Blair County Commissioners took time out of their weekly meeting this morning to publicly address being in court with former Chief Deputy Sam McClure.

Commissioner Ted Beam said at Tuesday’s meeting that this is the final statement they would make on the matter concerning McClure. 

Beam said that McClure admitted to kissing a county employee when the allegations were brought to human resources. 

His counter allegations are what prompted commissioner to put him on paid administrative leave back in March and conduct an investigation, which resulted in McClure’s termination. 

Beam said he requested Governor Wolf’s appointment of a new sheriff to avoid a costly legal battle.

Commissioner Beam explained why no appointment was made for the sheriff position when Mitch Cooper retired in January.  He said, “The board of commissioners intended to avoid the appearance of political meddling thus we did not request an appointment by the governor at that time and suggested the same to him and his staff.”