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Sheriff vacancy delays gun licenses

Department cannot issue new, renewed licenses to carry guns

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County’s processing of issuing new and renewed licenses to carry firearms is on hold for lack of a sheriff. So are real estate transactions from sheriff sales.

The department is still accepting and processing the gun carry permit applications, Chief Deputy Holly Garner said Thursday.

But for lack of a sheriff signature, the department has about 350 applications it has yet to answer. In addition, about 20 real estate transactions from sheriff sales are on hold.

“We can’t do anything about it at this time,” commissioners Chairman Bruce Erb said Thursday. “We’re not the party that needs to take action.”

While Gov. Tom Wolf named one of his staffers in early April to be a placeholder nominee for the county sheriff post, the governor has yet to name a subsequent nominee to stand for Senate confirmation and take the job.

State Sen. John H. Eichelberger Jr., R-Blair, said Thursday that efforts are being made to secure the governor’s appointment on a recommended candidate.

“I don’t want to mention a name,” Eichelberger said. “But it’s been the desire of the commissioners to get someone in there who is a neutral person who could take the sheriff position for the rest of the year.”

As for when the state will deal with that desire, Eichelberger said his best guess would be by early June.

“As with everything in Harrisburg, there’s always other issues, other appointments happening, other appointments that the governor is interested in … and everyone nominated has to go through a process,” Eichelberger said. “But as long as the governor agrees to do the appointment … I think something could be ready to happen by the beginning of June.”

While Garner is the highest-ranking employee in the sheriff’s department, she said county solicitor Nathan Karn advised that she is not authorized to sign gun carry permits or real estate documents.

“She can’t do it because she is not the sheriff,” Commissioner Ted Beam Jr.

“If someone’s (gun carry) permit has expired, we’re advising them not to carry at this time,” Garner said.

Based on information posted on the state’s website, applying for the permit through another county sheriff’s department is not an option. Pennsylvania residents interested in new or renewal permits are to apply to the sheriff of the county in which they reside.

A possible option, Erb suggested, might be for an applicant to petition the county court system and ask for a judicial order.

The county’s lack of a sheriff is rooted in a controversy that developed in mid-March.

After former Sheriff Mitch Cooper chose to retire early and left the office as of Jan. 9, Chief Deputy Sam McClure took on the sheriff’s title and workload based on language in the county code. But McClure’s entitlement to the role and responsibilities was questioned after sexual harassment allegations surfaced in mid-March.

Subsequently, when McClure and commissioners were on the threshold of a courtroom debate as to whether McClure was sheriff, the county announced that Wolf had exercised his option to designate Thomas J. Yablonski Jr. of Mechanicsburg as a placeholder nominee for the vacant sheriff post.

Yablonski cannot sign the gun carry permits, either, Beam explained, because he’s never been confirmed by the Senate.

Garner said she and her staff are keeping up with the process, even though licenses aren’t being signed and distributed.

“We understand this is a terrible inconvenience to the citizens,” Garner said. “And we apologize for that.”

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.

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