Letter

There is a Letter to the Editor in this week's edition of the Columbia Ledger dealing with the problems with the proposed truck route.

Find out who wrote the letter and who they invited to town to discuss the problems.

Fire update

There are very few places in Columbia, where there isn’t a fire hydrant on almost every street corner.

There are exceptions to every rule, however.

One of those exceptions is if fires break out on the far reaches of the borough where there isn’t a hydrant on every street corner.
One of those areas is the eastern end of the borough, which borders West Hempfield Township.

Thursday, firemen found out just how critical it is to have a hydrant on every corner as fire destroyed 10 garage bays on Deascenti Drive at Franklin Road, just inside the borough limits.

Since there wasn’t a hydrant on every corner, first-arriving firemen had water trouble trying to extinguish the blaze. Because the nearest hydrant was more than a mile away from the fire scene, a large number of tankers from fire departments in Lancaster County had to be called in and relays set-up to attack the fire.
Monday, Columbia Fire Chief Charles Anderson said while reviewing the incident because of the lack of hydrants in the area, three extra tankers will be added to anymore responses in the area.

For more, along with a page of pics, read this week's Columbia Ledger.

No to trucks

At it’s meeting Monday, Columbia Borough Council passed a resolution not to allow trucks on any streets in town, except Route 462 and 441.
While it won’t take care of the major problem of eliminating major truck traffic, the move will curtail what streets those big trucks can travel on.

Monday’s move limits truck traffic on the remainder of the borough’s streets, except if they are making local deliveries. The reason for the move, council said was simple. Because of congestion caused by the big rigs, the trucks were looking for shorter routes around Columbia, often times using other streets not designed for trucks, to avoid congestion in the center of town.

While that move might seem like a minor one, council continues to dig in for a major fight as it attempts to secure funding for the relocation of Route 441 around Columbia.

Currently, the $12 million project is on life support.

The borough and Mayor Leo Lutz have spent much of the last three weeks, since it was announced the project might be in trouble, contacting county, state and federal government officials and legislators.
The borough is again circulating petitions throughout the community, asking residents to sign to showing support for the alternate truck route.

“We need to show county, state and federal government officials that this is essential,” Lutz said.

“We want to leave no stone unturned. We’ve been contacting everybody to plead our case,” Lutz said.

This week, Lutz said he plans to speak to a representative from Sen. Arlen Specter’s office and attend a meeting of the Lancaster County Transportation Advisory Committee. He also said there is the possibility of yard sign being purchased and placed throughout the borough.

The mayor said he had to talk residents out of protesting plans to pull the finances for the project by laying in streets in an attempt to block trucks.

For more, read this week's Columbia Ledger.

Traffic problems

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) began an $11 million project that will include bridge work and resurfacing of Route 30 between the Route 441 overpass and Prospect Road.

The project, the largest for 2008 in Lancaster County, will take until September of 2009 to complete, PennDOT said.

Annie plays at CHS

A family favorite “Annie,” will be played out this weekend inside the Columbia High School auditorium.

The Drama Department at the high school will perform the musical “Annie,” starting Thursday and running through Saturday.

All performances begin at 7 p.m. Tickets, are $5 for adults and $2.50 for children, are available at the door.

The cast includes seniors Laura Deets as Annie, Charles Horner as Oliver Warbucks, and Janelle Kauffman as Miss Hannigan. Others in the cast are Leineal Howard, Tiffany Morrissey, Jessica Gilbert, Ashley Arnold, Jenna Engel, Nicole Bowman, Alyssa Poindexter, Erica Whitson, Eva Rodriguez, and Amanda Shenberger.

Happy Valley bound

The high school basketball season, with the exception of a few all-star games, ends with this weekend, with the state finals at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College.

Last year, for a variety of reasons, one being the location (move to State College from Hershey), was the first year in about two decades are more, our group didn’t make the trip.

The state finals, at least the Friday games, have long been a tradition. When it was in Hershey, Chocolate World and Parkside were two of the traditional stops. You know, had to take the tour and get those tasty cheeseburgers between games.

I’ve been to the BJC once years ago when someone named Bob Knight was coaching Indiana and they played the Nittany Lions. Don’t remember much about the place, other than Knight’s post-game news conference carried on the closed circuit television.

So, it will be a new experience, finding new things to do before and between games. It will also be new that we’re actually planning on staying for the Saturday games as well.

