October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence Awareness Month is an opportunity to Start the Conversation about this important issue in all aspects of your life and show those impacted by domestic violence

that they are not alone. Whether you share the NYS Domestic and Sexual Violence Hotline number, join one of our Domestic Violence 101 trainings, or wear purple on October 19 for #PurpleThursday, this page is designed to share ways you can be an ally this October and all year long!

Here are some highlights of this month’s activities:

• Every Tuesday in October: Domestic Violence 101.
• October 1: New York State Assets lit up in purple
• October 17-19: The New York State Clothesline Project in the Empire State Plaza Concourse. The exhibit will focus on providing a platform for survivors to help them break the silence surrounding their abuse.
• October 19: Wear purple in honor of #PurpleThursday
• October 19: New York State Assets lit up in purple
• October 25: Start the Conversation: Engaging Men and Boys panel at Syracuse University
• All October: A social media campaign to help people #StartTheConversation in all aspects of their life

And locally, on Oct. 10 in Schuyler County, members of the community will gather in LaFayette Park in Watkins Glen from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Schuyler County Collaborates on Survey to Identify Gaps in Healthcare Access

© Copyright 2024, Finger Lakes Daily News by FLX Local Media:

Eight Public Health departments in the Finger Lakes have collaborated to create a survey hoping to understand what it’s like to find medical, dental, vision, hearing, mental health, and addiction care in rural communities. The survey was released on Monday.

The development of the survey this spring and summer was a collaborative effort led by the Pivotal Public Health Partnership. It is a precursor to the region’s Community Health Assessment (CHA) process which will begin in earnest later this year and continue through 2025.

Participating Health Departments include Yates, Schuyler, Ontario, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne, Livingston, and Chemung counties.

The survey can be found here.

Local leaders call on Gov. Hochul to crack down on ‘sticker stores’

Finger Lakes Daily News

State Senator Tom O’Mara (R,C-Big Flats), Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R,C-Corning), and Assemblyman Chris Friend (R,C-Big Flats) on (January 12) joined regional law enforcement representatives and other local leaders to call on Governor Kathy Hochul and the Democrat leaders of the State Legislature to approve legislation and crack down on the proliferation of businesses, commonly known as “sticker stores,” illegally dispensing and selling marijuana throughout the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions, and statewide.

O’Mara, Palmesano, and Friend currently sponsor legislation (S9365/A9815, Note: This legislation is being reintroduced and will receive new bill numbers for the 2023 legislative session) that, if enacted, would strengthen existing law, outlaw sticker stores, and establish criminal and civil penalties for violators. Any civil penalties collected by the state would be remitted to the county of the violating establishment.

They called on Hochul and the Democrat leaders of the Senate and Assembly to immediately enact the legislation.

In a joint statement, O’Mara, Palmesano, and Friend said, “New York State needs to stop the proliferation of illegal marijuana ‘sticker stores’ throughout the region we represent and statewide. These illegal operations diminish the quality of life and risk the safety of the communities and neighborhoods where they operate. New York State is establishing a legal and appropriately regulated network of adult-use recreational marijuana dispensaries, with all the necessary safeguards. While we opposed the legalization of marijuana from the outset, if it’s going to go forward, it needs to take place under a legally established system with the appropriate oversight. We need to make it clear that these illegal sticker stores cannot operate and that there are criminal and civil consequences for any owners who continue to do so.”

Calling on Hochul to step up state efforts to shut down the illegal operations, including the enactment of the legislation they sponsor, the area state legislators were joined in Watkins Glen today by the following regional law enforcement representatives and local leaders: Schuyler County Sheriff Kevin Rumsey; Schuyler County Administrator Fonda Chronis; Schuyler County District Attorney Joe Fazzary; Schuyler County Attorney Steven Getman; Schuyler County Legislator Phil Barnes; Chemung County Sheriff William Schrom; Chemung County Executive Assistant District Attorney Wayne Witherwax; Chemung County Legislator Bill McCarthy; Steuben County Sheriff James Allard; Steuben County Legislator Hilda Lando; Tioga County Sheriff Gary Howard; Tioga County District Attorney Kirk Martin; Penn Yan Police Chief Thomas Dunham; and Yates County District Attorney Todd Casella.

