[0:00] Start before I do something
[0:04] to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic stands one
[0:10] nation
indivisible with liberty andice for all.
[0:29] None.
[0:32] » Looking for a motion to approve the
minutes of meeting dated August 11th,
[0:37] 2026.
[0:44] » All in favor signify by saying I.
>> I. Motion carries. I consider a motion
[0:50] to approve the actual invoices in the
amount 1,356,926
[0:58] and 58 cents for a period of August 6th
through August 21st, 2026.
[1:05] » So move second that roll, please.
>> Mr. Humes,
[1:09] » yes.
>> Mr. North,
[1:10] » yes.
>> Mr. Bart,
[1:12] » yes.
[1:16] Looking for a motion to approve the
actual payroll in the amount of
[1:18] $323,8227
[1:22] for the period of July 26th through
August 8, 2026.
[1:27] » I like to make that motion. Second
call.
[1:32] » Mr. Humes.
>> Yes.
[1:33] » Mr. North.
>> Yes.
[1:35] » Mr. Farj
[1:40] for a motion to adopt the right to know
policy.
[1:46] I'll make the motion. I'll second that.
[1:52] » Do you have any comments, Sage?
>> Um, sure. So, we uh created the policy
[2:01] for right to know requests and um have
added some further information on our
[2:06] county website just for the general
public when they are requesting
[2:12] information
and how to do that.
[2:16] » And I should introduce Angie. She is the
right to know officer for the county.
[2:21] Thank you.
>> Uh all in favor signify by saying I.
[2:29] Looking for a motion to enter into an
agreement with the Office of Medical
[2:33] Assistant Transportation Program. Terms
of said programs will be July 1st, 2026
[2:40] through June 30, 2027.
>> I'd like to make that motion second.
[2:48] And we are honored to have Misty here
today to have a few comments on this
[2:56] for the housing
>> the medical assistance.
[3:03] » Um so we have an agreement with the
county that the county receives funding
[3:07] from DHS for the medical assistance
program and then the county passes those
[3:12] funds to us at Community Action to
administer and have a the medical system
[3:19] transportation program. So, um I have
Kim Hutchkins with me and she is our
[3:24] medical system transportation
administrator and she can tell you a
[3:27] little bit more about the program. So,
um for the consumers to qualify for our
[3:32] program, they have to live in Jefferson
County and they have to um have medical
[3:36] assistance. We transport um consumers to
like doctor's offices,armacies,
[3:44] um any place that they're going that
they're going to be billing the medical
[3:47] assistance. We have um subcontractors
with Health Ride and APA to do the
[3:54] transportation. We also have the mileage
reimbursement program as excuse me as
[3:59] well when consumers have a private
vehicle that they can drive themselves.
[4:04] » Thank you.
>> You're welcome. Thank you.
[4:09] Yes,
>> Mr. Hughes.
[4:11] » Yes,
>> Mr. North.
[4:12] » Yes,
>> Mr. Parchic.
[4:13] » Yes.
>> And before we move forward, I'm going to
[4:18] ask Misty to just talk about the
homeless grant money that you just
[4:23] received.
>> Yes. So, we um money for the homeless
[4:28] assistance program comes again to the
county. It is to um community action and
[4:34] we use those funds to assist lowincome
residents of Jefferson County with um
[4:40] any kind of eviction notice or utility
shut off or if they are homeless so we
[4:45] can assist them in finding um housing or
um avoid their utility shut off which
[4:50] then could lead to homelessness.
Any questions?
[4:57] » One,
if they're homeless, how do you find
[5:00] these people?
>> There sometimes they're referred to us
[5:05] from community members where they just
come to us directly.
[5:12] » Come to us where
>> at our office of community action where
[5:15] they call.
[5:19] » I'm thinking most of us don't have a
phone.
[5:23] » They do. They do.
[5:27] » There are government programs that
provide cell phones. So, a lot of times
[5:30] homeless people may have a cell phone
through a government program.
[5:35] » Yeah. No phones.
[5:39] » You can't have other cell phone.
>> No, I guess not.
[5:42] » Becoming essential.
>> And I'm sorry, where's your office?
[5:47] » We have um an office in. It's across
from the Cookville. Okay.
[5:55] We served on Jefferson in Fairing
County.
[6:09] Any other questions before?
Thank you both for coming.
[6:15] Uh, next we have Jim Schwarney, director
of North Central Health.
