This Cycle in Ontario County - October 2022
Note: The page numbers listed at the end of certain stories indicates where in the October 27th BOS packet you can find the relevant resolution.
Top Stories:
Genesee Land Conservancy Seeks to Purchase, Transfer Land on Honeoye Lake Outlet and in Town of Richmond
OC Applies for More CARES Act Funding
Microwave Link Between Ontario and Monroe Counties
Salary “Steps” Added for Psychiatrist; $5,000 bonuses for Managerial OC Employees
Shorts:
Covid and Monkeypox Updates
Mental Health Services Stretched Very Thin
Office for the Aging Staffing Shortage Continues
Ontario County Housing Study Update
BP to purchase Archaia
Ontario County Waste Characterization Study
Canandaigua Airport now Regional
State Awards OC $200,127 to Pay for Probation Department’s Pretrial Services
Local Law #5 Amended (Relates to Eligibility for Police Applicants)
OC Asks NYS for More Money to Pay for Medication Assisted Treatment
OC Energy Efficiency Study
Big Spenders and Under-Budget
Top Stories
DEC Land Purchase in Richmond
The Board of Supervisors this cycle considered a land purchase in the Town of Richmond by the DEC. The DEC is seeking to purchase, own and/or otherwise control five parcels of land, totaling 261 acres, along Allens Hill Road (Route 40) in the Honeoye Lake Watershed.
The DEC would not purchase the land directly — rather, the Genesee Valley Conservancy offered to purchase the land, which would later be transferred to the DEC for purposes of “conservation of the natural habitat and open spaces.”
The Town of Richmond has been through this before. Supervisor Daryl Marshall said in Planning and Environmental Quality Committee that Richmond has already lost 3,237 acres to the DEC — not including municipal properties. His major concern is that this continuing loss of land will necessarily increase the tax burden on local property owners, noting that the transfer of the land in question would adversely effect the tax base of Richmond and Naples’ school districts.
There are a few options on the table here. The DEC wants to purchase the land outright, which would remove it from the tax base. Pursuing a conservation easement instead would leave the land in the tax base, but it would become impossible to develop. This, in turn, would decrease the value of the land — an option that may not be acceptable to the current landowner. Heck, the DEC doesn’t really consider this option acceptable, either: the DEC, said Planning Department director Tom Harvey, wants to own this land. Although the DEC initially entertained the idea of a conservation easement, according to Harvey they later “took it off the table” because they found it unacceptable that ownership would ultimately remain with the current landowner.
An organization called Finger Lakes Land Trust has recently begun buying up properties such as this one, then turning around and selling them to the DEC. The Land Trust tactics are insidious because they offer to pay outrageous sums of money for properties (“$750,000 for mountainous billy goat land,” according to one Supervisor), consistently out-bidding individual private buyers and families. When the land is transferred to the DEC, it is permanently removed from the tax base and the housing market.
The Planning and Environmental Quality Committee and the Board of Supervisors are supporting the Town of Richmond in declining to sell the parcels to the Genesee Valley Conservancy. (Page 27)
OC Applies for More CARES Act Funding to Help Struggling Local Businesses
Economic Developer for Ontario County Ryan Davis has asked the Board of Supervisors to allow his department to request “further CARES Act funding for our Visit Ontario Safely program.”
“It’s been a very good program,” said Davis. “We’ve got eight to twelve businesses left in the pipeline, which will — this will help with that.”
“Visit Ontario Safely” is the colloquial name for the “Visit Ontario County COVID Relief Program.” Ontario County originally received $1,000,000 via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to fund this program, which distributes money to Ontario County-based small businesses in the tourism or hospitality industries, have 25 or fewer employees, and have been adversely impacted by Covid-19 measures. The grants range from $10,000 to $60,000. The original million has been exhausted. Davis is asking for an additional $352,000 to distribute to eight more small businesses that applied for funding, but were originally denied due to a lack of CARES money.
