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Green Mountain National Forest
Bennington, Vermont
Out-of-state Rescue: On June 16 at 5:15 p.m., Forest Rangers Tony Goetke and John Gullen began responding with the New York State Police (NYSP) Aviation unit to assist with a health emergency via a mutual aid helicopter hoist request from the State of Vermont. NYSP received a request from Vermont officials looking for help with the rescue of a 41-year-old Bennington, Vermont man who was experiencing chest pain and discomfort while hiking along the Long Trail in the Green Mountain National Forest. Once on scene, Ranger Goetke lowered Ranger Gullen from the helicopter to the hiker, and with help from the Southern Vermont Technical Rescue, they packaged the man into a litter and raised him into the helicopter. From there, NYSP Aviation transported the hiker to a nearby landing zone and turned him over to Wilmington Fire and EMS for transportation to a local hospital.
Forest Rangers assist with helicopter rescue
Helicopter picks up Forest Ranger Gullen after rescue
Town of Keene
Essex County
Pet Distress Reminder: On June 21 at 2:45 p.m., DEC’s Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from a hiker advising that they were coming down Giant Mountain when their 75-pound Golden Retriever collapsed about one mile from Chapel Pond parking lot. The hiking party had started their trip at approximately 7 a.m. up the Ridge Trail and neglected to bring enough water for their dog. About halfway up the trail, the dog began to struggle and the group turned around to head back down. The dog collapsed from heat exhaustion just above the junction for the Ridge Trail and Giants Nubble. An Assistant Forest Ranger working in the area was notified and quickly found the distressed dog. The dog was carried to the Washbowl waterhole and placed in the water. After cooling the dog and giving it time to rest and rehydrate, the dog was able to make it back down the trail without further assistance.
Every summer DEC’s Forest Rangers receive calls for dogs in distress on hot summer days. Pet owners sometimes overestimate their pet’s physical fitness and capacity to walk on scalding hot rocks. DEC warns pet owners to avoid bringing dogs hiking with them in the summer. Dogs are at risk of heat exhaustion and death. If a dog collapses from exhaustion, owners are advised to get the animal to a shaded area as quickly as possible and cool their feet, which is the most effective way to help an overheated dog.
Under Phase IV, church occupancy can increase to 33% from 25%.
Gatherings of up to 50 people will also be permitted under Phase IV.
Guidance has yet to be released for malls, gyms, movie theaters, bowling alleys and other industries and I continue to push for more guidance to be released.
This quarantine – effective midnight tonight – applies to any person arriving from a state with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or a state with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will continually update and publish on their respective websites a list of states to which the new advisory applies.
In particular, this rule updates and clarifies the forgiveness procedures from the PPP Flexibility Act and the new forgiveness forms.
Highlights from the Rule:
Businesses may apply for forgiveness at any time during the Covered Period once they meet the requirement for forgiveness- they do not have to wait until the end of the 24 weeks.
Clarifies the amount that Owners may pay themselves under the new Rule.
FTE safe harbor for businesses that can document in good faith an inability to return to the same level of business activity as the borrower was operating at before February 15, 2020, due to compliance with requirements established or guidance issued between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 related to the maintenance of standards for sanitation, social distancing, or any other worker or customer safety requirement related to COVID-19 (COVID Requirements or Guidance).
Summer Camps at the Strand Center for the Arts
The Strand Center for the Arts are hosting summer day camps this year.
The day camps are following current NYS, CDC and DOH guidelines to keep you, your children, staff and teachers safe.
These rules change weekly and sometimes daily and the Strand is keeping on top of it so they can provide a safe fun filled summer for your children.
Malls, Gyms and Movie Theaters are not cleared to reopen as part of Phase Four at this time. The state is continuing to study these activities. We remain hopeful that guidelines can be developed and issued soon.
The cap on social gatherings in Phase Four regions is raised from the current 25 people to 50.
