Published: May 16, 2008 11:42 pm      

Cambria may house juveniles from Blair

EBENSBURG — Cambria County officials are in talks to house Blair County juveniles at Cambria’s detention home.

Such a deal could mean upwards of $275,000 annually to Cambria County based on current Blair juvenile detention figures.

But Blair County Commissioner Donna Gority cautioned Friday that sending the youngsters to Cambria is just one option under consideration.

Additionally, any deal likely would be for the short term – perhaps two years – until Blair can replace its 106-year-old detention home and find a management company to operate it.

“They (Cambria) have been after us for quite some time to use their facility. But we’re exploring a number of options,” Gority said.

Cambria has a 12-bed detention hall outside Ebensburg.

With a daily average population of six juveniles, Cambria has room to take care of Blair’s juveniles, Cambria County Chief Clerk Mike Gelles said.

“We could guarantee four or five spaces for them and – if there is a greater need – we’d look at it on a day-to-day basis,” Gelles said.

Blair County is facing a July 1 deadline when the current detention home operator, Adelphoi Village, a Latrobe-based human services agency, is terminating its contract.

The termination coupled with the aging condition of the Altoona facility has prompted county officials to begin looking around. Getting out of the detention home business altogether does not appear to be an option, Gority said.

“With the size of our county, our judges much prefer to have a facility in the county,” she said of concerns over travel to an out-of-county home and parental visitation.

Blair’s center can house up to eight juveniles with a daily average of 3.6 youths.

While some state reimbursement is received, Blair spends about a half-million dollars a year to operate the in-county facility, significantly more than the estimated per diem cost to send the juveniles to Cambria.

“But it’s a benefit for Cambria County as well. It would help offset some of our operating costs out there,” Gelles said.

Blair also is in talks with a Centre County detention facility in Bellefonte and a number of private human service agencies, Gority said.