According to the program’s website, all program funds have been awarded. No new applications for assistance are being accepted. Eligible businesses seeking relief can contact Ostrander Consuting to learn about alternative sources of assistance. (Page 18)
Emergency Communications Microwave Link Between Ontario and Monroe Counties
The Office of the Sheriff put forth a resolution, “Authorizing Intermunicipal Cooperation Agreement with Monroe County for Coordination of Emergency Radio Communications Systems.” This agreement would formalize cooperation between the two counties where emergency communications systems are concerned. This mutually-beneficial agreement would allow the two counties’ emergency radio systems to be tied together and allow upgrades and operations to be coordinated. Monroe and Ontario already coordinate for transports to Strong Hospital and for communication with Eastview Mall. Having a formalized cooperative agreement would also allow the counties access to one another’s emergency services for support as needed, said Sheriff Phil Povero.
This agreement is ultimately a necessary precondition for the establishment of an emergency microwave link between the counties, which was proposed in a resolution titled, “Authorizing Contract with Finger Lakes Communication Co., Inc. to provide microwave Link Between Ontario and Monroe Counties.” Currently, there is only a single fiber optic connection between the two counties; no redundant connection exists. (Last year, this fiber connection was down for about eight hours.) The microwave link would provide redundancy. Monies made available through a 2018 DHS grant entitled “State-Wide Inter-operable Communications Grant” would cover $401,152.37, 100% of the cost of this project. Ontario and Monroe are the only counties in the area that have 700-800 MHz emergency radio systems, meaning partnerships with other counties are not yet possible.
The Public Safety Committee passed these resolutions on to the Board of Supervisors with no questions or discussion, where it obtained final approval in late October. (Pages 31-35)
Salary “Steps” Added to $250k/Yr Psychiatrist Pay Schedule; $5,000 bonuses for Managerial OC Employees
The Ontario County Psychiatrist doesn’t make enough money. With a starting salary of $225,000, County officials figured that steps, basically scheduled pay raises, could be omitted for this position. However, the psychiatrist apparently indicated otherwise, because a resolution to amend the 2023 compensation plan makes only two changes: adding steps to the psychiatrist position and giving all managerial/confidential employees $5,000 end-of-year “retention payments.” With this change, the starting salary (‘Step 1’) for the psychiatrist position is $250,000, and the top step is $274,054. For comparison, the next-highest-paid County employee, the County Administrator, has a Step 1 of $159,600 and a top step of $178,519. The County originally wanted to start the psychiatrist at $225,000, but with neighboring counties paying upward of $250,000, this was not possible. As a result, the psychiatrist is now the highest-paid employee in Ontario County.
Ontario County is once again paying all of its managerial/confidential employees an end-of-year “retention payment.” Last year, this payment was $7,000 per person and paid from ARPA funds. This year, eligible employees will receive $5,000, which will not be taken from ARPA (confirmed Canandaigua Supervisor Dave Baker).
I asked a County employee whether or not these were annual bonuses, and it was indicated to me that yes, they are. However, I searched for similar resolutions providing retention payments and found none before last year’s $7,000 payment. The year before, in 2020, employees received a 0% raise due to budget shortfalls resulting from Covid, and the fear of a reduction in state aid.
County employees will receive a 5% raise next year across the board, according to the schedule. (Page 60)
Shorts:
Covid and Monkeypox updates: Director of Public Health Mary Beer said in Health and Human Services committee on Monday that Covid cases are on the rise again, with Ontario averaging 40 cases per day. As of her report, there were 27 Covid hospitalizations (with or because of is unclear — email Beer to ask). People are recovering
“Our Covid numbers are up. They’re kind of mirroring what happened last year — in October, they started going up. So, we’re averaging now about 40 cases a day that we know of. We don’t know of all the cases because we’re not doing the contact tracing any longer. But our hospitalizations, we are tracking those and those are up to — today’s number is 27. That’s a lot for us. The good news is people are recovering, so we haven’t had any Covid deaths in a while.”
In response to a question by a Supervisor, Beer said the cases are generally among the older population.
“The latest booster, they’re saying, is doing a really good job. I’m not sure enough people are taking it, so.”