Virtual Court Navigator Pilot Program Announced

Virtual Court Navigators help court users prepare for court appearances, find court forms, get answers to general questions, find

community programs and services, refer people to legal service providers, navigate the court’s website, and more. It is a free program, designed to help people who either have or would like to start a court case

On June 6, the Virtual Court Navigator Pilot Program began scheduling appointments for unrepresented court users in: Albany, Columbia, Rensselaer, Ulster, Broome, Tompkins, and Chemung Counties as well as Erie County Surrogate’s Court.

Users in those counties who want schedule a time to meet with a virtual court navigator, can complete the online intake form.

For more information about the Virtual Court Navigator Pilot Program click here.

Schuyler County Opposes Hochul Prison Closures

The Schuyler County Legislature has come out against what it called Gov. Kathy Hochul’s “abrupt, secretive and unsafe” prison closures on public safety, economic and environmental grounds.

Meeting in special session on Monday (November 15, 2021), the legislature voted unanimously to enact a resolution opposing the planned closure of six prisons across the state by March of next year: Ogdensburg Correctional Facility; Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility; Willard Drug Treatment Campus; Southport Correctional Facility; Downstate Correctional Facility and Rochester Correctional Facility.

The resolution, drafted for the legislature by County Attorney Steven Getman at the request of Legislator Phil Barnes (R-Watkins Glen) and Chairman Carl Blowers (R-Montour Falls), noted that two of prisons, Southport and Willard, were located in adjoining Chemung and Seneca counties and provided jobs to Schuyler County residents.

“Governor Hochul’s decision impacts hundreds of area correctional officers and prison staff, and means uprooting hundreds of area families and a devastating toll on already hard-hit local economies,” the legislature noted.

Further, the resolution stated, the closure of Willard threatened to “prevent or delay necessary upgrades to the wastewater treatment facilities for Seneca County Sewer District No. 1, which serves (the) Campus as well as Sampson State Park, commercial and residential properties in the hamlet of Willard, the villages of Ovid and Lodi, and users along the east shore of Seneca Lake… potentially endangering the Seneca Lake watershed.”

Finally, the document noted that the state “has recently invested $20 million into operations at Southport, implementing a step-down program to work with the most violent inmates in the state’s prison system to get them ready for reintegration into the general prison population.”

Based on the above, the legislature said it “stands with our brave New York State Corrections Officers, as well as with corrections support staff and their families, whose lives will be devastated by this decision, and other area residents along Seneca Lake and otherwise, and calls for this decision to be reconsidered and reversed immediately.”

At the legislature’s direction, copies of the resolution will be sent by Legislative Clerk Stacy Husted to the Governor, the Acting Commissioner of the Department of Corrections, various other state officials and the legislatures of the adjoining counties, among others.

A complete copy of the draft resolution is available here.

Schuyler County, Others, File Generic Drug Price Lawsuit

Schuyler County has joined with over two dozen municipal governments, and others, in suing the makers of generic drugs over alleged price-fixing.

 

The county, along with local governments in New York and elsewhere, filed an over 1000-page Summons and Complaint on June 30 against more than fifty companies, seeking injunctive relief, damages, and relief from harms that the complaint alleges resulted from an unlawful agreement among the defendants to allocate customers, rig bids, and fix, raise, maintain, and/or stabilize the prices of all of their generic pharmaceutical products,

 

The lawsuit follows a vote by the County Legislature in 2020, authorizing County Attorney Steven Getman to join forces with Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, a New York City law firm “in the investigation and/or prosecution of any legal claim against manufactures of generic pharmaceuticals and/or their executives based upon their actions in fixing prices, allocating markets, and engaging in other antitrust violations or other wrongdoing with respect to generic pharmaceuticals.”

 

According to Getman, the lawsuit is pursuing claims in several areas.  These include increased health insurance premiums for county employees, additional workers’ compensation costs and higher costs of pharmaceuticals purchased for use by the county jail, all based upon artificially inflated generic drug prices.

 

Various government agencies have already commenced suit, Getman said, alleging violations of state and Federal antitrust laws and consumer protection statutes.   

 

“In 2014, the Department of Justice began an investigation into the pricing of various generic pharmaceuticals,” Getman explained. “In the wake of the Federal investigation, in 2017, the state attorneys’ general of 48 states brought a civil action alleging price fixing, market division, and other antitrust violations by 16 defendant pharmaceutical companies related to fifteen (15) generic prescription drugs.”

