had big games.
Burke caught five passes for 170 and two scores. Snyder, the leading rusher in Section 3, finished the game with 260 yards and three scores. Snyder had 160 of those yards in the first half, but was held in check in the second half until he broke a 54-yard run late in the game.

Other stars for the Tide
Quarterback Tyler Harrison was 14-20 for 262 yards and two scores, while Nick Nobile caught four passes for 65 yards and tight end Seth Lefever caught three balls for 23 yards. Colmbia rushed for 158 yards for the game, but the six fumbles kept that number down.
On defense, the top tacklers were Lefever and Bryan Flory. Flory, Lefever and Dominic Trout had tackles for losses.

The streak continues
Columbia has not beaten A-C since the end of the 2007 season. In the last two years, the Tide has lost to A-C by a combined total of 15 points.

Just one flag
Columbia was only flagged once in the game for 5 yards.

Other notes
Linebacker Dion Matthews, who missed the first five games with a shoulder injury is probably done for the season after breaking his hand in a junior varsity game, won by the Tide last Monday, over Northern Lebanon. Burke missed the last 17 minutes of the game when he was injured blocking on a run play with 5:23 left in the third quarter.
A-C had drives of 8, 14, 7, 10 and 8 plays in the first half.

Turnovers kill Tide

Over the many years okay, perhaps the last 20 since Columbia and Annville-Cleona have started playing football, there have been some interesting games.
Last year, a late interception helped the Little Dutchmen hand the Tide their seventh loss of the season.
Friday night at a windy A-C field, turnovers were huge as the Little Dutchmen held off the Tidefor a 21-13 win.
Threre were eight turnovers in the game -- six by the Tide, five of them coming in the second half and two by A-C. Only one of the Tide's six turnovers were converted into points by the Little Dutchmen. The other five kept the Tide out of the end zone.
Here's a recap of the fumbles, which kept the Tide from ending a two-year losing streak to the Little Dutchmen.
In the first half, in fact on the Tide's second offensive play of the game, the Tide fumbled when quarterback Tyler Harrison fumbled a shot gun snap at the 12. Seven plays later, A-C scsored on a 2-yard run by Ruck Snyder to take a 14-7 lead.
That was it for the Tide turnovers in the first half. The worst was yet to come.  The Tide had six offensive possessions in the second half. They punted once, which turned into an A-C score of 54 yards by Snyder. The others ended in fumbles, all on the A-C side of the field.
Trailing 14-13 at the half, the Tide quickly moved onto the A-C side of the field to open the second half on a pass from Harrison to Michael Burke. On first down from the A-C 46, Harrison found Johnny Vazquez for a 7-yard game, but Vazquez was stripped of the football, giving the ball back to the Little Dutchmen.
After forcing an A-C punt, the Tide on three big runs fro Keenan Edmond moved to the A-C 43. On first down, Edmond fumbled going up the gut, giving the ball back to A-C.
Still in the third quarter, A-C quarterback Tyson Hayes quickly gave the ball back to the Tide when he fumbled at the Tide 42.
Harrison, who had a big night in the air, connected on passes to Nick Nobile and a couple of runs and penalties moved the ball to the A-C 9. But on first and goal, Edmond fumbled trying to get into the end zone on the final play of the third quarter.
A-C couldn't capitalize and punted. This time, the Tide moved to the A-C 38 when Brock Taylor broke loose for a 23-yard gain to the 15. But, Taylor fumbled and the Tide, still trailing failed to score again.
After trading punts, A-C finally got some insurance points as with 2:25 left in the game, Snyder broke a 54-yard run to give A-C a 21-13 lead.
But back came the Tide. Shakim McIllwain broke a 24-yard run to the A-C 31. But, he fumbled, ending the Tide's hopes of a win .
It was an interesting first half as well.
A-C ran 37 plays, but only had two Snyder scores to show for it.
The Tide ran 13. They scored twice on passes of 63 and 94 yards from Harrison to Burke.

The bi-annual visit is Friday

Columbia's next-to-last home game of the 2010 season won't be an easy one. In fact, the foe will be the best team the Tide will play this season, if not in the last few seasons.
Lancaster Catholic, the reigning state Class AA football champions pay a visit to the hill.
The Crusaders, who are a favorite to return to the big game again this season, are 7-0 and have outscored their opponents 259-28 this season and 130-7 over the last three weeks.
The Crusaders are led by first time starters quarterback John Roda (71-104-4, 11TD, 1,090); running back Roman Clay (114-770) and wide receiver Charles Sweigart (13-270).
The Tide is out to stop a six-game losing streak to the Crusaders. Columbia has not beaten Catholic since a 2003, 40-0 win. In the last six games, Catholic has outscored Columbia, 238-45, including 48-0 last year and 184-26 in the last four years.

Columbia college football update

Here is the weekly update on Columbia High School grads playing college football.
At Lebanon Valley, LVC won its second game of the season over FDU-Fordham, 33-21.
Ben Guiles (see previous post) rushed for 126 yards on 33 carries and caught one pass for 10 yards.
Yahya McIntyre did not play in the game.

At Kutztown, Colby Tuell caught five passes for 78 yards in KU's 38-28 win over Millersville. KU is 7-0.

At Juniata, Brandon Felus started his sixth straight game in a 56-21 loss to Gettysburg. Felus had one tackle in the loss as Juniata fell to 0-6.

Columbia's Guiles is honored

LVC junior Ben Guiles is honored: http://godutchmen.com/news/2010/10/17/FB_1017105431.aspx

New brick work

Recently, new brick work was completed at the bus stop on Locust Street. The top brick identifies the alley as Market Street.

Work continues

Work continues on the Hotel Locust/Hotel Columbia. The new owners are busy renovating the building, which is expected to open as a restaurant/bar.

If this is a ....

If this is suppose to be a parking lot for those visiting downtown Columbia, how come the lot is mostly filled with those who work at 308 Locust St., who don't have to pay to park.

Parking lot taking shape

The parking lot south of the Market House continues to take shape. Looks like the only thing left might be paving.