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Schuylkill County News

Boots Touts Schuylkill Government Achievements in 2021 But Slights One Official

Keeping Courthouse open was #1 on the list.

boots lists top schuylkill county courthouse achievement 2021

Schuylkill County Commissioner Boots Hetherington rattled off a list of accomplishments for county government during 2021.

Most importantly, he said in a statement during the first Commissioners meeting of 2022, is the Courthouse in Pottsville remained open through the entire year.

“I think our biggest accomplishment in 2021 was keeping the Courthouse open and fully operational,” Hetherington said.

During his comment on keeping the Courthouse open, Boots thanked several County officials by name and then said, “all of the — vast majority — sorry, not all … the vast majority of our row officers working as a team.

Unless we’re way off on this, we’re pretty sure he’s low-key singling out Clerk of Courts Maria Casey, who when the Commissioners last met in 2021, criticized the Hetheringon administration response to COVID in the Courthouse.

Casey has, on several occasions, discussed stricter measures being taken against the virus and been critical of the Courthouse’s COVID-mitigation spending and the building’s cleanliness.

She was not present in the room when Boots made this comment on Wednesday.

Boots Lists Top Schuylkill County Government Achievements of 2021

Here are the things Hetherington listed as the County government’s top achievements in 2021:

  • Renovating County buildings: Including power-washing the Courthouse and repointing the stone walls on Schuylkill County Prison.
  • HVAC at Schuylkill County Prison: The County spent more than $1 million on a new HVAC system at the historic landmark/functioning jailhouse, money which came from the federal CARES Act program in 2020.
  • Water Use Reduction: Boots says the Courthouse used 40% less water year-over-year in 2021.
  • Blight Remediation: They County spent $636,639 on demolition projects in 2021.
  • Bridges Replaced: Bridges owned by the County in Porter and Barry townships were replaced.
  • Airport Paving: Airport Rd. and a parking lot on the property were paved.
  • Unclaimed Assets: Controller’s office recovered $7,500 from the Pennsylvania Treasury Dept.
  • File Updates: The Prothonotary’s office completed a project converting space-hogging TIF files into PDF documents.

Here’s video of Boots’ comments. And we apologize for the audio and meh-quality video not syncing, so it’s a lot like that scene in the Wayne’s World movie:

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