 

“As alleged, the defendants' anticompetitive conduct falls principally into two categories.   First, the defendants, allegedly communicated with each other to determine and agree on how much market share each would control and which customers each competitor was entitled to.  Second, competitors allegedly communicated -- either in person, by telephone, or by text message -- and agreed to collectively raise and/or maintain prices for a particular generic drug.”

 

The lawsuits, Getman said, now involve over 100 generic drugs and more than fifty pharmaceutical defendants, including Teva, Sandoz, Mylan, Pfizer, Actavis, Amneal, Apotex, Aurobindo, Breckenridge, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Glenmark, Greenstone, Lannett, Lupin, Par, Taro USA, Upsher-Smith, Wockhardt USA and Zydus.

 

“As noted, hundreds of generic drugs have been implicated nationwide. Each affected county or municipality can bring an action asserting overpayments for each applicable generic drug,” Getman explained.  “The key question in formulating a lawsuit was determining for which generic drug(s) each county has overpaid, and whether each was direct or indirect purchaser of same.”

 

According to County Administrator Tim O’Hearn, the lawsuit was filed at no risk to the county, as Napoli Shkolnik is working on contingency basis that covers all costs associated with the lawsuit.

“By going forward with the litigation, the County Legislature hopes to lessen the burden to taxpayers and seeks to hold manufacturers responsible for any unlawful role in the high cost of generic drugs,” O’Hearn said. 

 

Locally, along with Schuyler County, Chemung, Yates and Livingston Counties are acting as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Other municipalities in New York and elsewhere are part of the case as well. The case is currently scheduled to be heard in Federal District Court in eastern Pennsylvania.

 

In addition to the generics case, Schuyler County has been working with Napoli Shkolnik to prosecute a pending action against the manufacturers and distributers of prescription opiates for damages to the county arising out of the fraudulent and negligent marketing and distribution of opiates in and to the county.  That case remains pending in state court.  

 

A related trial, involving Nassau and Suffolk counties, and the New York State Attorney General’s Office, is now underway on Long Island against several companies accused of fueling the opioid crisis.  The trial on Long Island will be used as a test for the claims made by Schuyler County and other municipalities in New York, as well as an indicator of what may lie ahead for the drug makers, distributors and pharmacies in other states.

 

A copy of the June 30 complaint is available here.

Schuyler and Chemung Counties prevail in emergency tower site appeal.

Albany, New York--Schuyler and Chemung Counties have again prevailed in their five-years-long court battle against an adjoining landowner regarding the counties’ use of the Terry Hill Emergency Tower site (and right of way), owned by Schuyler County,  near Beardsley Hollow Road in Chemung County.

On Thursday (December 5) the New York State Supreme CourtAppellate Division upheld the prior judgment affirming Schuyler and ChemungCounty’s continued right to use the site and related easement for emergencyradio and voice communications.

Schuyler County Attorney Steven Getman

The County of Schuyler was represented on appeal by Schuyler County Attorney Steven Getman.  Chemung County was represented by Syracuse attorney Gabrielle Figueroa.   Elmira attorney Scott Moore represented appellant William Hetrick, the adjoining landowner. 

According to court records, both counties had used the site for radio and voice communication for over fifty years. In 2012, the two counties began to update and replace the emergency communications tower at the site.  Hetrick objected to the upgrade, arguing that it violated a restrictive covenant related to his land.  In October 2014, the counties sought a declaratory judgment from Chemung County Supreme Court.  The counties maintained that the use of the property was proper and necessary for public safety.  Hetrick filed a counterclaim thereafter.  In March 2018, Supreme Court Justice Judith O’Shea ruled in the counties’ favor.  O’Shea held that the new tower and equipment were consistent with the deed language, as was continued cooperation between Schuyler and Chemung counties.

O’Shea’s judgment was unanimously affirmed in Thursday’s ruling.

“We are pleased with the appellate court’s decision,”  Getman said.  “A ruling against the counties could have eliminated a critical public service from Schuyler County.”

The site is the single transmission site for the entire Schuyler Public Safety Communication system, Getman explained.  The county uses this system to dispatch nine volunteer fire departments, three ambulance services, multiple police agencies and local highway departments, he noted.

