Agreement to give hunters access to four York County parks

Tammy Klunk of York County Parks told the commissioners the program will cost the county nothing. The Game Commission will assist the county in improving hunting opportunities and game habitat in the enrolled parks, she said.

That includes making commission biologists available to lend their expertise for problems involving wildlife or plants.

In addition, wildlife conservation officers will expand the scope of their duties within the affected parks. In addition to patrolling for violations of the Game and Wildlife Code, officers would keep an eye out for violations involving all-terrain vehicles, vandalism and controlled substances.

Prison mold

The county commissioners also approved a contract agreement with a Pottstown firm to get rid of mold at an old farmhouse on York County Prison property that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leases. The building is not part of the prison itself. The total cost is $17,070, with optional sampling afterward for r $2,100.

County administrator Chuck Noll said the county recoups money through the lease arrangement and has to get the work done if that lease is to continue. He said the work will be paid for through a fund made up of commissions the county gets for each phone call prisoners make.

Budgets

In other news, county commissioners recently held a meeting with Bob Chuk, court administrator, and Al Sabol, director of York County Adult Probation, about their respective departments' budgets.

Both directors said they've had difficulty coming up with the 5 percent cuts commissioners have mandated for each department's budget in anticipation of a difficult budget year.

Both Chuk and Sabol said the mandated cuts would be virtually impossible without some staff reductions. And both said they would worry about their respective departments' ability to perform their mandated tasks if they had to make those staff cuts.

Chuk pointed out that state or federal law mandates much of what his department does.

"There's potential for all kinds of problems," he said.

But commissioners were still insistent on spending cuts.

"If they're not reduced, we're going to step up and reduce them for you," President Commissioner Steve Chronister told Chuk.

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Source: http://www.inyork.com/ci_13659381?source=most_viewed