Schuylkill County Commissioners paid tribute to the more than 100 volunteers who responded Tuesday to a blaze at the 13-story Mahanoy City Hi-Rise Apartment building. The fire prompted the evacuation of 128 senior citizen residents.

The blaze started in an apartment on the 10th floor and was caused by the tenant emptying an ashtray into a paper bag. It was quickly extinguished and ruled accidental. Damage was confined to one room in the apartment but heavy smoke reached other apartments.Chairwoman Mantura Gallagher read a prepared statement at the commissioners' public meeting Wednesday at the courthouse in Pottsville."On behalf of my fellow commissioners, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the county employees and volunteers who rose to a difficult challenge and saved our county seniors from what could have been a disastrous situation."Tuesday's event in Mahanoy City presented a great challenge to our many county firefighters, the American Red Cross, our Emergency Management Staff, our 9-1-1 staff, our Office of Senior Services. The local emergency services, along with mutual aid from the surrounding area, did a tremendous job evacuating the residents, controlling the fire and providing medical services."Scott Krater and Rick Deal, of Public Safety, responded with the incident support vehicles so they could provide on-scene communications support and work with the unified communications and to insure accountability of residents and responders, formulate a plan to evaluate the structure and return residents to their homes or find alternate accommodations. John Blickley and volunteer deputy coordinator Jim Hampford manned the emergency operations center to keep the public informed."In addition to the support of the American Red Cross, we would like to commend our Senior Services Group. Early in the incident, Georgene Fedoriska mobilized her staff and responded to the senior center in Mahanoy City. Over many hours they met with clients, determined their needs and provided meals for the returning residents. Many senior service employees remained on site until 9 p.m., ensuring that all displaced residents were in a safe place with their appropriate meds."It is at times like these that we realize and appreciate the importance of efficient leadership on each of the levels within county government and we would like to take this time to tip our collective hat to our team of county employees, led by Scott Krater, John Matz, John Blickley and Georgene Fedoriska, who made a tragic incident manageable for our Schuylkill County seniors who reside in Mahanoy City Hi-Rise. Congratulations and thank you for a job well done."Buy computersIn other action, the commissioners authorized Clerk of Courts Stephen J. Lukach Jr., who is in charge of the county's Records Impress Fund, to purchase 15 computers from Dell Company at a cost of $15,855. The computers will replace the older computers in various departments in the courthouse.Fee-for-service contracts were approved with two companies to provide temporary nursing staff for Rest Haven Home and Hospital. The contracts are with Nurse Staff Builders Inc., Hazleton, and Elite Staffing Services, Harrisburg. The fees range from $42 to $50 per hour for registered nurses and for licensed practical nurses from $33 to $40 per hour.A five-year contract was renewed with the Independent Contractor Cleaning Services, Minersville, for Carol Murphy, Ann Marie Urbanavage and Carleen Wenner to continue to provide cleaning services for the courtrooms, judges' chambers and adult and juvenile probation departments at $8 per hour.Service contractsA fee-for-service contract with attorney Christopher Hobbs, who serves as solicitor for the Schuylkill County Zoning Hearing Board, was increased from $800 per month to a total not to exceed $3,800 for a one-month period because of the excess hours involved in the hearings on the application of Gladstone Partners, Pittsburgh, seeking a special exception to the county zoning ordinance to build a cargo airport and business park in East Union Township.On behalf of the Office of Senior Services the board increased the fee-for-service contracts as follows:UDS/Independent Living Services of Tamaqua by $551,000; Robert Rarick, Tamaqua, by $5,000; Abilities In Motion, Reading, $131,419; Family Home Support Services, Mount Carmel, $112,344; Family Home Medical Inc., Mount Carmel, $10,245; Arn Inc., Hazleton, $36,560; All Care Home Care Inc., $38550; Anthracite Personal Care Agency, Minersville, $57,000; Compass Rose Care, Minersville, $200,000; Maximum Care Inc., Whitehall, $360,000; Lehigh Valley Visiting Nurses, Whitehall, $81,005; Maximum Care Supportive Services, Whitehall, $21,184.Also, Advocacy Alliance, Scranton, $88,000; Preferred Meal Systems, Inc., Berkeley, Illinois, $622,075; Lamar Schwartz, Tremont, $5,000; Penn Kasher Inc., Pottsville, $3,000; Wyomissing Behavioral Analysts, Wyomissing, $9,000; Lifeline Systems, Framingham, Maine, $3,000; Dr. Carol Miller-Schaeffer, Pottsville, $5,000; Cynthia Reidler, Pine Grove, $3,250; Consolidated Training and Services, Pottsville, $103,022; attorney Robert Lipkin, Pottsville, $13,500; attorney Joseph Nahas, Frackville, $13,500; and Abilities In Motion, Reading, $131,419.A purchase for service agreement on behalf of Children and Youth Services was entered with following providers: Youth Services Agency of Pennsylvania, Jim Thorpe, for daily camp services at $146 and weekend $152.Family Care for Children and Youth, Milton, program for children under age three, $57.55 per day; family based services, $66.77 per day, and kinship care home study, $688.50 per study.Angel Baby Ministries, Orwigsburg, for Hope House Girls' Home, at $200 per day.Gregg P. Mrochko, Drums, for polygraph exam at $350 and court testimony at $100 per unit cost.George Williams, Ashland, for foster parent orientation at per unit cost of $400. Foster parent training at $400 per unit costs and training preparation at $30 per unit cost.Personnel mattersAppointed as part-time nurse's aides at Rest Haven Home were, Christine Mavricz, New Ringgold, and Jordan Hedemann, Amy Williams and Ashley Sinko, Pottsville, at $11.72/hour.Promoted from caseworker one to caseworker two in the Children and Youth Services were Sherry Clark, Orwigsburg, and Adrien Heffner and their pay increased to $17.4314/hour.Megan Hayes, Branch Township, was hired as a temporary clerk in the treasurer's office at $7.71/hour.Four resignations were announced at Rest Haven Home. They were: Ashley Casier, Barnesville, part-time nurse's aide; Sarah Dunkel, Saint Clair, full-time nurse's aide and Bobbi Schaeffer and Jill Delong, Schuylkill Haven, full-time nurse's aides. Jenny Lyons, Pine Grove, was terminated as a part-time nurse's aide.Retirement boardA delegation from the Schuylkill County Retirement Association attended the monthly meeting of the Schuylkill County Retirement Board held following the commissioners' meeting and requested a one time $500 allocation this year to the retirees.Treasurer Jacqueline McGovern, a member of the board, wondered if it could be done legally. Commissioner Gallagher said it will be brought up at next week's work session. The retirees, who have not received a cost of living increase in their pensions for the past four years, were looking for an alternate solution.Controller Melinda Kantner reported on the market value of the fund, which as of Wednesday was $97,453,276.24, with a drop of $3 million from the last report.