Three employees in the Carbon County Child Care Information office were told they lost their jobs Thursday, the fallout from a failed deal to have the county take over the program in both Carbon and Monroe counties after the state decided to consolidate them.

But the company that will operating the program as of Monday will keep them on the payroll."We have retained all the existing employees in Carbon County," John Hogan of Coordinated Child Care Services of NEPA said early today. "And residents of Carbon County will continue to get the same level of service they have had in the past."Commissioners had approved the employment separations of CCIS director Amy Rontz, resource and referral coordinator Raegan E. Smyth, and child care information specialist Kim E. Wittig, all effective today."We hope these employees are going to be picked up" by whatever entity is chosen by the state to operate them, Commissioners Chairman Wayne Nothstein said at a public meeting Thursday.With just two business days left before the start of the state's fiscal year on July 1, the state Department of Public Welfare, which oversees the program, released information about the new provider."The grantee for Carbon-Monroe will be Coordinated Child Care Services of NEPA, Inc. which will also be serving Luzerne and Wyoming counties," said DPW spokeswoman Donna Kirker Morgan. "This organization has been a CCIS for many years and has always performed services to families and providers in an exemplary manner."This grantee will continue to have offices in Carbon and Monroe County in the same locations as the previous grantee. In addition staff members from both Carbon and Monroe have been retained for continuity of services. The sites have been visited and have passed the Readiness Review and are fully operational. Services for families and providers in Carbon-Monroe will be seamless and fully met," she said.DPW had sought proposals from private businesses and public agencies to administer the program, which subsidizes child care for working families. Carbon County has about 300 clients who use the program and Monroe has at least three times that number. Carbon has three employees; Monroe has nine.There were no takers for the job, so Carbon County offered to do it. But as the two sides discussed the proposed five-year, $7 million contract, DPW decided Carbon County would have to establish an office in Monroe County, and hire employees there. It also added an option that would allow it to back out of the contract.That's not something Carbon officials were prepared to do. The changes invited the possibility of incurring added expenses and liabilities, commissioners said. At a May 9 public meeting, they decided to not sign the contract. Of the $7 million, $6.2 million would have been paid to child care providers, and the other $815,000 would have gone toward administration, operations and personnel.At that public meeting, Nothstein said that the deal would have increased the workload of the Carbon County employees. Further, CCIS employees in Monore County earn more than the ones in Carbon, and that Carbon County would have had to pay for their health benefits. Plus, the county would have to rent office space in Monroe.And, if the state chose to opt out of the contract, the county would be responsible for paying for unemployment costs. Commissioners also factored in other uncertainties, including whether the county would have to shoulder more of the financial burden should the state cut child care funding or failed to pass a budget on time.The decision to opt out of the contract was a tough one, commissioners said. They knew the move would affect the three employees.On Thursday, commissioners said they were disappointed with DPW's failure to follow through on its promise to keep them informed of progress on the matter."We sat on conference calls with those people more than once when they said that they would let us know how our residents were going to be taken care of going forward," said Commissioner William O'Gurek. "As of this date, we haven't been" updated.