“We haven’t had a lot of deaths lately. We did have a couple who were reported late last month sometime, but we’re not seeing a lot of deaths right now.” The vast majority of cases are recovering.
“This is the story of what’s different now than what was. So, in the beginning of the pandemic, there was no treatment, there was no vaccine. So now vaccine, we also have an anti-viral that has been pretty effective. And the vaccine is helping to keep people from dying. That’s really — so, we are seeing less deaths.”
“No more Monkeypox. We’ve only had the one case, so it looks like that’s dying down a little bit.” The only reported case has recovered, so the County has seen no Monkeypox-related deaths.
Mental Health Services: Mental Health Services held a symposium on October 7th which was well-attended. Jessica Mitchell, Director of Mental Health Services in Ontario County, estimates that there were more than 55 counselors, social workers and administrators from local school districts and more than 80 participants total. Feedback from the schools was overwhelmingly positive, with some attendees even requesting that the symposium be held on a recurring, annual basis. It seems that many schools have reached out and asked Mitchell’s office for more mental health support. Unfortunately, Mitchell says that staffing shortages make that request a difficult one: “our staffing shortage is just so real we can’t even staff the main clinic fully.”
Office of the Aging: Director Irene Coveny reports that her staff are currently swamped with open enrollment for Medicare. Of the Office’s 12 staff positions, four are vacant. The prolonged shortage is a huge struggle. “I really see it wearing on the staff,” said Coveny. “We are trying to keep up.”
Coveny was recently able to access data from the 2020 census and found that the 60+ population in Ontario County has grown by about 40% since 2010.
Housing Study Update: DeBolt reported that the housing study (in cooperation with a firm based in Philadelphia) began in earnest in the last week of September with the contractor “driving around” Ontario County for a couple of days and reviewing hundreds of pages of documentation and plans. Moving forward, the county will form stakeholder groups and gather public input via a community survey. “In the next probably two weeks, you’re going to start to see, either from administration or from the consultants directly, they’ll be reaching out to you [Supervisors] and to organizations within your towns and villages looking to form these stakeholder groups,” said DeBolt. “We’ll also probably be doing a little bit of press just to let everybody know that this is coming up… And then there will be a community survey.”
I asked DeBolt about who is expected to be included in the “stakeholder groups” and how regular members of the community can get involved. Although he did not answer the first part of my question, he said, “That will be coming out when we do the public outreach and press release, and then there’ll be a project website that gets spun up, and then that community survey. And then, we will have several stakeholder groups that we’ll name to engage just members of the community, and we’ll get the word out about that when those opportunities arise.”
DeBolt estimates that these opportunities for community engagement should arise in late November or early December. I will be looking out for this to let you know how you can get involved.
BP to Purchase Archaea: According to Carla Jordan, Director of the Department of Sustainability and Solid Waste Management, “BP is looking to purchase Archaea Energy, and to close out that sale by the end of the year.”
Archaea Energy is a renewable natural gas (RNG) company that captures, then sells, emissions from waste (landfills). The company currently operates six sites in New York State — more than anywhere else in the country — including an electric plant at the Ontario landfill in Stanley and a combined RNG and electric plant at Seneca landfill in Waterloo.
Archaea’s purchase by BP will mean not only more corporate consolidation, but that by as early as next year, Ontario County will have a new operator of our landfill gas energy facility. (See https://www.archaeaenergy.com/projects for more information.)
Waste Characterization Study: Ontario County hired a contractor to randomly sample waste, categorize the county’s waste profile, and analyze their findings to help the county reduce its overall waste. The contractor was on-site weekly, pulling numerous samples at random and then sorting the samples manually. There are three main categories of waste: targeted recyclables, compostable organics, and not readily recoverable. This waste comes from four different streams: residential private hauler, residential municipal, industrial/commercial/institutional, and residential transfer stations. The study found that food waste comprised the highest percentage, at about 20%, of total waste in all four waste streams. The second highest-by-percentage type of garbage overall was paper. That would be the bad news. The good news is that Ontario County has only a low percentage of recyclables in its waste streams, indicating that, overall, residents are doing a good job sorting their recycling. The other good news is that targeting food waste could reduce the county’s overall waste by up to 20%. The Department of Sustainability and Solid Waste Management (SSWM) is already planning a campaign to help provide the public with more education and opportunities to divert such organics from the landfill.
