Photos and story by Rick Hiduk
(Also published in the Rocket-Courier)
Wyoming County Commissioners Tom Henry and Judy Mead met on Aug. 9, an uncommon Thursday public meeting due to their participation earlier in the week in a County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) conference in Gettysburg. Upon their return, they shared popular topics at the three-day event, confirmed several staff changes at the Wyoming County Prison, discussed the fate of a Marcellus Legacy grant, and welcomed Kendra Schultz (above) as the new student representative for the Luzerne-Wyoming Counties Drug & Alcohol Executive Commission.
Kendra ranked third in her junior class at Tunkhannock Area High School and will start the new school year with a 4.0 grade point average, excelling in several honors courses. She serves as varsity softball captain and has served as vice president on the Steering Committee, with additional involvement in the National Honors Society. Outside of school, she has packed gift boxes for local military personnel, cleaned up around the school grounds as a Steering Committee member, worked the concession stands for charity events and has given pitching lessons to younger softball players.
“She came to us highly recommended,” said Henry of Kendra’s appointment to the board as the sole student representative.
“The drug and alcohol epidemic that is vastly apparent among the youth and adulthood of this community is a dilemma that I have always wanted to have a part in healing those affected by it,” Kendra wrote in the cover letter that accompanied her application. By having a seat on the commission, she added, “I would be driven and solely focused on working towards a solution to this detrimental situation that has affected so many individuals that are close to my heart.”
Prison Positions Filled, Control Panel Reordered
The commissioners approved the hiring of three new part time corrections office for the prison: Kevin Sherman, Morgan Phillips, and Autumn Sackman. Corrections officer Cory Case was promoted from part- to full time.
An order for a control panel at the prison that has been needed since last year was never properly processed as was discussed at the last prison board meeting. The unit has since gone up in cost by approximately eleven hundred dollars. Henry and Mead approved the additional expense, and Henry related that the new control panel has been ordered.
Meshoppen Denied Marcellus Grant for Playground
A much-debated five thousand dollar grant requested by Meshoppen Borough Council toward the purchase and installation of new playground equipment will not be released to the borough until a site plan is submitted and approved by the commissioners and the county planner. Meshoppen Borough Council tentatively approved the purchase of new equipment at an Aug. 6 meeting, with most of the $9,664 projected cost to be covered by funds raised via Meshoppen’s Community Day.
On Aug. 7, Henry said via phone that he supported the construction of a new playground in Meshoppen and would approve the previously tabled grant “as long as the funds are properly released.”
After reviewing procedure, the commissioners contend that Meshoppen did not fulfill its obligation to have an accredited engineer devise a master site plan, to which the council had once committed with help from a $15,000 DCNR grant. The $15,000 match needed to meet the estimated cost of the master site plan was outside the borough’s budget, so the council voted not to accept the grant.
“It was all contingent on a site plan,” Mead said of the commissioners’ decision. “It can be any site plan. It doesn’t have to be done through DCNR.”
“We’re all for children having a playground,” Henry stated. “But it is our fiduciary responsibility that it be carried out correctly. If Meshoppen would like to come and sit down and discuss it, we’d be happy to meet with them.”
CCAP Conference Provides Insight and Common Themes
Mead, Henry and county chief clerk Bill Gaylord attended the CCAP conference in Adams County and reported that it was both informative and reassuring to know that other counties are experiencing many of the same issues, such as mental health in the prison system, the opioid crisis, and a shortness of volunteers for emergency services. On the topic of opioid addiction, Mead noted, there are new efforts to address the coexisting mental health issues as part of a possible solution. Mental Health in jails was also addressed from varying perspectives. It was such a popular topic that CCAP plans to sponsor three additional meetings on that issue alone.
Mead also took an interest in proposed funding to help EMTs, many of them volunteers, pay for courses and the credentials they need to properly serve their communities. Henry was impressed by keynote speaker Kevin Brown, who shared self-edification philosophies from his Hero Effect series.
Youths Impress and Reach Out to Commissioners
The commissioners joined the rest of the community in congratulating the Tunkhannock girls softball players for capturing the east coast title and advancing to the Little League World Softball Series in Portland, OR. The girls have continued to do exceptionally well there, and the commissioners said that they would like to have them at their next meeting when they return home.
Wyoming Lackawanna Dairy Princess Emma Loch of Nicholson sent a letter to the commissioners inviting one or both of them to participate in a celebrity milking contest on Saturday, Sept. 1 at the Wyoming County Community Fair. Proceeds from sponsorships will benefit the Fill a Glass With Hope program, sponsored by the PA Dairyman’s Association. Henry and Mead maintain that neither of their milking skills are up to par, and both offered to sponsor the other.