SPRING MILLS — The Penns Valley Historical Museum held a history dinner meeting on Jan. 9, at the New Hope Lutheran Church on Route 45, west of Spring Mills.
The group of about 35 people enjoyed a dinner prepared and served by members of the New Hope Lutheran Church.
Guest speaker for the evening was Centre County Commissioner Mark Higgins, who spoke about the services of county government and the role of county commissioners.
He opened his remarks with some history of counties and government at that level. He said that as far back as the Roman Empire and European kingdoms, an intermediate level of government was needed to act as liaison between cities and villages and the ever-expanding kingdoms. He cited France, which created Counts and Earls to serve at the intermediate level.
“The areas the Counts and Earls controlled were called counties,” he said.
He noted that William Penn created five counties in Pennsylvania, which have been divided into 67 counties today. Higgins said Centre County has 163,000 citizens living in 1,113-square miles.
“We’re a little larger than most counties in the United States in population and area,” he said.
Higgins said that human services is the major area of service by our county government, using about 40 percent of the county budget for things such as drug and alcohol intervention, adult services, senior services and child and youth services.
“Any type of service that you might need that you can’t provide for yourself, the county is there to help,” he said. He noted the county receives money from the federal and state governments, and that only about 20 percent of the human services budget comes from local tax dollars.
Higgins said county commissioners can write ordinances, but only with the agreement of two of the three commissioners.
The Centre County Corrections Department is entirely funded by local taxes, he said. He noted the county has four judges, and that other Pennsylvania counties of similar size all have more than that. He praised the judges for their use of “intermediate punishment,” consisting of fines, community service, and ankle monitoring bracelets instead of jail time for first offenders.
He noted that Centre County has the second-lowest crime rate of any county in the state.
Higgins also mentioned the commissioners’ involvement in overseeing the county emergency services, agricultural preservation and economic development areas. Higgins answered questions from the audience following his remarks, then the group was dismissed.
