Federal money administered by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency and awarded to Schuylkill County has made a difference during the pandemic, Schuylkill County District Attorney Michael O’Pake said.

The county applied for the $99,683 grant to cover expenses resulting from the pandemic and was approved Nov. 10. Funding for the grant comes from the Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding Program through the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

“The modifications to the courtrooms allowed us to keep jurors safe when we asked them to come to the courthouse to serve. By keeping them safe, we were able to conduct trials in June, July, August and October. As a result, our county has no appreciable backlog of criminal cases posed by this pandemic,” O’Pake said.

Protective barriers were among the items purchased for courtrooms, masks for jurors, disinfectants and even remote technology so Common Pleas and magisterial district judges could conduct hearings without having some people appear in court. Other county offices also benefited from the funding including the Clerk of Courts office, Adult Probation, Public Defender, Central Booking and Sheriff’s office.

O’Pake commended First Assistant District Attorney Micheal J. Stine for writing the grant.

“He basically just picked up the ball and ran with this one,” he said.

Stine, who has had previous grant writing experience, recognized the benefit the grant would have to the county.

“Although this award did not benefit the District Attorney’s Office directly, when I saw the opportunity from PCCD, I could not let it pass our county by, especially in light of the economic challenges created by the virus,” he said.