By Tricia Pursell
MIDDLEBURG — Federal stimulus money soon may fund a position to oversee mandated community service projects throughout Snyder and Union counties.
Snyder County Commissioner Joe Kantz proposed at a Tuesday public meeting that a community service coordinator position be formed in partnership with the Union-Snyder Community Action Agency.
“As much as I don’t like to create new positions, I feel strongly about this one,” Kantz said.
Kantz and fellow Commissioner Malcolm Derk were not in support of using stimulus money to create temporary jobs in the agency last year. Originally, the Community Action Agency was going to create three temporary jobs with a portion of the $600,000 in stimulus funds awarded to the agency in October. The commissioners asked the agency to reduce that number to one, saying something more sustainable is needed if stimulus funding is going to be beneficial to the economy.
The new position would be one way to provide more permanent effectiveness with stimulus funding, Kantz said, by helping to take people who have had problems with the justice system and allowing them to work off their punishment through public service work. It would reduce the number of nonviolent offenders sitting in jail and being supported by taxpayers and would give the courts an alternative to incarceration.
According to Scott Lizardi, chief probation officer for Union County, the person in this position would help his department by providing better supervision for those assigned to complete public service, as well as assist with their transportation to the service sites.
The county recently began a drug treatment and DUI program. “We are anticipating a significantly larger number of defendants being assigned community service,” Lizardi said.
The Community Action Agency would subcontract with Snyder County, which would create the temporary position, funded for seven to eight months, equaling about $25,000 in stimulus funds.
“It’s going to be a lot of work to get it up and running,” Kantz said. “It’s basically going to be a trial run.”
If it sees success after those seven to eight months, Union County will be asked to share the burden of employing the person in this position.
Harry Adrian, director of the Union-Snyder Community Action Agency, said he is in support of the job creation. The more organized effort to help people connect with community service projects could help them to hone soft skills such as getting accustomed to being at places on time, or getting up on time, and could potentially lead them to or prepare them for a job.
The position also would help those providing the community service work.
“It will be helping municipalities with labor they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford,” Kantz said.
“There’s always things that go undone,” Adrian added.
If positive results are seen at the end of the trial period, the judicial system may be able to pitch in funds, or municipalities may want to buy in, Adrian said, so the position eventually can be self-sustaining.
