The start of the New Year will also bring a new top law enforcement official in Schuylkill County.
Karen Noon, Ashland, will take over the duties of district attorney after serving as first assistant district attorney for the past five years
Noon will serve out the two years remaining on the term of James Goodman who was sworn in Thursday as the county's newest judge.
Goodman said Friday that Noon held the position as first assistant district attorney since he took office in 2006 and has been a member of the district attorney's office for more than two decades.
Goodman said among Noon's duties when she assumes the role of top prosecutor will be to select her first assistant just as he did.
"That will be her choice, something she will have to do," Goodman said.
Noon has served in the district attorney's office for 22 year and handled cases ranging from first-degree murder to sexual assault.
She said she has appeared before every magisterial district judge in Schuylkill County, dealt with every police department in the county and helped create procedures to help both child and adult victims of sexual assaults.
In addition to her experience with criminal law, she has served as an arbitrator in numerous civil cases.
Noon has been married for 19 years to David Noon, a lawyer whose office is in Sunbury, Northumberland County.
The couple has two children, Dan and Molly, both students at North Schuylkill Jr./Sr. High School.
In addition to her district attorney duties, Noon's public service has extended to several community organizations including being a parent volunteer and president of the home and school association at the former Immaculate Heart Elementary School, Girardville, and the first historian and a homeroom mom for the North Schuylkill PTO.
She was a team member for Relay for Life, a Drug Abuse Resistance Education sponsor, treasurer of the Spartan Football Halftime Club, a volunteer for the Catholic Churches in Ashland block party and a former member of the Mu Zeta service sorority.
Noon, who was not available for comment on Friday, is an honors graduate of Penn State University and a graduate of the Dickinson School of Law, Carlisle.
She is a member of the Pennsylvania and Schuylkill County Bar Associations, the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association and the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Child Abuse Coalition.