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HOLLIDAYSBURG
The Florida-based company selected to take over inmate medical care at the Blair County Prison is scheduled to start Saturday, commissioners Dave Kessling and Laura Burke said Thursday.
Commissioners voted July 9 in favor of awarding a three-year contract to Armor Health at the first-year price of $3.73 million. Armor was selected to succeed PrimeCare Medical, a Harrisburg-based company that started providing the prison's medical care in 2005.
Kessling and Burke said they understood that the efforts to make the transition from PrimeCare to Armor had progressed, but they did not know how it affected staffing. The staff employed to provide inmate care work for the chosen medical care provider and not for the county.
Personnel with Armor Health did not respond Thursday to inquiries from the Mirror about its plans for providing inmate medical care in the prison.
Blair seeks housing rehab proposal
Blair County commissioners on Thursday approved a request to advertise for proposals describing one sustainable housing program project. The county expects to award a maximum disbursement of $50,000 from its Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
Housing rehabilitation efforts are handled by the county's social services office.
County getting new phone system
Blair County commissioners are approving arrangements for replacing the county's existing telephone system with a cloud-based communication platform that generally allows people to talk, send text messages and hold video meetings through internet communications.
At the July 23 meeting, commissioners Amy Webster and Laura Burke approved a contract with Link Computer Corp. that was expected to lock in incentive pricing through a five-year agreement. Fellow Commissioner Dave Kessling was absent.
At Thursday's meeting, Kessling and Burke ratified the proposed Cisco Capital Leasing Financing Proposal for hardware associated with the county's new phone system. Webster was absent.
At the July 23 meeting, Burke reported that the pending change was expected to save the county about $144,000 over the five-year period.