By AMY MILLER

amiller@tnonline.comCarbon County officials are partnering with Blue Mountain Health System to provide psychiatric services at the prison.On Thursday, the county commissioners voted 2-0 to provide four hours of service per week, effective May 1. Commissioner William O'Gurek was not at the meeting.The costs for the services are $170 per hour for the psychiatrist and $100 per hour for the physician's assistant or nurse practitioner, plus mileage, with mileage being eliminated once telemedicine is set up in the prison.Robert Crampsie, county controller and member of the county prison board, said the inmates will get more service through this contract. Previously, Northwest Health Services, located in the Lehigh Valley, provided four hours of mental health and psychiatric services, but that four hours also included travel time.NHS is discontinuing services, Crampsie said."We will be getting more service and we will see some savings," he said, adding services with NHS were $190 per hour.Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said the county currently contracts with Blue Mountain Health System for medical services at the prison, so this added partnership will help provide more coordinated care for inmates in need of both medical and mental health treatments."This is another way we are providing better service at the prison for less cost," he said.Carbon County has been looking at this partnership since February, when Sheila Theodorou of Carbon-Monroe-Pike Mental Health/Developmental Services, spoke to the board about the current mental health services offered at the prison.In other matters, Nothstein said that gypsy moth spraying will hopefully start either Wednesday or Thursday of next week, weather permitting.He said that letters went out to residents and municipalities where spraying will occur.