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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-04-16 Commissioners Meeting WEDNESDAY, April 16, 2025 The Franklin County Commissioners met Wednesday, April 16, 2025, with the following members present: Dean A. Horst, John T. Flannery and Robert G. Ziobrowski. Commissioner Horst presided and after calling the meeting to order, a Moment of Silence, and the Pledge of Allegiance, proceeded with the business of the day. The meeting was live streamed. On a motion by John T. Flannery, seconded by Robert G. Ziobrowski; the Board unanimously approved to adopt the agenda. The minutes of the April 9, 2025 meetings were reviewed. On a motion by John T. Flannery, seconded by Robert G. Ziobrowski; the Board unanimously approved the minutes. There was public comment from Valerie Jordan who wanted to put in a plug for the cleaning staff. Every time spotless. She attended the Chambersburg Borough Council meeting the other night to bring a recommendation to the mayor and council members. It involved their rail trail. She also brought up the fact that They told her to come see the Commissioners. The homeless are the problem, not She also had a brief discussion after the Chambersburg Borough Council meeting was over with a councilman there -wide reassessment. She's read articles on this issue since it was first mentioned here. She came to find out that, yes indeed, municipalities can sue a county for lack of doing a reassessment. WellSpan Health would be one of the largest businesses forced to the pay the most when a county-wide assessment is done. From the pdf have required greater borrowings. The 911 towers paid through the 2011 Bond cost in excess of $7 million. The 2014 Bond totaled $11 million, including $5 million for courthouse and parking garage repairs and $She also googled that reassessment costs can be financed through bonds. For example, a county might issue bonds to cover the costs of a here. These bonds are then repaid over time using property tax revenue. As more revenue comes into this county, more taxpayers share in the costs of paying down the bonds, as they are bonds on the courthouse or a county-wide reassessment. She knows the Board are in a bind now because they cut the 2025 budget by $9 million. She held up her county tax bill to the mayor and borough council members in Chambersburg. Though the county cut its budget, none Numbers can never be disputed. There was also comment from Rod Benedick, Superintendent for the Tuscarora School District. He wanted to give a follow up and a continued thank you to the Commissioners. A few years ago he stood in the same room and accepted a $25,000.00 Impact Grant. As a follow up they are near the end of the expenditure process and the reimbursement process. He wanted to report the very good news that the money has been very well spent for the community. They serve about 100 families in the community and the impact grant came at a really impactful time at the end of COVID and they were trying to expand the program from one school to all six and from a small program to a really thriving program in the school district. With the Commissioners assistance they were able to do that. They are now on much better financial footing and have the next several years of their food supply already accounted for. The 100 families that they serve get a weekly backpack full of food and during holidays and at the end of the school year they get about a 50-pound box to help celebrate that time of the year. An addition this year has daughter who added birthday blessing to the program. Not only do students get a weekly backpack of food, but they also now get a birthday wish on their birthday. They get a birthday cake mix, a small gift and birthday wishes. Again he just wanted to let the Board know that a lot of things get criticized at the county government level, but he appreciates the impact grant and it has had a wonderful impact on the Tuscarora school district community. Commissioner Horst thanked Mr. Benedick for his report on those dollars. John Jordan wanted to follow up on the homeless as he is a little bothered, not about the commissioners but about a Chambersburg council person basically when mentioned about the homeless said problem. He sees homeless people when he volunteers at the Salvation Army here in Chambersburg and he is sure they are in other places as well. , like it He sits in the commissioner meetings and lots of time that there are presentations from different people with the agencies and who work really hard at helping out people in this county. He would like to see that continued. He homeless is the county problem not theirs. the way it came off to him. Its everyone's problem but certainly Chambersburg has some culpability to do something not just the county. On a motion by John T. Flannery, seconded by Robert G. Ziobrowski; the Board unanimously approved all consent agenda items to include: All bills presented and ordered paid in the amount of $147,389.30. Amendment to the agreement between the County of Franklin and Aging Well PA to change the all-inclusive rate to $259.35 per Functional Eligibility Determination (FEDs) - PASRR_EV and Redetermination assessments and all-inclusive rate to $142.27 for preparation and attendance at each consumer appeal hearing. All other provisions and conditions of the original contract will remain the same. Approval for the Franklin County Area Agency on Aging to update Aging Advisory Council bylaws to include the following sentence added on Page 2, Section 1 G: The Commissioner(s) will serve as ex officio non-voting members. Approval to proclaim the week of April 6-. Certificate of Substantial Completion from Elevated Facility Services for elevator construction at the Franklin County Courthouse Annex. Agreement between the County of Franklin and Marion Athletic Association to pass through a