LAWRENCE COUNTY Commissioners OK jail demolition plan

A state grant will pay to put Lawrence County law library resources on CDs.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County commissioners approved a contract for demolition of the old county jail.
G.B. Sand Co. of New Castle will remove the asbestos and take down the building for $73,250. A $5 million loan commissioners took out last year to pay for several county projects will cover the expense, said Charleen Micco, county administrator.
The old jail has been vacant since county officials opened a new jail on Milton Street in January 1997. Micco said the building has been used mostly for storage since the new jail building opened.
Commissioners have talked about razing the building and creating more parking for the county government center. No plans were discussed at Tuesday's meeting.
Micco said there's no time schedule for the demolition work.
Storing records: In other business, county commissioners accepted a $39,924 state grant that will be used to digitally store documents in the county law library.
Commissioner Brian Burick said the grant will also be used to compile books that include all township ordinances in Lawrence County for inclusion in the digital library.
"Our county library will become a resource for everything from federal law to township ordinances," he said.
Colleen Mojock, county law librarian, said legal opinions dating back to 1987 and current municipal ordinances will be indexed, scanned and then put on a compact disc.
She said the eventual goal is to make digitized copies of both the legal opinions and ordinances available at the New Castle Public Library and possibly on the library's Web site.
Early retirement: County commissioners also approved an early retirement incentive plan for county employees. Employees with 30 years of experience or those age 55 with 10 years on the job are eligible to retire with an extra 30 percent credited to their years of service. There are 59 workers eligible to take the retirement incentive.
The county retirement board approved the package at a meeting last week.