ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday approved a series of measures, including the creation of a scholarship program funded through opioid settlement dollars.

The body voted to approve a measure authorizing the district attorney’s office, which has coordinated with the Lehigh Carbon Community College Foundation to create the Lehigh County District Attorney Career Pathway Scholarship Program.

Through the program, the foundation will receive up to $150,000 from the DA’s opioid settlement fund to provide educational resources and training for county residents who have experienced personal hardships and/or incarceration resulting from opioid use, including access to GED, ESL, certificate and degree programs, to help participants obtain meaningful employment.

“Programs like these work,” said board of commissioners Vice Chair Sheila Alvarado, who ran the meeting following Chair Geoff Brace’s departure for a family commitment.

Commissioner Sarah Fevig said the scholarship program could be a template for future endeavors. She said the program can be piloted, thus providing an opportunity through which the effectiveness of such measures can be evaluated.

“This is a very key program to look at in this light,” Fevig said.

Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan said the program allows for the county to start small and without public money, and called it “an experiment in something that really has no downside.”

Speaker Luis Perez with ReciproCITY discussed the impact of similar programs. Perez said he was first incarcerated at age 10 and had a life of crime laid out before him.

ReciproCITY is an Allentown-based nonprofit organization that provides reentry support, workforce development and mentorship for individuals impacted by incarceration. The organization works to connect participants with employment opportunities, education and community resources to support successful reintegration.

Perez said he was grateful for interactions with the DA’s office and Community Action Lehigh Valley.

“If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know where I’d be today,” he said.

The DA’s office is a participant in the multimillion-dollar opioid settlement with opioid manufacturers, distributors and retailers, and has received more than $1 million to date to support efforts to treat, prevent and respond to the opioid epidemic.

Overtime bonuses

Also Wednesday, the commissioners approved extensions of temporary discretionary overtime bonus programs for employees in the county’s 911 Communication Center and Department of Corrections through Aug. 14. The programs provide eligible employees with an additional $5 per hour for overtime shifts when staffing shortages create operational needs, with 911 employees eligible for up to $10 per hour during major holidays, severe weather or emergency events.

County officials said the incentives are intended to maintain required staffing levels, reduce reliance on emergency staffing measures and support employee morale amid ongoing workforce shortages.

In a familiar refrain, Commissioner Zach Cole-Borghi lent his support to employees in both areas.

“(These) temporary discretionary bonuses have been going on for five or six years,” he said.

“They deserve more money,” Cole-Borghi said, and encouraged them to bargain together as a unit.

“I would like to get something more concrete in place that we can use as a recruiting tool,” he said.

Director of General Services Andrew Elliott said there were new workers in the pipeline, and when he’s back before the body in August, he’d hopefully be offering more good news.

For his part, Commissioner Jon Irons said that the temporary bonuses were funded by money saved on unfilled positions and discussed recruitment and communication.

Fevig said that due to the nature of how long the bonuses have been in place, they’re now part of employees’ “economic reality.” She said the effects of changing the nature of employees’ salaries and their paychecks should be acknowledged, too.

Support for LCCC renovations

Commissioners also authorized a subgrant of up to $1 million to Lehigh Carbon Community College, using funds awarded through Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to support façade and roof renovations at the college’s Donley Center in Allentown. The grant was awarded to the county by the Commonwealth and will be passed through to the college to assist with improvements to the facility, according to county officials.

“The work is done, and it looks great,” Brace said.

Other business

In other news, commissioners approved the following appointments: Valerie Hutton and Kate Huck to the Aging and Adult Services Advisory Council with terms expiring Dec. 31; Kevin Ian Baker was reappointed to the Lehigh County Authority with a term expiring Dec. 31, 2030; and Commissioner Antonio A. Pineda was reappointed to the Lehigh County Conservation District, with a term expiring Dec. 31.

During public comment, Thomas Applebach, director of the Lehigh County Department of Veterans Affairs, discussed the “Brush Up for Veterans” program, meant to help honorably discharged veterans who are low-income, elderly or permanently disabled.

Through the program, offered by the Veterans and Military Council of the Greater Lehigh County Chamber of Commerce, veterans and their spouses can get their homes painted by volunteers if they are physically or financially unable.