Local Share Account Grant of $50,988.00 for purchase of equipment and administrative costs associated with Marion Athletic Association Tractor Purchase Project (the tain Local Share Account grant application submitted by the County on behalf of Subgrantee. Agreement between the County of Franklin and Franklin Fire Company to pass through a Local Share Account Grant of $677,000.00 to purchase a replacement of a 2004 Fire Pumper, certain Local Share Account grant application submitted by the County on behalf of Subgrantee. Amendment to the Whole Home Repair Grant agreement between the County of Franklin and United Way of Franklin County to adjust the Scope of Services in Section 1 as it pertains to stipends. All other terms and conditions of the Original Agreement shall remain in full force and effect. Agreement between the County of Franklin and ICC Community Development Solutions for the annual renewal for Laserfiche licensing. Laserfiche is our content management solution, providing electronic document storage as well as electronic workflows and eForms at a cost of $115,944.50. This will be paid by an allocation across all operations. About 68% is estimated to be paid by the General Fund. Agreement between the County of Franklin and Splashwire Inc. for the continued use of our Antivirus and Endpoint protection services through Cynet. In addition, this adds more security features to the package already in use. We will be able to add it to mobile endpoints such as phones. It will be able to monitor the Firewall and our M365 environment, as well as other SaaS integrations. Finally, it will provide Centralized Log Management, bringing all device logs under its umbrella for fast analysis and querying at a cost of $79,200.00. This will be paid by an allocation across all operations. About 68% is estimated to be paid by the General Fund. Agreement between the County of Franklin and Berkshire Systems Group, INC (BSGI) to replace two additional loops for the fire alarm system. The final two are scheduled for 2026 sation Reserves. The Board reviewed regular agenda items. County Administrator Carrie Gray provided a high-level overview of each of the actions. Ms. Gray stated that there was an underground storage take found during excavation and grading next door for the old Sears lot. She introduced construction manager John Boozer to discuss further. Commissioner Flannery talked about the interview that he did the morning prior and mentioned some of the board actions that were in the meeting. One of which was the tank that was found next door and Mr. Pat Ryan, general manager of the radio station and the person doing the interview, was not happy that the county taxpayers were subject to paying $21,500.00 to have this tank removed and we should have known prior about this. He has treated the commissioners very favorably and he personally has a very good relationship with Mr. Ryan but he did call the commissioners out on this. Commissioner Flannery wants to make sure that they address this with facts and Mr. Boozer, the project manager, within 15 minutes he had a conference call with Mr. Boozer and Administrator Gray and they discussed this issue which completely satisfied his concerns because he knows how the county handles issues like this and Mr. Boozer did a phenomenal job of explaining to him the situation that is being dealt with but he wanted to make sure that this was brought to the public so that everyone knows that the $21,500.00 is being spent extremely responsibly. Mr. Boozer stated that prior knowledge of any tank is a big benefit of his job all the time but the fact is that in his job they are constantly dealing with the unknown and in this particular case the tank in question, about a 500-gallon storage tank, is at best guess 75 to 100 years old. It would have been there prior to the Sears store in what is now known to be the Chambersburg implement store days which resided on Second street before it burned. The tank still had fuel in it and when it was run into unknown to the dozer operator, he had a jolt and they all stopped and mainly tried to explore what it was that stopped the dozer quickly which turned out to be the fuel line for the tank. They were able to quickly ascertain that in bumping it that there was a problem. They have a wonderful relationship with Triad Engineering who are professional services for the area. They deal with fuel tanks like this all the time and the remediation of soils is required to do the responsible thing. Commissioner Flannery, this was a complete unknown and they had done known. Commissioner Flannery stated that the tank was on no plans or drawings. There was no possible way they could have known about this. Mr. Boozer said no. What is more perplexing to him is he can go back into the 1800s with some plans and old Sandborn maps and there a building in that particular case in that spot. Commissioner Flannery asked if the county could have, in preparation for this, done ground penetrating radar. Mr. Boozer stated that it is a pretty refined and approved science now but if you are going to use that instead of gridding out a whole site and spending lots more money then they are spending, hundreds of thousands to grid out a site like this, you want to know that you are looking for something, somewhere. Commissioner Flannery stated that most likely they would have spent more money than what they are spending to perform this operation, plus still would have to spend what they are spending to perform the operation. Mr. Boozer told Commissioner Flannery he was absolutely correct. The only thing he would say is he could make it more in the affirmative that they would have spent more money and they would have spent the same amount of money to remediate. Commissioner Flannery asked if the Chambersburg borough would have had any knowledge of the tank being there. If that was something that was required