Officials in Jefferson County are firing back after information about a recent clothing voucher program was falsely reported by a local news outlet.
It was reported that when a woman who received $600 in clothing vouchers tried to use it at Boscov’s in St. Clairsville, that they weren’t accepted because Job and Family Services had not paid the bill.
However, Betty Ferron from Jefferson County Job and Family Services said that wasn’t the case at all, and addressed those issues in front of commissioners Thursday morning.
“Boscov’s problem was they kept them in a box; $11,000 worth of vouchers. And that’s why they never got the money because they never brought them up to our office,” Ferron said.
“They didn’t turn the vouchers in correctly. They didn’t turn the vouchers in on time. There was never a case when Jefferson County ran out of money or wasn’t paying the bill,” Jefferson County Commissioner Thomas Gentile said.
Ferron said Boscov’s had set up a credit account and when they reached the $15,000 limit, they failed to send the voucher’s to Job and Family Services so that the agency could verify the payments and send Boscov’s a check in return.
Ferron and Gentile agree that they will continue to do this service in the future, but will rethink how it’s done to make the process run more smoothly.
$400,000 worth of vouchers were handed out this year.
