MIFFLINTOWN — Juniata County Commissioners hosted Director of Mifflin-Juniata Human Services Melissa Stewart to discuss grant funding at their Tuesday meeting.

Stewart announced that Mifflin-Juniata Human Services received official notification that the year three public management resources for the Indigent Defense Grant were approved.

The Indigent Defense Grant Program provides grants to all 67 Pennsylvania counties for the improvement of local indigent defense services.

The goal of this new grant program is to improve the capacity and effectiveness of indigent defense services in Pennsylvania through efforts to recruit and retain staff, improve data collection and reporting capacity, obtain necessary training, professional development, and technical assistance. Also, this program is intended to fill any other gaps identified by the county, in consultation with indigent defense service providers.

All counties are eligible to apply for this grant funding with expectation that subawards be utilized to support the public defender office, non-profit corporations that serve as the county-wide provider of indigent defense services, and/or court-appointed counsel.

Grant funding can be used for a variety of expenses to improve the provision of indigent defense services.

The budget for the public management resources was $93,369 with funds being used in the Juniata County Public Defender’s office.

“Year three will help the public defender’s office provide adequate defense to those who are in need of a defense attorney who are unable to afford private counsel,” said Stewart.

“The grant is paying for things like case management software, part-time assistant public defender, administrative assistant and training.”

These funds can be used until Dec. 31, 2026.

Commissioners also heard from Aaron Miller, Juniata County Chief Assessor for the countywide reassessment, who related that his team was currently in Turbett Township completing data collection.

Miller added that his team is working to clean up and complete quality control on some of the data that has already been collected.

Juniata County Commissioners also:

• Appointed Jennifer Hutchinson to the Juniata County Children and Youth Services’ Advisory Board effective June 3. Ms. Hutchinson will replace Hope Lewis who resigned from the Board;

• Approved the tax exonerations for Delaware Township;

• Approved payment of checks in the amount of $376,191.98;

• Approved the software agreement with Spartan Technology Solutions, Inc. for the Public Defender’s office, paid from the Indigent Grant Funds;

• Approved payment of a Juniata County Hazardous Material check to Lake Ford Auto in the amount of $743.66;

• Approved the promotion of Kelsey Drolsbaugh from Caseworker to Casework Supervisor. The promotion of Kelsey Drolsbaugh as Casework Supervisor effective June 9, as recommended by Ashley Baxter, Administrator for Juniata Children & Youth Services. Drolsbaugh replaces Chelsea Bender, and Drolsbaugh’s starting salary will be $48,000.