SMETHPORT — The McKean County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday in approving a purchase agreement with Elections Systems and Software for new elections equipment at a cost of $518,208.40.
Pennsylvania’s counties are mandated to replace their current electronic voting machines and replace with new ones that are equipped with verifiable paper trails for all votes cast, but officials and some legislators see funding a possible problem. There is funding available from a federal grant that requires a match from the state and $15 million in Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed budget, but these two amounts are still far short of the amount needed for the counties to adopt new systems.
Lisa Pratt, the county’s director of voter registration, said the new machines must be in place by the 2020 primary election, but the goal for McKean County is the November 2019 general election.
County Commissioner Carol Duffy publicly thanked Pratt and Elections Director Dinah Gallegos for the time they spent in researching new machines that would be the most appropriate for local use and still be cost-effective.
Commissioners also renewed a contract with the Pennsylvania Inmate Medical Cost Containment, a medical cost management program, for $11,388. Commissioner Cliff Lane said, “This agreement helps control medical costs at the jail.”
Four applications for county aid payable through the 2019 Liquid Fuels allocation were OKd. They were Corydon Township, $1,261 for winter maintenance materials; Bradford Township, $10,854 for salt and anti-skid winter material; Kane Borough, $7,291 to be used toward the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Bank loan payment; and City of Bradford, $16,3288 for the 2019 resurfacing project.
Commissioners approved a request from the county’s information technology department to enter into an agreement to upgrade Microsoft Exchange from 2010, which has a November 2019 end of life, and move to Exchange 2019. This is the system that the county uses for emails, said Jean Hendrickson, director of information technology.
Duffy recognized the efforts of the information technology department for keeping county officials informed about this matter.
The county will enter an amended grant contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services for the provisions of Family Center services to at-risk families.
The parties entered into a grant agreement from July 1, 2014, through June 30, 2017, for these services, and the contract was later extended to June 30, 2019. With the commissioners’ approval Tuesday, the contract will be extended an additional two years.
Chief Clerk Pamela Burlingame has been designated the county’s Right-to-Know Officer with the Office of Public Records.
Carolyn Boser Newhouse, executive director of the Bradford Area Alliance and a board member of Leadership McKean, thanked all three commissioners for attending the Leadership McKean’s first reunion recently and meeting with community organizations.
