MIFFLINTOWN — During a meeting held Tuesday, the Juniata County Commissioners proclaimed March 12-18, Pennsylvania 4-H week in the county. Emily Shoop, Juniata and Mifflin County 4-H Education Coordinator for the program created through the Penn State Extension, shared an impact report with the commissioners. Shoop stated, “The average public value of the 4-H program is $197,000.00 to our community.”

“We have 137 youth enrolled in our program, an increase of 20 students from last year’s number, and our enrollment is not done; we enroll through March 31; and we have 33 adult volunteers so far this year,” Shoop added.

Members of the county 4-H program attended the meeting along with Romeo, a spry black lab who is being trained as a seeing-eye dog in the Juniata County 4-H seeing-eye dog program. Shoop shared that the program consists of encouraging volunteering and community service in addition to agricultural education.

Commissioner Alice Gray shared, “We are excited to work with you. It is our pleasure to see you here; the enthusiasm, the commitment, exhibited to our community by the members of 4-H is great and is a strong contribution by the students for our community, and we fully support you. Last year’s 4-H Fair was such a great example of the best of the best of Juniata County. We are so glad to see you here with us.”

The program between Juniata and Mifflin County is churning out youth leaders who won various awards at the State Farm Show in Harrisburg and will soon have a representative, Morgan Smoker, judging a cattle show in the country of Scotland in the coming months.

Tuesday’s meeting was loaded with positive information for Juniata County residents. Vince Giordano, Director of the Juniata County Library, informed the county commissioners of innovative programs and the current progress the county library is making in extending its resources to county residents during the commissioners regularly held meeting on Tuesday.

“Last year, we started several new programs and services at the library that are going very, very well. We started a home-school hangout for families, the first Wednesday of the month geared for families that homeschool. In the recent past, we did a financial literacy program for kids. We are also doing Saturday family programs that are going very well,” said Giordano.

He also informed the commissioners that the library is now issuing passports. “You can now do everything passport-related at the library.”

Additionally, Giordano shared, “We had 40,000 print books checked-out last year, we had 30,000 visitors to the library last year, we had over 2,000 students come to our youth programs, we issued 399 new library cards and we were open for 1,750 hours. We included 2,317 new items to our collection and I am buying new items each week.”

“We are very, very proud of everything you (Giordano) are doing for our community here,” stated Commissioner Alice Gray.

Allison Fisher, Juniata County Human Services Director, shared the department’s annual report with the commissioners on Tuesday and the department’s directives and accomplishments in 2022.

Fisher shared, “We also work with Juniata County School District, the Tri-County Drug and Alcohol services, and local churches to help those of whom are facing food and housing instability within the county. We are offering information and resource referrals to county residents.”

“Our goal is to build capacity and initiate partnerships in Juniata County. We initiate, collaborate and build. We are fortunate to employ the county grant-writer in our department and this past year we had 20 grants approved totalling 1.7 million dollars brought into the county. We do a needs assessment with the U.S. Census to make sure we are data driven for the needs of our community. We have focused on three main areas in the last few years: education, housing and health. We want to address areas that will have the biggest impact for Juniata County,” Fisher elaborated.

“Another area we work on primarily is housing instability. We have lots and lots of housing programs and we want to prevent homelessness in Juniata County. If anyone is in need, they can reach us at (717) 447-5121 and our staff will work with you to try to make sure that we are able to provide safe and stable housing in the county. One of our recent graduates of our drug and alcohol counseling housing program came in to let us know that they will now be buying a house,” added Fisher.

Fisher, who retires at the end of this year, offered, “These are the communities that I am raising my children in and I want them to be as strong as possible.”

Commissioner Alice Gray praised Fisher for her years of commitment to the residents of Juniata County and in helping those of whom are facing nutrition instability and those who are facing housing crises. The Juniata County Human Services department can be reached at (717) 242-5452. Anyone seeking Emergency rental assistance can call (ERAP) at (717) 447-5121.

As Juniata County is part of the agricultural heartland of Pennsylvania and as spring rapidly approaches, Leah Fronk from the Penn State Extension shared information with the public and the commissioners on Tuesday about upcoming programs offered by the PSE in Juniata County for herbicide and pesticide testing.

For Farmers and others employed in agriculture and landscaping working with herbicides and pesticides in Pennsylvania requires proof of testing of safe handling and disposal or said chemicals and is required by the Pennsylvania Department of Environment.

Fronk shared, “On April 11, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture will be here downstairs (Courthouse) for pesticide licensing testing. This will encompass the testing needed for all people working with pesticides. If anyone needs a training manual for the test, they can get them by calling us here at the Juniata County Penn State Extension at (717) 436-7744. The test offered here will satisfy the Pennsylvania Department of Environment requirements.”

“We are offering in-person community testing for herbicides and pesticides handling and those who do not wish to take the test online can do it here in the county. I can offer in person herbicide and pesticide training here on April 11,” Fronk continued. “Based on data we are seeing in southeast PA, spring is tracking early this year.”

Ahead of the coming spring, the Juniata County Commissioners initiated a proactive measure to tackle the invasive spotted lanternfly by approving a motion to have the state of Pennsylvania spray the courthouse and library grounds for the pest at no cost to the county.

Although the pesky, abundant creature can be quite beautiful, it has slowly wreaked havoc on agricultural systems and other insects since its inception into the United States from China. The lanternfly made its way to the United States via ocean traveling container ships.

In other county motions conducted on Tuesday, the Commissioners approved and conducted the following business:

• Issue Proclamation No. 2023 – 1 proclaiming the week of March 12 – 18, 2023 “Pennsylvania 4-H Week.”

• Listened to a presentation by Vince Giordano, Director of the Juniata County Library regarding the Library’s activities during the 2022 calendar year.

• Listened to a presentation from Leah Fronk regarding upcoming Penn State Extension programs.

• Listened to a presentation from Allison Fisher regarding the Human Services Annual Report.

• Authorized the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to provide treatment for the Spotted Lanternfly on the grounds of the Juniata County Library. The treatment will be at no cost to the County. Approve the Juniata County “Victims of Crime Act” (VOCA) Grant Application Subgrant No. 40296 as recommended by Sylvia Middaugh, Victim Witness Program Coordinator. The term of the grant is for October 1, 2023 through September 20, 2024.

• Approved the tax exonerations for Beale and Lack Townships as per the material provided.

• Approved the payment of checks #67261 – #67331 in the amount of $99,542.25.

The Salary Board and Retirement Board had no business scheduled.