Coaching change

Unless you are talking Penn State football, there aren’t many programs that can say they’ve only had a few coaches over the history of their program.
That can be said of the highly successful Donegal High School wrestling program. Since the sports inception about 50 years, they’ve had four head coaches, all successful in their own way.
Walt Price started the program, then turned the stewardship over to Gene Funk, then to John Felix and most recently to Dan Bechtold.
The former standout wrestler at Hempfield High School and Elizabethtown College is ending a highly successful four-year run as the Indians’ mat boss. Bechtold’s resignation was confirmed Monday by Athletic Director Ron Kennedy.

CHS honor roll

Thie third quarter honor roll from Columbia High School will appear in this week's edition.

Congrats to those students who made the honor roll.

My 15 seconds of fame.

You’ve probably heard the expression, if you watch movies and those television shows such as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood, when people talk about parts of their shows or lines being left on the cutting room floor.
Well, Monday, I thought I was going to be one of those people.
In case you haven’t heard or seen it, our town was featured for about four or five minutes Monday night on ABC’s World News Tonight with Charles Gibson.
A crew of four, a reporter, camera man and two techs came to our small town to get some reaction to comments (see page one for details) that Barack Obama, one of the two Democrats running for president made in San Francisco about small towns.
I heard the story over the weekend and have to admit my first reaction is “why did he down small towns,” but, I didn’t realize that the next day that the national news would come to our small town for a reaction.
Columbia, come on, we only make the local television stations when something bad happens. Forget the many events we have here in Columbia; forget the fact that our school board will honor a number of students of the month at its meeting tonight; forget the fact we were almost the capital of the United States.
That’s not newsworthy enough.
I also have to tell you that when I first received the phone call on Monday morning, I was like, sure, okay, whatever. I thought one of my many friends was pulling an April Fools Joke, three weeks late.
But then, I got an email from ABC in Washington, confirming the visit and their producer/reporter who was in Columbia.
Yes, we’ve made the big time and I was kind of excited.
I was excited that our town was going to be featured in the national spotlight, although I did expect it to be for about 30 seconds, and it was going to portray the town in a positive light for once.
So as the ABC crew made their way down Locust Street, people were taking notice.
I was kind of worried about how I would come off when I got interviewed. The ABC crew was extremely professional and made it easy. They didn’t ask the real tough questions like reporters are trained.
ABC News spent about four or five hours in our town.
Still, I thought my interview would end up on the cutting room floor and no one would believe me that I was going to appear on national television without it.
So when the piece aired, there I was sitting inside our office and getting my 15 seconds of fame.
In case your interested the cost of my autograph because of my appearance on national television is no longer free, but it’s still relatively inexpensive. Can you say priceless!
I wish we would have had more time to get the word out, but Columbia looked good in the eyes of a nation, I think.

No to trucks

At Monday’s borough council meeting, Mayor Leo Lutz said plans to relocated Route 441 and get the big trucks out of the downtown continue to move forward.
Earlier in the day, Lutz and Councilwoman Mary Wickenheiser attended a meeting of the Lancaster County Transportation Technical Advisory Committee.
“They assured us the project is on schedule,” Lutz said.
But the completion of the project won’t be until at least 2015. Lutz said one of the things that made the committee take notice there is a huge problem with the big trucks in Columbia was a letter he read and pictures he showed that he received from someone who lives along the truck route.
The letter talked about the foundation of the resident’s house being damaged by the trucks and also cracks on the resident’s porch.
“I shared the letter and it had an impact on the committee,” Lutz said.
“We must stay on schedule and keep this project moving forward,” Lutz said.
But between now and when the relocation is completed, what can be done to let the trucks know they are causing problems in Columbia?
Borough Council approved the purchase of scales, a van and equipment to begin inspecting trucks for safety when they travel through the borough. In addition to getting the equipment, police will be trained to do the inspections and issue citations.
Columbia had already budgeted for the purchase of the equipment and at least $40,000 in revenue in 2008.
“This is another step that shows we are serious about relocating Route 441. We make to make sure the trucks that are coming through this borough are legal,” said Councilwoman Mary Wickenheiser.

