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SARATOGA SPRINGS  — Caffe Lena presents a free live stream at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 20 in a celebration of the life and legacy of Matt McCabe, longtime owner of Saratoga Guitar and dedicated member of the local music scene. 

Friends and family have submitted tributes, photos, and performances dedicated to McCabe, which will play as a live stream, hosted by Matt’s close friend Rick Bolton. The city has officially declared Feb. 20, 2021 as Matt McCabe day in Saratoga Springs. 

For many Saratoga County residents, turning to a trusted faith-based organization (“FBO” = church, synagogue, mosque, temple etc.) is a natural inclination when they find themselves struggling to make rent, pay for car repairs, put food on the table, or keep their lights on. After all, it is these organizations, and their parishioners who provide invaluable guidance and support during times of hardship. Unfortunately, the capacity of any one FBO to provide monetary assistance is limited, and their knowledge of applicable government funded resources may be insufficient to support long-lasting change.

A formal partnership of non-profits and faith-based organizations in Saratoga County leverages traditional modes of support by FBOs by facilitating a “crowd-sourced funding” type approach to meeting community-member’s immediate needs AND connects them with established services and financial assistance needed to reach and maintain self-sufficiency. Operating under the acronym FEASST (Family Emergency Assistance of Southern Saratoga County), the partnership was founded by CAPTAIN Community Human Services and several Clifton Park area FBOs. With the help of seed funding from our local Habitat for Humanity, the FEASST program now encompasses the northern area of Saratoga County, including the City of Saratoga Springs.

WHO DOES FEASST HELP?

Meet Rachel: Rachel is a single mom who works at your local gas station. Her son Steve is in 3rd grade. One of Steve’s classmates contracted COVID, necessitating him to quarantine for two weeks. Rachel needed to stay home with Steven, and thus was unable to work for two whole weeks. Although Rachel typically works 40+ hours per week, she lives paycheck to paycheck. She uses about 40% of her income towards rent and is nervous about missing her next payment. Rachel reached out to her church seeking advice and help with making rent.

What used to happen? Rachel’s church would provide her as much financial assistance as they could, though not quite enough to fully cover her lapse in rent. Spiritual support and group prayer for an improved situation would be facilitated, as well as some “light-touch” budgeting guidance.

Why FEASST is a great solution:  Rachel’s church connects her with CAPTAIN CHS. CAPTAIN CHS screens Rachel and realizes she only needs a short term solution to make this month’s rent. CAPTAIN CHS then reaches out to the local FBOs and nonprofits seeking $400 to cover ½ of her rent. Two churches give $100 each and one agency gives $200. Rachel’s church provides her with integral spiritual and community support during this difficult time. Alone, Rachel’s church would have struggled to meet her needs, but FEASST solves the problem!

Meet Mike: Mike is the bartender at your favorite restaurant. Sadly, he lost his job due to the COVID pandemic. Mike had $3,000 saved in his “rainy day” fund. Mike’s back at work but his income, which is predominantly from tips, is down over 50%. Even with supplemental unemployment and his stimulus check, his rainy day fund is nearly depleted and he is concerned about making rent. Mike reached out to his synagogue seeking advice and help with making rent.

What used to happen? Mike’s synagogue would provide him as much financial assistance as they could, though not quite enough to fully cover his gap in rent. Spiritual support and group prayer for an improved situation would be facilitated, as well as some “light-touch” budgeting guidance.

Why FEASST is a great solution:Mike’s synagogue connects him with CAPTAIN CHS. CAPTAIN CHS screens Mike and realizes that due to COVID there is government funding available to help him. Problem solved!

HOW CAN I HELP?
FEASST is a proactive housing solution that is executed by discovering the root cause of the issue and providing a collaborative holistic approach that provides a long term solution. If this type of strategy resonates with you, please consider making a donation to your local Habitat for Humanity at glensfallshabitat.org or CAPTAIN CHS at captaincares.org.

COVID Positivity Rate: 7-Day Average

• New York State overall: 3.7%
• Capital Region (eight regional counties including Saratoga): 2.3% 
• Saratoga County: 2.2%. 
* The total number of Saratoga County residents to date who have tested positive for COVID-19: 11,415. 

Hospitalization Capacity: 7-Day average
• Capital Region Beds available: 31%. New York Statewide average: 34%. 
• Capital Region ICU Beds available: 22%. New York Statewide average: 26%. 

Vaccines Administered
• Saratoga County residents – First Dose: 31,265.  Both Doses: 15,713.   
* Statistics provided by Saratoga County Public Health Department and New York State Department of Health, as of Feb. 16, 2021.

Jobs – Saratoga County’s Department of 

Public Health currently seeking individuals:
• CONTACT TRACERS – interviewing positive patients, identifying their close contacts, interviewing and alerting those contacts to the risk of infection, instructing those contacts to quarantine or isolate for 14 days.  “Contract” positions at $25/Hour.
• LEAD CONTACT TRACER – lead a team of contact tracers. Temporary, per diem-based position at $30/Hour.
• COVID Support Personnel – work is primarily routine in nature, standardized clerical tasks, working alongside vaccinators, health care providers and public health staff engaged in the COVID-19 vaccination effort. temporary, per diem-based position at $22/Hour.
• COVID Response Coordinator – under general supervision, responsible for performing a wide variety of administrative tasks required to ensure the efficient and effective operation of the Public Health emergency response effort. Temporary, per diem-based position at $25/Hour.
• All jobs: No remote capability – onsite required. 

