The five year public housing plan prepared by the Schuylkill County Housing Authority was presented to the Schuylkill County Commissioners on Wednesday at their work session for approval.

The commissioners will review the plan and take action at next week's public meeting. According to Tim Hale, director, the occupancy in the more than 600 public housing units in the county is 100 percent occupied and has a waiting list of more than 500 families.County Engineer Lisa Mahall presented a report for approval of work being done on county bridges in Port Carbon, Pine Grove Township, and West Brunswick Township.The commissioners took action on an a number of projects and re-appointed directors on a number of boards.The commissioners will be honoring at next week's meeting the award winners for the 2012 phonebook collections.Trinity Academy, Shenandoah, is this year's first place winner; John S. Clarke Elementary School, Pottsville, took second place; and Rush Elementary of Tamaqua Area School District, finished third. Individual winners are Kelly Sullivan, Trinity Academy; who collected the most phone books; Justin Lescavage, Pottsville elementary, finished second; and Sabrina Brown, also of Pottsville elementary, third.Other businessGeorgine Fedoriska, executive director of Office of Senior Service Agency, told the commissioners she is reluctant but has no choice in asking them to consider giving notice of disenrollment of the State Department of Welfare's Aging Waiver program because under the revised Act 22 passed last year it has become to costly for the agency to participate.The program provides home and community based long-term care service to individuals as an alternative to nursing home placement. A special federal waiver funds services, allowing Medicaid payments typically used for nursing home care to be used for home care services is provided. To qualify for the program, county residents must be 60 years or older and choose to meet their medical needs at home instead of a nursing home.According to Fedoriska the county office no longer can administer the program as reimbursement changed from federal block grants to billable hours under Act 22, which has caused operations to be changed with emphasis on cost control. Currently there are about 180 senior citizens enrolled in the program who will be allowed to choose their new service provider, a task which is expected to take many months.A request was made by John Matz, director of the Schuylkill County Emergency Management Agency, to send four members of its Incident Management Team to the annual All-Hazards Incident Management Team Training and Education Conference which will be held in Indianapolis, Ind., on Dec. 4 through 6.Matz told the board the conference will provide critical information in lessons learned and best practices developed by other teams. The costs of fees, travel, lodging and meals will be paid from a Homeland Security Grant funding. Matz proposes to send Arthur Kaplan, David Carichner, Stephen Bekanich, and Leo Sokoloski.Election Director Frannie Brennan filed a request for approval of the annual software license for 2013 with Election Systems and Software Inc. at a price of $25,605.The county court is requesting approval of a grant-in-aid notification from the Juvenile Court Judges' Commission for improving juvenile justice services in the county. The grant totals $224,619. Also a request was made to receive approval to submit a grant application to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency for the juvenile justice systems enhancement strategy program.Carl Brown, Pine Grove, was re-appointed to serve as farm director on the Schuylkill Conservation Board of Directors for four years ending Dec. 31, 2016; Mary A. Labert, McAdoo; Jams Reiley, Pottsville; and the Rev. Paul Schaediger, Pottsville, were re-appointed to a three year terms as members of the Office of Senior Services Advisory Board. Their term ends Dec. 31, 2015.The Human Services Department submitted a report for review for actions to be taken on personnel matters.,Human Resources Department, Maureen Capone, Barnesville, general and office support clerk, and John Pfuger, Pottsville, conference hearing supervisor, are retiring; Archives Department, Sally McShaw, Pottsville, clerk, retiring; Children and Youth Services Agency, Sarah Snyder, Mount Carmel, a case worker, is retiring and the agency seeks to hire Michael Cutler, Coaldale, as a social services aid; and Rest Haven Home, seeks hiring Jean Quinn, Pottsville, as a part time licensed practical nurse.