MIDDLEBURG — The family of an admitted arsonist who was sentenced Monday in Snyder County Court to up to 23 months in jail for burning down Irvin’s Country Tinware last summer, remain fearful of the mentally unstable man who’s been in jail for nearly a year, a prosecutor said.

Alvin Ray Hoover, 36, of 87 Cedars Lane, Mount Pleasant Mills, was sentenced after pleading guilty, but mentally ill, to first-degree felony arson for the Aug. 7 fire that destroyed the West Perry Township store owned by his parents, Irvin and Doris Hoover.

At the sentencing hearing, CMSU intensive case manager Laurie Getty testified that Hoover has been diagnosed with severe mental illness requiring treatment.

District Attorney Michael Sholley said the elder Hoovers are willing to assist their son in finding housing and with his treatment, but said they declined to speak at the hearing because they fear their son and don’t want him to take their comments out of context.

The family was particularly disturbed by comments Hoover made alleging his brothers and sisters were conspirators in the crime, he said.

Union-Snyder President Judge Harold F. Woelfel Jr., ordered to find a residence within Snyder, Union, Columbia or Montour counties, unless another location is approved by the court.

As a result of the family’s fears, Sholley requested special conditions be placed on Hoover’s probation.

Woelfel agreed that in addition to the jail sentence, probation, and mandatory mental health treatment, Hoover will undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation; be prohibited from driving a motor vehicle without approval of the probation office; have no contact with siblings, their children or employees of the family business; keep at least 100 yards of his relatives’ homes and workplaces and schools of his nieces and nephews.

The judgment also calls for Hoover to pay $1.7 million in restitution to Penn National Insurance Co.