MidHudson News is reporting the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office has established an Unmanned Aircraft, or drone, Unit. The unmanned vehicles have been deployed several times for search and rescue operations, including an incident in July on the Ten Mile River in Wassaic. During that effort to save two people stranded in a rain-swollen river, a sheriff’s drone was deployed to assess potential hazards and guide rescue swimmers to the stranded victims. The idea to deploy drones was brought to the agency approximately five years ago by a member of the department. The drones were initially used primarily for accident reconstruction investigations, but the unit has been deployed many times to help with missing person cases, to assess storm damage and to give detectives an aerial view of crime and accident scenes. According to the department, roughly 40 percent of the police agencies in the country now possess at least one drone. The drones are not used for surveillance purposes, according to the department. The UAS unit is currently looking to replace its existing fleet with newer models. “We are currently seeking alternative funding to replace our six drones. Because we have several FAA licensed pilots, grant opportunities are more accessible,” said Detective Sergeant Adam Harris, the unit supervisor.  Harris noted that funding for the unit may also available from asset forfeiture. Read the full story at MidHudsonNews [dot] com.

Today's daily news update.

Lorna Cherot Littleway reports in The Columbia Paper that a number of complaints about a Galvan Foundation-run 36-unit, 55+ senior community home in the Village of Chatham were not disputed by local officials, who said they were not illegal. But other allegations residents made about the Highpointe Apartments, went unanswered, and Galvan officials did not comment for the story. Littleway quotes residents saying they are “fearful,” “frustrated,” and “wouldn’t recommend” living there. A memo from management confirmed that the heat at the apartments was not turned on by Oct. 1, violating state law. "A tour of the facility... pointed out loose siding, a three-inch drop-off from recently repaired concrete walkways to landscaped grounds, exterior mold build-up on lower siding, shrubbery that extends onto the walkways, improperly installed exhaust systems on laundry room dryers and built-up lint behind the dryers, which clogs the outdoor vent," the story says. After a 77-year-old resident was hospitalized after a nighttime fire drill, Chatham Village Mayor John Howe said there was no requirement for fire department personnel to be on site during a fire drill and village officials did not need to be notified in advance of the drill. The New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal issued a statement saying, “IRS tax code does not require management to reside or have a presence on-site 24/7, and management and/or staff that is routinely accessible on-site during the week is an accepted management standard for compliance." They said there was on-site management two days per week, but resident Gregory Pickens says that is someone cleaning rooms two days per week for two hours per day. Littleway spoke with three other residents, who did not want their names released as they feared retribution from management. They claimed the Galvan Foundation was “unresponsiveness” to repair requests, and claimed intimidation and bullying “especially of women tenants.” The non-profit Galvan Foundation began managing Highpointe in 2014 and manages 180 units in Columbia County including in Philmont and Hudson. Read more about this story in The Columbia Paper.

Sam Raudins reports for Columbia-Greene Media that on Oct. 7 Hudson Mayor Kamal Johnson vetoed the "good cause" eviction law recently passed 8-0 by the Common Council. Johnson said he wants to sign it, but wants changes first. “I was asked by the Legal Committee and also our city attorneys to veto this current law and it will be going back to the council to be worked on further,” Johnson said. “It seemed that the consensus was that it was not yet ready.” Typically such laws need Legal Committee approval to move before the Common Council. First Ward Alderperson Rebecca Wolff wants to remove language that allows the court to investigate a tenant’s ability to pay increased rent, and that a landlord can use the sale of a building as a reason to evict tenants. The original approved law and a similar effort earlier in the city of Albany were hailed by housing advocates. Rebecca Garrard, legislative director at Citizen Action of New York, who championed the Common Council vote, now says changes are good. “I think the council and the mayor are moving in a way that really reflects their prioritization of passing legislation that will ensure the greatest protections for the residents of Hudson, who are at significant risk of displacement and homelessness,” she said. Landlords in Hudson are now trying to use the veto as an opportunity to weaken the law. Kristal Heinz, a 5th Ward Hudson resident and owner of investment properties in the area, said, “I think this legislation has been rushed, the consequences have not been thought through.” NOTE: Johnson is a volunteer programmer at WGXC. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.

Robert Gavin reports in the Times Union that a press conference with Rep. Paul Tonko and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries at the Jewish Community Center in Albany Oct. 11 was disrupted by a bomb threat. Instead of the two politicians discussing federal spending and day care the building was evacuated and police urged people to stay away from the area. Police did not release many details on the bomb threat. The Jewish Community Center was targeted with threats in early 2020, when a number of Jewish Community Centers across the country also received threats. The same thing happened in 2017, when the Albany center was one of 54 such facilities in the U.S. that also received phoned-in bomb threats that were all hoaxes. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

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Roger Hannigan Gilson reports in the Times Union that every person from Columbia County who has died of COVID-19 has been not been vaccinated. The latest death, Columbia County's 103rd, was announced Oct. 7, of a man in his 60s who did not live in a nursing home. Thirteen of the 103 deaths in Columbia County came after vaccines were widely available. "What we're finding is the delta variant is different from what we had last winter," said Columbia County Health Director Jack Mabb. "It can go through a whole family and get everybody sick, whereas last winter, you could have a husband and a father who are positive and the rest of the family kind of avoids it." So the good news is that no one who was vaccinated in Columbia County has died from coronavirus. Also good news, is that the case count there has dropped below 100, down to 67 on Oct. 9. But there is also more bad news, as not many folks are signing up for the booster shots that are now available for the elderly. "We're not getting the numbers that we thought we would," Mabb said. "We had 200 shots available today ... and we did 82, which is actually a good numbers compared to some of the other counties around us." But part of that issue is Columbia County only gave out the Moderna vaccine until late March, but right now only Pfizer booster shots are available. When Moderna booster shots become available, Mabb predicts the booster shot numbers will increase. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

MidHudson News is reporting the New York State Center for Economic Growth has updated Greene County’s 2021 profile with the latest available data through July. Greene County in 2020 recorded New York’s sixth-largest increase in domestic migration. Business activity is also surging, with the county ranking fifth in the state for annual business formation application growth during the last five years. Before the pandemic, Greene County’s total employment had experienced strong growth. Despite COVID-19, that trend continued in 2020 as several sectors of the local economy experienced consistent growth, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade and finance and insurance. Read the full story at MidHudsonNews [dot] com.

Emilie Munson and Leigh Hornbeck are reporting for the Times Union landlords took legal action to evict more than 4,000 tenants in the Capital Region during the pandemic, according to information released by the New York court system. An eviction moratorium has been in place since the start of the pandemic and in New York, tenants will continue to be shielded until January 15. But housing advocates worry that after the moratorium is lifted, a surge of evictions could put thousands of state residents out of their homes. Statewide, landlords filed nearly 114,000 eviction cases from March 1, 2020 until October 4, 2021, court data shows. That number is down from 262,400 commercial and residential eviction cases filed in 2019 statewide. Thirty-five percent of all eviction cases filed during the pandemic were filed in New York City, specifically in Bronx, Kings, Queens or New York counties. But the Capital Region, which includes Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties, was another hotspot for eviction cases. During the pandemic, 4,050 evictions were filed by landlords in Albany County. The area of Troy south of Lansingburgh and the town of Brunswick, had the highest number of eviction cases filed during the pandemic of any ZIP code outside of the New York City metropolitan area. Landlords filed 613 eviction cases there. Other high eviction areas include the Mansion area, Krank Park, Cherry Hill and Mount Hope in Albany, as well the area of the city from West Hill to Upper Washington Avenue and the SUNY Albany campus. Michelle Arthur, executive director of the United Tenants of Albany said the numbers were higher than she expected, but the areas where evictions are highest are in places that have historically had higher eviction rates, like the South End and West Hill, where the residents are often more vulnerable and have access to fewer resources. Tenants are currently protected from eviction if they can prove they have not been able to pay rent due to a hardship related to COVID-19, but landlords can challenge a tenant's claims, as long as they have proof the tenant could be paying rent. With a brisk pace of filings of eviction cases, the Legal Aid Society hired more lawyers in Albany to handle cases to cover eviction court in Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties, using funding from federal coronavirus legislation, Robert Romaker, the managing attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern NY, said. Each of the 11 attorneys has 20 to 40 cases, Romaker estimated. Read the full story in the Times Union.

Melanie Lekocevic is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the Coxsackie-Athens Board of Education has delayed its vote on the proposed reorganization of the district's elementary schools. The board initially planned to vote October 7, on the proposal to house grades pre-K through 2nd at the Edward J. Arthur Elementary School in Athens, and third and fourth grades at Coxsackie Elementary School in Coxsackie. The reconfiguration plan drew heated opposition from many in the community. Four forums were held over the summer and a fifth took place at the Coxsackie school last week, but the consensus among board members was that additional feedback would be useful. Board of Education President Michael Donahue said more community outreach was done to determine whether the district mascot should be retired, another hot-button issue. “I don’t know how far we have reached out. We did more for the mascot,” Donahue said. An issue this big needs as much input from the public as possible, he said. “This is a huge thing for the district and I think it is incumbent on us to give as many people as possible a final chance to speak,” he said. The district will develop a survey and distribute it to the community before a final vote is taken. The release date for the survey has not yet been determined. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Today's daily news update.

Bill Williams and Melanie Lekocevic are reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the New York State Bridge Authority October 8, announced that cash tolls on the Rip Van Winkle Bridge will be going away in the next few weeks. The toll booths on the span will eventually be demolished after the switch to cashless tolling occurs. Several of the toll collectors have said they were told the switchover will begin on November 1. The Bear Mountain Bridge changed to cashless tolling on October 1. Both the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge and Mid-Hudson Bridge are expected to make the switch before spring. The electronic gantries to implement cashless tolling were in place at the Rip Van Winkle Bridge by late summer, but work on those gantries is continuing. The cost of converting all five Hudson River bridges to cashless tolling is approximately $30 million. That includes the contract with the toll systems provider, installation of the equipment and rehabilitation of the roads at the conclusion of construction. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

Susan Arbetter is reporting for Capital Tonight that Jumaane Williams, the New York City public advocate, is exploring a Democratic primary run against Kathy Hochul, this time for governor. In 2018, Williams did well in his race against Hochul for lieutenant governor. He received an endorsement from The New York Times, as well as 46.6 percent of the statewide vote to Hochul’s 53.4 percent. Williams is not a fan of Hochul, who he believes is still part of the Cuomo apparatus. Which is the reason why he was disappointed in state Democratic Chairman Jay Jacob’s endorsement of the governor last week. Williams said his decision to run is in no way linked to whether or not Attorney General Letitia James decides to jump into the race. He said, “...The attorney general and I have a great relationship. She hasn’t publicly said if she’s running. She’s doing a great job as attorney general.” Morgan McKay is reporting for State of Politics Libertarian candidate Larry Sharpe has formed an exploratory committee for governor in 2022. Sharpe ran for governor in 2018 and received 1.6 percent of the vote, or about 95,033 votes in total. Sharpe finished slightly behind Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, who got 1.7 percent of the vote. Since that campaign, Sharpe has held speaking tours statewide and he also hosts a podcast called “The Sharpe Way. “Democrats in this state have been failing us for years and Republicans in this state have been impotent for years,” Sharpe said. “Let’s stop the madness and vote for someone with real ideas and policies and not just left-right rhetoric.” Sharpe also sought the Libertarian Party’s nomination for vice president in 2020, as the running mate of Judge Jim Gray. Sharpe made an appearance at Old Factory Brewing in Cairo Oct. 9 (see video above). Both Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates are starting to campaign for the state's top job next year. On the Democratic side, Gov. Kathy Hochul has already announced that she is running. While Williams has formed an exploratory committee, James and others are openly considering their own plans. Republicans Andrew Giuliani, U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, Lewis County Sheriff Mike Carpinelli, former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and Derrick Gibson have all announced their shared aspiration to be New York’s next governor. Read both stories at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.

Andrea Macko is reporting for Porcupine Soup the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation announced October 7, a gift of $500,000 to the Stephen Petronio Company for the preservation of a 77-acre parcel in Round Top. The land, surrounding the Petronio Residency Center on Crows Nest Road, next door to the Catskill Preserve, will be designated a forever wild open space. It will be named the Doris Duke Preserve at Round Top, Greene County. “The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's grant to Stephen Petronio Company is nothing short of transformational for us as an organization,” said Stephen Petronio. A modern dance choreographer, Petronio in 2017, established the Petronio Residency Center on 172 acres that feature a 6,500-square-foot house and 2,500-square-foot state-of-the-art dance studio, organic garden and hiking trails. The mission of the center is to provide artists with a place to research and create new work away from their day-to-day responsibilities in close proximity to nature, and to establish a local dance education program that brings the power of movement to local youth. In addition to the Duke foundation, the Petronio company also received support from The Howard Gilman Foundation. Read the full story at porcupinesoup [dot] com.

Today's daily news update.

Larry Rulison reports in the Times Union that National Grid officials are predicting heating bills will rise 31 percent this winter. "This is the largest increase we've seen in many years," Kellie Smith, National Grid's New York gas pricing manager said Oct. 7. The cause: capitalism. "There's higher prices primarily due to the economic recovery," said Richard Meyer, vice president of energy analysis, markets and standards for the American Gas Association. "Because we are using more energy, we are using more natural gas, and demand has been going up (causing prices to rise)." Demand has increased as the pandemic recedes. National Grid officials say they are not profiting from the price increases. "It (gas supply) is passed on directly to customers without markup," said National Grid spokesperson Patrick Stella. Regulations limit the company to make its profit on the so-called delivery of gas through its pipelines and delivery system to customers. Officials say National Grid's home natural gas delivery rates have only increased about $38 during the winter heating months since 2009. Read more about this story in the Times Union.

Scott Atkinson reports for WWNY that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill Oct. 7 to provide drug treatment for addicts in prison. “Why wouldn’t we take advantage of that opportunity, to invest in people, give them something as simple as medication to help them deal with their illness while they’re incarcerated, just like we’d make sure they have their diabetes drugs or their cancer drugs,” Hochul said. “What we’re trying to do is remove barriers to treatment.” Lewis County Sheriff Mike Carpinelli is running for governor as a Republican, and denounced the new law. “I’m upset by it. I think it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money, and I think it’s gonna bring more problems to all our jails across the state,” he said. "It’s the state’s twisted way of trying to ensure more votes from the left side and, you know, pandering to that... There’s not one minute that I think it’s truly in their heart that they care about the person.” In all, Hochul signed five bills Oct. 7 to address the opioid problem in the state, including making it easier to find and possess overdose-treating drugs such as Narcan, and a law which expands the number of crimes that can be referred for drug treatment. Read more about this story at the WWNY website.

Andrea Macko reports for Porcupine Soup that 52 percent of homes and 56 percent of businesses in Durham in Greene County currently lack access to broadband internet service, a new report says. The Broadband Working Group of Durham Connect, the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee unveiled a draft of the report at the town's meeting Oct. 5. “The internet has become a crucial part of our lives, just like roads, electricity and the telephone. But many parts of Durham have no access to the internet, or only have access that is expensive, slow, and unreliable,” the report states. “Only wired broadband (co-axial or fiber-optic cable), which is available to most people throughout the U.S., can provide the speed and reliability necessary to transmit the data-rich solutions that they need from the internet.” The report says that 49 of the 120 miles of roads within Durham will still not be wired for broadband this year and at least 730 of 1,790 addresses don't have access wired broadband. The report says it would cost $1.52 million to wire all the Durham roads. Durham Supervisor Shawn Marriott said the town board will read the report and decide on a course of action at the November town meeting. Read more about this story at Porcupine Soup.

Today's daily headlines.