Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Thursday, August 6, 2026Official site

Commissioners approved numerous contracts for county services, including bridge replacement and fall cleanup, and declared the zoning ordinance substantially invalid regarding data centers and battery energy storage systems. Public comment highlighted environmental concerns and transparency in board appointments.

About this meeting

Government Body
Commissioners
Meeting Type
Commissioners
Location
Schuylkill County, PA
Meeting Date
August 6, 2026

Published excerpts

Only published remarks appear here. The full transcript is not published.

14 sections

5:17 – 6:16•Barron L Hetherington

Yeah personal story on the skip. I came on the farm in 1980 And the springtime we used to have to clean up beer bottles cans aren't bad, but beer bottle you break the food beer bottle and PUNCTURE TRACTOR TIRES. ONCE WE HAD TWO FLAT TIRES RAN IN THE MIDDLE TRYING TO GET WORK DONE. VERY NERVING THAT OUR FARM YEAR MYSELF, MY COUSIN JOHN, SUPERVISOR ON FARM YEAR PUSHED THE STATE TO FORM YOU TO GET BOTTLE BUILT WHICH WOULD BE DEPOSITS ON BOTTLES AND WE FOUGHT THAT FOR YEARS AND THE STORE KEEPERS AND THE BOTTLE SHOPS DIDN'T WANT TO DO THAT. From Western Pennsylvania, Mike Fisher was his district wi

6:22 – 6:44•Barron L Hetherington

Uh, we raise a generation of people and that every year we pleased to sit at 1012 bushels of care. Well, we're not in 1 basket. So folks like you that are doing that is remarkable. Once people learn, it's not right to throw beer bottles, not quite for cans. I'll stop doing as opposed to forcing you with it with the tax and with the deposit. So I can remember what you're doing. And also, Mandy, so thank you very much.

40:23•Barron L Hetherington

Motion for the calendars and for the hygiene kits.

41:42•Barron L Hetherington

I'll make a motion to approve the energy storage and also the data center resolution.

47:43 – 47:57•Barron L Hetherington

He wants to be here for three weeks. He's doing half of them with us, half of them with Columbia. He started the summer with an internship with Dickinson Law, which is where he plans to go next year or so. Thankfully, he's got my genes and he has to keep going.

49:36 – 50:09•Barron L Hetherington

Transfer from micro came to us, and it's been a great effort. Like, like Larry and Gary both said that every, every year, the lily pads come a little closer to the shore and we're about as close to be able to get that problem fixed over and over and over again. The recipe sent to it, a line reclamation project. Anytime you move materials, it costs lots of money to construct. And let's. Oh, is it going to be the salt?

50:19 – 50:32•Barron L Hetherington

Mr. Clouser, Craig Morgan, and much of the board. I wonder tails off to get this stuff. I appreciate it. I've been shocked and the whole line and the whole thing. They've all. Like I said, it's not part of JavaScript, but they can ignore it.

55:26 – 57:40•Barron L Hetherington

Yeah, I echo what Larry said. I mean, so much that my wife was supposed to be on a vacation. Part of the truth. We were out there working. Actually, I had a breakfast meeting with Clark and folks yesterday and they said, hey, Tell us about elite realty we're considering. So I went through all the things that we thought could be positive. They said, what's the downside? None that we found so far. So that was a big help to them. The data center talked about several different situations. Senator McCormick gave us a, I swear he copied Larry's speech. He talked about the right location and make sur

57:43 – 58:17•Barron L Hetherington

I mean, Larry was phenomenal. So we kicked the crap out of everybody else. Yeah, that was fun. That was our fun. And I did, yes, I opted out of the tour of the... Open those speedway and went in the water park for 2 hours. We weren't sitting around drinking cocktails, networking like crazy, working on all these issues, trying to get an opportunity to talk to all the other counties and get some ideas. I mean, they also were asking us about ideas too. So, yeah, that's what I, you know, several counties started meeting.

1:05:13 – 1:06:10•Barron L Hetherington

So. Give an example. The last appointment I was asked to take care of was an FCS appointment. Someone retired. And Mary, who had been the director of SEMO downtown forever, had just stepped down. I approached her because 30% of the ridership is in our district. So I thought, she also knows the expense. What better person, once again, put a female on the board, plus a person whose neighbors and friends use that service that she also very close because of her downtown Shenandoah connection with the Hispanics. So we don't just give it out to a campaign donor or to my son or to our daughter. We ta

1:06:11•Barron L Hetherington

So if you know somebody wants to be in on that, tell them to contact us. Okay.

1:07:00•Barron L Hetherington

We also have conservation. Just before, we also have farm preservation boards. There's quite a few boards.

1:11:15•Barron L Hetherington

The trivia contest, which was an interesting question, was how many counties have more cows than people?

1:11:24 – 1:11:49•Barron L Hetherington

We didn't get that one right. We did with Louis, with the trivia. Well, we said that we were spending time studying civics. You watched me. Anybody want to guess which counties have more cows than people? There's two. And it's not the two that I saw. Venango. Nope. How about my guesses? I guess Venango and Sullivan. I thought Sullivan, definitely. It's fault that you had is worth 1,000 people. Absolutely.

These excerpts are remarks by officials whose identity a person confirmed, from a transcript generated automatically from the official public meeting video and presented unedited. Accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.