SMETHPORT – The McKean County Commissioners are expected to
announce today who will be the new deputy warden at the county
prison.

Hiring of that person was approved at a special meeting of the
Prison Board Wednesday, but disclosure of the name was delayed
until the other applicants had been notified.

Warden Tim Woodruff said there were 10 applicants for the job,
made vacant several weeks ago when Norm Micco, who had been in the
position for about a year, resigned, apparently to move back to his
home area to be near family.

Four of the 10 applicants were interviewed, Woodruff noted. The
new deputy will be in charge of operations, while Woodruff will
continue the oversee programs, a responsibility he continued when
he was promoted from deputy to warden replacing Dennis Luther.ð

The warden also told the board the new security system at the
prison is in place, with digital TV cameras recording what happens
in “all major traffic areas” as well as in some outside
locations.

The new system is an improvement, Woodruff said, not only in
that it covers more area, but that everything is now recorded for
possible reviewing later.ðIn the previous system, an officer had to
be watching a monitor to notice any violations such as inmate
vandalism or other infractions.

In a separate meeting, the Salary Board, after hearing 911
Director Gerard Rettger tell of staffing problems at the 911
Center, authorized hiring of a new full-time dispatcher.

Rettger said there are four shifts that traditionally are
difficult to fill, shifts when the five part-time dispatchers, all
of whom have full-time jobs elsewhere,ðare reluctantðto fill.

While a regular 32-hour part-time position had been proposed,
the dispatchers’ union would not approve it.ð

Under the current contract, the county would have paid 75
percent of that person’s benefits, so going to a full-time position
would not be substantially more costly, the director said.

Difficult in staffing those periods had led to major overtime
expenditures, he noted.

While putting another full-time person in place will mean that
one shift a week will have three dispatchers, Rettger said there
are sufficient other duties to keep that person busy during the
extra time.

The center now will have seven full-time and five part-time
dispatchers.