SUNBURY — Culture change is at the heart of one Northumberland County commissioner’s priorities for 2016. Incumbent Rick Shoch says the new board will be tackling the budget, the prison project and hiring new personnel in the coming year.
With the retirement of chief clerk John Muncer, commissioners are already interviewing candidates, “We want to get a good chief clerk in who, I think, will be able to help us and help the dynamic of that board to be able to work well together.”
Shoch says the new board will likely make some changes to the county’s 2016 budget, “There will be certain thing that we’re going to want to change to reflect different priorities of this administration in terms of things we need to have addressed.”
The commissioners will also be hiring a new solicitor. Shoch says he favors making it a contracted position rather than a county employee to get the best advice for the new board, “Sometimes through no fault of their own, they get embroiled in the political aspect of things and that’s not what I want to pay people for. I want to pay them for legal advice and legal work.”
On the prison project Shoch says he wants to build something that is more than just a warehouse for prisoners, “It may still end up down at the same site, it may not, but even if it is at the same site it may be a somewhat different looking project that reflects different priorities.”
Shoch says he prefers the use of day reporting and work release centers. Commissioners will hold an organizational meeting Monday where it is expected Shoch will be named chairman. Shoch was a guest on WKOK’s On The Mark and you can hear his entire interview at wkok.com.
