Mar 19, 2020 3 min read

The Washington County Commissioners met at 1 p.m. Wednesday when they unanimously voted to ratify their March 17 declaration of disaster emergency due to the new coronavirus pandemic.

Their next item of business was, due to the current federal and state COVID-19 emergency declarations, “and the need for social distancing,” extending the deadline for discounted county tax payments to April 30, 2020.

When the tax bills were printed, they listed March 31 as the deadline.

Treasurer Tom E. Flickinger closed his Courthouse Square office to the public Tuesday, and a notice on the locked entrance door directed taxpayers to a newly installed drop box.

Property owners often arrive at the treasurer’s office to pay and depart with a receipt and the assurance that their property won’t be charged for later payment or liened for nonpayment.

The sign and a news release from the treasurer’s office asks that those with special needs call 724-228-6780 to make an appointment.

But a resident who came with cash was reluctant to drop his money into a box, so he phoned from the lobby of the building, where a group of offenders carrying containers of pink fluid had just finished a cleaning assignment as part of their court-ordered community service.

A man wearing a shirt bearing a corporate logo was unhappy with the new procedure, but after the treasurer met with the man carrying cash, Flickinger said his office would mail receipts to those using the drop box even if they did not include a self-stamped, self-addressed envelope.

The Wednesday afternoon meeting, called under the emergency declaration, replaced the board of commissioners’ usual 10 a.m. meeting on the first and third Thursdays of the month. The digital marquee outside the meeting room had not been reprogrammed to reflect the change. Nor was it announced at a 10 a.m. agenda-setting session.

County solicitor Jana Grimm said the unadvertised change was permissible because of the disaster emergency.

The state Department of Health announced a second case of COVID-19 in Washington County on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, Pennsylvania’s first death from the new coronavirus occurred in Northampton County.

County Commission Chairwoman Diana Irey Vaughan also counted heads to keep the number of people in the room below 10, saying she wanted the commissioners to “lead by example” in social distancing.

A placard inside the door of the public meeting room aimed at fire safety, limits the number of occupants to 200.

No one, of course, signed in for public comment at the unadvertised meeting, but Commissioner Nick Sherman said the people could comment at future meetings either via email or “snail mail,” to preserve the cap on attendance.

Although Sherman read a proclamation reminding the public to make an 811 one-call with safe digging in mind, representatives of utility companies were asked not to attend the meeting, Irey Vaughan said.

The Washington County Prison Board also met Wednesday for an advertised session, and Warden Edward Strawn noted that the jail has been closed to inmates’ visitors since the night of Friday, March 13, just after the first case of COVID-19 impacting Washington County was confirmed by the state Department of Health.

As a substitute, the jail’s inmate commissary network, Keefe Group of Strongsville, Ohio, is not charging for 25-minute telecommunication visits through ICSolutions.

The cost of a video visitation would normally be $12.50 per session, according to a pamphlet at the jail.