The Carbon County Commissioner’s approved a Memorandum of Understanding between the county and the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts awarding funds in the amount of $19,082, for discretionary grants to support both the Carbon County Veterans Treatment Court and Drug Treatment Court.

“I’m pleased to report that we were awarded this grant, which is approximately a little bit over $9,000 from each of the courts,” said Chief Adult Probation/Parole Officer Richmond Parsons.

“Some of the expenses, as indicated, could be used for incentives – additional hours – and we’re trying to get more random drug testing – unannounced drug testing at night, that is one of the main reasons for that, and also to offset the costs from the drug testing. And as you’re all aware, transportation has always been a huge issue, so offsetting some of the costs from transportation.

“But probably the most exciting piece of this is the training piece We’ve seen a lot of trauma in both of the courts, and we have not really had a lot of training on what to do with the trauma after we identify it. And so the training is not only for my staff, but also for some staff at Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol and also Carbon-Monroe Mental Health, for providing some training on how to handle trauma and what are some interventions that we can teach some of our participants. So I’m real excited about being able to roll that out.”

The following motions were also approved:

• A recommendation from Carbon Engineering Inc. to reject the bid for the correctional facility water project, due to noncompliance.

• A motion to authorize the re-advertisement of the water system control building equipment and piping rehabilitation project.

• A purchase of service agreement between Children and Youth Services and Diakon, Child, Family and Community Ministries of Topton for the fiscal year 2019-20.

• A request was received from the communications director for an agreement with the Associate of Public Safety Communications Officials International Inc. to provide new training and quality assurance/improvements as required by Act 12 in the amount of $65,554.97, which had been approved under the Statewide Interconnectivity Grant.

• A renewal agreement with Westlaw ProFlex (includes 10 users) to the three-year contract with West Publishing Corp. for electronic access subscription package (July 2020 to June 2023) total cost of $5,569.74/month. The Westlaw ProFlex covers 10 users (three judges, three law clerks, one MDJ, one adult probation, one domestic relations and one court administration.)

• An addendum to the lease agreement between the County and Robert E. Brown, of Jim Thorpe for operation of the concession stand at the Mauch Chunk Lake Park. Rental payments are amended, so the first payment will be in the amount of $1,250, payable no later than July 31. Electric payments are amended to reflect a payment of $80 for the month of July 2020. Rental and electric payments for the month of June are waived.

• Authorize the reinstatement of the agreements with vendors for concession services in Josiah White Park effective immediately: Eric Cinicola, Carmella’s Pastries, Sean Smith and Gary Wagner. Rental payments for the balance of the year are adjusted to $100 each.