By Justin Strawser
The Daily Item
SUNBURY — The 30 full-time and 25 part-time Northumberland County Prison employees left without a job when the county jail was destroyed in a fire Wednesday will receive two to four weeks worth of pay depending on their ability to collect unemployment.
Meanwhile, the future of the county prison system and the 139-year-old facility itself remains unclear, but the prison board is giving itself 30 days to come up with a plan. One thing is clear: The prison will not be rebuilt at the current site.
At an emergency prison board and commissioners’ meeting Thursday morning in the administration center, the six members of the prison board recommended the employee payment plan and the three commissioners unanimously approved it. Besides the newly hired Warden Bruce Kovach, who will oversee administrative duties, the commissioners are not sure which employees in leadership positions will remain on as permanent employees.
Furthermore, the commissioners said, the county is urging the state prison system to hire its employees to oversee the county inmates who were shipped to state correctional facilities in Muncy and Coal Township. It will be up to the unions and the state to determine whether that request can be filled.
Control officer Codey Bartholomew, employed for a year, said he would be willing to take a job with the state, but otherwise he would have to file for unemployment.
Correctional officer Brandon Barber, employed for four months, said it’s a shame that his fellow officers have to look for other jobs.
“However, we are a close knit group and we are remaining in contact with one another through social media and abroad. We also take great pride in our job with keeping the care and custody of the inmates who we look after on a daily basis,” he said.
Barber said the prison itself needed work, but it’s a shame to see it destroyed by fire.
“I am looking forward to returning to the prison as a employee for the new prison,” he said.
Barber’s hope is one possibility the commissioners will be discussing. The county can either rebuild in another location or partner with neighboring counties to regionalize the prison system.
There’s no chance of rebuilding the current structure, Commissioner Vinny Clausi said.
“It’s shot,” he said.
The prison board members have given themselves 30 days to make a decision on which direction they want to move in. They will be meeting with neighboring counties to discuss regionalizing the prison system and looking for properties that could accommodate a new prison.
It could take more than 18 months before a new prison is built, the commissioners said.
It’s too soon to say what will happen to the stone structure and walls, they added.
If a new prison is built, the county employees will be called back to the job, the commissioners said.
The meeting room was packed with prison employees, elected officials, members of the news media and all prison board members, including Commissioners Stephen Bridy, Rick Shoch and Clausi, Controller Christopher Grayson, Sheriff Bob Wolfe and District Attorney Ann Targonski.
The prison board members expressed their thankfulness and respect for law enforcement, firefighters, prison employees, elected officials and community members who dedicated their time and resources Wednesday.
“We must work together now. No more fighting,” Clausi said.