Carbon County has officially closed an account that was potentially compromised after a check that had been cut from it was posted on Facebook, complete with all financial information in 2021.

On Thursday, the board of commissioners unanimously approved closing the general fund checking account and transferring any remaining funds to the new checking account.

County Treasurer Kevin Zelienka said that the county had frozen this account but there had been some outstanding checks in it so the county had to wait until enough time lapsed before the account could be closed.

He added that all funds in the account from checks that hadn’t been cashed since before the account was frozen will be transferred to the new checking account and the money from checks not cashed will be turned over to the state as unclaimed property.

Zelienka added that the account was still collecting interest since 2021 so that was a plus.

The account in question was discussed in October 2021 when Register of Wills Jean Papay brought the issue to the commissioners, pointing out that then Commissioner Chris Lukasevich posted a photo of a county-issued check on the commissioners’ Facebook page. The $500,000 check did not have financial information nor signatures redacted.

The post was edited following that meeting to redact the routing and account numbers.

Former Treasurer Ron Sheehan reported then that the county’s bank was monitoring the situation and eventually recommended freezing the account and opening a new checking account for all county checks.

A new checking account was opened as Sheehan retired and Zelienka took over the office.