SMETHPORT – Inmates at the McKean County Jail will soon be able
to call home without using coins in a system approved by the county
commissioners on Tuesday.

The agreement with Inmate Telephone Inc., will allow prisoners
to call pre-approved numbers collect, with the call always subject
to acceptance of charges by the recipient. The system is already in
wide use elsewhere.

While the county will originally pay just under ,35,000 for the
service, costs will be repaid by user fees and there will be no
cost to taxpayers.

In other business at the brief regular monthly meeting, the
commissioners approved a lengthy Mental Health Plan and an
operating agreement for Early Intervention for the Department of
Human Services.

Also approved was a reallocation of funds from the 2004
Community Development Block Grant Program to allow ,2,291.31
unexpended from a Spot Demolition Program in Kane to be reallocated
to the 2004 Sidewalk Replacement Program in Kane.

In other matters, the commissioners said the state has paid part
of the money due for the district attorney’s salary as apparently
required by state law.

When the district attorney’s position was made full-time in
2005, the salary was set by the Legislature at ,1,000 under that of
the judge, with the stipulation that the state would pay 65 percent
of the salary, but the subsequent state-approved budgets did not
always include allocations for the reimbursement.

The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania has
threatened legal action, and since then the state has come up with
some of the money.

According to figures provided by the commissioners on Tuesday,
the county received ,87,290 for the 2006 salary and the same for
2007, along with a recent adjustment of ,19,929 for those two
years, apparently adding up to full reimbursement for the two
years.

So far, the county has received only about ,450 for 2008 and
nothing in 2009.

The district attorney’s salary is ,160,851 per year.

Commissioner Chairman Joe DeMott explained that the money for
the reimbursement is supposed to come from a fund created from
restitution by convicted persons and the fund does not generate
enough to cover the costs.