Beware of possible new regulations

It’s something I read each Sunday in the Sunday News – the county and state inspections of restaurants. Some pass and others have a long list of needed repairs or get shutdown until the repairs are made.


But you never see anything from Columbia Borough in those inspections. That’s because Columbia does its own inspections and doesn’t publish the results. That can be good or bad depending upon your view points. I’m the kind of person who wants to know if there is a problem at a place I eat.

But that could be changing and its something everyone in Columbia that owns a restaurant, club, non-profit or has a stand at community events needs to be aware of.

The borough either is, or will be changing how its Code Enforcement office works, taking those type inspections away from the locals and giving the county and state free reign to work.

So now, instead of perhaps getting a call from the borough saying, “hey, we’ll be around next week,” there will be no call. The inspectors will show up unannounced and go to work.

So, if there is a problem or a complaint filed against a local restaurant/eatery, there probably won’t be no more Mr. Nice Guy warnings.

I’m not sure how many people realize this change is going to happen, so I am writing this as a public service/warning. If you are not up to par, you better get up to par.

I’m not so much concerned about the big places in our town, because I would suspect they are all up to snuff when it cones to food codes, etc. If they are not, look out.

What does concern me and something I’ve read those inspections of are the smaller groups and organizations who are not up to snuff on the laws. You know the ones run by volunteers.

That could be bad news for them as well. You’re gonna see an inspector coming around and it might be costly to make repairs.

The same goes for those non-profits and others who have stands at the various events in town. You’re gonna be inspected as well.

I have a problem with some of this because many use these events as major fund-raisers and if they can’t meet the code, they won’t be able to sell anything.

This information doesn’t appear to be top secret stuff like some things in our town, but perhaps instead of spreading the word via “word of mouth” when inspections are done and say “oh by the way,” Columbia Borough needs to let all these people know what they are planning. Some of places might not be able to afford bringing their places up to code. Perhaps a letter or a town meeting might be in order. But then again, people might tend to ignore letters and invites to a meeting, so, that move is up to Columbia Borough.

The end result might be good for the town, but getting to the end result might/will cause some hardship and money.