Weekend News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on January 16, 2021
The Batavia police advisory collaboration stakeholder group has their report ready to send to the Governor but they want to keep meeting. Although they did not have any proposed changes to the police department they wanted to focus more on better mental health services, and police opening up more communication with city residents, especially those of color, to foster greater goodwill between groups. Chief Shawn Heubush said there is no plan for the conversation to stop and that there are plans on how to invite the community in to more of the polices activities. Community leader Victor Thomas of the Just Kings Social Club said that the chief and assistant chief went above and beyond to actually hear the communities voice. The written plan produced by the committee will be presented to the City Council on Jan. 25 and become available for public review at that time. There will be a public comment period and the council will be asked to approve it and send it to the governor’s office, to comply with the executive order, on March 8.Assemblyman
Steve Hawley has announced a plan for helping the economy of New York recover called the Jump Start New York plan. The plan would release funds that have not been allocated from the stimulus bills and several capital programs and make small businesses eligible for the Film tax credit. Small businesses would be given another 180 days to file sales taxes, and a 180 day grace period to fixe regulatory violations without being fined. There is also help in the legislation package for renters, farmer and landlords. It would also reign in Governor Cuomo’s powers and let the legislature resume their duties which Cuomo has been doing mostly by executive order.
COVID Update: As of Friday evening Genesee county has 55 new cases and 72 people have recovered. 9 people are hospitalized. Orleans county has 29 new cases and 38 people have recovered. 18 people are hospitalized. 2 residents at Orchard Rehab and nursing and 1 community member have passed away. There are 197 active cases in Genesee county and 255 in Orleans.
The Genesee Orleans Wyoming Opioid Task Force will be hosting its’ second Quarterly meeting virtually on Thursday the 21st at 9:30am. The meeting will look back at 2020 and look forward to the plans for 2021. This meeting is open to the public and the community is invited to join and share any questions they may have. Follow the link to their website on wbtai.com to register. http://www.gowopioidtaskforce.org/
Senator Chuck Schumer says that he has talked to incoming President Joe Biden and New York will be getting 2 billion dollars from the federal government through FEMA. Schumer says that most of these funds will be used to close the state budget gap. Some will be used for COVID relief for counties.
