Lycoming County has been paying $2,600 per year — since 1989 — for the storage of 11 items at an offsite records retention facility. Included in that annual cost was $900 for retrieval.

At this week’s commissioners meeting it was revealed that no one seems to know what those items are, so the current slate of commissioners approved retrieval of the mystery records by the county personally at a cost of $3,552. They pointed to this as an example of wasteful spending at the county level and vowed to continue their campaign to end it.

“”These are the things that the three of us are really trying to change within Lycoming County… We have probably wasted millions of dollars on things that we’re going to clean up over these next few years, and that’s going to balance the budget as well,” said Commissioner Marc Sortman.

Later in the meeting during commissioner comments, Sortman reiterated this, saying, “If things aren’t following the process, we’re not going to pay the bill.”

“We are so used to, as government, that (when) the bill comes in, we pass it through and nobody reviews it. That’s changing in Lycoming County. So for all the vendors, for all our elected officials that just send in the things for payment, we’re asking that everybody reviews everything because we’re paying bills we probably should never be paying,” Sortman said.

He went on to praise the changes that have been made in the county’s staff, including the new director of management operations, Shannon Barnes.

“Our new director of operations has been looking at our buildings and things…that we’ve done, and finding invoices that we probably shouldn’t get. And ironically, when she questions that we’re told we shouldn’t get them, so we’re not paying them, but without questioning things, things get paid,” he said.

“So we’re just asking everybody to do their due diligence as we move forward as a county, balancing this budget, getting things financially secure. That’s our goal, for the three of us. It’s been our goal since day one, whether it’s vendor changes, personnel changes, whatever it is that has to happen within this county,” he said.

In other actions, the commissioners approved the following items: a professional and administrative services agreement with the SEDA Council of Governments for fiscal year 2024 in the amount of $119,800; the purchase of storage devices and services from Melillo in the amount of $156,854; the Polycom support renewal with Keyser Consulting Group in the amount of $809; an amendment to the Indigent Defense Grant with the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime & Delinquency in order to purchase hard drives instead of thumb drives for the public defender’s office; an amendment to the USDA lease in the amount of $8,380 monthly from May 1 to April 30, 2030; the Election Integrity Grant with the Department of Community & Economic Development for $373,818; and the payment of invoices to Larson, Kellett & Associates, P.C in the amount of $42,508.

Projects selected for the 2025 Community Development Block Grants in the amount of $589,460 were announced at the meeting. They are: the park loop rehabilitation in Montgomery Borough; the Route 54 sewer lateral connections with the West Branch Regional Authority; Jersey Shore borough funding of the Meadow Alley Road reconstruction; Montoursville Borough curb cuts; and the South Williamsport Borough funding a slum blight area.

Under personnel, the commissioners approved hiring the following: Corinna Meixel, full-time clerk III in Adult Probation, $15.74 per hour, and Nichole Carter, a full-time GIS analyst/environmental planner in Planning and Community Development, $45,878 per year.

The next meeting will be at 10 a.m. Thursday in the Commissioners’ Board Room, Third Street Plaza, 33 W. Third St.