March 10 – John Flannery, Franklin County Commissioner, stopped by News Talk 103.7FM to discuss a host of local issues today.
A whole bunch of offices are up and running are up and running in the new administration building in downtown Chambersburg, including the county commissioners, other commissioner offices, the protonotary, tax office and a number of other offices.
Hopes are high to get the new courthouse open by June or July.
“We’re trying to get the basement of the new courthouse open sooner rather than later so we can do video court hearings there,” Flannery said.
In terms of money for the $67 million project, Flannery said they had built in 10% for change orders and it looks like as of now, the project is at less than 5% change orders.
A change order is a document used to record an amendment to the original construction contract, so at the moment it looks like the county could be saving 5% of the projected budget on these change orders.
“I’m trying to do my due diligence that we are on schedule,” Flannery said. “I think the county administration is doing a good job holding us to that.”
The county is also attempting to provide an office for the County Coroner Jeff Conner, who has worked out of his home for the last 20 years.
This does not mean the body goes to his residence – the county rents a number of freezers offsite for that – but a lot of the paperwork and legalities are done in the Conner home.
“Understand the coroner has a staff,” Flannery explained. “They investigate. They do a lot of investigations. They do a lot of paperwork. He needs to have a stationary office.”
At the moment, it looks like Conner could move into the old Pennsylvania State Police building on Franklin Farm Lane.
There was talk about having Conner go to the annex building, across from the new administration building, but with the Chambersburg Police Department doing some renovations on their property, the police may be moving into the annex building.
In terms of rent of the buildings, does the county plan to gouge the borough for using the annex building for the police?
“We definitely have to work together and scratch each other’s backs,” Flannery said.
More information about the monetary figures for the move will be provided at a later date.
A mass COVID vaccination clinic is also in the works to possibly be held at the Chambersburg Mall in April if the vaccinations are available by then.
“A lot of things are state mandated,” Flannery said. “That we have to do. We want to get things opened back up and the easiest way to do that is to get people vaccinated if they choose to be.”
The county is working with WellSpan to get the mass vaccination clinic done.
It’ll be a place where “many people can come at one time to receive their vaccinations if they choose to do so.”
