Luzerne County manager’s town hall in Hazleton Monday night

Luzerne County Manager Romida Crocamo will hold her second town hall meeting at 5 p.m. Monday, May 6, at the Hazleton One Community Center.

Crocamo is hosting the meetings at various locations throughout the county to accept public questions and comments about county matters and provide updates. Her first town hall was in Nanticoke in March.

The Hazleton One center is at 225 E. Fourth St. in Hazleton.

Primary election

The county election bureau ended up reissuing mail ballots to 50 April 23 primary election voters because they were notified in advance of fatal deficiencies that caused their initial ballots to be voided, officials said during last week’s election board adjudication.

Following state guidance, the election bureau cancels returned mail ballots in the state tracking system if its ballot sorting machine detects missing voter signatures or handwritten date issues on outer envelopes or the absence of a required inner secrecy envelope.

When such fatal flaws are discovered leading up to the election, the bureau alerts impacted voters if they provided an email address on their mail ballot application. Voters also were able to search the state’s online ballot tracker to determine the status of their mail ballot.

Those receiving alerts of voided deficient ballots were be able to appear at the election bureau to submit a new ballot or fill out a paper provisional ballot at their polling place on Election Day.

Election Board Chairwoman Denise Williams said the reissuance of 50 ballots due to an error was a substantial increase compared to the November 2023 general election, when six were reissued.

She asked the election bureau to consider additional outreach methods used by some other counties to alert voters in advance, including an online posting of impacted voters or supplying daily lists to party leaders.

Undelivered ballots

The county had 245 mail ballots returned as undeliverable before the primary — another update provided during adjudication.

Williams noted there were 307 undeliverable ballots in the November 2023 election and 168 in the 2023 primary.

Mail ballots must be sent to the voter’s address of record and cannot be forwarded to other addresses by the postal system, officials said.

County Acting Election Director Emily Cook told the board her office will review the 245 this summer to determine the reasons and make sure information is up to date.

Williams said she appreciates the bureau’s willingness to complete this research and asked for a report on the results when it is concluded.

American Rescue extensions

County council recently approved project completion deadline extensions for four federal American Rescue Plan recipients — an allowance that has been granted to several other entities in recent months.

The latest extensions were requested by Back Mountain Recreation Inc., Butler Township, the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority and NEPA Inclusive.

Some specifics according to the agenda submission and meeting discussion:

• Back Mountain Recreation was awarded $156,900, in part to install new walking paths around existing sports fields.

The organization said the work will require sod removal and the installation of subbase and new pavement.

“Due to the nature of the unusual wet spring, removing existing sod to install the new paths would cause unnecessary damage to the adjoining sports fields,” it said.

Waiting to perform the work during the summer and fall will reduce the risk of damage to the surrounding turf, it said.

The June 30 deadline was extended to Nov. 30 this year.

• Butler Township was awarded $500,000 to construct a municipal garage.

The township said more time is needed due to delays in the completion of construction plans and issuance of a required permit.

The June 30 deadline was extended to Nov. 30 this year.

• The WVSA was awarded $2 million to construct and maintain a rain garden at the county-owned sports/recreation complex in Forty Fort and complete stream bank restoration on county land along Abrahams Creek in Forty Fort.

This award was part of an agreement council approved in February 2022 to eliminate the county’s stormwater fee.

Under the agreement, the county will save $81,625 by providing access to county property/mapping data and other services and granting permission for the WVSA to complete the rain garden/stream restoration on county land.

In exchange for the $2 million to help complete these projects, the county will receive $2 million in credit so it won’t have to pay a stormwater fee until the credit runs out, the agreement said.

Due to delays in the design and permitting approvals, council agreed to extend the deadline from June 30 this year to June 30, 2025.

• NEPA Inclusive was awarded $500,000 for a training program for independent living skills, self-advocacy and workplace readiness.

The deadline was extended from June 30 to Aug. 31 this year.