SUNBURY – Northumberland County’s purchase of the Northwest Academy property in Coal Township has opened up a conversation about the future of corrections in The Valley. Sam Schiccatano, Northumberland County commissioner says the opportunities to use the new facility for programs such as drug treatment and day reporting centers has been a topic of discussion with neighboring counties, “Almost all the counties were very much interested in any type of rehabilitation because drug rehabilitation right now is a big thing. They were all very interested in getting involved in that with us if we start that.”
Montour County commissioner chairman Ken Holdren says the counties can provide more services by consolidating, “Maybe it won’t be consolidating prisons, but it’ll be consolidating the programs. As an example, a day center or drug and alcohol rehab, because each county, individually, may not have the resources to provide all the services, but if we have a regional location like the campus that’s ultimately going to be the Northumberland location, there might be programs that Montour County could have its prisoners participate in.”
Schiccatano says the twelve buildings and 168-acre property offer many possibilities beyond just housing Northumberland County’s inmates, “We could even have one building that’s Northumberland County prison, but the other building could be a building that’s used by other counties that have overflow. We could say, ‘Hey, these two pods are going to be this county’s.’ Those are all possibilities, they’re not guarantees, but with what we have, the Northwestern site gives us those possibilities and I’m excited about that.”
Northumberland County commissioners voted yesterday to hire Buchart Horn for architectural work related to the new prison. That’s the same firm hired by the previous board to design the prison for the Celotex site. Schiccatano says the original contract has been voided and the county avoided $300,000 in penalties for abandoning the project. The new contract pays Buchart Horn 7 percent of the total construction cost. That’s down from 8 percent for the Celotex site. (Jennifer Wakeman)