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McKean County Commissioners approve funds |
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Written by Publisher
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Wednesday, 27 May 2009 |
SMETHPORT – Inmates at the McKean County Jail will soon be able to call home without using coins in a system approved by county commissioners on Tuesday.
By George Petrisek
Special to The Kane Republican
SMETHPORT – Inmates at the McKean County Jail will soon be able to call home without using coins in a system approved by county commissioners on Tuesday.
The agreement with Inmate Telephone Inc., will allow prisoners to call pre-approved numbers collect, with the call always subject to acceptance of charges by the recipient. The system is already in wide use elsewhere.
While the county will originally pay just under $35,000 for the service, costs will be repaid by user fees and there will be no cost to taxpayers.
In other business at the brief regular monthly meeting, commissioners approved a lengthy Mental Health Plan and an operating agreement for Early Intervention for the Department of Human Services.
Also approved was a reallocation of funds from the 2004 Community Development Block Grant Program to allow $2,291.31 unexpended from a Spot Demolition Program in Kane to be reallocated to the 2004 Sidewalk Replacement Program in Kane.
In other matters, commissioners said that the state has paid part of the money due for The District Attorney’s salary as apparently required by state law.
When the District attorney’s position was made full-time in 2005, the salary was set by the legislature at $1,000 under that of the judge, with the stipulation that the state would pay 65 percent of the salary, but the subsequent state approved budgets did not always include allocations for the reimbursement.
The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania Threatened legal action and since then the state has come up with some of the money.
According to figures provided by the commissioners on Tuesday, the county received $87,290 for the 2006 salary and the same for 2007, along with a recent adjustment of $19,929 for those two years, apparently adding up to full reimbursement for the two years.
So far, the county has received only about $450 for 2008 and nothing in 2009.
The district attorney’s salary is $160,851 per year.
Chairman of Commissioners Joe DeMott explained that the money for the reimbursement is supposed to come from a fund created from restitution by convicted persons and that the fund does not generate enough to cover the costs.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 12 June 2009 )
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