The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on South Reach Road in Williamsport. KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

After touring the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility on South Reach Road in Williamsport, the Lycoming County Commissioners stated that the site is for processing immigrants that have had warrants issued for their arrest and not for long-term housing. The commissioners shared details of the recent tour at their weekly meeting.

“They go after them. They will take them to their facility and they will process them. They can only hold them there for up to 12 hours,” said Commissioner Scott Metzger.

The detainees are then taken to facilities in either Clinton, Center or Pike counties.

Countering a rumor that has been spread by a local patriot group, Metzger stressed that no illegal immigrants are being shipped into the area through the airport or by bus.

“There are no buses that are coming here from the southern border. This is not a processing center for those types of individuals that are crossing the border. Nothing of that. These are strictly people that have been convicted of a crime where they have a warrant and they go after them and they detain them,” Metzger said.

Also on the tour in addition to Commissioner Tony Mussare and Metzger, were Williamsport Mayor Derek Slaughter, Rep. Joe Hamm, Rep. Jamie Flick and a representative from Sen. Gene Yaw’s office. Commissioner Rick Mirabito was unable to attend the tour.

The ICE facility, which had been housed at Allenwood Federal Prison, will employ 20 people when it opens. There are holding cells at the facility, which gave rise to speculation that it would be used for longer stays, but, according to Metzger, they were not suitable for housing detainees.

“There is no way that anyone can live in those cells, sleep in those cells. They’re concrete. It’s obviously for a very short processing time until they are taken to a facility,” he said.

The Reach Road site also includes offices, a boardroom, an ammunition room and a fitness facility.

“They were very transparent, very agreeable to everything. They said we live in this community. We’re from this community. We live here, so we would like the rumors to stop too. We’re going after the bad guys,” Metzger said the officials at ICE told them.

Under personnel, the commissioners approved the hiring the following people at the pay rates listed: Paula Raemsch, full-time EMS Regional Training Coordinator in the Department of Public Safety, $36,504 per year; Christopher Hess, full-time resident supervisor at the Pre-Release Center, $18.10 per hour; Dominick Bracey, full-time Maintenance II in Facilities Management, $21 per hour; and Chris Paulhamus, full-time Maintenance II in Facilities Management, $22.40 per hour.

Other agenda items approved by the commissioners included: the wire transfer of a $5 million loan to Famvest IIX-Lycoming Mall LLC; a collective bargaining agreement with the county’s Probations Officer and Domestic Relations Officers Association which lays out a path of 3 percent wage increases for through 2026 and retroactive to 2022; a price quote and agreement with EFORCE in the amount of $233,842 in ARPA funds for a county-wide record management system; an agreement with DNA diagnostics for genetics testing used by Domestic Relations; and the purchase of a 2024 Caterpillar D&T Dozer from Cleveland Brother Equipment Co., Inc. in the amount of $755,730 for the Resource Management Services Department. Even though it is a 2024 budget item, it is being ordered now due to supply chain issues and lead time.

The next commissioners’ meeting will be at 10 a.m. July 20 in the Commissioners’ Board Room, 1st floor Executive Plaza, 330 Pine St.