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Residents urge changes to senior food vouchers and raise staffing and budget concerns during public comment
Summary
Two residents used public comment time to urge wider access to senior food vouchers, raise concerns about surveillance spending at the county jail and warn that a recent $8.5 million budget cut hampers county staffing as the population grows.
During the public comment period at the Franklin County commissioners meeting, two residents urged changes to senior food voucher rules and raised concerns about county staffing and spending priorities.
Valerie Jordan of Fayetteville told commissioners she emailed them earlier about vouchers distributed to senior citizens for weekend food markets. Jordan said she discovered she did not qualify when she visited a food market and that the pantry required income verification. She asked the county either to expand eligibility to all county seniors or to allow purchasers to verify eligibility by presenting a document such as an electric bill. "I requested that the county either look into" these changes, Jordan said, and asked commissioners to "mull it over for next year."
Jordan also criticized recent budget and staffing trends. She said job descriptions have changed, workman's compensation funds have been used for large-ticket items such as surveillance equipment at the county jail, and that the county has grown by about 20% since 2020 without adding to the workforce. "How do you start even beginning to build on a county workforce with such a deep cut to all of us?" she asked, referring to an $8.5 million reduction she says occurred in the current fiscal year.
Kim Wirtz of Chambersburg echoed Jordan's voucher concerns and said some seniors face short-term tight expenses because of medical bills; she said opening vouchers more broadly or using income verification would help. Wirtz defended the county's use of workers' compensation funds in some cases, noting that if a department has surplus funds they can be shifted to other needs before the fiscal year ends. She also expressed concern about labor shortages and their effect on county services.
No formal action was taken during the meeting on the points raised in public comment. Commissioners did not indicate immediate changes but acknowledged the remarks.
