Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Fiscal year 2026-2027, current rates and terms, the new end date, June 30th, 2027. The following three agreements each have a term period July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027. First is with KSMST of Warrington for multisystemic therapy services with a rate of $76.50 per 15 minutes.

Next is with Vallier.

Detective parenting evaluations are $1,500 per unit. Polygraph examinations are at $400 per unit. And psychosexual evaluations are at $1,500 per unit. And the individual therapy is at $95 per hour. And finally, we have an agreement with the school intermediate unit number 29, Poxville, for purchase of day treatment services with a per DM rate $220 and a contract cap of $693,000. Thank you, Bill.

Drug and alcohol.

Good morning. John Reed, drug and alcohol. We have three items. First is requesting approval for submission of the grant application to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency for 2627 Intermediate Punishment Treatment Program. For a maximum amount of 135,000 dollars. This is a yearly grant that we apply for to support this Google county restriction probation plan that the drug and alcohol program and adult probation office work together on. 2nd, item is approval of a fiscal year 2627 contract, addendum to fire tree limited to extend the expiration date of the contract from June 30th to 2026, December 31st, 2026. And the last item is approval of the following 2627 contract addendums to update appendix B of the contract, which will replace the current appendix B and those providers are incorporated for inpatient drug and alcohol treatment services. 2nd, is pyramid healthcare incorporated for inpatient drug and alcohol treatment services and white there run for inpatient drug and alcohol treatment services. Thank you. Thank you.

Good morning, commissioner, Cheryl plus on behalf of grant writers approval of change order number 1 for 3500 dollars to the contract with excavation Inc for a stormwater project in this will increase the contract from 127,320 dollars. $230,820. This is for additional depth restoration and additional paving. The next approval to advertise for demolition projects in Butler Township and Porter Township. In Butler Township, it's at 992 Fountain Street. And in Porter, it is 405 Detroit Avenue, Tower City. Thank you.

Good morning, Sharon. Good morning, Sharon. Recommendation that the Board of Commissioners approves an agreement with Schuylkill Community Action and Pottsville for lead agency services for the state food purchase program and the emergency food assistance program for the period October 1st, 2026 through December 31st, 2030. Thank you. Good morning, Lisa.

Good morning. Good things take time. I'm requesting approval to advertise for the bid for the Schuylkill County emergency services training facility to be located at the fireman's road fractal. The bids will be received online via pen bid program by the Schuylkill County controller until 9 a.m. prevailing time on Wednesday, October 21st. 2026, there will be four separate prime contracts, general construction, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical. The bids will be reported at the commissioner's meeting at 10 a.m. on October 21st with the tentative bid award of October 28th. An onsite Prebid meeting will be held Friday, September 18th at 1. P. M. with the rain date of September 21st. I'm requesting approval of that. So it'll be advertised tomorrow.

Motion to. Put this out for the school timers and services training facility. 2nd, all the favor questions. Sorry.

Go back to the borough council days. Yes. Yes. Yes.

It's been almost ever since we received a lot of money from COVID and the other funding that came in. It was to say, give the firemen out so much money for fire department. And again, their leadership came to us and said that if we do that, it's good. but the thing is, is it'd be a one-time thing. This building is gonna definitely take emergency services all across the board, first responders, not just fire departments, a building that they can go and train in, that they don't have to go to a school or whatever. They can do their in-school book training inside, go right out into the field and to do this. Again, as you know, emergency services are on a dwindling because it's basically all volunteer. And this is what we can do is to influx that fusion into there to hopefully encourage young people to get involved in the local fire department. And actually, this goes out to everyone. You don't have to be actually running to a fire. They need to raise funds and so forth. So if you have the opportunity to give a little bit of volunteer in your community, I encourage it because, again, a lot of those sales go a long way. And the equipment I know we've just were up at the Farmers Convention and you're looking at all the equipment that was out up there at the county. You're looking at billions of dollars that rode those streets billion. So again, there's a big investment and it comes down to life saving property and also live. So this is a great project. I know it's been a long time coming and again I appreciate everyone working together to make sure that this is comes to life. So again, thank you very much to everyone that was involved.

