The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
From D.C. to Wampsville
WAMPSVILLE, N.Y. >> Madison County officials recently returned fromthe National Association of Counties Legislative Conference in Washington D.C., seeking support on issues such as the heroin crisis, FEMA reimbursement for municipalities, and infrastructure funding.
At Friday’s Madison County Board of Supervisors meeting, those officials shared what they learned in D.C., commenting on the potential impact to Madison County.
Brookfield Supervisor John Salka attended a panel on the opioid crisis facing the nation, in which a number of representatives from the Center for Disease Control were members of the panel.
“It’s a national security issue,” Salka said, also noting that while the epidemic has not hit the county as other areas in the country, it has endured its own trials with opioid addiction. “It’s getting worse and worse as time goes on.”
Salka said the panel recommended moving away from the practice of tying hospital pain control measures to funding, citing the overprescribing of opioid pain killing medicine as a direct result of it. Salka added that previously, hospitals had five major factors to evaluate in regards to patients: pulse, respiration, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, and pain control. Patients were leaving hospitals and becoming addicted to the opioid prescribed to treat their pain, often times seeking illegal means of continuing to take the medicine after their prescription ran out. Now, experts are recommending less aggressive alternatives to pain control.
DeRuyter Supervisor Dan DeGear shared
that FEMA is considering changes to how it reimburses municipalities, and the idea of a county and state thresholds have been kicked around at the Capitol. DeGear admitted that the exact measures of the change “are still vague,” but did compare the proposed change to an insurance deductible. If a disaster comes at the beginning of FEMA’s fiscal year, the municipality would have to pay toward the deductible. On the flip side, if the disaster comes after the deductible has been paid, the municipality would not have to contribute.
“It’s a pretty unfair way of handling things at the federal level,” DeGear said, adding that New York state would have the first or second highest deductible in the nation if the change goes into effect.
Madison County Chairman of the Board John Becker sat in on the agricultural committee in D.C. He said the committee spoke of the importance of protecting drinkable water in the country. He also had the opportunity to meet with U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. D-NY, discussing different ways to alleviate financial pressures facing counties in the state. Becker learned that the Capitol is looking at different ways to help pay for the healthcare act, including making health insurance plans with values more than $8,000 subject to income tax. And though there were discussions as to how to relieve counties from the burden of Medicaid, Becker was not hopeful.
“I’m sure we’ll end up paying one way or another,” he said, adding that Medicaid costs the state $2 billion.
Becker shared there are also discussions regarding the “repatriation” of monies outside of the U.S. by offering tax credits for companies that bring their money stateside. By providing less of a tax hit to bring the money back into the country, businesses are more likely to bring the money back. The funds generated in this scenario would then in turn be used to fund infrastructure.
“All these things are just being kicked around,” Becker said, reiterating that they were ideas and not set in stone.
Following the presentation of what was gleaned from the D.C. conference, Madison County Administrator Mark Scimone gave his annual year in review for the county in 2016. The following are highlights fromthe various county departments.
Board of Elections
•Moved to its new office space adjacent to the DMV.•Over 4,000 new registered voters
•2,400 absentee ballots processed.
•30,000 votes cast in 2016 Presidential Election.
Clerk’s Office
•Created computer station for the disabled to view public records.
•Digitized the majority of deed records.
•Historian Matthew Urtz interviewed and recorded a dozenWWII vet interviews.
E-911
•911 implemented a completely grant-funded automatic vehicle locator system with the Madison County Sheriff’s Office and NY State Police allowing for a real-time vehicle location, which saves on dispatch time. Other county vehicles such as probation, highway and social service department cars and trucks are included as well.
•To date, has received over $10 million in grants through the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to support 911 Center needs.
Emergency Management
•Acquired and distributed nearly 1,000 smoke alarms to the public through 23 local fire departments at reduced cost thanks to a CNY Community Foundation grant.
•Established the Madison County Heroes volunteer firefighter recruitment and retention programwith grant money from the NYS Office of Emergency Management.
•The new Emergency Operations Center was finished in the county building basement.
Highway
•Improved safety at the intersection of Eaton Road and Eagleville Road and completed bridge reconstruction and road realignment.
•Adjusted the winding “S” curve on Lynch Road in the Town of Stockbridge to allow for better winter road maintenance and public safety.
Information and Technology
•Planned and installed a “significant upgrade” to the county’s wireless internet, providing the public with free wi-fi at all county buildings.
•Implemented an out-ofcounty disaster recovery site for critical services in order to facilitate a speedier recovery should county servers go down.
Maintenance
•Implemented SmartWatt-Campus-wide energy practices (upgrades to the transformer, water heaters, window tint, and campuswide LEDlighting) that will save the county $3 million.
•Programming key cards for campus buildings to increase safety.
•Completed renovations to the county building to allow for space for the new board of elections site.
Mental Health Department
•Hosted a crisis intervention training for multiple county police departments, giving law enforcement skills and training to better interact with the mentally ill.
•Served 600 clients ages 3-80 for psychiatry and therapy, and see roughly 50 new clients a month.
Personnel
•Transitited to a new civil service software in order to more efficiently administer civil service to more than 1,600 public sector employees across county municipalities and school districts.
Planning Department
•Installed a new pavilion at restroom at Oxbow Fall’s Park and hosted “Tour the Towpath,” which brought cyclists from across the state and country to ride along the Old Erie Canal and visit the Madison County communities of Canastota, Chittenango, Wampsville and Oneida.
•Hosted training for 150 planning and zoning board members of Madison County municipalities.
Probation
•Safety officers are now armed.
•Collected more than $77,000 in restitution from sentenced offenders and returned the collected money to those victimized by said offenders.
Public Health
•Conducted tests and well assessments for more than 150 Madison County homes and offered educational outreach on how to sample and protect drinking water sources.
•As part of a county opiod task force, the department is conducting outreach and education activ- ities with local provider offices about the impacts of prescribing opiods for pain management and providing alternative, non-opiod solutions to pain management.
Sheriff’s Office
•Served over 225 children and their families through the Child Advocacy Center.
•Converted old paper pistol permits to a laminated, plastic photo system.
•Finalized the new sheriff’s patrol building, putting road patrol, criminal records, and criminal investigators all under one roof.
Solid Waste
•The Agricultural and Renewable Energy Park at the lanfill welcomed its first tenant, John Brothers Lumber of Cazenovia. The lumber company is utilizing excess heat from the gasto-energy plant to dry its lumber.
•Finished construction of a leachate pipeline to the City of Oneida
Treasurer
•Assisted in the implementation of a purchasing card program, allowing the county to capitalize on cash rebates offered by vendors.
Real Property
•Integrated GovPilot software into the county workflow in order to better streamline and record data.
Veteran’s Agency
•Madison County was proclaimed a Purple Heart communitywith signage installed at county borders.
Youth Bureau
•15 students from 3 districts participated in the “Exploring County Government” program.
•Arranged job shadowing opportunities from 29 high school students and funded 7 community organizations that provided programming to more than 300 Madison County youths.