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LOCK HAVEN -- Non-salary, full-time county employees received a 2.5 percent increase across the board to start off 2021.
The increase for an employee making over $100,000 is 0.5 percent. Chief Clerk Jann Meyers said the county employs only one person in the IT Department who qualifies for the lower rate.
The Clinton County Salary Board -- made up of commissioners Miles Kessinger, Jeff Snyder and Angela Harding and Treasurer Michelle Kunes --unanimously approved the action at Monday's meeting.
Along with the increase, the board approved a resolution for President Judge Craig P. Miller's office to compensate Clinton County Adult and Juvenile Probation Officers, as follows:
-- $3,000 annually for an employee after one year of satisfactory work who completed a Basic Training Academy course and carries a hand gun while on duty.
-- $2,000 annually for an employee after two years of continued satisfactory work who completed a National Rifle Association long gun training course to qualify and carries a long gun while on duty.
-- $500 annually following completion of training through Firearm Education and Training Commission to become a certified firearms instructor.
Miller took a moment to explain why the changes were necessary for his department, noting that they lost half of their employees last year due to payment issues.
"This court is implemented with Judge (Michael) Salisbury many innovative programs," he said. "It's imperative, especially during the pandemic, that the officers that we have here would be retained."
Miller said the many programs, including Veterans Treatment, Behavioral Health courts and the Returning Citizens Program, require officers to be experienced in the position and go through intensive training.
"Probation officers have to operate at a high level and be competent and responsible to ensure the success of the participants and the safety of the citizens of the county," he said. "We need to retain the officers."
Miller said the department lost four officers to Lycoming County due to pay issues.
He also noted that the programs implemented in 2019-2020 saved the county approximately $2,108,775 in costs at the Clinton County Correctional Facility.
"If you use $75 a day, you saved over $2 million in monies that would have been paid toward people being in prison," he said.
"That was the basis of why I requested it and I appreciate the salary board's support and the commissioners' support in this," he concluded.