Dennis Hepler to resign Monday

Published: February 12, 2010

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by justin strawser

SUNBURY - Northumberland County Transportation Director Dennis Hepler will resign Monday, County Commissioner Vinny Clausi reported Thursday.

Hepler had a closed-door meeting with commissioners Tuesday to discuss the controversy involving allegations of "double charging" the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) and PennDOT's Shared-Ride Program the past six or seven months for transporting senior citizens in Shamokin and Mount Carmel to local destinations.

Hepler admitted to the "double charging," but claimed he overcharged the agencies in an effort to recoup some of the money his department lost during the past year through a contract with a local cab company.

Hepler said Clausi strongly recommended that the transportation department enter into the contract with Shamokin Yellow Cab Co. for services. "Vinny basically told me to give some of the business to the cab company," he said earlier. "But I didn't budget for that, so I felt I had to make up the money somehow, which led me to double-charge AAA. I charged seniors for transporting them from their homes to the

senior action centers to their destinations and back, even though our drivers didn't go to the centers. But there was no fraud or ill intent on my part. I was only trying to recoup money that I farmed out to the local cab company."

The overcharge of $15,000, which Hepler said did not personally benefit himself, will likely not lead to criminal charges.

Last week, the former director of Northumberland County Transportation Department, Jacquelyn F. Klemick, and her daughter, Jennifer V. Bowers, former operations manager for the county transportation department, who resigned May 26, 2008, said they told county commissioners and the state last fall they had uncovered "absolutely atrocious" mismanagement of funds by Hepler.

Klemick and Bowers recently provided pages of documents to The News-Item documenting what they said is fraud after Hepler defended himself against Clausi, who had called for his immediate resignation.

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