Indoor religious gatherings in Phase Four are allowed up to 33% occupancy, an increase from 25%.
We will continue to provide up-to-date information and guidelines in the coming days and weeks as they become available.
The Town of Peru Water & Sewer Department announces that we will be closing Cross Street from the State Route 22 to Union Road on Thursday, June 26thfrom 7:00 am til 3:00 pm to replace a sewer line.
There will be NO through traffic including Emergency vehicles during that time period.
Peru – On about May 1st, the owners of 2,312 local properties received a notice that their property had a new assessed value. A few values decreased, but most increased, some significantly. Several people expressed their displeasure to the Town Board and on social media.
The notifications advised taxpayers to call assessor Jeremy Cross if they had questions and informed them of their right to file a grievance with the Peru Board of Assessment Review. Many people took that advice. After reviewing evidence and additional information, Cross changed the assessments on 108 parcels. The Board of Assessment Review received 94 grievances and approved 19 changes.
Board of Assessment Review Chair Deborah Witherwax said she’s never seen so many grievances. The Board typically meets once annually. This year it met three times with 45 people appearing in person. While the Board changed 19 assessments, if people had presented more supporting evidence, they might have been approved many more. Witherwax stated, “We denied several for lack of evidence. Some people were upset, but the majority didn’t have any evidence other than last year’s assessment. We need to see sales data for comparable properties located in the Town of Peru, i.e., a stick-built, three-bedroom, one-bath ranch, on a slab, etc. One person submitted information on a sale in the Town of Plattsburgh. That’s not acceptable. We need sales in Peru. We need as much detailed information as possible.”
Witherwax advised taxpayers who have concerns to call the assessor to ask questions and to explain why they believe the assessment is incorrect. If dissatisfied, they can file the grievance form with the Peru Board of Assessment Review. If the taxpayer is unhappy with the Board’s decision, they can appeal in Small Claims Court at the cost of $35 or NYS Supreme Court depending on the nature of the property. One, two, or three-family residences appeal to Small Claims Court.
Peru’s residential properties hadn’t undergone a total reassessment in several years. County Director of Real Property Services Martine Gonyo said up until about four years ago assessors conducted annual town-wide reassessments; however, state aid has been gradually decreasing. Consequently, the County assessors are no longer conducting annual town-wide reassessments.
Throughout the pandemic, 65% of OCFS-licensed and -registered child care programs remained open, many serving families of essential workers.
The funding being made available today will help to bring closed programs back to operation to serve families returning to the workplace.
The funding available includes:
$20 million to assist childcare program with reopening and expansion of capacity by providing materials to support a more socially distant model, and for supplies and activities associated with reopening and expansion- this may include partitions, short term rental of space, etc.
$45 million in childcare Reopening and Expansion Incentive funds to pay for 50% of the cost of a newly opened classroom (maximum grant amount of $6,000) as an incentive to open the classroom.
The temporary funds will phase out over the second and third months as more parents bring their children back into childcare.
In the coming weeks, NYSEG will begin to resume work that was delayed by the COVID-19 situation.
As energy is considered an essential consumer product, much of their work has continued despite the pandemic, however, NYSEG’s goal moving forward is to expand their efforts to include important customer-facing tasks that were postponed out of an abundance of caution.
To accomplish this safely and effectively, NYSEG will implement a phased approach, starting with work that directly supports customer safety and service reliability.
After that, NYSEG will resume activities that you would traditionally expect them to perform or that you request.
Peru – At its June 22, 2020 meeting the Peru Town Board took the following actions:
Approved installation of a stop sign at the corner of Washington Street and the new Gala Lane.
Accepted ownership of water and sewer lines serving apartments at Davey Commons on Davey Drive.
Approved a one-year term agreement with AES Northeast. AES designs and engineers most, if not all, of the Town’s water and sewer projects.
Accepted the new Patent Road culvert constructed by Luck Brothers. It passed all required inspections.
