On March 23, Cedarbrook Senior Care and Rehabilitation Center Director Jason Cumello explained to Lehigh County Board of Commissioners the details of a contract and an ordinance he needs the board to approve. Cumello appeared before the Cedarbrook committee, chaired by Commissioner Dan Hartzell.

L.A. Hair currently has the contract to provide haircuts and services at the senior center, but due to labor cost increases, the company has asked for an increase in the amount the county will have to pay for the service.

Cumello said each resident rates at least one haircut or service per month. There will be a 33-percent cost increase in the contract.

Commissioners approved the new contract for hair services for Cedarbrook, which took effect April 1. It was the only company that responded to the request for proposal.

Cumello also discussed a new ordinance to resolve an issue with Cedarbrook security guard pay, which must increase to retain employees in the current job market.

Cumello said he keeps one guard per shift at the Allentown campus at the South Whitehall Township location and one guard per shift at the Fountain Hill location. He said that as construction proceeds on the new annex, he would reconsider possible increases in staffing if needed.

The proposed ordinance would authorize an increase of the amount the county pays the vendor for a security guard from $20.12 per hour to $23.09 per hour. He said that amount includes all costs associated with the security guard position, including taxes, profit margin to the company and the salary paid to the security officer and other factors such as the ongoing “inflation rate in the labor market.”

“This will allow us to pay that elevated rate through the rest of this contract cycle that goes to Aug. 8,” Cumello said.

He said after the security contract expires at Cedarbrook, he would perform another bid process for this service. The current contractor, Allied Universal Security Services, which purchased the original bidder, U.S. Security, was the only bidder for the RFP.

Both measures were approved by the Cedarbrook committee and passed on to the board of directors, recommending approval.

“Cedarbrook Allentown is the original location where ‘the county home’ was started in the 1840s,” according to the nursing facility’s website. It is “a senior care facility with 473 licensed beds offering hospice, traditional long-term care, memory support, respite care, short-term rehabilitation, skilled nursing and therapeutic recreation for hundreds of Lehigh County residents and their families every year.

“Prior to 1974, Cedarbrook Fountain Hill was a privately owned nursing home. Since the acquisition by the county of Lehigh, Cedarbrook Fountain Hill has offered 97 semiprivate rooms and three private rooms for Lehigh County residents or their family members who have lived outside the Valley,” the website continues.

Commissioners also took note of the fact they were all in the same room for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic and when remote meetings became the norm.

“I think this might be the first time this board has sat in the same room at the same time,” commissioner President Geoff Brace said.