Authorities say they’re prepared if armed protesters target Northampton County Courthouse
Updated Jan 14, 2021;
Northampton County District Attorney Terry Houck knows the awful, helpless feeling.
Speaking Wednesday to lehighvalleylive.com about being prepared for the possibility of armed protest, Houck pointed to the police officer who found himself smashed against a door jam on Jan. 6 as insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol. Houck drifted back nearly 40 years to his days as a plainclothes Philadelphia police officer. The 76ers had won the NBA title and the celebration at the old John F. Kennedy Stadium emptied with a surge of humanity onto Broad Street, Houck said.
Union president at Northampton County Prison says ‘half the jail is in quarantine’
Updated Dec 31, 2020;
The corrections officers union president at Northampton County Prison says the situation inside the facility in Easton is worse than county Executive Lamont McClure offered on Tuesday and while it’s possible guards are responsible for the surge in COVID-19 at the prison, there are other explanations.
The virus is taking its toll on the staff and has required significant use of overtime to keep things running, Kyle Shultz, the top representative for AFSCME Local 2549 in the prison, told lehighvalleylive.com on Wednesday.
While the county says 41 corrections officers have tested positive since March for the disease caused by the coronavirus, there have been 35 since Nov. 1 and two more were sent home just Tuesday, Shultz said. At least six others are waiting for paperwork and three of them have already said they have COVID-19, he said. The total is about 20% of the correc
Gracedale nursing home, a COVID-19 hotspot earlier this year, gets vaccine shipment
Updated Dec 29, 2020;
Northampton County’s Gracedale nursing home is expected to receive its first shipment on COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday, county Executive Lamont McClure announced in a statement.
CVS is expected to deliver the Pfizer vaccine to the facility in the morning with more shipments scheduled in the next two weeks, the statement said.
“It will take between three or four clinic dates to complete the first round of vaccination for staff and residents,” Gracedale Administrator Jennifer Stewart-King said. “When the virus is under control, we look forward to reopening the facility to visitors and volunteers.”
Pa. county is offering select employees $750 if they get the COVID-19 vaccine
Updated Dec 19, 2020;
Employees at Northampton County’s Gracedale nursing home are eligible for a one-time $750 payment if they get vaccinated against the COVID-19 coronavirus illness.
County council this week approved the incentive in a resolution that states, “. the Gracedale Administration has knowledge, information and belief that there may be some reticence on the part of some staff to be inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccination due in part to the rapidity of its development . .”
County Executive Lamont McClure brought the proposal to council at the request of Gracedale Administrator Jennifer Stewart-King. The county will use up to $490,000 in federal CARES Act funding. That will cover Gracedale’s roughly 700 employees.
EASTON, Pa. â Northampton County will offer staff members of Gracedale, the county nursing home, $750 each to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
That could cost as much as $490,000 if all 650 employees get the shot. The payment is an incentive. County Executive Lamont McClure said employees cannot be required to get the shots. Lives and livelihoods will be saved by a robust vaccination program, McClure said.
He said the county will use federal CARES Act money to pay the incentive. The county received $27.6 million from the federal government for pandemic relief. It kept some and distributed the rest to nonprofit groups, small businesses, schools and local governments.