There is an old adage from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, “You cannot step into the same river twice.” He used the image of a river to illustrate that even consistent activities are in a constant state of change. I find this to be true every Thursday morning at the Lycoming County Commissioners Meetings.

It was in April 2016, nine years ago, that I began attending the weekly Lycoming County Commissioners Meetings. At that time, there were two meetings: a ‘work’ session on Tuesdays and the ‘official’ meeting on Thursdays. I liked the Tuesday meeting because that was when the discussion on issues would take place, and it was also somewhat informal. Thursdays were generally just to do the action items, most of which related to the allocation of funds.

Then, in March 2020, came the COVID shutdowns, and the commissioners decided to go to just one meeting, which ended the Tuesday work sessions. The biggest change that happened after that was the way the meetings could get so discombobulated. There was an agenda, of course, but a lot of other things would pop up nonetheless.

I was thinking of this during the commissioners meeting on Thursday, April 17th. I was stepping in the same river; sure enough, it was different from any other time I could remember.

The meeting started normally. Commissioner Metzger opened the meeting with a prayer followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. The first order of business was a change for one of the personnel action items, which was not unusual.

What was unusual was the magnitude of the change order. It was for a position in the Resource Management Department for $86,434 an hour. (I was ready to offer myself to do the job for ten percent of that, a real bargain at $8,643 an hour, a 90 percent saving. How could the commissioners turn that down?) Well, it turned out that the figure was for a YEAR rather than an hour. Glad they discovered that not-so-minor difference.

That should have given me a hint that the waters might start bubbling, yet it seemed to be moving along smoothly enough. Right after the personnel action was taken care of, Commissioner Marc Sortman read a proclamation for Pennsylvania 811 Safe Digging Month. Mark Lipka, a local man who is a supervisor for education for 811 in Pennsylvania, followed up with a quick review of why this is important for anyone who is digging up. (It is worthwhile to check out http://www.PA1Call.org).

Sortman’s reading of the proclamation, Mr. Lipka’s statement, and even the photo op that followed took less than ten minutes. And just ten minutes after that, all the various action items were covered, which meant all the official stuff was completed. What then follows are the commissioners’ general comments.

In the past, this was often when the guns would come out blazing, but this new board is quite amiable to one another. Their comments highlighted some good things that have been happening, and after ten minutes of that, Commissioner Metzger said, “Are there any public comments?”

To this point, the entire meeting had barely gone for thirty minutes. For some weird reason, though, many times when the official meetings go quickly, the public comments go longer, sometimes much longer. Deja vu, that’s your cue.

Terri Lauchle from Muncy Township is running for township supervisor in this year’s election. She wanted to hear from the commissioners about the status of the old Lycoming County Mall complex in Muncy Township. She informed them that she had submitted a Right to Know request relating to the mall complex and had many questions about what was going on.

After less than half an hour of business, the discussion (debate?) between Terri Lauchle and the three Lycoming County Commissioners went back and forth for an hour and a half! (That has to be a record, at least, it was the longest discussion/debate I ever witnessed). Well, truth be told, I bailed out after an hour. It was an interesting discussion, and I later followed it up on YouTube (Look up: Lycoming County Commissioners Meeting 4-17-25).

Terri Lauchle was doing her due diligence as a local official — hats off to her. The commissioners had to defend their positions honestly and practically, which they also did. Heraclitus was right again — the river never stops flowing, and it never stops changing.