Lebanon County Commissioners hire electrical contractor for municipal project

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Lebanon County Commissioners on Sept. 18 hired an electrical contractor for a renovation project at the county municipal building. 

County administrator Jamie Wolgemuth presented a change order to commissioners just one meeting after receiving no bids for the electrical contracting portion for Phase 1A of the project, which includes renovations to the public defenders and assessment offices. 

With no electrical contract bids, county officials had the project’s two general contractors place competitive bids to secure a company to perform that portion of the work. With that pricing now included, Phase 1A will cost $643,811. 

Read More: Lebanon Valley Rail Trail, municipal building receive construction funding

Commissioners unanimously voted Thursday to award the electrical contract to general contractor and Lebanon County-based Funk Construction for $139,590. Wolgemuth noted the company to perform the electrical work is Stoner Electric of Lebanon. 

Wolgemuth said Shannon Smith, the other general contractor for this project, placed a bid of $141,215 for the electrical work, adding that the close differences in pricing means they were competitive.

Stoner Electric will work under Funk Construction since the electrical contract bid was placed by the general contractor. 

At the first of two meetings in September, commissioners unanimously agreed to hire Funk Construction for $307,621 for general construction and Myerstown-based Shannon Smith Inc. at $196,600 for mechanical/plumbing in Phase 1A.

Hotel tax grant program

The hotel tax grant program continues to stir occasional debate during county commissioner meetings, and Thursday was no exception.

A lack of available funding in the bank account versus an increase in the amount of funding requests and/or dollar amounts have caused commissioners to either table some funding requests for future meetings or adjust how much is awarded to the organizations. 

The county receives a portion of taxes collected for overnight lodging in Lebanon County and provides the funding to organizations to encourage “heads in beds” throughout the Lebanon Valley.

Three organizations requesting $5,000 each were on Thursday’s agenda despite the hotel tax grant fund balance sitting at $14,200, meaning there would be a shortfall of about $1,000 if all three were awarded the requested amounts. 

Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz suggested providing $3,000 each to Northern Lebanon Youth Wrestling and Future Stars Tournament Baseball LLC for upcoming events and the full $5,000 to the Pennsylvania Chautauqua and Mount Gretna Borough to operate the Visitors Center in Mount Gretna during tourist season. 

Sallie Neuin, county treasurer, said that her department had disbursed all of the hotel tax funding collected for September to Visit Lebanon Valley, who then returns 10 percent of the proceeds to the county to administer the grant program. The rest of the collected tax is disbursed between Visit Lebanon Valley, the county’s tourist bureau, and the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center, which hosts numerous events throughout the year.

“Our 10 percent share that will come back will be about $14,000,” Neuin said, with Wolgemuth confirming that the county’s fund would then become $28,000 once September funds are received. 

Litz said she was always taught not to “spend money before you receive it” and noted the Future Stars program includes events in Hershey and State College, “so it’s not just for Lebanon County.”

Commissioner Bob Phillips countered that the baseball program brought $19,000 in taxes in 2025 for overnight stays in Lebanon County hotels, according to the Future Stars’ hotel tax grant application. Commission chairman Mike Kuhn said the program is meeting the county’s hotel tax grant program goal of “putting heads in beds.”

Litz then made a motion of $5,000, $3,000 and $3,000, adding those figures would allow some funds to remain in the hotel tax grant account. Her motion died for a lack of a second.   

Phillips’ motion to fund Future Stars at the full $5,000 amount was approved unanimously, although Litz said she was hesitant to fund it at the full amount – even though she wanted to do so – without knowing if commissioners in State College (Centre County) and Hershey (Dauphin County) are also funding the program. 

During discussion prior to the vote, Phillips said what happens in those two counties is irrelevant to him because what matters is how much hotel tax revenue is generated by the program within Lebanon County. The Palmyra-based Future Stars offered 17 baseball tournaments that utilized baseball fields throughout Lebanon County in 2025.

Concerning the Northern Lebanon Youth Wrestling funding request, Litz questioned why the hotels are offering discounts via a QR code for participants during their stay in Lebanon County. 

