Washington County showcased by Shober
Board members and staff of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania visited several locations in Washington County during their monthly meeting Friday.
Washington County Commissioner Harlan Shober, president of the association, continued a tradition within the group of hosting a meeting on his home turf for 18 commissioners from outside Washington County and 10 CCAP staffers.
Shober said at their meeting, members of the group discussed proposed state and federal budget cuts and their potential impact on county taxpayers.
The proposed state budget proposal, for example, contains sweeping cuts in funding for critical human services, criminal justice and administrative programs that counties perform on the commonwealth’s behalf.
County governments are responsible for a wide variety of critical programs, including provision of human services (i.e., mental health, intellectual disabilities, juvenile justice, children and youth, long-term care, drug and alcohol services, housing) to people in need in our communities. In addition, counties are responsible for emergency management and 911 services, administration of the courts and corrections system, elections, maintenance of county bridges and the county property assessment rolls, and also are involved in environmental and land-use planning, protection of open space and community and economic development.
Another topic was information technology related to the unified case management system that Washington County is implementing to make a database for the public defender’s and district attorney’s offices, the county jail and the probation department to save time and help them operate more efficiently. Twenty of the state’s 67 counties are using the unified case management system in some form. Here, the district attorney’s office will be the next department brought online.
Shober said the focus of a bus tour was energy, redevelopment, job creation, business and tourism. Destinations included the MarkWest natural gas processing and separation plant and a Range Resources Marcellus Shale drilling site, both in Chartiers Township; the Sarris Candies factory in Canonsburg; Southpointe Business Park; and the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Arden.