Public Safety Director Jeffrey Hutchins announced at the county commissioners weekly meeting that a new public warning software by OnSolve, called CodeRed, will soon be operational.

“We’ve been without a system for a number of years after we deemed the old one as inadequate,” he explained.

“This will be for any severe weather warning, emergency evacuations, major road closures, public health notification or other critical safety message that we want to send out to our county residents and visitors,” he said, urging all county residents to register for the service through a variety of options, including via text message, phone call or email.

“We’re really excited about this, and if I could say anything to those in the room, please sign up. Get everybody you know in the county to sign up,” he stressed.

“A lot of agencies use this just for public warning. Here within the county, to get the biggest bang for our buck, we’re going to use this as an employee notification tool,” Hutchins added.

“We’ve designed it where we can drill down by county department or county facility across all of our properties, so we can send a system wide employee notification, or we can drill it down to just just the Controller’s Office, just the commissioner’s office, or just Third Street Plaza, or just the livestock building,” he explained.

Several staffing positions were approved at the meeting including Noah Hunt, as full-time accountant I for the controller’s office, at a rate of $44,533.71 per year, effective May 25, 2025 and Zoey Stauffenberg, as full-time adult victim witness coordinator at the Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office, at a rate of $18.50 per hour, effective May 25, 2025.

Several other items were given approval by the commissioners, including those with Cummins Power System; an amendment to the agreement with PetroChoice; the Net Energy Metering Rider application for service; a subrecipient agreement with West Branch Regional Authority in the amount of $28,235.90; a change order with Shiloh Excavating in the amount of $237,561.00 for the Regional Cross Pipe Rehabilitation; and a change order with Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. for the EDA Phase II.

During a salary board session, several county positions were made, including the deletion of 1 Clerk IV position from the TDA; one full-time equipment operator position from the TDA and one part-time accountant position from the TDA; the addition of two part-time equipment operator positions to the TDA and one part-time telecommunicator II position to the TDA; as well as the classification of a full-time accountant I position to paygrade nine and the administrative coordinator position to non-exempt at Resource Management Services.

The next commissioner’s meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 22.