Romida Crocamo, the Luzerne County Manager, will hold her second town hall meeting at 5 p.m. on Monday at the Hazleton One Community Center. at the Hazleton One Community Center.
Crocamo is organizing these meetings at different places in the county to listen to public questions and comments about county issues and give updates. Her first town hall was in Nanticoke in March.
The Hazleton One center is located at 225 E. Fourth St. in Hazleton.
Primary election
Officials said during last week’s election board adjudication that the county election bureau had to reissue mail ballots to 50 April 23 primary election voters because their initial ballots were voided due to significant deficiencies that were known beforehand.
Following state guidance, the election bureau cancels returned mail ballots in the state tracking system if their ballot sorting machine detects missing voter signatures or handwritten date issues on outer envelopes or the absence of a required inner secrecy envelope.
When these serious issues are found before the election, the bureau notifies affected voters if they provided an email address on their mail ballot application. Voters can also check the state’s online ballot tracker to see the status of their mail ballot.
People who received alerts about their deficient voided ballots could visit the election bureau to submit a new ballot or fill out a paper provisional ballot at their polling place on Election Day.
Election Board Chairwoman Denise Williams said the reissuance of 50 ballots due to an error was a substantial increase compared to the November 2023 general election, when six were reissued.
She asked the election bureau to consider additional outreach methods used by some other counties to alert voters in advance, including an online posting of impacted voters or supplying daily lists to party leaders.
Undelivered ballots
During adjudication, it was mentioned that the county had 245 mail ballots returned as undeliverable before the primary.
Williams noted there were 307 undeliverable ballots in the November 2023 election and 168 in the 2023 primary.
Officials said that mail ballots must be sent to the voter’s address of record and cannot be forwarded to other addresses by the postal system.
County Acting Election Director Emily Cook told the board her office will review the 245 this summer to determine the reasons and make sure information is up to date.
Williams said she appreciates the bureau’s willingness to complete this research and asked for a report on the results when it is concluded.
American Rescue extensions
The county council recently approved project completion deadline extensions for four federal American Rescue Plan recipients, which is a permission that has been given to several other entities in recent months.
The latest extensions were requested by Back Mountain Recreation Inc., Butler Township, the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority, and NEPA Inclusive.
Some specifics from the agenda submission and meeting discussion:
• Back Mountain Recreation was awarded $156,900, in part to install new walking paths around existing sports fields.
The group said the project will involve taking out the existing grass and putting in a foundation and new pavement.
Because of the unusually wet spring, taking out the current grass to put in the new paths would harm the nearby sports fields, the organization explained.
Waiting to do the work in the summer and fall will lessen the risk of harming the nearby grass, it said.
The deadline of June 30 has been moved to November 30 this year.
• Butler Township received $500,000 to build a town garage.
The township stated that more time is necessary due to delays in finishing construction plans and obtaining a needed permit.
The deadline of June 30 has been extended to November 30 this year.
• The WVSA was given $2 million to create and maintain a rain garden at the county-owned sports/recreation complex in Forty Fort and finish stream bank restoration on county land along Abrahams Creek in Forty Fort.
This grant was part of a deal council approved in February 2022 to get rid of the county’s stormwater fee.
As part of the agreement, the county will save $81,625 by providing access to county property/mapping data and other services, and granting permission for the WVSA to complete the rain garden/stream restoration on county land.
In return for the $2 million to help finish these projects, the county will receive $2 million in credit so it won’t have to pay a stormwater fee until the credit runs out, the agreement said.
Because of delays in the design and permitting approvals, council decided to extend the deadline from June 30 this year to June 30, 2025.
• NEPA Inclusive was given $500,000 for a program to train independent living skills, self-advocacy, and workplace readiness.
The deadline was moved from June 30 to August 31 this year.