On Aug. 13, during their first bimonthly meeting of August, the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners discussed the local impacts of the continued state budget impasse in Harrisburg.

The board made a point to talk through the effects of the budget holdup during the ‘Chair’s Review’ portion of the evening, allowing Lehigh County Chief Fiscal Officer Tim Reeves to speak on the county’s finances.

The six-week budget impasse is halting needed reimbursements to the county used for various county expenses, specifically state-mandated services such as human services and education.

CFO Reeves said the county has a stabilization fund that can be used in place of the state money, but the fund can only last a few more months, as the county expenses are already up $12.5 million and the fund only has $25 million per the county budget.

Reeves said the major ramifications from a continued impasse include losing interest that could be earned on the county’s stabilization fund and the loss of local nonprofit organizations that rely on the state’s funds.

“I know that a lot of these nonprofit organizations have to go through a very long list to get qualified to be part of these programs,” Reeves said. “If we are not able to pay them and they go out of business, the chances of them going back to get recertified become less likely.”

State Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-16th, also spoke on the topic, hoping to give the board more information on where Harrisburg stands on the budget currently. Coleman said the Senate and House are still very far apart on any decision.

“I don’t know how long [the impasse] will continue. We are working, we are trying to find common ground,” Coleman said. “There are just other issues that we’re working through, but I think it’s important to come here and to speak to all of you so you do understand that the impasse is real.”

The board continued discussions of ICE in the Lehigh County Courthouse after Commissioners Geoff Brace and Zach Cole-Borghi met with the county president-judge and sheriff.

Both commissioners released a four-page memo, which can be found on BoardDocs, detailing how the Lehigh County judiciary approaches allowing ICE in the courthouse. Brace said security decisions about the courthouse are confidential, but the president-judge and sheriff divulged the basic details of how they interact with ICE in the memo.

Cole-Borghi said in a prepared statement it doesn’t appear that county officials are honoring any unlawful action by ICE.

“I don’t think any county officials under the purview of the executive, and in fact, under the purview of the commissioners, are executing arrests for ICE,” Cole-Borghi said.

Cole-Borghi said he plans to hold a virtual-only governance meeting Aug. 20 to discuss the facts of the memo and any other concerns the community has on this topic.

The board passed a bill to award up to $92,000 from the district attorney’s opioid settlement fund to assist in the start-up of a new facility in Allentown to house women and children seeking opioid rehabilitation support.

Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan said this funding will help create the third mother-baby unit in Lehigh County, providing a “phenomenally positive” rehabilitation system.

“It’s a multigenerational long-term crime prevention and addiction prevention strategy,” Holihan said.

“I’m very gratified … that we’re able to provide the funds that allow our drug and alcohol people to work in a program that they wanted for a long time, just couldn’t fund.”

Commissioners did a second read on a group of bills discussed during a meeting July 23, which would grant funds to a group of organizations focused on homelessness and youth violence prevention and supporting returning citizens’ reentry services.

The grants are funded by amending the budget to reallocate funds for these specific grants. Commissioner Jeffrey Dutt, a sponsor of these bills, said the Homelessness Prevention Grant program will allocate $144,000 for homelessness, which is crucial due to the current “Jordan Creek situation.”

“I think this is very, very important that we do this and that we help those people that do need these services,” Dutt said. “It’s something that I pursued for quite a while.”

The meeting adjourned with the rest of the agenda items passing with no opposition.

The next board of commissioners meeting will be held Aug. 27.