Wolgemuth said the discounts are provided by the hotels, and the county has no control over what they offer to their guests. Phillips replied that is part of the hotel’s marketing themselves. Litz said the discounts are in contradiction to the purpose of the hotel tax grant program. 

Phillips made a motion to fund the wrestling program at the full $5,000, with Phillips and Kuhn verbalizing their support. It was later noted when LebTown asked that all three motions were unanimously supported despite the fact that Litz did verbalize her support.

Litz then made a motion to provide $5,000 to the Pennsylvania Chautauqua and Mount Gretna Borough proposal, which prompted Phillips to ask her “what happened to spending money we don’t have yet, which she was taught not to do?” Litz responded that it was because they had already funded the other organizations at their full amounts, then amended her motion to reflect the balance of $4,715. That motion was unanimously approved.

Commissioners also considered a number of items from Children & Youth Services, which included potential increased costs of $5 million.

Read More: Lebanon County faces $5 million funding shortfall for one agency’s costs

Other county business

In other business, commissioners unanimously agreed to:

• Amend seven fiscal year 2024-25 contract amendments totaling $141,323 and 10 fiscal year 2025-26 contracts totaling $181,977 for the Mental Health/Intellectual Disabilities/Early Intervention Department. All expenses are covered under existing funding, so these invoices come with no additional costs to county taxpayers.
• Set Saturday, Oct. 25, as Passport Acceptance Day in the prothonotary’s office for individuals to obtain or renew passports. The office will be open from 8 a.m. to noon, with up to nine employees eligible to work and be paid overtime for up to five hours for the day. 
• Hire Toptier Home Care PA as an additional personal care provider for Lebanon County. 
• Hire a physician consultant under the “Peace of Mind Aging and Wellness Specialist” $500 per month retainer fee under the following rates: $500 monthly retainer fee; $300 per initial hour of service per contract of $300 and $300 for each additional consecutive hour of service with a minimum billable increment of one-quarter of an hour for consulting, training, speaking or medical services; $300 per hour with a minimum billable increment of one-quarter of an hour for medical services rendered at the physician consultant’s place of business; $75 per hour with a minimum billable increment of one-quarter of an hour for psychiatric evaluations performed by a registered nurse; .70 cents per mile for mileage to and from court appearances, home visits, and appointment for the county’s aging agency. These costs are being covered under Block Grant funding that is being used for protective services for the other non-contracted providers with the aging agency.
• Provide a lease agreement totaling $1,750 for 1.2 acres in Union Township on the west side of Old Forge Road near I-81 with John H. and Susan A. Lehman for a new communications tower site for the Lebanon County Department of Emergency Services. 
• Accept the treasurer’s report, including a balance of just over $1.2 million in county coffers.
• Pay October debt payments of $14,200 for General Obligation Bond A of 2016 Bank Loan; $145,325 for Series of 2017; and $1,678,449.97  for Series of 2021. All of these are held in Fulton Bank. A change of signatory authority for all county banking was also passed since county treasurer Sallie Neuin is retiring, so her name was removed from all county-owned banking accounts.
• Apply for a PCoRP loss grant of $5,763.81 for a new card reader at the employee entrance at the Renova Center in Lebanon. The amount is based on a proposal submitted by Annville-based Reed’s Lock & Access Control Systems Inc.
• Apply for a 2026 Residential Substance Abuse Treatment program grant of up to $200,000. The state plans to award grants to five counties to assist with Medical Assistance Treatment costs to help treat inmates with addictions. If awarded, Lebanon County must provide a 25% match to the award amount.    
• Grant real estate tax exemptions to three fully disabled veterans or their families. 
• Approve various personnel transactions.  
• Approve the minutes of their Sept. 4 meeting and their Sept. 3 and 10 executive sessions, which were held to discuss personnel matters.

Lebanon County Commissioners meet the first and third Thursday of the month at 9:30 a.m. in Room 207 of the Lebanon County Municipal Building, 400 S. 8th St., Lebanon.