[6:22] » I'll give you a quick update on a couple
of um projects that we have going right
[6:26] now or applications that we're working
on. Uh, first is a uh EDA disaster
[6:32] recovery grant. Um, the initial
application was right around $65
[6:37] million. Um it would be for a center of
innovation um that would be hosted in
[6:44] Dubo Jeff or Clearfield County. Um it's
basically to um work with our PM and
[6:52] advanced manufacturers within the
region. It'll be a uh training school
[6:57] research and development um and they'll
have state-of-the-art equipment there
[7:02] that um will be able to be used by the
industry to to advance uh products. So,
[7:08] uh, we're in the final stages of it
right now. We're expecting to hear as to
[7:13] whether or not we're successful with the
application here, uh, later this fall.
[7:18] Um, one of the other projects that we've
been involved with is the rural health
[7:23] transformation grant. Um, we're not
actually with the initial dispersements
[7:28] that have gone out here recently, uh,
through the rapid response funding. We
[7:33] haven't been part of that. of what we
will be part of is when the regional uh
[7:38] policy specialist is hired for our
region, they will be housed at the North
[7:42] Central offices. Uh we will be working
with them to establish establish a rural
[7:47] care collaborative and set up the um the
governance of that uh committee as well
[7:55] as then uh coming up with a plan for the
region on addressing some of the issues
[8:00] that have already been identified in the
state's plan and how we want to address
[8:05] them regionally. Um
seven of the eight individuals have
[8:10] already been identified and announced.
Unfortunately, our region is the only
[8:14] one that doesn't have the individual
announced. We're still waiting for
[8:17] Governor Shapiro uh to give his uh
acceptance of that individual. As I
[8:24] shared with Jeff, um as soon as we have
that name of that individual, we will
[8:28] let everybody know and then we'll be
reaching out to folks to start having
[8:32] conversations on who should be on that
committee and um some of the ideas that
[8:39] we have regionally to uh to address some
of the problems that we have. And last
[8:45] thing, just kind of a big thing for us
uh here in October, we'll be turning 60
[8:50] years old as a as a commission. So,
we're going to be celebrating that
[8:54] throughout the year.
[8:58] » Any questions for Jim?
[9:03] » Back.
>> Oh, Mr. McGinness, please.
[9:08] » Thank you. Uh, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Swarm,
I I have one question about the first
[9:14] program that you mentioned.
>> Okay.
[9:16] » The $65 million program.
>> Yes. What was the criteria that was used
[9:21] to headquarter this in Duboce?
>> Well, it really what it boiled down to
[9:26] was um it was the only place that we
found that had a building that was
[9:31] sufficient to house this facility and
the buildings being donated. If it
[9:36] wasn't for that, the match would have
been a significant issue given the
[9:40] dollar amount that we're requesting. And
um we approached different people
[9:47] because they asked a very similar
question, but no one was willing to
[9:49] donate a building.
So if it wasn't for that building being
[9:55] donated, we probably the application
probably wouldn't proceed because that
[9:59] is counting is a big chunk of our map.
>> Thank you for the response.
[10:07] » Any other questions?
[10:10] » Next we have
police laws in the department of
[10:16] development.
>> So, I'm I'm going to email this to the
[10:20] press later so that you have an
electronic copy, but Jefferson County is
[10:26] continuing to explore the process of
developing a potential enactment of a
[10:30] subdivision and land development
ordinance commonly called a salo.
[10:34] County planning commission, county
officials, and staff and critical
[10:37] partners. We've been working all year to
develop this draft salo and we'll be
[10:41] taking public comments on this. We have
a meeting this Thursday at 6:00 p.m.
[10:47] here in this building on the first floor
to review the draft salo and receive
[10:51] public feedback. That work session will
provide attendees with the opportunity
[10:55] to better understand what the proposed
ordinance does and does not do, what it
[11:00] regulates, how those regulations would
work, and to provide comments and
[11:04] suggestions on the draft ordinance.
Anyone who's not able to attend that
[11:08] meeting can provide comment between now
and Thursday at close of business either
[11:13] by email or here in writing in the
commissioner's office. We have a copy of
[11:18] the salo available up front here or you
can review it on our website. Something
[11:22] important to note is that while the
county recognizes high impact land
[11:26] developments such as solar farms, data
centers, and similar developments are a
[11:30] significant concern for many entities,
the salo includes a wide variety of
[11:34] regulations intended to support healthy
and responsible development. So we
[11:38] encourage anyone who reviews that
document to be attentive to all aspects
[11:42] of the document and the public work
session will focus on all aspects of the
[11:46] ordinance.
If anyone has any questions, I will be
[11:50] around after the meeting. I will email
this to the press and I have business
[11:54] cards if anyone wants to provide comment
by email.
[12:00] » Any questions?
