Carbon clerk catching up on backlog

Carbon County’s clerk of courts office is moving along nicely, officials said.

Clerk of Courts Francine Heaney gave the county commissioners an update on the case backlog that her office has been sifting through over the past several months.

Lehigh County employees will no longer be needed to help with the backlog, she said. As of March 1, Carbon employees will be handling all operations.

In November, Heaney was sworn in to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of William McGinley.

McGinley has since been charged with stealing approximately $45,000 from the office over the years and left the office years behind in assessments and court operations.

The commissioners approved a recommendation by Heaney to end the contract with four Lehigh County employees who were helping with Carbon’s costs and assessments, effective Feb. 28.

“We’ve been doing it for about 30 days now,” she said.

In the last 30 days, Heaney’s office has assessed $342,666.47 in court fees. “We’ve been keeping up with our daily work.”

Heaney added that bench warrants are all now current and probation transfers are being assessed within a business week of being received.

Looking forward, the office will begin working on past assessments on March 1. Past assessments date back to mid-2016.

Heaney and her staff have been working to clean up the office that had backlogs dating back as far as 2016.