County highway and legal staff report roadwork and rising serious juvenile cases; county seeks foster/CASA volunteers

York County officials used the Jan. 21 meeting to update the Board of Commissioners on road maintenance, zoning schedules and juvenile caseloads.

Harvey Keim, York County highway superintendent, told the board crews are blading roads, hauling gravel and rock when weather allows, and installing stop signs and 'stop ahead' signs where bases were prepared. "We're still trying to blade roads, scatter the gravel around a little bit, hauling gravel in when we can, hauling rock in when we can," Keim said.

Nathan Hines, zoning administrator, gave a scheduling update for the county planning/zoning board. He said the next zoning meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 5:30 p.m. in the same room; the board had previously been scheduled on a third-Monday cadence that conflicted with another county event. Notices were sent to affected parties, and Hines confirmed the necessary members had indicated they would attend.

Chris Johnson, chief deputy county attorney, reported on caseload data for 2024. He said, "It looks like we had 9 fewer juvenile cases this year than we did year over year," and described a shift in case types: many matters that had previously come in as juvenile law violations are now being handled as abuse and neglect cases in which children are victims. He said the office "terminated the parental rights of somewhere in the realm of 18 parents last year," adding those were contested trials.

Johnson also said the county faces shortages of foster parents and CASA (court-appointed special advocate) volunteers and credited the county's juvenile diversion program with preventing what he estimated would otherwise have been about a 30% increase in juvenile filings. "Luckily, we've been able to divert almost all of those law violations," he said, while noting that more violent offenses and repeat offenders continue through the judicial system.

Ending: Commissioners heard the operational updates and the county attorney's request for foster and CASA volunteers; no formal board action on these items was recorded at this meeting.