The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Highlights from recent Common Council meeting
The Oneida Common Council hit the ground running for their first meeting in 2021 ontuesday Jan. 5. Here are some noteworthy updates. City affairs
Jeff Rowe was welcomed as the new city engineer, replacing Eric Schuler who Mayor Helen Acker reports has moved to a different position outside of Oneida.
Also, a new face was Steve Laureti, who has been appointed as Ward 2 Councilor by Acker to replace Mike Bowe, who has moved south.
Four proposed local laws
were received and placed on file. Three of the laws have to do with the regulation of largescale solar energy systems. The fourth proposed law to amend Chapter 61 Fire Prevention is to remove the requirement that the Chief Inspector ( Fire Marshal) needs to attain the rank of Lieutenant within the Fire Department in order to performin that role.
Fire Chief Dennis Fields Jr. explained that there is no one in the department currently holding that title who wants to fill that position and changing the code to allow someone who is qualified yet lacking the lieutenant title is appropriate. Public hearings on these proposed laws will take place at 6: 30 p. m.
on Jan. 19 at the Kallet Theater.
The proposed laws intheir entirety can be found on the City of Oneida website, under the Jan. 5 meeting agenda.
The Recreation Center has been allowed to temporarily reduce its rate- per- hour for use of the gym by a single- family household. The fee reduction, whichwill cut the hourly rate in half from around $ 40 to about $ 20, will be in effect until Feb. 2, 2021.
This is a Rec. Department initiative to try and keep the building active for themonth of January when not much other activity will be taking place, especially with current safety restrictions permitting only one family unit to rent the gym out
at a time, said Recreation Director Luke Griff. To ask about renting the rec center gym or other facilities, visit the department online or call ( 315)- 3633590.
County updates Chairman of the Board John Becker gave his state of the county address, dedicated to county employees, on Tuesday, Jan. 5 at the first Board of Supervisors meeting.
Madison County Supervisor Mary Cavanagh reported at the common council meeting that the county has been averaging around 44 new COVID- 19 cases a day.
Of 376 active cases reported by Cavanaugh on Tuesday, 16
were nursing home residents. “[ Public Health Director Eric Faisst] mentioned the date of Jan. 19 being a very telling time after the holidays. That’s something he’s going to keep an eye on,” Cavanagh added.
As of Wednesday, Jan. 6, the number of active county cases has dropped to 366 according to the county COVID- 19 dashboard.
Officials said 49 county residents have died a COVID related death since the beginning of the pandemic. Six of the deaths have occurred since Christmas. Three of those sixwere nursing home residents, Cavanaugh reported.
Vaccinations have landed in Madison County and are being distributed. “The health department and the emergency management department are extremely busy because not only are they now vaccinating, but they’re still doing the contact tracing. So you can imagine how busy they are,” Cavanagh said.
The Oneida- based supervisor mentioned that Madison County is “way ahead of the game” when it comes to vaccinations in NYS.
“We’re one of 17 counties that are currently doing vaccinations, out of 62 counties,” she reported. The county has had a plan in place ahead of time and has also hired 22 per diem EMTS to be trained on testing and vaccinating.
Madison County received 1,300 vaccine doses Tuesday, Cavanaugh reported. Clinics to vaccinate eligible persons in group 1A have already begun and will be held at the American Legion in Chittenango, with plans for the Kallet Theater in Oneida as well, and perhaps a site inmorrisville. At least 150 people have registered so far, she said. Supervisor Matt Roberts, also representing Oneida, said vaccination rates are only planned to accelerate in the future.
Residents should also keep in mind that available vaccines currently require a second dose 28 days out from the first, so 1,300 doses really translates to 650 complete vaccinations— two doses per person.
Officials discussed that using up vaccine doses quickly is important to receivingmore. The term“use it or lose it” was used to best describe the situation as the state is urging facilities to speed up the vaccination process or risk losing the doses they have on hand to another facility.
Roberts reported that in an effort to meet the state’s timely demands and get vaccines out as quickly as possible, the county is exploring ways to get trained professionals into people’s homes for vaccination to support those who cannot easily be transported to a vaccination clinic.
Translating county efforts away from testing and into vaccinating is the goal, Roberts said. As more get vaccinated, fewer will need to get tested, and the solution to this pandemic will be more permanent, he remarked.
Sales tax had been faring quite well for the county as of late. “From a sales tax standpoint, we ended up 4.6 % above budget, and it was all due to the last two weeks of the year,” he commented. The supervisor said that likely the beginning of the year will also see a similar sales tax bump as the payments lag behind a few weeks from when they are collected.
“That’s one bright lightwe sawin 2020,” he commented.