in permitting from 75 or 100 years ago. Mr. Boozer stated that no and in fact something he just learned since they had spoken was, the assumption they had since it was outside of the building on any drawing back into the 1800s was it was probably a diesel fuel tank and maybe had a pump to fill a tractor or something. That was an assumption. As they were excavating around it and working on the remediation, they found ¾ inch lines coming and going to the tank indicating that it was a heating application. The tank is unregulated by DEP, and he is doing everything proper and following all the rules unregulated tank. Commissioner Flannery verified that DEP had no record of this tank as well. Mr. Boozer said no. Commissioner Horst stated that until 1970. Mr. Boozer stated that DEP only keeps records for 19 years. They now know it was a heating application and an unregulated tank. Commissioner Flannery thanked Mr. Boozer for all the information. Commissioner Ziobrowski asked if there was any fuel in the tank and if so, how much and what happened to it. Mr. Boozer stated that 275 gallons was still in the tank. A tank that is estimated to be 75 to 100 years old. When they moved it they did cause it to leak. They immediately got Triad involved. They got a vac truck here and sucked as much of the fuel up as they could and got about 275 gallons out of the tank. That was disposed of in an appropriate lawful manner. It was there but it was leeching into the soil so the had to remove 151 tons of soil around that in order to do the right thing. By responsible people who care about our environment and are good stewards of our environment. Commissioner Horst asked if there was any chance of that getting into the creek there right beside it. Mr. Boozer stated they took complete measurements around the soil and as they started at the and around the tank they had measurements that were well over the allowable limits. As they excavated and were taking out the 151 tons they kept going out bucket by bucket below the 100 level that is considered okay and they got it down to zero to twelve and they are certain in that number it is contained and removed all of the contaminated soil and it has gone to approved site in Hagerstown Maryland called Clean Earth. It has been taken care of in all the responsible appropriate ways. Change Order #001 from Triad Engineering, Inc. for the Franklin County Administrative Annex project for the anticipated scope of services for the remediation of an underground storage tank and contaminated soils discovered during the demolition of the Franklin County Administration Annex Building. This is an estimate of a fee of $21,500.00 plus $45.00 per ton of contaminated soil disposal. This will be paid with bond funds. On a motion by John T. Flannery, seconded by Robert G. Ziobrowski; the Board unanimously approved the change order. Assistant County Administrator John Thierwechter explained that up until now, it was a three-county effort for radio communications, Cumberland County just switched to Motorola which made them compatible with the system and savings to them and a further cost savings to us. This keeps us at the front end of cutting technology at a reduced cost. Commissioner Ziobrowski asked how we would be cooperating. If this is on a backup system to 911 what is the purpose of this. Mr. Thierwechter stated the purpose is to increase loss of one tower it reverts and picks up the rest of the towers . Task Force which gives them another level of redundancy. There is more likelihood of not failing at any point in time and they keep the newer equipment to stay at the front edge of the technology at a reduced cost. Commissioner Ziobrowski stated that this is essentially a backup system. Mr. Thierwechter stated this includes a back up system but this is the primary system but when it was developed it had two layers of redundancy built in a brand new system for Cumberland County but it joins our network. Resolution 2025-04 to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Dauphin, Adams, and Cumberland Counties to permit Cumberland County to join the South Central Inter-County Communications Network (SCICNET) as a member. Ms. Gray stated that a few weeks ago the Board had heard from the Planning Department about fair housing through a proclamation. This resolution is required for the community development block grant funding and would be submitted to further affirm the to fair housing and it would need to be included with the fair housing notice to be compliant with CDBG. Resolution 2025-05 Fair Housing required for CDBG Funds. To be signed prior to sending out a Fair Housing Notice. On a motion by John T. Flannery, seconded by Robert G. Ziobrowski; the Board unanimously approved the resolution. The Board reviewed Proclamation #2025-10 for the purpose of proclaiming the week of April 21-25 Re-Entry Week. Ms. Gray introduced Warden Franzoni and Dr. Kim Eaton. Warden Franzoni e jail she also gets to be a co-chair of Franklin Together this year along with Deputy Warden Weller. Franklin Together will be 10 years strong this November. Frans mission is to develop a strong collaborative community and professional partnership that ultimately empower and support the formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. Ultimately Franklin Together works to reduce recidivism and encourage those individuals to become contributing members of the community reentrance that all comes together for the cause and helps these individuals with all the different barriers that they have reentering back into the community. Next week is reentry week and she wanted to pass it over to Ms. Leigh Elliott to go over the events for next week. Ms. Elliott first thanked the commissioners for their continued support. They are kicking off reentry week Monday where you can stop at any of the local libraries in the Franklin County library system