A second Carbon County department is utilizing a third-party company to help with collecting delinquent fines once all other options have been exhausted.

On Thursday, the board of commissioners approve an agreement with Penn Credit Corporation to assist with the collection of overdue fees associated with protection from abuse orders through the sheriff’s office. A 25% fee will be added onto the outstanding debt per case at no cost to the county.

Sheriff Dan Zeigler said that there wasn’t a process in place to collect these unpaid fines. The department did send three letters but after that, there was no process to collect these funds.

Zeigler said he conducted a quality assurance review and checked in with the clerk of courts, who already utilizes Penn Credit.

He said that the final details on the process are being worked out and will be a good thing for the department.

“I think it would be fiscally irresponsible to not collect those funds so we will still do our effort but now with the help of Penn Credit we will get the remainder collected,” Zeigler said.

The delinquent fines is approximately $3,000 at this time, but Zeigler said that fluctuates on cases coming in and payments being made.

Clerk of Courts Tyra Boni commended the sheriff’s office for being able to negotiate the same contract as her office because it eliminates any cost to the county or taxpayers.

Carbon County first hired Penn Credit for the clerk’s office in November 2021.

In December, Boni reported that the company has been able to collect just under $40,000 from delinquent accounts in her office and called that a success for the taxpayers.