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At 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 26 a full chamber awaited the members of the county commissioners. The agenda offered little meat for the public who had gathered, and minimal discussion was held over most of the 23 items on the written agenda. One point which was discussed with fervor was the leasing of a county owned property in Rush twsp. The county farm (parcel 177.00-1-028.00) was open for lease offers as various companies had expressed interest in using it for mineral rights. One application had been received and after brief discussion from the public in regards to usage, and possible ecological impact, the Commissioners quickly dismissed the lease request.

The Commissioners also had open discussion on Youth services and the seeming inability to find staff for some positions while covering the salary board session. It was discussed that due to union contracts, some senior staff would not consider promotions as the pay scale decreased if they chose to accept an oversight position. As such it was recommended and adopted that starting salary in Children & youth casework supervisors should now be set at a range of $38-50K per annum. Additionally the Commissioners chose to set the starting directors salary between $55-65k per anum. ( both are based on experience and educational standards and the 40 hour work load per week)

Business Manager Loren Small led off the evening on September 24th at a meeting of the Blue Ridge School Board’s Budget, Finance and Transportation Committee prior to the scheduled workshop with a timeline for developing a budget for the 2013-2014 school year. That’s right, 2013-14.

During budget deliberations last Spring for the current fiscal year that began in July, it became apparent that the next budget might become so tight that the District might have to ask local taxpayers for more money than state law and regulation would allow without giving them a yay or nay vote. In 2006 the legislature passed something called Act 1 that requires the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) to develop an index each year for each of the state’s 501 public school districts. That index is a percentage figure beyond which the district may not increase property taxes for the coming fiscal year without asking for taxpayer approval at a referendum. Districts that don’t expect to need more than the index allows may pass a resolution stating that intention, which allows them to delay issuing a budget until later, usually by May. Until now Blue Ridge has always been able to stay within the declared index.

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