Carbon County is seeing additional challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In recent weeks, county officials have made the tough decision to furlough 94 county employees as a way to protect their staff; closed doors to the public temporarily and have made necessary changes to slow the spread.

But all of these changes will still cost the county upward of $500,000 by the time this is over because there are departments that require staffing, and there are additional costs with moving inmates from incarceration to monitored in-home sentences.

In addition, the county is purchasing masks, disinfectants and other personal protective equipment to ensure there is enough supply when it is needed, Commissioner Rocky Ahner said Thursday.

“As commissioners we have to keep the county moving,” he said, noting that the board is seeing the hardships residents are facing. “We’re trying to help them out wherever we can.

“Carbon County is in the same boat. We haven’t gotten any funding and it is costing us for masks, Lysol, whatever is involved to get us through the whole ordeal.”

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich said that there will be challenges with next year’s county budget.

He pointed out line items including local share agreement funding because casinos are closed; liquid fuels funds because people are traveling less.

“Funding will be reduced,” he said. “We will have challenges as we move into the next fiscal year, if not later this year in some regards.”

Both Ahner and Lukasevich said that with Gov. Tom Wolf signing Senate Bill 841 taxpayers can get a break with the county tax deadline.

The board is looking at beginning to discuss eliminating the penalty phase of the county property taxes for this year, which is now possible with the bill.

“841 will give us the chance to reconcile some of the challenges we have,” Lukasevich said.

No formal action on the tax penalty phase was taken at this time.

In a related matter, Lukasevich reported that both Jim Thorpe Neighborhood Bank and Mauch Chunk Trust Company are ready and waiting for the extra money from the Paycheck Protection Program.

Congress, on Thursday, passed a nearly $500 billion plan to give some additional relief to businesses and hospitals as a result of the pandemic.

To date, the two banks have approved $9.5 million in loans through the program and have another $2.5 million pending that just need the funds from the next round of federal help.

Lukasevich thanked the two banks for their continued support of small businesses.