Berks County Aug. 6: grant to run the Nov. 3 election

The Berks County Board of Commissioners meets Thursday, August 6, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. at the Berks County Services Center, 633 Court Street, Reading, with a Microsoft Teams option for watching and commenting from home. It is a short agenda. The item with the most reach into residents' lives is a state grant that helps pay for running the November election.

State money to run the election

The board will vote to accept an Election Integrity Grant from the state and sign the contract that comes with it. The resolution authorizes the money "for the administration of the 2026 General Election and the 2027 Municipal Primary Election," which means the fall ballot on November 3 and next year's spring primary.

The grant program comes from a 2022 state law, Act 88, run by the Department of Community and Economic Development. The state sets each county's share by a formula: the county's registered-voter count at the most recent primary, divided by the statewide total, times the money the Legislature put in the program. The agenda does not list a dollar figure for Berks.

Counties can spend the money only on a fixed list of election jobs, including paying poll workers on election day, printing ballots, training the people who run each precinct, processing voter registrations, and staffing the count of mail-in and absentee ballots. In exchange, a county that takes the grant signs an agreement to run its count on the state's clock: it must start opening mail-in and absentee ballots at 7 a.m. on election day and keep going without stopping until every ballot that arrived by then is processed, start counting those ballots at 8 p.m. when the polls close, and post unofficial results after midnight. The county also has to report to the state how it spent the money within 90 days of each election.

For what the November ballot decides and how to vote, see the 2026 election guide. The county is still recruiting the election-day staff this grant helps pay; here is how to become a poll worker.

A property-assessment settlement

A second resolution lets the county solicitor sign settlement papers ending a court fight over a property assessment. The taxpayer, listed as CCP Berks LLC, appealed its assessment past the county's Board of Assessment Appeals and into county court, the last step in the appeal process. The agenda authorizes a settlement but does not state its terms, so the new assessed value is not public yet.

An assessment is the dollar value the county puts on a property, and it sets how much county, municipal, and school tax the owner pays. When a large property's value drops in a settlement, the rest of the tax base carries a little more. Any owner can start the same appeal every year; here is how to appeal your assessment.

The rest of the agenda

• County internet. The board authorized more bandwidth from its fiber provider, Zayo, at the July 30 meeting. The contract is now on the list with a price: raising the county's connection from 1 to 10 gigabits, at a cost not to exceed $148,800 over five years.
• Camp Joy Lodge. A resolution backs upgrades at Camp Joy Lodge in Leesport, a county property used by the Council on Chemical Abuse, the county's drug-and-alcohol agency. The work covers the fire alarm, plumbing, heating and cooling, electrical, windows, and interior repairs.
• Deer control. The board will let the Parks and Recreation director apply for a state Game Commission permit to manage deer on county land.
• Budget transfer. A $74,324 move inside Children and Youth Services would cover emergency-services payments; it shifts money between existing accounts rather than adding new spending.
• A promotion. The board will make a part-time paid intern in the District Attorney's office a full-time certified legal intern at $59,500 a year.
• 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, plus state-funded case-management deals through the county's mental-health office.
• July 30 minutes. The board will approve the written record of its last meeting, which is posted inside this agenda packet.

How to attend or comment

• In person: Berks County Services Center, 633 Court Street, Reading. Doors open well before 10 a.m.
• Online: a Teams link is posted with the agenda on the county meetings page.
• Comment rules: give your first name, last name, and municipality; one comment per person; online comments go through the Teams Q&A and are read aloud; the whole comment period is capped at 30 minutes, with in-person speakers first.

First time watching? Read how to speak at a commissioners meeting, and for what the county runs versus the state and your township, see how Berks County government works. A recap will follow once the county posts the meeting video or minutes. The next board meeting is Thursday, August 13 at 10 a.m.