Processing of bail payments at the Carbon County Correctional Facility will take place three times per day, Carbon County Commissioners announced at their weekly meeting Thursday.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said the processing would take place at 9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the prison in Nesquehoning.

“We’re doing all cash bails right now,” Ahner said. “We have a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer at the entrance to the prison. You can come to the prison, ring the buzzer and a guard will come out to the trailer and process the person there. This process was previously done by the clerk of courts to keep everything at one location. This is how we are doing it for right now.”

There continues to be no visitors inside the prison, Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said, and fingerprinting has also ceased for the time being. Discussions have taken place with the sheriff’s office and other counties to reduce inter-prison transportation.

“We want to thank the public for bearing with us some through these very difficult times,” Nothstein said. “We are trying to provide all of the services the county is responsible for, while helping to reduce traffic in the courthouse, administration buildings and other offices.”

On the financial front, Ron Sheehan, county treasurer, said cash reserves are holding, though cash flow issues could become a larger issue down the road as parking revenue declines and a lack of attendance at county-owned Mauch Chunk Lake Park takes hold.

“There is a lag in real estate taxes coming in due to people not working,” Sheehan said. “We’re probably in a better situation than some other branches of government that rely on earned income tax. All in all, at this point Carbon is doing well financially. We will see the other side of this, and county government will continue to operate efficiently.”

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich reminded county residents to complete their U.S. Census information.

“Carbon remains behind the average for Pennsylvania for response rate by 6 percentage points,” Lukasevich said. “That’s part of our civic duty that remains vitally important at this time.”

Commissioners moved through a number of action items during Thursday’s meeting.

They included:

• Authorizing the advertisement of invitation to bid for refuse and recycling collection at various county locations.

• Rejected bids, as requested by Mahoning Township, for a Community Development Block Grant Project to reconstruct Pine and Douglas Street. The CDBG project was for fiscal years 2016-18.

• Reappointed Richard Fedor of Palmerton and Robert Selert of Weatherly, to three-year terms on the Agricultural Land Preservation Board.

• Accepted a proposal, at the request of the prison warden, from Enterprise Fleet Management of Annville to lease a 2020 Chevrolet Equinox for a 60-month term at a cost of $456.03 per month plus a one-time payment of $1,222.15 for installation of the setina. This vehicle replaces a Chevy Tahoe.

• Extended the Personal Emergency Response System contract with MedScope America Corporation to continue to provide personal emergency response services for the Carbon County Area Agency on Aging from July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021.

• Approved an agreement with RKL LLP for the 2019 single audit, which includes Workforce Investment Agency, at a total cost not to exceed $46,100.

• Approved a resolution for the declaration of disaster emergency due to the coronavirus disease, extending for a 60-day period.