Transfer stations were found to have the highest percentage of non-recoverable waste, which actually means that they are disposing of waste pretty efficiently. By the way, transfer stations accept both recyclables and “non-recoverable waste.” Transfer stations charge by weight, too — so if your household is able to find a way to compost organics (some paper can be composted, too), you may be able to reduce your waste to the point that taking it to a transfer station yourself is actually less expensive than paying a municipal or private hauler.
The full report is not yet available online, but when it is, it will be located here: http://www.ontariocountyny.gov/1707/Resources
Canandaigua Airport: The National Plan of of Integrated Airport Systems (yes, this is a real thing) recently changed Canandaigua Airport’s classification from a local airport to a regional airport due to increased activity, diversity of aircraft, and number of aircraft being housed at the airport.
Probation Department’s State Award: Ontario County Probation Office has accepted a distribution from New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services in the amount of $200,127 to help pay for “certified pretrial services” including pre-trial release-related expenses such as screening, assessment, supervision, electronic monitoring and reporting. A “distribution” of funds from the state is basically free (well, “free”) money, requiring no county match and having no use-it-or-lose-it stipulations or reporting requirements.
Public Safety Committee voted to accept the distribution, which was later also approved by the Board of Supervisors. (Page 29)
Local Law #5: The Office of the Sheriff proposed some amendments to local law #5, which stipulates where part-time and full-time police officers must live to be eligible for service/employment. The proposed changes would allow part-time county officers to live in adjoining counties and full-time county officers to live within one mile of Ontario County boundaries. These changes were proposed in response to the insufficient applicant pool for county police. It is also hoped that the changes will help the county to retain officers that move short distances. (Status unknown - no public hearing was held, can’t find resolution or documentation on County website.)
OC Asks NYS for More Money to Pay for Medication Assisted Treatment: The Office of the Sheriff offered a resolution “Urging the State to Provide Counties with Funding to Administer Medication Assisted Treatments in Correctional Facilities.” The Medication Assisted Treatments (MAT) program was mandated by New York State on October 7th. The purpose of this program is to use medication to treat addiction and ease withdrawal symptoms. While New York State allocated some funding to this program, the Office of the Sheriff says it’s not enough — in order to continue the program, they estimate that an additional $20 million needs to be made available (state-wide, up from the currently-allocated amount of $8,250,000.) A member of the public (it was me) addressed the committee during privilege of the floor to ask that Ontario coordinate with other counties to lobby the State to lower the cost of these medications instead of merely asking for more money.
OC Energy Efficiency Study: The Planning Department, together with Ontario County Administration, is trying to move forward with the long-awaited Ontario County Energy Efficiency Study. They seek to hire contractor, Wendel Energy Services, LLC, to complete the necessary work.
The study seeks to identify and remedy existing inefficiencies, and to identify potential locations for solar arrays. According to DeBolt, the study will be thorough, even going as far as replacing lightbulbs with LED alternatives.
The project is expected to cost $176,800, which will be split 50-50 between the County and NYSERDA. Ontario County has opted to use American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money to pay their share of the cost. (Page 43)
Big Spenders and Under-Budget
Capital project H087-22 - CR 25 Rehabilitation: $650,211.31 (contract awarded to Geostabilization International LLC; “Not to exceed $584k”?) (page 47)
Capital project H069-20 - Replacement of Tileyard Road Bridge: $348,000 (page 49)
Capital project H088-22 - Courthouse Improvements (small renovation, HVAC, etc… SAM (System for Award Management) Grant project): $236,104 (page 45)
Arctic Wolf Cyber Security Service (“software”) for Ontario County: $325,496.88 (covers three years; no resolution)