MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Executive Plaza.

As the county held a job fair Thursday just around the corner and on Third Street at the Trade and Transit Center, Lycoming County Commissioner Scott Metzger told attendees at the commissioners’ meeting at Executive Plaza that Lycoming County was one of many counties across the state facing hiring crises, not only in the public sector, but also in the civil service.

“It is very difficult to find employees” said Metzger.

At a recent Pennsylvania County Commissioners’ Conference the commissioners attended, Metzger said that one of the “buzzwords” was retention.

“How do you retain employees by ensuring they stay with your agency or their current company?” he said.

Metzger said the commissioners will report back on the job fair when they meet next Thursday.

At 6 p.m. Tuesday, the commissioners will hold a town hall meeting regarding the America Rescue Plan Act funds to get ideas from the public on how the funds should be spent. The meeting will be held at the Board of Commissioners Room, 1st Floor Executive Plaza, 330 Pine St.

“What we’ve done in the last year is last June we met with the city of Williamsport and asked them what their goal was with their ARPA funds and they expressed at the time that ‘they were still in the early stages of that’, he said.

“Then we met for three nights over the summer with township supervisors, borough council members about their needs…we wanted to hear from them. Then we met with water and sewer authorities throughout the county,” he added.

Due to the shortage of homes in the county, Metzger said he also met with real estate developers and real estate agents.

“We heard there was a housing crisis in Lycoming County. Normally we have 600 homes on the market in Lycoming County. We’re at about 175,” he said.

“The next step is to meet the public to share with them ideas about what we are doing”, he added.

Metzger noted that the county would receive $22 million in ARPA funds and at this point they have requests for approximately $54 million.

In other business, a budget revision that would move a total of $17,790 of funds from the community development block to the Center for Independent Living’s rooftop air conditioning project.

The purchase of a 2022 John Deere backhoe for use at the landfill was approved by the commissioners at a cost of $102,511, which will be paid for by revenue from the resource management department.

Other actions by the commissioners were

• Approval of an amendment to an agreement with Air Management Technologies, Inc. to make electrical modifications to the HVAC construction project.

• Approval of software renewal and support with Tyler Technology for the evaluation office at a cost of $114,858.

• Approval of a Memorandum of Understanding with the West Branch Drug & Alcohol Commission regarding COVID-19 disaster relief funds.

• Approval of an amendment to a Memorandum of Understanding with Roads to Freedom Center for Independent Living of North Central PA regarding COVID-19 disaster relief funds.

The next regular meeting of Commissioners will be held at 10:00 a.m. on March 31 in the Council of Commissioners room.