where they will have displays of books ranging from young child to early adult all around the topics of incarceration. nd Tuesday the 22 they are having a gift drop from 9 till 3 at SCCAP they are asking for hygiene and cleaning supplies that they will use to make care packs to give to the jail and to probation ing a community film night at the Woods Center and are asking that people register by going online to their website franklintogether.org. They are looking forward to having a full house. They will show a film and have a panel discussion afterwards. They always end the week with their gathering of hope which is her favorite event which is at the visitors bureau upstairs where there will be a keynote speaker sharing his story and they will highlight all the folks that are doing good and giving back to the community. She again thanked everyone and invited them to visit franklintogether.org for all of their information. Dr. Kim Eaton stated that it was hard to believe that they are at 10 years already and today she was a part of a conference online for the YMCA and one of their speakers was someone speaking about reentry as though it was a whole new thing and it was kind of funny because here they are 10 years into this and doing so Commissioner Ziobrowski remembers that 10 years ago . One of their best things are reentry simulations which we are doing all through the Commonwealth not just in Franklin County and also their Moving Forward group which they have very dedicated peer support facilitators that have really taken that group to a whole different level of support for people and they even kept that going during COVID for supporting others. She then thanked the commissioners for their continued support and was happy to be able to pass the torch to Warden Franzoni. Stating that it always feels good to know that something that you really dedicated a lot to is going to keep going and grow stronger and better than ever. Commissioner Horst thanked everyone and told Dr. Eaton that it is always good to see her and wanted to commend Warden Franzoni on a job well done at they are helping appreciate the lifeline because housing is an important part of getting started back in society again and getting a good footing so thank you. Commissioner Flannery asked if we ever had a warden this involved in reentry or any kind of reentry program of this magnitude. Ms. Gray stated that there have been wardens involved in re-entry but not in the position of the Co-Chair. Commissioner Flannery continued that one of his favorite movies is Shaw Shank Redemption and he can not see that warden caring at all about the prisoners in that jail reentering society. Warden Franzoni stated that she thinks it speaks for the County as a whole and the team members at the jail and Franklin Together. She believes as a warden you have to have a holistic approach. One as a community member and one as a warden just because if you have that holistic approach the individuals you have coming into your doors leave better individuals to be be your colleagues. Yo, so she feels that you have to have that holistic approach to have the bigger picture of what truly corrections is all about. Commissioner Ziobrowski first commented that he believes if the warden on Shaw Shank Redemption was setting the standardHis question for the warden was with ct recidivism rate, but ours is better than some of the comparisons if he is correct. Warden Franzoni stated she thought that was correct and she can absolutely look everyone in the eyes and say that they do their best to absolutely contribute to lower the recidivism rate not only at the jail with the treatment department and them being able to do groups with individuals the volunteer basis that they have, the stakeholders, Franklin Together, and the community forensic case managers, she thinks that overall even probation with their alter working with them on the autism task force. If you look at the criminal justice system as a whole and that is what contributes to the recidivism rate being lower in Franklin County. Commissioner Horst then read the proclamation that has been made a part of these minutes. The Board presented a Stock Award to Dispatcher Bethani Mummert in the Department of Emergency Services. Chairman Horst turned it over to Barbie Harshman, Communication Coordinator of Emergency Services. Bethani helped deliver a baby in February. On February 24th at she took a call for a female in active labor, a little girl was delivered, on her due date at home before her parents could get to the hospital. Ms. Mummerts quick thinking and response and her trainingof many years provided her the ability to do this,and the child was successfully discharged.Ms. Mummert thanked everyone for the opportunity to continue to serve the citizens of Franklin County.The Emergency Health Service Federation which has been made a part of these minutes.Commissioner Horst thanked Ms. Mummert for a job well done. In her line pleasure to do and everyone at DES doesa great joband they appreciate everyone there, but tonight . Commissioner Ziobrowski asked if the young lady that was sitting next to her was with her. Ms. Mummert stated yes. Commissioner Ziobrowski said she must be very proud of her because they certainly are. The Board approved the job description forCustodial Supervisor.On a motion by John T. Flannery, seconded by Robert G. Ziobrowski. The Board approved the job description forCustodial Worker.On a motion by John T. Flannery, seconded by Robert G. Ziobrowski. The meeting was adjourned at 7:19p.m.on a motion by John T. Flannery, seconded by Robert G. Ziobrowski. Carrie E. Gray County Administrator/Chief Clerk FRANKLIN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ____________________________________ Dean A. Horst, Chairman ____________________________________ John T. Flannery ___________________________________ Robert G. Ziobrowski