Carbon County Commissioners are frustrated that there are more delays with the proposed multipurpose fire training facility due to holdups on the state level.

Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that the county received notice from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection this week regarding the county's permits for the facility."We suffered another setback in timing," he said. "We ran out of time with our permits so our engineer had to withdraw the two permits we had in there to keep from jeopardizing the whole project."Nothstein said that the permits were submitted to DEP in January and the county didn't get a reply until April regarding questions the agency had, between April and now, an informational meeting was held with the county engineer, DEP and the Carbon County Conservation District. There was also a phone call delay."A lot of the delays are not on our end," he said, adding that if the county doesn't get an extension, it will have to start over again with the permit process. "It delays our projects and costs us more money. It's very frustrating sitting here giving a report on something that we have been working on for how many years already and now we have to ask for an extension on the three grants we received to do the project."Carbon County currently has approximately $800,000 in grants for the first phase of the $13.5-million project.Commissioners William O'Gurek and Thomas J. Gerhard agreed."It's a sore subject because there is money at risk here," O'Gurek said. "We are told time and time again by the state that they want to see us move on projects that are ready, but it's hard getting projects ready when we don't have the cooperation from the departments under the state's watch. It's so frustrating."He spoke about the grants, which if not spent by the time the grant period ends, would have to be returned to the state."We're sitting here on money that needs to be spent in a timely period, and if we're not able to do it and have to go through permitting again, we're going to have to ask for extensions," O'Gurek said. "I think this state needs more oversight over the agencies. Somewhere along the line somebody's got to grab a hold of state government and say, look, you've got to get these jobs done for lower levels of government when we give them money to do these projects. Otherwise they might as well keep the money."Gerhard said that it is frustrating because he has run into times where he makes a call to a state agency and never receives a call back.Nothstein also used the example of the veterans court, which Carbon County started this year, with the help of a state grant.The one-year grant term was effective July 1, but Carbon County never received written notice of funding until September, Nothstein said, meaning that Carbon County had about nine months to use the money, and what was left over had to be returned to the state."We can't spend all the money because the agreement term is July 1, even though we didn't get it until September," he said. "It's very frustrating."