This is a great addition to the county. It's great for all of our first responders. It's great for our EMS. Because a lot of our major incidents are in the 81 corridor. Their response time will be faster. It will be better for them. It will be better for our firefighters. One of the biggest things we've always heard from the group is when they try to train firemen, they have to try to find a school that can hold them, and they have to do two or three training sessions. Now they'll be able to do one training session. Plus, our industries in the area can use this to help train firefighters. our firefighters for warehouse response, for ammonia leaks that happen at one time at Walmart. Situations like that, companies can come down and train their people and also help train our firemen to deal with situations, emergency situations at their facilities. So it's really a good addition for our first responders. It was something that was much needed. It took a lot of time. My predecessors here, they worked on it before I was here. When I first got elected, everybody thought we had the money. And they're like, we're going out for bid. And here we found out we didn't get one of the grants that we thought we had. And we worked with our representatives. I got to give Representative Jamie Barton and Representative Joanne Stern, Tim Torrens, Dane Wattrow. And I got to give them credit. Jamie spearheaded it. He got us $500,000. He took some of their money before they knew it. So we kind of got like, hey, I took your money to help, but they all were supportive. Our senator helped with our RCAP with the governor's office. We got the $1.5 million RCAP. Congressman Muser's office got us about $2 million for a PEMA for it. So it was just a really good, you know, everybody worked together on it from the governor's office to our congressmen to our state legislators and all the commissioners advocated for it. And we appreciate the fire company's support.

on waiting the patients to get to here. One of the big drivers was, if you recall, when they had that snow swell up on 81. That was the big driver. In any event, my next item.

One more quick comment. Sorry. I mentioned the governor's office. You see, I mentioned Hershey and many young ladies there representing the governor's office and she said she knew about the situation. Lisa Lisa, Mark from your county who worked I've worked in the Senate now she worked for the governor's office. Also drew was there and they said, we understand the situation. We want to try and make it right now. So I commend those that staff. the governor shapiro for uh there's thousands of our cap in france that are applying for a couple hundred get done right gary the styles have come in the fact that this his staff went to bat for us and the governor got mike mike i gotta come into everybody paul and that was the key to get that last question we don't want to see captain stay up all night drinking we actually take care of this thing you're trying to start with the account so Thank you. Go ahead.

Next item is to renew the lease with the borough of Port Carbon for the Magisterial District Judge 210301 and related activities located on the second floor of the Port Carbon Borough Hall, 301 First Street. The lease term shall be one year commencing on October the 1st, 2026 and expiring on September 30th, 2027 and thereafter will be month to month. Um, the, the least area consists of approximately 2100 square feet and the monthly grant will be 2519 dollars and 52 cents, which is 14 dollars and 40 cents per square foot. Next item is to renew the lease with the for the magisterial district board. 21303. And related activities for the 2nd floor borough hall in works for the terms will be 5 years commencing October 1st, 2026 and expiring on September 30th, 2031. the least area consists of approximately 1,980 square feet and their monthly rent will be 2585 dollars and 18 cents, which is 15 dollars and 67 cents per square foot. Thank you.

uh good morning commissioners for informational purposes only we have the following four budget adjustments 587 dollars for hsbp 1580 within the commissioner's office 3675 in domestic relations 11 250 in prison and then we are asking for immediate approval is requested for the supplemental budget appropriation resolution 20 26 19.

CAN I HAVE A MOTION FOR 2026-19? I'LL MAKE THAT MOTION, SIR. SECOND. ANY QUESTIONS?

COMMISSIONER PADURA?

YES. COMMISSIONER HETHERINGTON? YES. AND COMMISSIONER HESS?

YES. THANK YOU, CLINTON. KELLY PUSHURT? COMMISSIONER PUSHURT, WITH THAT APPROVED BY THE DESIGNATED APPROVED CONTRACT FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST, I'LL MAKE A MOTION TO APPROVE THE CONTRACT FOR AUGUST.

