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BELLEFONTE -- Election Day is still several months away, but preparations are already underway for November.
During Tuesday's Centre County Board of Commissioners' meeting, Beth Lechman, director of elections and voter registration, talked about a contract renewal with Phoenix Graphics, Inc., to provide services for mailing ballots for the general election. According to Lechman, the price per ballot is $1.51 for black print for less than 500 per day, $1.54 for color print for less than 500 per day, $1.28 for black print for more than 500 per day and $1.31 for color print for more than 500 per day.
"I would just like to say that our experience with Phoenix for this past election was very positive," Lechman said. "We didn't have too many issues with the ballots that were sent."
She did point out that there were some problems with the return envelopes, however.
"The biggest issue we had was with some envelope issues with voters actually slicing or tearing their envelope when they opened it. We're working with the company to rectify that. I think they're willing to do whatever is necessary to help us through that process," Lechman said.
Lechman also pointed out that the cost of printing remains the same.
"There is no price change," Lechman said. "Prices are remaining the same … nothing has changed for the contract, other than the dates of renewal."
Although the status of mail-in ballots is up in the air, chair Michael Pipe said that the contract with Phoenix Graphics, Inc. is a positive.
"We know that we're waiting on a potential court decision from the Supreme Court about Act 77 … regardless, absentee ballots would still fall in this category. This is a good thing to have in place as we approach the election. It will be here before we know it," Pipe said.
The contract was approved unanimously. Election Day will be Tuesday, Nov. 8.
In other business Tuesday, the commissioners:
-- Approved the advertisement for bids for the Centre County Multimodal Bridge Rehabilitation Bundle Project, which involves the design and construction of the Main Street bridge deck replacement in Curtin Township, Fox Gap Road bridge replacement in Miles Township, and the Lower Coleville Road bridge superstructure replacement in Spring Township.
-- Approved a contract renewal with CentralSquare to provide Optio plugins and Four Js that are used to create and produce reports. The contract total is $12,209.07 for the period of Sept. 1, 2022 to Aug. 31, 2023.
-- Approved a contract renewal with CentralSquare for the annual maintenance and support for Finance Plus Software. The contract total is $41,412.27 for the period of Feb. 1, 2022 to Jan. 31, 2023.
-- Approved a contract renewal with Windstream to provide service for the county's phone system. The contract total is $104,590.08 for the period of June 30, 2022 to June 30, 2024.
-- Approved the submission to the Ethics Commission of those individuals who have not completed a statement of financial interests form for the calendar year of 2021.
The Centre County Board of Commissioners will meet again at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 12, at the Willowbank Building. The meeting is open to the public and will be televised by C-NET.