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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Blair County commissioners are contracting with a local company they hope will do a better job of controlling rodents and bugs at the county prison.
"What we've been doing doesn't seem to be eliminating the problem," commissioners Chairman Dave Kessling said Thursday after the board's weekly meeting.
Kessling and fellow commissioners Amy Webster and Laura Burke voted in favor of signing a one-year contract with Robert's Pest Control of Hollidaysburg which will replace the county's use of on-call services by another company.
As approved at their meeting, commissioners will pay Robert's Pest Control a $750 fee for its initial set-up, then $185 per month through July 30, 2026.
Kessling said the county was paying more for on-call services than it will pay to Robert's which will also include insect control measures.
"So we're getting more service for less money," he said.
Webster said she also expects the Hollidaysburg company will be more effective in addressing what's been an ongoing problem.
"With the other company, there was a delay between calling for service and when service arrived," she said.
Former Prison Warden Abbie Tate regularly acknowledged the facility's ongoing issue with rodents and rodent control efforts which had to be set up outside of areas accessible to inmates.
Inmates and family members have regularly complained about rodents and other living conditions inside the prison that was built in 1868-69 and has gone through one major expansion and two renovations to create more housing.
Kessling and Webster said Thursday that efforts to identify a site where a new county prison could be built are ongoing with a potential site under review by engineers.
During the past year, commissioners have evaluated dozens of sites, including a portion of the Alto Reste cemetery grounds in Allegheny Township. But in April, commissioners backed away from that site after the cemetery owner and neighbors, with support from the community and local lawmakers, criticized the proposed location.