By Karen Blackledge
DANVILLE — A little judicial intervention has kept a Northumberland County businessman out of jail.
Randall Albertson, who owns Price’s Recycling Co. of Milton, said he was supposed to report to jail today for contempt of court since the state couldn’t account for $240 in child support payments he collected, under court order, from an employees’ paychecks.
Albertson ran into Columbia-Montour Counties Judge James Monday and provided him with paperwork about the matter. “People aren’t supposed to come in and talk to me. It just so happened,” James said. “We will do one of two things — look into it and maybe do an audit or find out if there was something that happened internally. If it’s a snafu, everybody moves on,” the judge said. “We suspect this is somehow a bureaucratic snafu with a numbering problem on checks that might have gotten waylaid someplace. We’ll try to avoid him having to go to jail and take a look at this.”
James said he would discuss the matter with domestic relations officials who would be in touch later with Albertson.
Two parents are under court order to pay child support through their paychecks at his business, said Albertson who lives in Columbia County.
James said he has known Albertson in the past and said, “He’s a pretty good guy. I will talk to the domestic relations people and get this solved.”
Montour County Domestic Relations Director Christine Strouse said she has been working with Albertson for some time to get child support payments for “our plaintiff.”
“We’ve been working with Harrisburg to trace these checks. We have been trying to locate payments for our plaintiff. We absolutely want to find these payments,” she said.
Albertson said one-third of $500 worth of child support payments he sent to the state have been accounted for. He said a total of 140-some checks have been involved.
“I have made 15 calls to Harrisburg and talked to 15 people arguing my case,” he said.
Strouse explained employers take out child support payments from employees’ paychecks and then send them in the form of checks or as electronic transfers to the Pennsylvania State Collection Disbursement Unit which sends the child support payments to parents.
“We have to have specific numbers on checks sent to Harrisburg to be posted to the proper accounts. If those numbers aren’t on the checks sent in, they don’t know where to post the money and it goes unidentified,” she said.
She said this is a very rare problem among employers who collect child support payments for Montour County parents.
“I have tried very hard to work with him to find his payments,” she said.
After an employer submits a payment for child support, the turnover with the payment to the parent is supposed to be within 48 hours, Strouse said.
Albertson said the system makes him not want to hire people who are obligated to pay child support. “And it’s a shame because it hurts the kids,” he said.
