Within an hour Tuesday Cindy Callihan, Clarion County’s longtime director of elections, went from being the director to the former director and now the interim director.
Callihan will officially retire effective Thursday, take three days off, and return as the interim director until a new full-time director is appointed.
“We are glad that Cindy is doing this,” county commissioner Ted Tharan said at Tuesday’s commissioners meeting. “She knows all there is to know about elections and to lose her in the middle of the election cycle would be a loss for the county.”
Callihan said her office is working on 1,600 requests for ballots.
“We haven’t started on the online requests,” she said. “There are a couple of hundred in there that we need to work on. Hopefully everything will be ready for the mail next week.”
Callihan said that since the change in mail-in ballot requirements there had been a drop in the absentee ballot requests.
“Back in the day everyone requested an absentee ballot,” she said. “In normal elections like this year we would have anywhere from 700 that went through the mail. People have changed from giving us a reason for the absentee ballot to giving us no reason. I guess that is because they can.”
Callihan also told the commissioners the shortage of election workers has created problems at the polls.
In an effort to attract more poll workers, the county has increased the daily rate of pay for all election workers. The judge of election will receive $160, the minority inspector and the majority inspector and clerk $145.
“That puts us in the middle of the pay scale compared to other counties,” said commissioner Ted Heasley.
Callihan said the county has used paid student workers in Clarion, Beaver and Madison townships as well as Knox and Strattanville boroughs.
In other business Tuesday, Judge Sara Seidle Patton commented on the announcement of the retirement of Jayne Smail as director of probation services and the appointment of Michael Blum as her successor.
“We will miss Jayne but I am certain Mike will do a good job for us,” the judge said.
The commissioners approved a new rate schedule for the reimbursement of extraordinary expenses related to accidents.
Equipment and materials will be reimbursed at a rate of 130% and decontamination equipment at the same rate. The charge for vehicles ranges from $300 for the EMA Dodge Truck to $50 an hour for a 175 KW generator.
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