[12:07] » In reading over the draft ordinance, um
you devoted like one paragraph to data
[12:13] center specifically and that was just a
description of what they are. Is it your
[12:17] intent that the blanket statement of
land use covers the data centers, solar
[12:23] farms, etc.?
>> They're being referred to as high impact
[12:26] land developments because this is not
zoning. We cannot dictate whether they
[12:30] come here or not. We're just trying to
encourage healthy development for those
[12:34] specific facilities.
>> So, your blanket statement will cover
[12:37] all these high use developments.
>> That's to be seen.
[12:41] » Yeah. To be seen. It's it's still under
development. So, we don't know what the
[12:46] final product's going to be.
>> Okay. Well, I'm just addressing the
[12:50] draft at this point.
>> I believe it's a full section in a
[12:55] couple of pages if I'm not mistaken that
refer to high impact land.
[12:59] » Yeah. I just want to be straight you
might get a question about that
[13:04] Thursday.
>> Our consultant will be there Thursday
[13:06] and he is the one with the knowledge and
expertise on most of this.
[13:12] » Thank you.
Thank you.
[13:17] Mr. Cer, do you have anything on?
>> I I do not. My time will come in the
[13:23] near future.
>> Just now yesterday was just so happy
[13:29] birthday.
>> It's very long. It's not great.
[13:35] » Moving on. Bridget, do you
>> I do I just have a question. It's my
[13:40] understanding that
there's only one election board
[13:46] meeting on the calendar and it's in
midocctober.
[13:50] » There's one in October and there's one
>> then there'll be one after the election.
[13:54] Yeah. Okay. So, just as far as um the
Supreme Court ruling that came down
[14:00] yesterday where they're pushing the
whole you USPS will not deliver mail and
[14:06] ballots thing down the road. My question
is if you have a contingency plan to
[14:10] address this is we're only 70 days out
from the election. So is there going
[14:17] would there be an emergency meeting in
that case? Do you have a contingency
[14:20] plan on whether the um Supreme Court
actually says they can
[14:26] not deliver ballots to the states that
don't turn over their voter roles?
[14:34] » Are you aware of that ruling that came
down yesterday? we got backed. Um,
[14:39] » they didn't rule on the legality of it.
They ruled on a procedural error.
[14:44] » So, the lawsuit will continue, but being
that meant we're 70 days out and they
[14:48] didn't say, "Hey, we're too close to the
election to make this change." I'm
[14:52] curious if there is a contingency plan
or if there can be
[14:56] » as directed by the state and we received
this email at 9:55 a.m. this morning. So
[15:01] uh um
our elections are
[15:07] referred as directed by them and it's
normal because it's ongoing litigation.
[15:15] » Correct.
>> So that's what we're doing today.
[15:19] Now do we have to have a meeting prior
to if needed? Yeah. That won't be an
[15:25] issue following the meeting.
>> Okay. As far as we know today, we won't
[15:30] need another meeting, but never know
what's going to happen.
[15:34] » Correct. Because the USPS did finalize
the rule that will allow them to not
[15:40] deliver the ballot. So, we're just
waiting for a court decision. Do we have
[15:44] is there a law in the county that says
you can't or in the state actually that
[15:48] you can't change the rules of an
election within so many days? Do you
[15:52] know that?
>> I don't I'm not
[15:54] » I haven't been able to find that answer.
Yeah, I'm not aware of that.
[15:59] » Okay,
>> that's way above us.
[16:02] » Okay. Well, thank you.
>> But we're monitoring it so they keep us
[16:07] informed. So,
>> well, thank you.
[16:11] » Everything's just moving. Yes. No.
>> Okay.
[16:15] » Good question.
Mr. Bartley, you have maybe as far as
[16:20] being a speaker.
Maybe yes or no.
[16:26] Any
[16:29] other public comments?
[16:33] Seeing none, we'll close public
comments.
[16:37] Destiny, do you have any questions?
>> Not really.
[16:41] » Okay.
>> I have to guest speakers.
[16:47] » Absolutely.
[16:54] get a copy of the release that came to
you.
[17:04] That's it.
[17:08] Few announcements. The biggest one is
the reminder, school starts tomorrow, so
[17:13] be careful, slow down, watch our
children. Our next commissioner meeting
[17:18] is September 8th, 10th of the year. Um,
Of course, the meeting
[17:26] is Thursday night at 6 PM downstairs.
[17:31] » Anything else?
>> Yes. Thanks, Mark. September 7th, we're
[17:36] we're closed for Labor Day. Mark looks
forward to those days off.
[17:44] Anything else?
[17:47] Saying nothing to
move. Second.
[17:53] All in favor?