The Lycoming County Commissioners were again addressing the issue of whether positions in the county could be streamlined or even eliminated in order to make taxpayer dollars go farther.

At their meeting this week, Commissioner Scott Metzger, Marc Sortman and Mark Mussina along with Controller Nikki Gottschall, approved several changes in their capacity as the Salary Board.

Those changes included removing the hazard reduction planner from the TDA (table of distribution and authorizations), a position that has been held by Kelsey Green in the planning department.

“Kelsey Green’s position that we removed from the TDA basically mimicked a position that was at our Public Safety (department) so it’s handling flood

mitigation, the levy system, and in many counties, instead of falling under the planning department, it falls under EMS. The value for Lycoming County taxpayers is when it falls under EMS, it’s supported about 50% of the pay by the Pennsylvania state. So that helps with our payroll here at Lycoming County,” Sortman explained.

“Kelsey is doing the exact same job that she did within our planning department here in 33 East (Third Street Plaza) now, is positioned at the Farm Complex, handling the same routine job that she did. And so overall, we did eliminate a position within the county because we had a duplicate position. These are the things with the help of our financial team and actually some of the new people out at the Public Safety Team have looked at things and said, you know, this is a duplicate job. We can combine these and save the county money,” Sortman said.

Metzger pointed out that before the change was made, the county was not only paying for all of Green’s salary, but was also paying 50 per cent of the salary for the position in Public Safety.

Sortman noted another benefit of the Salary Board action.

“And the other thing that does for us as a team, is it does pull together the county. So now we have one of our planning members actually sitting in DPS on the public safety side. This just shows, you know, one of the goals we’ve had is to bring down the walls, and this is part of breaking down the wall. So we are one team together here to service the taxpayers,”

Sortman said.

The Salary Board also approved adding a resource conservation technician position, which is 100 percent grant funded to the TDA and adding a part-time custodial position to the TDA.

It was noted that the conservation technician position would only last as long as the grant. The custodial position was added because at last week’s meeting the commissioners voted to move all custodial work in-house, saving around $39,000, and this position is needed to help with the Health Center cleaning.

Other Salary Board actions included: retitling a maintenance manager-prison to corrections maintenance supervisor and reclassifying corrections maintenance supervisor from PG10 to PG9; and reclassifying one Maintenance II position to Maintenance III.

In the Department of Public Service, the board voted to remove the Deputy/Communications Manager position from the TDA and add a 9-1-1 Manager position to the TDA.

“Basically, we’re removing the deputy, adding a 911 manager coming from pay grade 12 down to the pay grade test. We’re saving money this way, and we don’t feel there’s a need for a director, a deputy, and a 911 manager,” Metzger said.

Under regular business, the commissioners approved the following: the Master Health Services Agreement with Highmark Inc.; the lease purchase with DLL Financial Solutions Partner in the amount of $67,257 which is a 36-month lease for turf equipment for the White Deer Golf Course, which will be paid out of the golf course’s budget; the Savin Maintenance & Service agreement with the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Institute for victim notification; the Lease Agreement with Duboistown Borough for central processing to be paid out of Act 81 funds at no cost to taxpayers; an agreement with Jo Ellen Bowman, MSW, LSW for expert consultation for the District Attorney’s office, not to exceed $10,000; the payment to the Borough of Duboistown in the amount of $5,297 for the rental of office space; an agreement with Contrast in the amount of $8,117 for accounting software; an amendment to the agreement with Fred Hamm, Inc in the amount of $12.21 per month to provide service to the coroner’s building; and a resolution to remove Brian J. Bluth and Elizabeth A. White as assistant solicitors.

They also approved the reappointment of Karen Young to the Lycoming County Authority Board for a five-year term.

The next meeting will be at 10 a.m. Jan. 29 at the Commissioners’ Board Room, 3rd floor, Third Street Plaza, 33 W. Third St.