Two people occupying top positions at the Lawrence County jail will keep their jobs.
The Lawrence County Prison Board voted 6-0 yesterday to hire Brian Covert as warden and Dale “Butch” Wehr as state inmate/work release coordinator.
Danielle MacDonald was hired as a full-time records clerk at a salary of $24,093. She previously was part time.
Approval votes were cast by the commissioners — Steve Craig, Dan Vogler and Rick DeBlasio — Controller David Gettings, President Judge Dominick Motto and Sheriff Perry Quahliero.
District Attorney Joshua Lamancusa, who sits on the board, did not attend the meeting.
ABOUT THE POSITIONS
The appointments, all of which become effective Monday, were made after two five-minute executive sessions called for personnel matters.
Covert will receive a salary of $55,000, as set Tuesday by the salary board.
Wehr was hired in August 2006, as the county’s work release coordinator. In his new position, he will be paid $34,000. His salary had been $22,893 until the salary board established the new position of work release/state inmate coordinator and hiked the pay for it by $11,000 in January, with the intent of expanding Wehr’s duties to include coordination of state inmates into the jail system.
Gettings, who is prison board president, originally proposed the position with Wehr in mind for the job. However, at last month’s prison board meeting, the board agreed that because it is a new position it would be opened it up and applications sought.
Gettings said yesterday the county had received 30 applications, but most of those were people who previously had worked at Sheetz or comparable jobs.
Four candidates stood out and were interviewed, he said. Two were not what the county was looking for and a third candidate is being considered for another county position that will be open soon, according to Gettings.
HOUSING SITUATION
The jail is housing 50 state inmates who are nearing their release. The prison board voted a few months ago to eventually increase that number to 65 and the state will provide training for the corrections staff to keep the inmates until their release.
The inmates are being housed in other jails because the state has run out of room.
Sue McNaughton, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, said yesterday the department has agreements with 11 counties, including Lawrence, to house the state prisoners. To date it is housing 568 inmates in county jails.
In addition, the state is boarding 319 inmates in Michigan and 505 in Virginia, with plans to ultimately house 1,000 in Virginia and 1,000 in Michigan, McNaughton explained.
“We’ll focus on getting those out,” she said, adding there are plans later to add more inmates to the cooperating county jails.
Lawrence County has seen the venture as an income opportunity, as it is being paid $50 per inmate per day by the state or a total of $2,500 per month, and $30,000 a year. That money will go into the jail budget for operations.
WARDEN HIRING
Gettings said he spent 2 1/2 days in interviews for the warden job, which was advertised after last month’s prison board meeting.
He said the county received 12 applications. Of those, five were interviewed, and three were called back for second interviews, he said.
“My recommendation is that we hire Brian Covert as warden,” he said before the vote.
Although there were candidates who were more experienced than Covert, he felt Covert best fits the needs of the county.
“We felt you were the person who could bring us forward,” Gettings told Covert at the meeting.
“I appreciate you offering me this position,” Covert commented afterward. “I will do my best.”
The warden position has been vacant since Oct. 2 when Charles Adamo retired, and Covert has been in charge of jail operations since then as deputy warden, then acting warden.
The salary board Tuesday set the salary for the warden position at $5,000 higher than Adamo’s starting wages.
Covert was invited into one of the board’s executive sessions.
The members decided that previously advertised positions of deputy warden, captain, two new full-time corrections officers and five or six existing part-time but vacant corrections officers positions will be filled later, upon consultation with Covert.
Gettings said one candidate for the warden’s job could possibly be placed in another office in the government system that works with children.
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