Berks County hires manager for detention renovation
The July 30, 2026 Berks County commissioners meeting: a project manager for the youth detention renovation, $2.5M in budget moves, and what passed.
By The Berks Beat staff · Published July 31, 2026 · Updated July 31, 2026 · Berks County
The Berks County Board of Commissioners met Thursday, July 30, 2026, and took the first construction-side step toward reopening its old juvenile detention center, hiring a project manager for the renovation. The board approved its agenda by voice vote, which adopted that contract along with about $2.5 million in budget moves and a stack of grant, lease, and children-and-youth items.
A project manager for the youth detention center
On the meeting’s contract list, the board hired Dolan Construction Inc. to serve as project manager during “the Youth Detention Center renovations project,” under a standard architect-form agreement capped at $20,000 and running from July 30 until the work is finished. The county is paying the full cost.
The dollar figure is small, but the contract turns a plan into a project. On July 23 the commissioners voted to reopen the former Berks County Juvenile Detention Center in Bern Township as a shared facility run with Dauphin, Delaware, Lackawanna, and Lehigh counties. That building, on County Welfare Road, has sat closed since 2012 and took roughly $1.25 million in water damage when a pipe burst in December 2022. A project manager oversees the design and repair work needed before the building can hold anyone.
The same meeting also renewed a contract to pay another county to hold Berks juveniles in the meantime. A separate item engages Chester County for juvenile detention services for the 2026/2027 fiscal year at $741 a day for a detention bed and $530 a day for a shelter bed. County officials have pointed to a statewide shortage of juvenile-detention beds as the reason for the regional project.
$2.5 million in budget moves
The board adopted a resolution shifting $736,383 between existing budget lines (budget transfers) and adding $1,730,611 in new spending authority (appropriations), item 227.2026. Most of it is mid-year housekeeping tied to grants and utility bills. The attached listing names a few specific purchases:
- A new state grant to Adult Probation, from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative, pays for staff training, replacement tasers, monitors for the office’s waiting area, and what the county’s paperwork calls “an AI coaching suite.” The document does not describe how the coaching software would be used.
- Contingency money covers a vandal-resistant board at the Berks County Youth Center after what the county calls ongoing vandalism.
- Berks Heim, the county nursing home, taps its own fund balance to build a smoking shelter.
- Several transfers cover unbudgeted utility costs at the county’s South Campus under a lease amendment.
The rest of what passed
- GoggleWorks grant support (230.2026). The board backed the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts’ application to the state’s Multimodal Transportation Fund, a grant program that pays for sidewalks, crossings, and similar improvements.
- More county internet (231.2026). A resolution authorized the county’s chief information officer to order added bandwidth from Zayo, the county’s fiber provider.
- A caseworker’s graduate degree (229.2026). The county signed a Child Welfare Education for Leadership agreement letting a Children and Youth Services caseworker pursue a graduate social-work degree at the University of Pittsburgh under a federally funded program.
- A labor-monitoring worksheet (228.2026) for the county’s Workforce Development office and an annual state review.
- A K-9 retires (232.2026). The board authorized Sheriff Mandy P. Miller to retire K-9 Kali and transfer ownership of the dog to Deputy Sheriff Alicia Matson for $1, effective July 31.
- Children and Youth placements. Most of the contract list is annual per-day agreements with foster care, group home, and shelter providers that take county-referred children. Other contracts on the list include a ten-year lease renewal with Willow Hollow Golf Course on county land in Bern Township and an extended sublease for the Coroner’s Office.
- Presentations. The meeting opened with the America250PA Berks “Youth Voices of Independence” contest winners and an anti-human-trafficking presentation from the North Star Initiative and the county’s Human Trafficking Task Force, introduced by an assistant district attorney.
How the vote worked
Berks commissioners approve their entire agenda with a single voice vote rather than voting on each resolution separately. The meeting video shows the agenda read and approved, followed by reports from the Treasurer and Controller, the chief operations officer, commissioners’ comments, and a public comment period. The board also approved the written minutes of its July 23 meeting, which are now the official record of that session. The county had not posted written minutes of the July 30 meeting at publication, and we will update this recap if they show any change.
The next commissioners’ board meeting is Thursday, August 6, at 10 a.m. at the Berks County Services Center, 633 Court Street, Reading. Thursday’s agenda was covered in our preview. For how these meetings run and how to speak at one, see our guide, and for what the county controls versus the state and your township, see how Berks County government works.