Discussed updating the Zoning Law regulations involving business signs, home-based businesses, and solar farm developments. Town Attorney Matt Favro suggested that Code Enforcement Officer Bob Guynup put his proposed changes in writing. Guynup will also confer with the Planning and Zoning Boards.
Noted that the Youth Commission will be discussing summer youth baseball-softball programs at its June 24th, 6 p.m. meeting. NYS has granted permission for some youth sports to begin on July 6.Counselors Rick Barber and Jim Douglass will attend that meeting.
In other business Code Enforcement Officer Bob Guynup said he had visited several local restaurants to check COVID-19 Phase 3 compliance. He found no significant violations. Restaurants are currently permitted to operate in-doors at 50% capacity.
The Highway Department’s new asphalt hotbox will cost the Town $2,233 more than anticipated. Peru is sharing the cost ($28,233.20) with the Town of Ausable and the Town of Chesterfield should pay its share next year. For some reason, Chesterfield did not include the item in this year’s budget.
Supervisor Brandy McDonald reported that the search for a replacement is underway for IT consultant Tom Lemieux who resigned effective June 30. McDonald said a meeting was held with Primelink, Inc., and a meeting will be held with Twinstate Technologies. The Board agreed that a consultant has to be available to keep the computer systems functioning. The Board hired Jason Barber on an as-needed basis from June 23 to July 31 at a rate of $75 an hour.The Board plans to hire a consultant by August 1.
At Counselor Kregg Bruno’s request, the Board adjourned to an executive meeting to discuss a personnel issue. The Board took no action following the session.
Note: Some labs are taking a particularly long time to report test results. This is not something that we have control over, but it does sometimes affect when cases are reported to you, and how soon after you see individuals move to the recovered category.
– The isolation period for an asymptomatic person (a person who is tested, but has no symptoms) begins on the date their test is collected.
– For a symptomatic person (a person with symptoms of COVID-19), isolation starts when their symptoms began. Isolation continues for a minimum of 10 days, and until there is no fever for at least 3 days and symptoms have improved.
– According to the symptom-based strategy to discontinue isolation for persons with COVID-19, the word recovered is used to describe someone who is no longer infectious, or able to pass the virus to another person (https://bit.ly/2VagXLD). A person who is recovered may still experience ongoing effects from the virus.
– There are multiple criteria that may place an individual in the probable category. For the probable case definition used by NYS, visit https://bit.ly/3en5n7o. Note that this is not a category that CCHD developed. A case definition is a set of uniform criteria used to define a disease for public health surveillance. These enable public health officials to classify and count cases consistently across reporting jurisdictions. — sharing a COVID-19 Update.
Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik introduced a bipartisan bill to provide temporary relief for Perkins loan borrowers along with Congresswoman Katie Porter (CA-45), Congresswoman Susie Lee (NV-03), Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), and Congresswoman Alma Adams (NC-12). This bipartisan legislation would expand the reach of the student borrower protections included in the CARES Act. The COVID–19 Perkins Loan Relief Act would allow the nearly 2 million borrowers with Perkins loans to forgo making payments on those loans until October.
In April of this year, Congresswoman Stefanik introduced similar legislation – the Equity in Student Loan Relief Act, a bipartisan bill to extend the temporary relief from student loan payments to Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) borrowers who have been left out of the relief provided in the CARES Act. Together, these proposals will ensure all federal student loan borrowers have equal access to the relief provided by Congress.
“COVID-19 presented significant challenges and uncertainty to North Country residents with student loan payments,” said Congresswoman Stefanik. “This bipartisan legislation closes a gap in the CARES Act and allows those with Perkins loans to defer payments until October as we recover from the COVID-19 crisis. Along with the Equity in Student Loan Relief Act, this critical legislation will reduce significant financial stress for the borrowers who have been left behind, and I’m proud to be an advocate for all of our hardworking North Country students and their families.”
Assemblyman
sharing a COVID-19 Update.