Lycoming County commissioners: Schools would be a last resort
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The use of school district buildings as polling places will be a last resort, according to comments made by the county commissioners at the Board of Elections meeting this week.
Referring to a meeting they had with school superintendents this week, Commissioner Tony Mussare said, "We do agree that it has to be a last resort and we put it that way because it's not easy to find a new polling place."
"We'll do everything we can to prevent having those polling places at the schools," he said.
The biggest issue against using the schools presented by the district administrations is that the spring primary election falls right in the middle of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) testing schedule.
"They like to test Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. They know that they get better results," said Commissioner Rick Mirabito.
"It is important for our county to have PSSA scores that are high because when people are going to relocate, they look at the quality of schools," he added.
In some areas of the county, Forrest Lehman, director of the Voter Services Department, said,
"We're going to have some extraordinarily tough decisions."
"After Thanksgiving break that will be one of our main missions to just work on trying to find it and if we can't they're just going to have to understand," Mussare said, referring to trying to find a solution to the problem.
Commissioner Scott Metzger weighed in on the cost of renovating buildings to make them American with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible which is what the Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking.
"The key is not to make major improvements to buildings or structures that the county is utilizing two days a year," Metzger said.
"If the price tag is exuberant, we can't go that route," he said. "It's just two days a year."