Carbon clerk’s office attacks backlog
$1,336,794.18 in assessments entered.
2,667 cases with costs assessed to them.
336 warrants issued.
1,317 new cases entered into the system.
These are just some of tasks the Carbon County Clerk of Courts office has completed in the last six months.
On Thursday, Francine Heaney, clerk of courts, updated the county commissioners on where the office stands with catching up on the over two years of backlog that had been clogging the county court system.
Heaney said that since taking over the office in October, walls have been taken down in the office, items that didn’t need to be there were removed, files were organized, paperwork was categorized and the staff has been sent to training, which allowed the county to end its dependency on Lehigh County’s staff to help file assessments two months earlier than anticipated.
The office has been chipping away at the backlog, working an extra hour a day, as well as five hours on a Saturday; while also still processing the cases that are coming in on a daily basis.
Heaney said that her office is completing all new work within 24 to 48 hours of them receiving it, including bench warrants and probation warrants; orders docketed and updated; scheduling notices mailed out; new cases pulled in and cases disposed, sentenced and cost assessed.
“None of this was easy to achieve but we are working together as a team,” she said.
Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein commended Heaney and her staff on the “tremendous progress” and was hopeful things would be caught up soon.
Heaney said that she is anticipating that by the end of the year, the clerk of courts office should have about 75 to 80 percent of the backlog cleaned up.
In other matters, Nothstein said that two members of the county tax assessment office have been recognized by the state for their years of service.
Kim Steigerwalt, director of the office, was honored by the Assessors Association of Pennsylvania for 30 years of service; while Pam Bauchspies was honored for 20 years of service.
