The Carbon County Commissioners acted on a number of personnel actions last week..

They included employment separations with Nancy J. Banditelli of Tamaqua, Rita J. Serina of Jim Thorpe, Jacqueline J. Uber of Jim Thorpe, Mary Ann Van Lieu of Lansford, and Louis P. Vicorek of Lansford, who all served as kitchen staff at the county prison in Nesquehoning. The action will take effect Aug. 4.The reason for the separations is because in June, the county voted to hire Trinity Services Group, Inc., of Oldsmar Fla., to supply meals at the prison for three years. The cost for the outside company is $843,776, which will save the county about $115,240 annually.Other personnel actions included:• Appointing Kevin M. Steber of Summit Hill as a deputy coroner, effective July 11.• Hiring Stacey Grant of Albrightsville as an aging case aide II in the Office of Area Agency on Aging, effective July 25.• Changing of status for Sandra L. Miller of Lehighton, from 911 operator and deputy coroner to 911 operator, effective July 11.In other matters, the county also received correspondence that an environmental covenant has been filed in the county Recorder of Deeds office for the former New Jersey Zinc Company West Plant site, located next to Route 248 between Bowmanstown and Palmerton. Plans for remediating the 120-acre site into a high tech office park have been in the works since 2009.Commissioner William O'Gurek explained that the covenant describes what needs to be done to make the land usable for development by the landowner, Northface Development LLC of Palmerton.The New Jersey Zinc Company operated the west plant in Palmerton for zinc smelting since 1898, with the processing of pure zinc silicate that was mined in New Jersey. Smelting operations ceased in 1981.The covenant addresses the contaminants that have been found on the land and explain the remediation plan that needs to occur to make the land usable, including no drilling of wells into the aquifer; installing a fence to avoid trespassers; and capping the soil to encapsulate the contaminants.