McKean County and the Cameron Elk Mental Health Mental
Retardation program are working together again – sort of.

While the county has permanently left the joinder formerly known
as CEM, officials are still working with the agency in an effort to
provide reciprocal services between the counties as needed for
clients.

“It’s really an attempt to be cooperative,” Commissioner John
Egbert said Thursday. “There are some services we have agreed to
share, instead of duplicating them. There is some cooperation in
some areas and services.

“There will never be another CEM again.”

During the commissioners’ meeting on Wednesday, the board signed
off on a resolution authorizing the county to enter into a provider
contract with the agency. The move led to additional questions, in
part, because the county extricated itself from the agency nearly
two years ago under acrimonious circumstances – including because
of financial considerations and a desire to have more control over
how the services were handled.

In response, the county formed its own Department of Human
Services to deal with clients needing mental health and mental
retardation services.

“It was tooth and nail for a long time,” Egbert said, reflecting
back on the break-up of the joinder. “There was no love loss
between the commissioners, Cindy (Zembryki) and Charlotte
(Chew-Sturm). We were fighting over money. It was our job to get
every dime for McKean County residents that we could and it was
their job to do the same for their counties.”

Zembryki is the director of the Cameron Elk program, while
Chew-Sturm leads the McKean County Department of Human
Services.

As an example of the cooperation between both sides, Egbert said
the county uses the partial hospitalization services through
Dickinson Mental Health Center of Elk County; in turn, clients from
Elk County take advantage of the services offered by Beacon Light
Behavioral Health Systems, based in McKean County.

“We avail ourselves of that service (Dickinson),” Egbert said.
“When we do it, it should go through the Cameron Elk joinder. It’s
hasn’t been done that way. This (contract) is just formalizing
that.”

According to Egbert, the agreement – which does not contain a
price tag for the county – signed by the commissioners doesn’t
“limit the county to anything. If we have something we need, they
(Cameron Elk) have agreed to provide it.”

Both sides are also still involved in a cooperative for drug,
alcohol and substance abuse programs. “We all still participate in
that rather than reinventing the wheel.”

Egbert stressed, however, that both organizations are distinct
and separate.

“We run our operation completely different then they do,” Egbert
said, adding the county’s department has five people working in it,
while Cameron Elk has more than 30 people involved.”

Egbert also said the county uses providers located in the
community, such as Evergreen Elm and Futures Rehabilitation Center,
among others.

“Our job is to manage the money and provide accountability and
efficiency,” Egbert said.

In a related matter, on Thursday the county received three bids
for renovations to its Children and Youth Services building.

McKean County Administrator Richard Casey said the renovations
will provide the necessary space to account for employees that came
into the agency following the break-up of CEM, among others.

“It’s not really too extensive,” Casey said. “We are basically
adding a couple more areas for caseworker functions and are putting
in a new director’s office for Human Services and some
modifications to the financial department area.”

Of the three bids received, two were within the price range of
the county, while the third came in very low.

Casey said the bids will now be reviewed before the low bid is
approved during the commissioners regular meeting in January.

In another financial move, the county also realized a savings of
$33,000 on its workman’s compensation insurance premiums.

“We just found out this morning (Thursday),” Casey said. “That’s
very good news. We’ve done pretty well on insurance costs
recently.”

On Wednesday, the commissioners voted unanimously to join the
Pennsylvania Municipal Health Insurance Cooperative, which will
allow the county to realize a substantial savings in vision
insurance premiums for its workers.