During the first September meeting the Monroe County commissioners approved overtime for a number of employees in the tax claim bureau and the assessment office for September. Since school tax bills come due in September there is a general increase in activity during the month.

In addition, with the reassessment in process, inquiries to the assessment office have increased as well, making for an additional workload at the office.The voter registration office will have an increase in overtime this month as well due to a drive within the county to boost voter registration before the upcoming general election in November. Advertisements will be sent out to remind residents that they have a limited amount of time to register in order to vote on Nov. 8.The last day to register to vote is Oct. 11.In other business the commissioners also executed two purchase agreements with Justice Works Youth Care for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 periods in a not-to-exceed amount of $300,000 per year.The commissioners approved a service agreement with Value Payment Systems LLC to process payments for the Tax Claim Office. Residents who pay by credit card will incur the transaction fee as follows:• Visa, MasterCard and Discover debit cards will incur a 1.5 percent fee;• American Express, Visa, MasterCard and Discover credit cards will incur a 2.6 percent fee; and• Visa, MasterCard and Discover Corporate credit cards will incur a 3 percent fee.The commissioners also ratified the appointment of the following people to the North Eastern Pennsylvania Alliance MPO Technical Planning Committee:• Christine Fritz Meinhart, county representative;• Gregory Christine, county representative alternate;• Carl Gould, at-large representative;• Roger Christman, at-large representative alternateThe county also approved an agreement with the Redevelopment Authority of Monroe County to enable the authority to administer the county's Act 137 Affordable Housing Fund program.They also executed an agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services for the 2016-17 Medical Assistance Transportation Program in the amount of $803,147.The commissioners also took the time to acknowledge the retirement of Paulette Sebring from the Tax Assessment Office. Sebring is a 43-year employee of the county.