Lycoming County Commissioner Jack McKernan admonished community members against Williamsport Mayor Gabriel J. Campana’s proposal to turn control of the levee system over to the city Municipal Water and Sanitary Authority Thursday.

“I don’t want people to get the idea that turning the levee over to the authority is going to solve our problems,” he said.

The Greater Williamsport Alliance levee work group was formed about 1 1/2 years ago in order to address levee repairs “because this board of commissioners was concerned that there didn’t seem to be anything happening with the area municipalities,” he said.

Fran McJunkin, deputy director of GIS for the county planning department, is “the spearhead behind” efforts to fund much-needed levee repairs and has been a spokesperson and leader in meeting with legislators, regulating departments, other levee-keepers and more, McKernan said.

McJunkin coordinated the visit to the Sunbury Municipal Authority last week, and the county also is working closely with the Army Corps of Engineers, Thomas Keller Consulting and legislators such as Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township, he continued.

“We’re hopeful that we can accomplish a lot with those organizations,” McKernan said.

“Using an authority as a long-term solution for maintenance and future repairs to the levee is a good idea,” he added, “but I don’t want to see the folks in Harrisburg or Washington (D.C.) give up on helping us to pay for these immediate items that we need to take care of.”

The responsibility is in the hands of the municipalities and the cities, he said.

In another matter, community member Betty Steinbacher, a seasonal Beaver Lake resident, voiced her concern for her neighbors’ mounting sewer bills.

With few rate payers in the remote area, rates are high, and the dominantly senior population is unable to keep up, she said. One man’s home is being foreclosed on — not by the banks due to unpaid taxes or the like, but by the Lycoming County Water and Sewer Authority for unpaid sewer bills, Steinbacher said.

“The people who are really affected are the people with minimal income, the people who are retired,” she said. “I predicted there would be sheriff’s sales … that people would lose their houses. I didn’t think it would happen this fast. He’s losing his house to the sewer authority!”

The commissioners explained that they cannot exercise control on the authority beyond appointing its board members, and that member John Gramling was appointed in January as someone who may be able to explore this issue further.

“We have tried to respond to the constituents there in terms of appointing people who can advocate, or who could explore the problem,” said Commissioner Rick Mirabito. “So, to the extent that we have control over — trying to make sure the board is representative — we did that.”

Further, state Department of Environmental Protection regulations, managed by the authority, are more expensive in some areas than others, which affects rates. And rates can’t be raised in one place to pay for changes made in another, said Commissioner Tony Mussare. The township, in this case, Penn Township, has to help Beaver Lake residents, he said.

On another note, Mussare announced that local dairy farmers and their supporters will congregate at the Lairdsville firehall starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday to meet with various speakers, legislators and others throughout the day about the loss of dairy farms locally, statewide and nationally.

“They’re pleading for help. It sounds very desperate,” he said. “This group has gone all the way to the top, they can’t go any further.”

In other business, the commissioners:

• Approved the purchase of two generators for $38,049 from Hunter and Lomison for the Department of Public Safety’s North Mountain and Armstrong tower sites. The purchase is reimbursable through 911 funds.

• Approved the purchase of a 2008 GMC ambulance for $16,000 from the Old Lycoming Township Volunteer Fire Co. for the coroner’s office, to be paid for with the coroner’s special funds.

• Approved the following personnel actions: a part-time assistant county detective at $22 per hour not to exceed 1,000 hours annually, effective July 29; promotion of Paula R. Young as a full-time replacement EMA administrative assistant at $17 per hour, effective July 29; reclassification of Travis D. Heap as a correctional counselor at $23 per hour effective Oct. 7; Dalton T. Lovell as a full-time replacement correctional officer relief at $16 per hour, effective Sunday; Sean M. Farley as a full-time replacement correctional offiver relief at $16 per hour, effective Aug. 5; and reclassification of Leslie A. Carnevale as a clerk II at $13 per hour, effective Aug. 26.

The next meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Executive Plaza.