Various Schuyler County agencies assisted in gathering information and providing evidence to support the counties’ case during the litigation, including:  Emergency Management Director William Kennedy, the County Administrator, the Clerk to the Legislature, the County Clerk, the County Treasurer, the Highway Department and Buildings and Grounds.

Hetrick has approximately thirty days to seek leave to appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals.

Elmira man jailed for failure to pay child support, probation violation

Watkins Glen, NY (July 16)--An Elmira man was given a 60-day jail sentence for not paying past-due child support and violating his probation, following an appearance in Schuyler County Family Court on Tuesday (July 16, 2019).

According to County Attorney Steven Getman, the respondent was found in willful violation of a prior court order because he failed to pay over $2500.00 in back support for his two children and absconded from probation supervision.

Schuyler County Attorney Steven Getman

At Tuesday’s court appearance, Getman noted that the respondent had been placed on probation in 2018 for prior violations of the court’s support orders.    However, Getman said, the respondent continued to miss payments and then absconded to California, causing a warrant to be issued for his arrest.

The last payment was made in September, 2018, Getman said.

Based on the evidence, Getman argued, the respondent should be sentenced to jail.

The respondent was represented by Schuyler County Assistant Public Defender Mark Raniewicz. Raniewicz asked the court to consider releasing his client on a suspended judgment, giving him time to make payments.

After hearing from the attorneys, and the respondent, Acting Schuyler County Family Court Judge Joseph Cassidy determined that the respondent should be incarcerated.  Therefore, he sentenced the respondent to sixty days in jail, with the opportunity to “purge” the sentence if he paid at least $1000.00 towards the back child support.      Cassidy then ordered the man immediately taken into custody by court security.

Getman said he was pleased with the court’s decision.

“This jail sentence sends a message that will hopefully resonate,” Getman said. “Under New York State law, parents who willfully fail to obey court orders of child support can be sentenced to up to six months for contempt of court.”

“Parents who refuse to support their children can, and will, be punished when appropriate.”

The county attorney’s office represents the Department of Social Services and Probation Department in prosecuting child support cases brought in the family court by those agencies.  In addition, the office provides support collection services for eligible custodial parents seeking assistance in establishing and enforcing orders for child support.

The county attorney’s office was assisted in the prosecution and presentation of the case by employees of the county’s child support enforcement unit and county probation department.

The man’s name was not released to protect the privacy of his children and family.

Finger Lakes Election Results Available Online

Typically, many of the local boards of election will post their unofficial results online.

The websites for some local boards of election can be found below:

• Cayuga County
• Chemung County
• Ontario County
• Seneca County
• Schuyler County
• Steuben County
• Tompkins County
• Wayne County
• Yates County

Results usually start coming in shortly after the polls close at 9:00 pm and they are updated as new totals are calculated.

These sites are often a good way to keep track of local election results (village, town, county) that otherwise might not be available in the media until the next day.

Finger Lakes election results to be available online

Typically, many of the local boards of election will post their unofficial results online.

The websites for some local boards of election can be found below:

• Cayuga County
• Chemung County
• Ontario County
• Seneca County
• Schuyler County
• Steuben County
• Tompkins County
• Wayne County
• Yates County

Results usually start coming in shortly after the polls close at 9:00 pm and they are updated as new totals are calculated.

These sites are often a good way to keep track of local election results (village, town, county) that otherwise might not be available in the media until the next day.

Calling all superheroes to the CASA fun run

The Third Annual CASA Superhero 5K and 1K Fun Run is coming to Watkins Glen High School on Sunday, September 20.

Register by September 5 to save $5 on your entry and guarantee a free T-SHIRT for 12 and over, or a CAPE for all kids under 12. Teams are welcome.

Race Day Schedule of Events:
8:00 am Registration / Number Pick-Up
9:00 am 5K Race Start
9:45 am 1K Fun Run

Awards will follow immediately after the 1K Fun Run

If you are looking for an opportunity to do even more, take the Superhero Challenge: All Superheroes raising $100 or more get free entry. And all Superheroes or Superhero Teams that raise over $500 will be inducted into the CASA of the Southern Tier Justice League Hall of Fame on Race Day. Set up you sponsor page here to get started!

All proceeds from the race stay local for the advocacy of abused and neglected children in Schuyler, Chemung, and Steuben Family Court.

For information, click here.