EMPORIUM — The annual Christmas Gift Toy Drive has begun in Cameron County.

Tana Funair, the new coordinator of the program, attended Thursday’s Cameron County Commissioners’ meeting to present information on the toy drive and changes to this year’s program.

“This is a wonderful project and it makes me feel like I’m involved in the purpose of Christmas,” said Funair. “Families sign up and receive gifts through the kindness and generosity of the community.”

Funair took over at the beginning of the season from long-time volunteer Kathy Straub, who is looking to retire, and wished to pass the program on to a new individual so that it would continue.

In previous years, the county assistance office would refer families that they believed would benefit from the program. However, Funair said they have made changes to the process in order to protect individual privacy.

In previous years, a “sign up” day was held. This year, Funair worked with a number of agencies, including the Cameron County School District, assistance office, Dickinson Inc., the Family Center and other local entities to find families in need of the program.

Applications were handed out to the families through various agencies. This year, the families were instructed to turn them in through the Cameron County Chamber of Commerce so there would be no chance of identifying what agency referred the individuals.

“We have more than 60 families signed up this year,” said Funair. “Historically, we had 150-200 kids (the program) provides for. We got about that many this year.”

Individuals interested in donating gifts to the program can visit the Emporium Post Office, Northwest Bank, Citizens & Northern Bank or the Cameron County Chamber of Commerce and Artisan Center and choose one of 200 tags hanging from the Christmas trees.

The tags this year are also a bit different. They include the child’s individual “wish list,” including color and character preferences, the child’s age and sex, and information to help with purchasing and donating the items.

The gifts can then be dropped off, unwrapped, to be sorted by Toy Drive volunteers before they are picked up by the families.

“It’s really cool to imagine how these kids are going to feel on Christmas getting their gifts,” said Funair.

Monetary donations are also being accepted at the Cameron County Chamber. Those donations will be used to purchase items to fill any gaps once the gifts have been sorted.

Volunteers are being sought for “sorting day,” scheduled for all day on Dec. 13 at the Presbyterian Church in Emporium. Gifts will be handed out to families on Dec. 15. Contact the Cameron County Chamber for more information.

A presentation was also given by Jon Forcheskie of Statewide Central Credit Audit Inc. The company offers a program to municipalities, counties and school districts to help collect unpaid per capita and occupational taxes at no cost to the taxing body. Forcheskie said his company’s employees respect the debtors and their financial situations, and can set up low-cost payment plans to try and recoup some of the back taxes.

The company’s collection rate is more than 55 percent, and they contract currently with more than 30 school districts, 10 counties and a number of municipalities in Pennsylvania.

In other news, the commissioners rejected a bid placed on a house located at 236 West Fifth St. in Emporium Borough which is being held in the county repository.

The bid was previously tabled to allow the taxing bodies to gather more information on plans for the property.

Commissioner Lori Reed said the county chose to reject the bid because they were not given specifics on how and when issues at the location would be rehabilitated. “The timeframe is just too long for a condemned and uninhabited structure. It is too much of a safety risk,” said Reed.

Also, the commissioners said the county budget is nearly complete following meetings with department heads over the past several weeks. The commissioners plan to have the budget on display at the courthouse beginning Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the library board will hold an open house/customer appreciation reception at the Barbara Moscato-Brown Memorial Library in Emporium during the Christmas in the Wilds on Dec. 10.

The next commissioners meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Dec. 1 at the courthouse in Emporium.