Carbon County is looking into restarting a litter crew using county inmates.

On Thursday, Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said that the county received an email about the litter along the roads in Penn Forest Township.He noted that the problem is not localized to that township, but throughout the wholecounty."That is a concern of mine and my fellow commissioners with the amount of garbage we have along our highways, and I think it's important (to clean up the garbage) since we bring people into Carbon County,"Gerhard said. "It doesn't look good for any of us asresidents."He said he spoke with Juvenile Probation, which used to run a litter brigade program of juveniles serving time for violations, but that program ceased in 2010.The county also used to utilize inmates to clean up litter along the roadway, but that also has since stopped.Gerhard said that he spoke with the prison board members about restarting the inmate litter crews and the board is now working on creating contracts to again start up roadside litter crews from the prison.He said to be patient as it will take some time to get everything up and running, but is hoping this will help resolve a problem along roads coming into and out of the county.In other matters, the commissioners voted on the following items:• Approve the reappointment of Ann Dotter of Jim Thorpe, Antoinette Gibson of Tamaqua and Jeanne Miller and Mary M. Figura, both of Nesquehoning, to the Children and Youth Advisory Board. They will serve a three-year term, expiring May 1, 2018.• Approve the Act 101, Section 903 Recycling Coordinator Grant application requesting 50 percent reimbursement of recycling hours and other eligible expenses for 2014. Estimated revenue, $3,291.20.• Approve the change of status for Kate F. Polischak of Jim Thorpe from 911 operator to senior dispatcher, Communications Center, April 27.