Carbon County's initiative to close down its solid waste recyling program continued this week and is nearing completion.

During the weekly commissioners' meeting on Thursday, the board took action to separate four persons from the soon-to-be-closed down department, including the department director, Duane A. Dellecker.The county opted to get out of the recycling business upon adoption of its 2013 budget and planned to have it closed down by the end of March. With work related to dismantling the blue bins that served 14 county municipalities, mostly in the rural areas, the department continued until this week.Commissioner Tom Gerhard said that while some of the bins remain on site at various locations, all of them have been sealed off so that no more commodities can be place dinto them.Since all of the work is completed in that regard, the commissioners separated Dellecker, fulltime collection driver Scott D. Hinkle and part-time collection drivers Bernard J. Mndez and Derek W. Thomas during yesterday's board action.Previously, Patty Rossman, who worked as an administrative assistant in the department, was separated and the commissioners closed down the department's offices that were located in the Bowmanstown Borough building.Meanwhile, the commissioners said the county's Office of Planning and Development, headed by Judy Borger, will be handing all matters relative to solid waste concerns.The commissioners said the blue bins are being offered for sale. The county will advertise for bids for the blue bins, which weigh about 1,500 pounds each, in the near future.Grants acceptedin other business this week, the commissioners approved and executed two grant contracts that will result in the county receiving state monies for its Adult Probation department.Under one of the contracts, the county will receive $6,086 from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to be used towards the LiveScan/CPIn Project. The funding is part of the federal Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program which was previously aaccepted upon the recommendation of the county's Criminal Justice Advisory Board.This year marks the third time the county will receive the funding, which will be used to electronically fingerprint and photograph persons who enter the criminal justice system. The LiveScan/CPIN unit is based at the Carbon County Correctional Facility, Nesquehoning.The $6,086 represents 25 percent of the project costs for the period of April 1 of this year through March 31, 2014. The county's share of the project (75%) will be $18,257.Under the program, the matching percentage drops by 25 percent annually until the project becomes the full responsibility of the county.The second contract is in the amount of $11,286 and will ressult in the probation department furthering its Restrictive Intermediate Punishment Project. This is the home-electronic monitoring project that allows low-risk persons who have to serve jail sentences to serve them while confined to their homes. Typically, those enrolled in the project are persons convicted of or who pleaded guilty to driving under the influence charges. The grant is match-free.