County Elected Officials Sworn In
LOCK HAVEN – Friday provided a morning of firsts before a large audience in the large courtroom of the Clinton County Courthouse. The 2020 oath of office ceremony was conducted for county and municipal officials elected last November.
President Judge Craig Miller presided and noted a number of firsts for the three Clinton County Commissioners he subsequently swore in:
Jeff Snyder was sworn-in for a third term and Judge Miller pointed out that 2020 will also see Snyder sworn in as president of the Pennsylvania County Commissioners Association. Judge Miller said Snyder will become the second Clinton commissioner to achieve that post. The first was Wilson Kress, a lawyer, Civil War veteran and newspaper publisher; Kress was chosen the state organization’s first president in 1897.
Judge Miller said newly-elected Miles Dent Kessinger can account for several “firsts”:
The first court administrator to retire and be elected commissioner; perhaps the first commissioner to resign and later re-elected as a commissioner; and the first commissioner to be sworn in by a judge who is his cousin.
Judge Miller said his relationship with Kessinger goes back to the mid-1800s “when Miles’ great-great grandfather Miles Dent of Dent’s Run and Lydia Miller, my great-great aunt of Miller’s Run were married.”
Judge Miller called the swearing-in of new commissioner Angela Harding the most historic as she becomes the first female commissioner in county history. He noted the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution granted women the right to vote in 1920, ending a century of protest and, “A century later here in Clinton County, the first female commissioner in sworn in. It took a long time, but Angela you should be extremely proud of your accomplishment which is not just a personal accomplishment but a victory for every citizen of our Commonwealth.”
Row officers were also sworn-in before a large contingent of well-wishers. They included new Prothonotary Cindy Love and a new county auditor in Brooke Fravel. The latter joined incumbent auditors Rita O’Brien and Michelle Crowell.
Other incumbents receiving the oath from Judge Miller were District Attorney Dave Strouse, Sheriff Kerry Stover and Register and Record Jennifer Hoy.
Multiple elected municipal officials from across the county also received their oaths of office. Clinton County Judge Michael Salisbury assisted in the ceremony and the bench was also occupied by Senior Judge J. Michael Williamson and retired Judges Richard Saxton, Jr. and Carson V. Brown.
