BY PAT FARNELLI

Wyoming County Press Examiner

TUNKHANNOCK – Luzerne County has been without an election head, and Wyoming County may be able to help.

Commissioner Ron Williams noted that Luzerne County has requested help with the upcoming elections.

“Luzerne County has been seeking a new director of elections, but have not hired one yet, and the election is upon us,” Williams said.

County employee Marisa Crispell, who is assistant director of the Wyoming County elections office, has offered to fill in for the election season in Luzerne County. All expenses will be reimbursed by Luzerne County to Wyoming County, and Crispell will return to the Wyoming County courthouse one week after the elections.

Williams said that Wyoming and Luzerne counties frequently cooperate, running joint Mental Health and Developmental Services, Drug and Alcohol, Transportation, and Aging services.

In other business, Wyoming County Commissioners adopted a resolution creating a prison inspection board for the Wyoming County Correctional Facility at their meeting Tuesday.

The prison board and commissioners will next work on drawing up bylaws for the inspection board, also known as the county prison board.

Although the prison board has been in existence for years, there has never been a resolution adopted to authorize the legislation creating and defining the prison board and its role in administrating the county jail. The previous documentation is from the days when the sheriff was in charge of the jail, said Solicitor James E. Davis.

President Judge Russell Shurtleff said that he would write up a draft set of bylaws for the new board.

In the warden’s report, Ken Repsher noted that the prison’s income from boarders and the release program totaled $92,825 last month, and that with the steady influx of Sullivan County boarders, the jail will very soon surpass the average number of inmates admitted in one year.

Also on Tuesday, Kelly Carruba was appointed as a part time juvenile public defender.

Commissioner Tom Henry was appointed to the Mental Heath/Developmental Services agency as commissioners’ representative, and Williams as client advocate.

The commissioners approved a contract for replacement of the gazebo’s 12 year old roof. A quote from Tighe Holliday for $6,200 for the roofing work was accepted.

Henry noted that he is suggesting getting WiFi service for the courthouse. He is checking into whether such service would be compatible with the Baracuda system on the courthouse desktop computers.

The commissioners created the position of EMA task force manager, which is fully funded by the Pennsylvania task force. The position will last until the funding is gone, and is a non-union management position. The job will be advertised and posted.

At a previous meeting, a deputy sheriff position was discussed, but tabled. The commissioners checked the budget and decided to hire Donald Grogesky as a part time deputy sheriff, on an as needed basis.

A meeting for the Iroquois Trail will be held Thursday at 12:30 p.m.

The commissioners will have a work session for budgets and reports on Oct. 11 from 9 to 10:30 a.m.

A ribbon cutting ceremony for the first phase of the Iroquois Trail will be held on Oct. 11 at 12:30 p.m. at the Emergency operations center. Refreshments will be served.

Henry said that an employee appreciation day for the prison employees will be held Oct. 3.

Henry will be bringing pizza, breadsticks, and soda to jail employees at 11 a.m., 5 p.m., and 10 p.m.

The Tunkhannock Area School District’s special education department has begun to offer a coffee cart in the courthouse lobby area. Students will offer coffee, tea and baked goods for sale, helping them gain job skills and earning proceeds to donate to Interfaith Neighbors.

The cart will be available every Tuesday and Friday morning from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.