SECOND. ANY QUESTIONS? COMMISSIONER PADURA?

YES.

COMMISSIONER HETHERINGTON? YES. COMMISSIONER HESS? YES.

Next item on behalf of Luzerne School of the Workforce Development Board, approves the request to appoint Christine Whelan as a member of the Luzerne School of the Workforce Development Board beginning September 9th, 2026 through September 8th, 2030. Ms. Whelan is currently employed at Hydro Extrusion USA in Persona as a Human Resource Manager. She will represent the business sector in the manufacturing industry.

Human Resources?

Good morning, commissioners. We have one informational item in the clerk of courts, the appointment of Kylie Luckinville as a clerk free. Effective date, 9-14-26. Rate is for the unique contract. INVOLVING SALARY OR POSITIONS BEING RAISED OR OFFENDING SALARY BOARD APPROVAL THAT IS A HOLE.

NEW BUSINESS? NEW BUSINESS? NEW BUSINESS? NEW BUSINESS? NEW BUSINESS? NEW BUSINESS? NEW BUSINESS? NEW BUSINESS? NEW BUSINESS? NEW BUSINESS? NEW BUSINESS? NEW BUSINESS?

I can't let you get away that quick. Just a quick note. I just wanted to thank you for getting those supplemental appropriations out on the board outside. That's very helpful. Good morning, commissioners. Chris Molesky from the Regent Township. In September of 2025, Schuylkill County promoted its updated website through a 90-minute program called Navigating Schuylkill 24-7. It was organized through the Chamber of Commerce, and the presenters demonstrated the county website were Controllers Sharon Yakinship and Treasurer Linda Yutt. Chairman Pedora characterized the program as an effort to bring transparency to county government. Well, nearly a year later, I evaluated the website from the standpoint of a taxpayer actually trying to use it. My grade overall would be a D as in David. First question, who is the county webmaster? Who has the day-to-day responsibility for keeping the information correct, fixing broken links, maintaining records, updating departments, and making public information easily accessible? And why were the controller and treasurer conducting a 90-minute presentation teaching people how to navigate the county website? The article describes the controller's responsibilities, of course, as accounting, sealed bids, audits, bills, and payroll, and the treasurer handles tax receipts, licenses, hotel taxes. Very important jobs. But where was MIS, or now IT? Where was the county's information technology leadership? My professional background is in hospitality executive management. Imagine sending a controller and the CFO of a major hotel to conduct a training on the hotel's technology platform while the IT department is nowhere to be found. They may use the system, but they're not responsible for managing the technology. That's basic executive management. Responsibility comes from accountability. The public was told that if they wanted to know just about anything about the county government, they should go to the website. Then let's make this statement true. Where is searchable contract database showing vendor information? Where are financial reports that taxpayers can easily view and or print? Why are historical records fragmented? Why isn't department and leadership contact information consistently maintained? And why should anybody need a 90-minute seminar to navigate a government website? I've been able to reconstruct years of county contract information from public records. If a citizen can't reconstruct it, the county should be able to publish it. So commissioners, enough talking about transparency. Let's just get the shit fixed. Let's get the information updated. Let's get reports available to be able to search, download, and print. Let's identify who's responsible for the website and hold somebody accountable for maintaining it. It's 2026, folks. Taxpayers aren't asking for cutting-edge technology. We're asking for basic modern government functionality. Let's do the work because transparency isn't a seminar. It's a press release or a talking point. It's the public being able to find the public's information. And until that happens, I'll continue to maintain our website as a grade D. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other public comments? Sorry, we're... Thank you.

Yes, commissioners. In recorder of deeds, we have a wage increase for Gerard Clemma, first deputy, $43,818, effective 9-14-26. In the treasurer's office, a wage increase for Nia Griffin, first deputy, $49,317.36, effective 9-14-26. And in tax assessment, a wage increase for Christine Zimmerman, chief assessor, to $67,613.92, effective 9-14-26. And in the Any new business?

Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn.