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To the editor:
The Sullivan County Legislature recently voted to spend all 7 million dollars of the COVID-19 Federal Relief Funding (ARPA) allocated to us for 2021 on road …
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Neversink
To the editor:
The Sullivan County Legislature recently voted to spend all 7 million dollars of the COVID-19 Federal Relief Funding (ARPA) allocated to us for 2021 on road repairs and new boilers for the college.
Not a single legislator piped up that these funds are actually meant for repairing the damage which COVID-19 has done to our community’s minds, bodies and finances and for preparing our Public Health infrastructures to better cope with the pandemic as it continues to rise and fall.
The silence from the local politicians and human service agencies has also been deafening, apart from a small group, including this writer, who routinely protests at this legislature’s public meetings.
A survey which was conducted during the spring to collect opinions from the community about how that money should be spent was totally ignored, and there were no public hearings and very little discussion, besides arguments about giving the frontline workers a stipend. Ultimately, legislators voted for the “Premium Pay” stipend, but then voted again to remove it from ARPA to the county’s “contingency” fund.
The Chairman stated that Premium Pay should be negotiated as part of union contracts instead, but that since frontline employees would now be getting a stipend, he would be withdrawing the 1% increase he had been willing to consider.
It doesn’t take a genius to understand why Sullivan County is persistently rated 61 out of 62 of County Health Rankings, which measure length and quality of our lives.
Even when we are gifted 7 million dollars to spend on COVID relief, not a penny of it is spent in any way relating to improving the health of the community, despite soaring numbers of overdoses, suicides, domestic violence, child abuse reports, numbers of children in foster care, mental health needs, homelessness, and so on. You can thank your legislators.
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lhfc1563
Very good letter. The same happened with the Tobacco settlement and the same will happen with the opioid money. It's a shame they can't put the money to where it's supposed to go to do the good that it's meant to do.
Wednesday, September 8, 2021 Report this
SCDemocrat1891
I agree completely. We can only hope when the opiod money comes that it is spent on a decent rehab center, early prevention, and help to the foster care system which is suffering with this problem. Our county needs to step up for a change instead of funding their pet projects.
Friday, September 10, 2021 Report this