The search for a new McKean County warden has netted six
candidates as of late Thursday afternoon, according to Legal
Affairs and Human Resources Director Michele Alfieri.

Alfieri said while the actual deadline to receive applications
for the position – which will be vacated by Warden Dennis Luther –
expires at the close of the business day today, the county has
garnered five responses to its advertisement, with another derived
from a prior stack of resumes.

The applications will be presented to the McKean County Prison
Board during its meeting today.

There were no names revealed as to who might be interested in
the position.

“Some of them are local and others are from out of state,”
Alfieri said of the resume pool. “This is the first time the county
has done this, so we really weren’t sure of the response we would
get.”

The job has been advertised on the Web site Govtjobs.com and the
Clip Board publication used through the County Commissioners
Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP).

Luther is currently serving as warden at the prison. He will
remain on the job until a permanent replacement can be found.
Luther submitted his resignation last fall, saying he had
originally taken on the job on a temporary basis. He also noted he
has no intention of retiring, but would pursue other interests in
consulting and possibly teaching.

The prison board has formed a committee to search for a
replacement and write up the job description and do advertising.
That board is comprised of Alfieri, Commissioner Clifford Lane and
Luther.

According to the advertisement that appeared in The Era,
applicants must have five years prior experience in corrections in
a supervisory or managerial position, including facility
management, probation and parole. The individual must also have
strong communications and leadership skills and be proficient in
budgeting, staffing, staff training and state and federal laws.

Luther is earning $50,000 as warden, according to the last
available salary scale. There was no immediate word on what his
replacement would earn.

The new warden will face a laundry list of problems at the
facility, including overcrowding, which is a large reason the
prison can’t fully meet state standards, officials said. According
to an Associated Press study on the state’s prisons and jails, done
through the state Corrections Department, the county prison ranked
as the worst in the state in 2005, scoring a 64 out of 100 possible
points.

County officials later said that figure was skewed a little, in
part, because improvements have been made to the facility since
Luther’s arrival. Luther took over the reins of warden from former
county sheriff Donald Morey.

The 2006 budget line item for the prison calls for expenditures
of $2,069,728, up 16 percent from 2005.