Carbon County officials will not close out a clearing account that was potentially compromised last month with a social media post showing account information.

However, the board has put into place a safeguard that will allow the incoming treasurer a new account in 2022.

On Thursday, county Treasurer Ron Sheehan, who is retiring on Jan. 2, updated the board of commissioners about the general fund clearing account following last week’s announcement about a check from that account being posted on Facebook without any redactions to account numbers and signatures.

Sheehan stressed that this account is a pass-through for checks and not the general fund and does not have wire transfer or ACH payment options set up.

He provided a report in October, saying that there had been 259 checks in the clearing account in the month. Of that, 217 were written out in October. The remaining 42 were written out sometime between May and September.

As of Thursday, only 111 outstanding checks remained in that account.

“The account has a long track record of checks clearing through the account quickly,” he said.

Sheehan added that his department can easily manage watching the account for the next two months and then suggested starting fresh in 2022.

The board agreed and approved a motion that allowed Sheehan to create a new general fund clearing account that will become the new account on Jan. 3, when Kevin Zelienka, the new treasurer, is sworn in.

“I believe this is a sound and clean way to handle the mitigation of risk while giving the incoming treasurer clean and uncompromised bank account,” Sheehan said.

Last week, Jean Papay, register of wills, brought the issue of the check being posted to social media to the commissioners, pointing out that Commissioner Chris Lukasevich posted a photo of the county-issued check to the county’s Facebook page.

The board, as well as Sheehan and county Controller Mark Sverchek spoke about the issue and removed the post in question following the meeting.

Lukasevich also issued a public apology that evening.