COUDERSPORT — At Thursday’s meeting of the Potter County commissioners, county Children & Youth Director Joy Glassmire presented information on departmental efforts and the 2019 Needs-Based Plan for the county human services department.

“We are an agency with challenges and difficulties, but I’m here to talk about how productive our programs are and some of the positive aspects,” Glassmire stated.

This year’s Family Fun Fair, held at the Potter County Fairgrounds, saw a good turnout, though numbers were down slightly from recent years, due likely to a combination of poor weather in the morning and a number of other events and activities occurring across the region on the same date.

Staff members have seen an increase in advanced training to assist them in their positions. Recently, trainings such as trauma awareness, family group decision-making, ethics and active shooter training have been offered to employees.

“We have increased our usage of evidence-based programs,” said Glassmire, which include the Parents-As-Teachers program, run in conjunction with other agencies, and the Potter County Housing Initiative, which helped about 20 families through the utilization of approximately $30,000 in funding.

A panel of individuals made up of Children & Youth and law enforcement officials and community leaders review cases of child abuse monthly to ensure that appropriate action is being taken in each case to get the children the services they need. A truancy program has also been developed, and the county has a Drug-Exposed Infant policy that is helping both children and mothers deal with the issues of addiction.

Children & Youth currently covers children up to the age of 21, and will in the future handle cases of children up to age 23. Glassmire reported that in 2017, no re-entry or re-abuse cases occurred, meaning that once kids returned to their homes and families, they did not need to be put back into placement.

The department is also working to keep as many kids in their homes — or with alternate family members — as possible. But, for those cases where that is not possible, there is a lot of support. Programs including “co-parenting” help children stay with their biological parents, while kinship programs place the child with an extended family member.

Foster care is handled in-county, with eight active foster homes operating in Potter County, and another two or three currently in the application phase. Funding is available to send kids to their home school district if they have to be moved across district lines.

A transitional home is also available for kids aging out of the foster system, which is being utilized now by two individuals. For those children who cannot be reunited with their parents, an adoption program places them with a new family. Two kids were adopted already, with another expected to be adopted later this year.

“Our county does care about kids and they’re watching out for kids,” said Glassmire. “We are trying to keep kids in their homes, but when that’s not possible we have a lot of options to help them — foster care, kinship programs, co-parenting — but when those don’t work, we have adoption available.”

Glassmire stated that the department completed more than 400 intakes last year, but the agency reaches a couple thousand children when all the school programs and other initiatives are added together.

Planning Director Will Hunt spoke on the three-county comprehensive plan, being compiled by Potter, Cameron and McKean counties. The plan will lay out issues and needs within the communities in the three counties, and will be used as a guidebook for officials over the next ten years.

The document will be nearly 100 pages long when it is complete, and it will address a number of different sectors, from emergency issues to the energy sector, water resources, zoning, land use and a wealth of other topics.

Steering committees have been formed in all three counties and several public meetings will be held to gather information from community members. The last comprehensive plan was adopted in 2005. Plans typically take about two years to compile.

Mike Plummer of the Galeton Borough attended the meeting to request county funding be put toward demolishing blighted buildings across the county. Commissioners stated that similar efforts are being made in other communities, including the Emporium Borough in Cameron County, with varying degrees of success and difficulty. Commissioners stated they would look into what options were available to Potter.

The Moving Wall, a replica of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., will come to Potter County on Sept. 13. After an opening ceremony that day, the wall will be open 24-hours per day with lighting and volunteers on site at all times. The wall will be erected at the Coudersport Area Recreation Park and will be part of a week-long remembrance ceremony for Vietnam War veterans. Military service posts across the county and private citizens are working out details of the events currently.

The next meeting of the Potter County Commissioners will be held at 11 a.m. Aug. 30 at the Gunzburger Building in Coudersport.