The former treasurer of the Kidder Township Fire Company, who previously admitted stealing over $32,000 from the fire company's relief fund, was sentenced to a county prison term on Thursday in Carbon County court.

Amanda J. Devine, 33, who now lives in Northumberland, was sentenced by Judge Joseph J. Matika to serve three to 12 months in prison followed by three years of probation. She must also make restitution of $32,821 to the security company that paid the money back to the fire company.Devine expressed remorse for her actions and said she took the money because her family was having financial problems.Devine told Matika, "I want to make amends to the fire company, taxpayers and my children."She said that going to jail was going to be very hard on her because she has never been away from her children.Her husband, John Devine, said the incident "destroyed our lives. Our main concern is our children."He said one of the reasons the family had moved away from the area was to try to start over.Matika said Devine violated a trust given to her by the fire company members.He said the case was especially troubling because the victim is a volunteer fire company."Fire companies work very hard to make money to survive. Fortunately they had security coverage."Matika also rejected a request by Devine to be placed in the county's Intermediate Punishment Program-house arrest. He said the violation of public trust was a reason he considered in rejecting the request.The money was taken from the account over a period of time from 2011 to 2015. Devine wrote checks to herself and then cashed them. She used the money for personal expenses.Devine reached an agreement in the case at the preliminary hearing last December. She waived her right to a hearing in exchange for the plea bargain in which the one charge was dropped. At the time she was not represented by legal counsel. Thursday, attorney Matthew Schnell represented her as private counsel.Nathan Lipton, a forensic auditor and investigator for the Attorney General's office, determined the amount of money missing.The case was investigated by township police Chief Matthew Kuzma and detective Neil Yurchak.Before her preliminary hearing, Devine created a GoFundMe page to ask friends and members of her family to help raise money for a deposit on a new place to live.According to the post, Devine, her husband John, and their three children were about to be evicted and did not have the money to secure a new place to live as well as the cost of securing a moving truck for the move.The post was made public by friends, something Devine apparently didn't plan on, and it received a lot of negative responses from the public. It also received some support from others.In addition to the prison term Matika ordered Devine to render 100 hours of community service when released on parole, supply a DNA sample, pay court costs of about $1,000 and pay a $50 per month supervision fee while on parole and probation.The start date of the prison term was delayed to July 1 at 9 a.m. due to medical issues for Devine.