The county commissioners agreed Wednesday, April 23, to apply for a state grant of nearly $1 million for the public defenders office.

If approved by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the $98,763 Indigent Defense grant would be an extension of a $95,245 grant the office was awarded last year, said Charles Nedz, chief public defender.

He said the new grant would be used to hire a part-time assistant public defender and a part-time paralegal, hire the Center for Community Resources to provide social service support, buy case management software and buy a new color printer. The county does not have to match the grant, he added.

The new grant would be available on July 1 can be used through the end of 2026 overlapping last year’s grant, which expires in December this year, by six months, Nedz said.

A Federal Emergency Management Agency grant application the commissioners approved would pay for half the salaries and benefits for the emergency management coordinator and emergency planner. The FEMA Emergency Management Performance grant the county received last year was $77,160, said Steve Bicehouse, emergency services director. He said the grant program is being scrutinized by the administration.

The election bureau is hosting a public demonstration of the new electronic poll pads that will replace paper poll books at voting precincts. The demonstration will be held 6 p.m. May 8 in the UL conference room in the government center annex, said Chantell McCurdy, bureau director.

Poll pads, which are computer tablets, will be used at the Precinct 5 poll in Butler, an unspecified poll in Cranberry Township and the lone poll in Franklin Township during the May 20 primary and at all precincts in the general election in November.

The pads are intended to reduce mistakes, voter waiting times, printing costs and the use of provisional ballots.

In addition, the bureau began on Monday mailing mail-in ballots to voters who requested them, McCurdy said.

She said about 8,000 ballots had been mailed by Wednesday morning, and 11,900 have been requested. More requests are made daily, but May 13 is the deadline to request one, she said. Completed ballots must be received by the bureau by 8 p.m. May 20.

The salary board, which held a meeting before the commissioners meeting, addressed two county detective positions being funded by a three-year, $900,000 grant from the commission on crime and delinquency’s Violence Intervention and Prevention program. Lt. Gov. Austin Davis announced the grant during a county visit last week.

District Attorney Rich Goldinger told the board the new grant essentially replaces a PCCD grant for the Butler County Gun Investigation Program.

The new grant will be used to hire a part-time detective who will serve as commander of the county’s Emergency Service Unit, fund a full-time detective’s salary and train and equip more than two dozen police officers. The equipment includes bulletproof vests, night-vision goggles and updates to the police radio system.

The salary board eliminated the full-time detective’s position under the gun investigation program and created the position under the Violence Intervention and Prevention program without changing the $30 an hour pay.

The board also created the part-time detective’s position with the same hourly wage, but without benefits. That detective will work less than 1,000 hours a year. Goldinger said he wants to hire the part-time detective as soon as possible.