The Carbon County Retirement Fund took a hit this past month.

During the monthly meeting of the county retirement board on Thursday, Robert Crampsie, county controller and secretary of the retirement board, announced that the retirement portfolio value as of Jan. 31, was $56,847,777, down $1.2 million from the end of the year."The month of January was a down month," Crampsie said.The retirement fund is still doing well, despite the loss.In 2009, the county posted a $10,522,249 increase in funds, which represented an overall end-of-year return of 22.13 percent.In a related matter, Crampsie commended Mark Gensheimer, senior vice president of C.S. McKee L.P., of Pittsburgh, the county's retirement investment manager, as well as his team, for their superb work with the retirement portfolio."I really like your approach when you come in," he said. "I think you report the numbers, you never get too high or too low, you always do what we want you to do. We want to thank you for a job well done in 2009."Gensheimer credited his team for the positive results the county has been seeing.