At their June 15 meeting, Lebanon County Commissioners thanked Carol Davies, administrator of the Lebanon County Area Agency on Aging (AAA), for more than three decades of service.
According to the proclamation, Davies’ career with Lebanon County started on Feb. 11, 1991, as administration officer 1 of AAA.
“In 1990, before I started here, I was working for the Lebanon Steel Corporation. And we were all told we were losing our jobs because the plant was going to close,” Davies said. “So, in November of 1990, I applied for my job here, which was a civil service application. And everybody in the company, of course, was looking for jobs. So, we were all looking for jobs together. And one of my co-workers and I were driving around, trying to get my application notarized, on the day of the HACC fire. So, that’s a little bit of Lebanon history in there.”
Davies transferred to the Lebanon County Mental Health/Intellectual Disability/Early Intervention Program (MH/ID/EI) on Oct. 30, 2000, to work as fiscal operations officer 3.
On Oct. 3, 2011, Davies was promoted to executive director of the Lebanon County Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse (LCCDAA). On Aug. 12, 2013, she was again promoted to her most recent position at AAA.
The commissioners unanimously voted to approve the proclamation, which thanked Davies “for the outstanding service she provided during her many years at the County” and extended “best wishes for a most rewarding future and the very best retirement.”
Davies, who said Lebanon County was “a great place to work” and “a great place for us to raise our family,” officially retired on June 17. Adrian Layser, the former protective services supervisor of AAA, became the new administrator of AAA on June 19. Davies now joins husband Steve Todd Davies in retirement following the longtime Lebanon radio DJ’s final broadcast earlier this year.
Read More: Steve Todd Davies retires after 45-year DJ career, last 38 in the Lebanon Valley
Lebanon County Commissioners also unanimously voted to approve Fiscal Year 2023-2024 provider contracts and budgets for several local organizations.
For the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2023, AAA presented 34 contracts for $1,080,116 worth of services. The Pennsylvania Department of Aging approved AAA’s request to offer its service providers a 4.3 percent cost of living increase in the often uncapped contracts. The contracts are internally monitored to guarantee they stay within budget.
AAA also presented its budget for the respective fiscal year, which includes the final year of COVID-19 funding it will receive. Its $4,163,039 budget is $16,434 less than the current fiscal year’s. The decrease in the budget is largely due to two long-term AAA employees retiring and AAA paying off the telephone system that was purchased a few years back. AAA is not requesting additional support from the County General Fund.
LCCDAA presented contracts for 42 service providers that provide a range of drug and alcohol abuse services encompassing prevention, intervention, and treatment within 62 facilities across Pennsylvania.
LCCDAA also presented its $2,470,786 budget, which sees an increase of more than $200,000 to both its revenues and expenditures. The increase in the budget’s revenues is largely due to three new contracts using Lebanon County’s opioid settlement funds.
One of these contracts is a probation officer that solely deals with opioid use disorder, substance use disorder, and co-occurring clients on probation. Another is a staff member at the Lebanon County Prison that oversees the MAT maintenance program that LCCDAA established at the prison. And another is the MAT maintenance program through PrimeCare.
LCCDAA is not requesting additional support from the County General Fund as the County allows it to maintain the New Perspectives at White Deer Run campus and retain the funds from doing so.
For Fiscal Year 2022-2023, MH/ID/EI presented 10 contract amendments totaling $60,831. These amendments — nine of which were for early intervention and one for mental health –are largely due to an increased use of services. MH/ID/EI is not requesting additional support from the County General Fund as the amendments will be covered by its current budget.
For Fiscal Year 2023-2024, MH/ID/EI presented 94 contracts for $5,430,956 worth of services. The provider contracts will increase $627,081 from the current fiscal year’s.
Specifically, mental health contracts will increase by 5 percent; intellectual disabilities non-waiver contracts will increase by 8 percent; and early intervention non-waiver contracts will increase by 32.9 percent. For early intervention, the largest program that will see an increase is special instruction, largely due to shortages of speech therapists.
Early intervention is an entitlement program, which means that MH/ID/EI cannot turn people away from services. For reference, MH/ID/EI received 40 new referrals for early intervention in May and about 23 halfway through June.
MH/ID/EI also presented its $8,546,247 budget, which is $1,269,939 or 17.45 percent more than the current fiscal year’s. The increase in the budget is largely due to this year’s expenditures, the use of services continuing to return to pre-pandemic levels, and the funding of several new or expanded programs.
The commissioners also unanimously voted to:
- Approve the June 1 meeting minutes
- Approve the treasurer’s report
- Approve the personnel transactions, which included 13 new hires, three promotions, two temporary increases, one reclassification, five resignations, and one termination due to job abandonment
- Approve the change order for the Lebanon County Department of Emergency Services (DES) Center, which included revisions to the original order as well as the addition of the center’s flagpoles and the cost of installing them
- Approve the request to allocate $74,921 of ARPA funds to purchase a county law enforcement records management system
- Approve an exemption from the burn ban for a professional fireworks display on June 17, requested by the Union Township Board of Supervisors and presented by Bob Dowd, director of DES, contingent on Dowd’s ability to confirm the fire on Schuylkill Mountain is out
- Approve the request from Lebanon Valley Rail Trail to “draw down” $390,012 of ARPA funds
- Approve three requests for Liquid Fuels grants, including a request from the City of Lebanon for an allocation of $26,814 for the Lebanon City paving project, from North Cornwall Township for an allocation of $8,489 for township bridge maintenance, and from Annville Township for an allocation of $4,759 for general maintenance
- Approve applications for property tax exemptions from four disabled veterans
- Approve a Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) contract
- Approve two letters of support, including from Cedar Hills Cemetery in Fredericksburg for the Lick Monument restoration project and from Comcast for its project to expand broadband coverage for unserved or underserved areas of Lebanon County
Lebanon County Commissioner meetings start at 9:30 a.m. on the first and third Thursdays of each month in Room 207 of the Lebanon County-City Municipal Building.
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