Okay, when we planned the trip we were hoping that Columbia was going to be playing on that Saturday. So, hopefully Strawberry Mansion will be playing. It would add a nice touch to the season to say that Columbia played a state champ.

The games we will see on Friday are the Girls AA, Boys A, Girls AAAA and Boys AAA.

We’re going to see either York Catholic or Trinity in the girls’ AA game and I have to admit that if it’s Trinity, it will be tough not seeing the late Harry DeFrank on the sidelines. We’re most likely going to see an All-District 3 final in Boys AAA between Susquehanna Township and Steel-High.

We’re probably going to see Chester in the Boys AAAA game.

While the state finals is now more than two hours from our town, I would highly recommend the trip, not only for fans but athletes as well. Same goes for the state wrestling finals.

I think its important for our young athletes to get a taste of what they can do with their talent. Get that hunger in their stomachs that they want to get to the big game.

Also, by the way, there are a couple of Columbia ties that might come into play this weekend. Don Holt, a 1974 grad of Columbia, has a daughter, who is a starter on the Trinity team and “Tink” Lutz, the equipment manager for the football team, has a grandson playing for Kennedy Catholic, who just might be playing in the Boys A title game.

Who knows, if he’s not suspended for a fight last Saturday, we might even hear that Terrelle Pryor from Jeanette is going to Penn State to play football and the legend himself, Joe Paterno, might even make an appearance.

All-Stars

Columbia basketball fans not wanting to see the season end will have one more chance to see their favorite Tide players play one more time.

Seniors Adam Pittman, Mike Seibert, Ben Guiles and Colby Tuell will participate in the annual Lancaster-Lebanon League All-Star game Wednesday, March 19 at Hempfield High School.

Game time is 7:30 p.m.

The four will compete on an all-star team with other players in Section 3 and 4. Tide coach Mark Wisler will coach the all-star team

Where does this team rank?

It’s something that already the talk of the town, but just how does the 2007-08 Crimson Tide boys’ basketball team that won 26 of its 31 games compare to some of the other great teams in school history?

That’s where you the reader and basketball fan come into play. We want to hear the thoughts of the basketball fans and others, who have followed the program for decades. Is this team as good as the best team ever to play at Columbia? As good as the team that won the state title back in 1987? As good as the team that won a district title in 1994? Or, as good as the team that lost to Wampum in 1958?

This year’s team won the school’s first section basketball title in 14 years; made it to the semi-finals of the L-L League playoffs; won 20 straight games and also qualified for the district and state playoffs.

We also want to hear your thoughts on the season. Any special moments the fans might have.

Was it the night that Adam Pittman and Mike Seibert both went over the 1,000 point mark in the same game? Was it beating Lancaster Catholic for the section title?
We will be seeking your input on these two questions for the next three weeks and publish your answers in the March 27 edition of the Columbia Ledger.

There are a few ways to make this happen.

One is my email, by sending your thoughts to columbialedger@embarqmail.com; by letter, sending the information to 262 Locust St., or via the Tide Talk blog, which can be reached at www.chronicleledgernewsgroup.com.

Let’s see what develops.

Looking for nominees

Columbia High School will hold its first-ever Athletic Hall of Fame inductions during the Lampeter-Strasburg football game.

That will be Friday, Sept. 19.

Nomination forms for the Hall of Fame are available at any of the Columbia school district buildings, Smith’s Hotel, 1035 Lancaster Ave., Hinkle’s Pharmacy, Third and Locust streets, the Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce, 445 Linden St., and the office of the Columbia Ledger, 262 Locust St.

To be eligible for nomination into the CHS Athletic Hall of Fame, nominees must an athlete, coach, a friend of CHS athletics or a team. The individual must be removed from participating from athletics for five years (coaches and friends) don’t have to meet this requirement).

Anyone can nominated a person for the Hall of Fame, you picking up a nomination form.

The nomination forms will be available until April 30. After that, the committee will meet and vote on the first class of inductees.

The nomination form asks those nominating a person write in 250 words or less why an individual or team be considered for the Hall of Fame.

While there is a maximum number of inductees that can be enshrined each year, the committee hasn’t decided on how many people will be inducted at the Sept. 19 football game.

For more information on the Hall of Fame, contact Charlie Reinhart at 314-4998 or via email at cfreinhart@comcast.net.
Right now, nominations for the first class of hall inductees is coming in slow. As of last week, just three people have been nominated for the Hall of Fame.