READING, Pa. – The Berks County Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Barnhardt acknowledged support the county received from the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania -CCAP- for the work the county is doing on a regional youth detention center.
Earlier this month, the Commissioners entered an intermunicipal cooperative agreement with Dauphin, Lackawanna, Lehigh and Delaware Counties for a regional youth detention center at the site of the former Berks County Juvenile Detention Center.
Barnhardt said Berks County made a presentation on the regional effort at a CCAP event earlier this week.
CCAP held its annual conference and trade show from August 3-5 in Monroe County.
“It was really uplifting to have all 5 counties represented and I think it was really impactful to see the cooperative efforts of five counties coming together on a need of mutual interest,” Barnhardt said.
“I really appreciate the effort on behalf of the board of CCAP and I think went over amazingly well.”
Commissioner Christian Y. Leinbach echoed those thoughts.
“I heard from several people right after the program that really found it valuable and are looking forward to hearing how things proceed,” Leinbach said. “Regionalization, while it doesn’t solve everything, there are a lot of other opportunities out there where counties can work together and provide services in a joint fashion. I was very impressed with the comments from the other four counties.”
“I will reiterate what I said there,” he added. “Our team did an amazing job. It really made Berks County look good, and all five counties look special in that they are doing this together.”