More information, go to: saratogacountyny.gov. 

SARATOGA — Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing accusations that he covered up the true death toll of the pandemic on nursing home residents. 

Local Democrat Assembly-woman Carrie Woerner said that the state Legislature must fully investigate the governor’s actions and take immediate steps to protect vulnerable populations.    

In a statement released last week, Woerner, D-Round Lake, said: “like many of my constituents, I’m outraged by the revelations that the Cuomo administration purposefully withheld critical information about nursing home deaths because they were afraid of the Department of Justice.Regardless of whether such an investigation would have been politically motivated, that doesn’t justify what the governor did.  At this moment of crisis, transparency and accountability are absolutely paramount.  Without it, there can be no basis for trusting our government.”

Earlier this month, Woerner was one of only two Democrats who voted against a bill to rename Donald J. Trump State Park. The justification cited by the assembly measure for the renaming of the largely underutilized park on the border of Putnam and Westchester counties expressed that “the park should embody the goals of uplifting and unifying New Yorkers. For these reasons the Donald J.  Trump State Park should be renamed.”  Despite Woerner’s “nay vote,” the state Assembly opted to move forward with the bill in a 14-7 vote. 

BALLSTON SPA — Shawn Raymond and Ben Baskin are candidates for the two open trustee positions on the Village of Ballston Spa Board.  The election will be held on Tuesday, March 16.  They are running as a team under the local, non-partisan A Better BSpa line.

Raymond, a civil engineer, has served as Village Trustee over the past four years and is running for re-election. Baskin, a non-profit and public health professional, is a long-time community volunteer, is running with Raymond. The motto of the campaign is: Keep Moving Forward. 

Baskin and Raymond’s four key campaign issues are: preserving village character; promoting smart growth; providing fiscal responsibility and protecting village services. 

WASHINGTON—Congressman Paul Tonko released local impact figures under the Fiscal Year 2021 Reconciliation Act currently moving through the House and Senate. The rescue package would deliver an estimated $440 million in direct federal COVID-19 relief funding to counties, cities, towns, and villages in New York’s 20th Congressional District—which is represented by Tonko—to maintain essential services and staff including teachers, nurses, firefighters, water systems managers and countless others in the Capital Region. Under this bill:

Public services in Saratoga County – within the boundary lines of Tonko’s 20th Congressional District – would receive a total of $49,867,173. Albany County would receive a total of nearly $174 million, Schenectady County about $117 million, and Rensselaer County more than $82 million. 

“Capital Region communities have showed incredible strength and resilience in the face of this dangerous pandemic, but this fight has weighed on our spirits and depleted our family, municipal, county and state budgets; our local communities may not all survive long months of further economic hardship without federal help,” said Tonko, in a statement. 

“As more contagious new COVID variants continue to spread throughout the country, and with vaccinations still coming far too slowly and herd immunity still months away, we need bold leadership now to deliver that relief. Our COVID package does just that. This plan puts money in the pockets of millions of Americans, scales up vaccination production and distribution and delivers a lifeline to state and local governments to ensure local teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses and other essential workers are supported while they work to keep our communities going. The end of this pandemic is in sight, but we still have much work ahead to crush this virus and rebuild our economy. Advancing this legislation will give us a clear path to achieve these goals and save countless lives.”

The Reconciliation Act provision includes: $195.3 billion to states and the District of Columbia with $25.5 billion of that total equally divided among the states and $169 billion based on the state share of total unemployed workers, $130.2 billion to local governments, divided evenly between cities and counties, and $19.53 billion for municipalities with populations of less than 50,000. An additional $117 million in funds is targeted for oversight entities to promote transparency and accountability of all federal coronavirus relief funds. 

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ALBANY — Problems surrounding eligibility prioritization, excluded essential workers, limited access to available appointments, and more related to the rollout of New York State’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution program continue to persist. An easily accessible, statewide pre-registration tool available for every New Yorker’s use, would tackle these issues and provide much-needed peace of mind to an increasingly-anxious population.

Assembly members Patricia Fahy (D-109), John McDonald (D-108), and Carrie Woerner (D-113) released a joint statement urging the state to create a pre-registration tool. 

The pre-registration registration process would capture an individual’s age, occupation, any underlying health conditions, and how they’d like to be contacted. The state would reprioritize the list based on eligibility phases — healthcare, frontline, essential workers first, those with comorbidities, over 75 next, over 65, and so on. 

As the vaccine arrives in the state, the Department of Health would allocate a number of doses to each county, pharmacy, and other providers, and provide the list of the same number of people who are next up on the eligibility list. The County Public Health department would then reach out to those specific people, and schedule them for an appointment, making sure to schedule sufficient people on any given day so that no vaccine dose goes to waste. 

“The vaccine distribution process is confusing, frustrating, and makes an already-anxious populace even more so. We need a straightforward system that matches supply with demand,” reads the statement. “We recommend the Governor and the Department of Health move to a pre-registration system that will allow the state and counties to simplify the scheduling process, eliminate the competition for vaccine appointments, reduce the need to travel several hours to secure a vaccination, and overall reduce the stress people are experiencing.”