The Schuylkill County Board of Commissioners recently convened the first meeting of the Schuylkill County Response Recovery and Renewal Task Force under the direction of the Schuylkill County Emergency Management Agency.

The commissioners, along with the Emergency Management staff, brought together leaders in agriculture, business, education, health care, local government, manufacturing, nonprofit, human services, county government as well as the state and federal legislative delegation to discuss the collaboration of these groups, as the county moves forward through the COVID-19 situation.

The sector representatives will gather information, suggestions and concerns from their respective disciplines, allowing the task force to develop a common operating framework for the mitigation of the situation in the county. The group will strive to provide guidance that address county concerns and is in concert with guidelines provided by of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, and other applicable state and federal agencies.

Committee members are: Commissioners George F. Halcovage Jr., Barron Hetherington, Gary J. Hess; Emergency Management Agency, John Matz, John Blickley, Shelly Smith-Moyer; government and courts, President Judge William E. Baldwin; attorney Glenn Roth, risk management and assistant county solicitor; Gary Bender, county administrator; Michael Devlin, county boroughs association; Thomas Palamar, city of Pottsville; Stephanie Shirk, Penn State Cooperative Extension; Robert Carl, Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce; and health care, Gabe Kamarousky, Geisinger St. Luke’s.

Also, Wendy Lazo, St. Luke’s Miners Campus; William Reppy, Lehigh Valley Health-Schuylkill; Manufacturing/Industry, Darlene Robbins, Northeast PA Manufacturers Association; Frank Zukas, Schuylkill Economic Development Corporation; Kelly Malone, Schuylkill United Way; Deanna Orlowsky, Office of Senior Services; state Sen. David Argall; state Reps. Neal Goodman, Jerry Knowles and Michael Tobash; Christine Verdier; Nathan Gerace for Congressman Daniel Meuser; Marta Gabriel for Sen. Pat Toomey; and Connor Corpora for Sen. Bob Casey.