Schuylkill County Finance Director Paul E. Buber presented the following budget adjustments at a public commissioners meeting Wednesday.

Budget adjustments involve moving funds between line items; there are not any increases in spending.

For the recycling program, $1,000. The county stopped collecting recycling in 2020.

However, four municipalities, Pottsville, Tamaqua, Schuylkill Haven, and Shenandoah, are mandated by the state to offer curbside and drop-off recycling. In addition, 13 municipalities operate curbside recycling programs. They are Cressona, Deer Lake, Frackville, Gordon, Kline Township, Mahanoy City, McAdoo, Mechanicsville, Minersville, New Philadelphia, Orwigsburg, Rush Township and St. Clair.

Another five municipalities operate drop off recycling centers for their residents. They are Branch Township, Cass Township, Norwegian Township, Middleport Borough and West Penn Township. Also, municipal waste haulers operating in Schuylkill County are required by ordinance to offer curbside recycling to every resident serviced.

Other budget adjustments were for the Drug and Alcohol program, $45,548; for the prison $2,851; and for the Office of Senior Services, $58,000.

On behalf of the Children and Youth Services Agency, Buber presented a supplemental budget appropriation of $848, 2021. That means funds are transferred from one agency account to another for program expenses.

For the Juvenile Probation Department, he presented a supplemental budget resolution for $7,215. The transfer was for a carry-over of unspent training funds from the previous year, he said.

In other matters, commissioners heard from residents during the public input portion of the meeting.

Among them was Jeffrey Dunkel of Port Carbon, who questioned whether a pipe extension project at the prison was put out on bid. Commissioners did not respond to his question.

Dunkel also said 50 workers at the Children and Youth Services Agency had left in past two years, and he urged commissioners to find out why.

Also speaking was retired state trooper Kirk A. Kirkland, Pottsville.

Kirkland, who served with the Frackville barracks, asked commissioners why only three of the 700 courthouse employees are minorities.

“We need to do better,” he said. “Why aren’t minorities applying for jobs in Schuylkill County government?”

Kirkland said he applied for an aide position in the probation department, but didn’t get the job.

“After 31 years in law enforcement, I could do that job standing on my head,” he said. “We need transparency.”

Commissioners did not respond to his statements.