Luzerne County K-9 Hylee completes training for missing person searches

Luzerne County’s explosive-detecting canine Hylee has completed additional training to search for missing people, county Manager Romilda Crocamo told County Council last week.

The county added the Labrador Retriever to the Sheriff’s Department last year. The K-9 is also certified to find firearms.

County Sheriff Corporal Michael Flynn is her handler.

Crocamo regularly notes that the friendly Hylee (pronounced I-lee) is “employee of the month, every month.”

“I’m very proud of her. She’s our best girl,” Crocamo said during her council work session monthly division head report.

Recreation funding

Council members expressed support last week for a committee proposal to earmark $240,000 of its Marcellus Shale natural-gas recreation funding to municipalities and nonprofits.

The county has received funding from natural gas drilling annually since the state authorized such allocations under Act 13 in 2012. Because excess funds have accrued, Council’s Act 13 Committee recommended reviving outside awards, which have not been made since 2018.

Act 13 Committee Chairwoman Patty Krushnowski presented the proposal at last week’s work session. If council approves the amount, the committee will present proposed program parameters to council so it can announce the opportunity and start accepting applications.

Funding must be used for recreation and conservation projects, including parks and trails, officials have said.

The Act 13 Committee is scheduled to hold its next meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Instructions for the remote attendance option will be posted in council’s online meeting section at luzernecounty.org.

Blighted property

The county’s reactivated Blighted Property Review Committee met last week to discuss its plans.

When the committee last met years ago, it was working to compile a countywide blighted property database that never got off the ground.

The committee plans to invite municipalities to an informational session, possibly in July, to brief them on documentation that will be required to submit properties for inclusion in the database.

Owners of properties deemed eligible for the database will have an opportunity to address deficiencies. If an owner does not act, the county Redevelopment Authority will have the authority to consider the reuse of the property.

Committee members agreed to meet again on June 22 to ensure all paperwork is in order for the future presentation to municipalities.

Election adjudication

The county’s five-citizen, volunteer Election Board will meet at 9 a.m. Friday in the Penn Place Building, 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Wilkes-Barre, to begin post-primary election adjudication.

During this public process, the board votes on the acceptance or rejection of paper provisional ballots cast at polling places and of mail ballots flagged for potential deficiencies.

Provisional ballots are cast at polling places when workers determine additional voter verification is needed. The county reviews provisional ballots last to ensure the voters are properly registered and did not cast a second ballot by mail.

The adjudication will be held in courtroom A on the third floor at Penn Place. Additional sessions will be scheduled as necessary to complete the process, which also includes the tallying of write-in votes and other reviews required before the board’s final election certification vote.