Carbon officials to meet with Weatherwood employees

Carbon County is meeting with Weatherwood employees next week to review future retirement benefits.

At the monthly meeting of the county retirement board on Thursday, Robert Crampsie, county controller and secretary of the retirement board, announced that he has a meeting scheduled at Weatherwood, the Carbon County Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, for 2 p.m., Tuesday with members of the county's retirement system.

During the meeting, Crampsie will provide information and options that are available under the retirement plan.

Options include anyone less than five years of service will either have to take a refund of their contribution or complete a role over of their funds.

Anyone with five years of service or more can either vest and keep the money in the county retirement fund system until they reach a normal retirement age, or take a refund.

The meeting will be taped and made available to anyone not able to attend.

Currently, 279 Weatherwood employees participate in the county retirement fund and will be affected by the sale of the nursing home.

Over the next few months, Crampsie's office will be working to help all Weatherwood employees by answering questions in regards to retirement contributions and benefits, and completing all transactions.

In other business, the county retirement fund portfolio gained $459,000 last month.

Crampsie said that the portfolio value as of Feb. 28, was $57,306,782.

The county's retirement fund has been on a relatively upward trend for nearly a year.

A very volatile stock market in 2008 and early 2009, due to the shaky economy, brought the retirement fund balance down to a starting balance of $47,684,152 and left the county with a negative-24 percent return in 2008. The downward spiral continued through February 2009 but ended in March 2009, when Carbon County posted its first positive month in a long time.

Since then, the retirement fund portfolio has been performing rather well, with the exception of a few minor snags along the way.

The fund is still down around $7 million from its high of $65 million in 2007.