Read more in Thursday's Columbia Ledger.

Skate park info

There’s no denying that sometime down the road, Columbia will have a skate park.
Just when and where is still a little bit up in the air, depending upon who you ask.
At Monday’s four-hour marathon borough council meeting, the future home of the skate park was discussed. The discussion came as the result of an other move by the council to ban the use of skateboards, skates, etc., not only in the downtown business district, but Routes 441 and 462 as well.
“I understand that we are locked into Rotary Park,” said Councilman Vern Detz. “I only caught wind of this recently.”
If the site of the skate park is indeed Rotary Park, it was news to the council. One reason was because a site on Commerce Street under the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge, near Rotary Park was deemed unacceptable by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

For more, read this week's Columbia Ledger

We made the big time

When there are television cameras in Columbia, it usually means there is something bad happening.
But Monday, the bright lights of the television cameras weren’t in town highlighting something. They were using Columbia as a representative of “small town” America to gauge reaction to remarks made last wee by Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama.
Campaigning in San Francisco, Sen. Obama commented about working class voters from small towns.
“Its not surprising, then, they get bitter,” Obama said in San Francisco.
“They cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” Obama said.
Those remarks got the brain waves moving at ABC World New Tonight. They were looking for a small town to see what the reaction was.
That brought Jake Tapper, a producer for World News Tonight, along with a camera man and two technicians to Columbia.
Tapper basically was looking for small town America and he got it. Tapper said York and Lancaster cities weren’t considered and Columbia was chosen over Wrightsville because it had a lot more to offer.

Hearing is delayed

The preliminary hearing for Robert Richards, the Columbia High School band director, who was charged with having sex with a student by Columbia and West Hempfield Township, last week, has been postponed.
The hearing, which was to be held today at District Judge Robert Herman’s office was delayed until June.

Craft Show

The Columbia Market House will be a busy place on Sunday.
That’s when the Columbia High School Class of 2010 will hold an antique, art and craft show from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
“It is free admission for a day of great food, art, antiques, and fun. It will also include a raffle and musical entertainment,” said Melissa Glenn, one of the events organizers.
Those attending the event are asked to bring unwanted eyeglasses that will be given to the Columbia Lions Club.
Also at the show, there will be a limited edition basket for sale.
The hard maple basket called the “Biscuit Basket” is made by the American Tradition basket Company in Canal Fulton, Ohio. The hand woven basket features a red and gold weave, solid dark red fabric liner with a plastic protector and commemorative brass tag.
The basket sells for $40 with the liner or $32 without the liner.
All proceeds benefit the Columbia High School Class of 2010 Parents Club.
For more information, call Melissa Glenn at 684-5249. For more information or to order a basket, call Patti Hinkle at 684-2111.

TV

Still can’t understand our current cable television set-up. When the Phils’ game are UPN (except for Sunday), its basically pot luck as to whether we see the games in this area.
But then again, if you are lucky enough to have Comcast E-town, you see the games.
It’s frustrating when the games aren’t on Comcast Sports Net, and what’s even worse is that the new radio station in York, now broadcasting the Phillies, has an extremely weak signal.
Can’t we fans get what we want?

Please sit down

Sunday was the second trip of the season to the City of Brotherly Love.
It started as a nice day, but quickly turned chilly, but not as cold as the pre-season game.
So why am I asking peole to sit down?
Well during the game, Mark DeRosa of the Cubs hit a “long drive” to left that was going out of here. It was ruled a homer by the rookie third base ump.
But right away, one could easily see the ball was foul. Just didn’t have the look of a fair ball.
The fans started screaming and so did Pat Burrell. In fact, he had to be pushed away from the umpire.
So, chugging out to argue was Uncle Charlie. It didn’t take a lind squirrel to see the play and I though perhaps Charlie would say a few words and just go back to the dugout.
Well after the umpires together and made the call stand, Charlie took one for the team. He got tossed for standing behind his team.
I was glad to see that. And know, I am not really changing my mind about him, but it was refreshing.
I also got a kick out of the fans the rest of the game as well, which by the way, the Phillies lost in 10.