close

Commissioners to find out if county owes Goodwill $90,000

By Amy Karpinsky 4 min read

The Fayette County Commissioners plan to meet this week with officials of Goodwill Industries of Fayette County to finally settle the issue of whether or not the county owes the organization $90,000. Goodwill officials maintain that a verbal agreement made years ago that the county will provide $5,000 per month is binding. During Tuesday’s agenda meeting, Commission Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink suggested to the other commissioners that it would be “wise” to meet with Goodwill because of a letter the organization sent to the commissioners regarding a recent newspaper article about the situation.

The letter states in no uncertain terms that the county owes Goodwill $90,000. County Manager Warren Hughes said, for his part, he met with the Goodwill director and recycling coordinator two weeks ago and requested information about the recycling center, but has not yet received the information.

Zimmerlink said the letter to the commissioners, written on July 14, said Goodwill officials were not happy with prior meetings with Hughes and they were requesting a meeting with the commissioners. She said the meeting needs set up as soon as possible. “We need to have Goodwill come in to get it taken care of,” Zimmerlink said.

Zimmerlink and fellow Commissioners Vincent A. Vicites and Joseph A. Hardy III agreed to make time in their schedules to meet with Goodwill.

Vicites, the county’s former solid waste management director and recycling coordinator, has maintained that the county only began giving Goodwill additional funding between five and seven years ago, and at that time the county agreed only to give what it could based on available funding. This year the county reportedly set aside $30,000 for the recycling program.

Goodwill officials believe the agreement was binding and the county is in arrears.

The county provides some subsidies to the recycling program and last month the commissioners voted to advertise for bid an addition to the recycling center at 107 Romeo Lane, Uniontown, to expand the building from 10,000 to 14,900 square feet.

In discussion on another matter, Zimmerlink reported that work on the county Web site is moving forward. She said during meetings earlier this year all but four county offices signed up for the Web site and another meeting will be held in the next two weeks to try to get all departments on board.

Zimmerlink said one of the issues is the outdated software in some of the county offices, namely the election bureau, which uses Windows 95.

On an unrelated subject, Vicites said he recently received a letter from the Fayette County Airport Authority outlining how money has been spent on projects at the Connellsville Airport. Vicites said the county previously gave the authority $1 million to use as a local match for the runway extension project and said if the money is being used for something else, such as terminal construction, more funds may be needed to meet the 5 percent local share that is required. Vicites said the funding mix is 90 federal, 5 percent state and 5 percent local.

“If they are spending it on other things, additional money will be needed,” Vicites said.

Hardy said the commissioners need to know what the status is.

Zimmerlink said the commissioners need to know how much money has been spent and for what project.

Hardy also reported that he believes Gene Lakin, who works as a consultant for the airport authority, should continue his role. “I get along with him and thought it would be beneficial to have him continue as a consultant,” Hardy said. “He is actually a full-time consultant.” Hardy will personally pay Lakin to continue to serve as an airport consultant. Lakin is also the executive director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today