Governor Cuomo Announces Immediate Corrective Actions for Utility Companies Following Failed Response to Tropical Storm Isaias

 

Electric Companies Face Steep Penalties and Revocation of Franchise

Initial Findings Highlight Areas in Need of Immediate Fixes Including Inadequate Staffing for Storm Event, Failure to Communicate Accurate Information to the Public and Technology Breakdowns

PSEG-LI Will Forfeit Nearly $10 Million in Incentive Compensation

Department of Financial Services Will Work with the Department of Public Service in Aiding the Ongoing Investigation

Governor Cuomo Will Also Propose Legislation to Expedite and Clarify Franchise Revocation Procedures

  Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that the New York State Department of Public Service has completed the first phase of its investigation in record time into utility preparation and restoration efforts related to tropical storm Isaias. As a result, the Department has sent Notice of Apparent Violation letters to four electric service providers — Con Edison, Orange & Rockland, PSEG LI and Central Hudson — and telephone, cable and internet provider Altice-Optimum that they now face steep penalties and must take immediate corrective actions so that similar failures are not repeated during the remainder of hurricane season. This is the first time DPS is front-loading the investigation process with Notices of Apparent Violation, and they have tightened the investigation process from the usual 12 to 24 months to just 6 months.

DPS is still threatening to pursue franchise revocations for Con Edison and Orange & Rockland as well as termination of PSEG-LI's contract with LIPA if the investigation deems it appropriate. Governor Cuomo directed the Department of Financial Services, which has broad investigative capabilities, to work with DPS to enhance its review of these utilities and better hold them accountable. Governor Cuomo will also propose legislation to expedite and clarify franchise revocation procedures. It will address questions including the ownership and transfer of assets such as substations, cables and trucks to ensure that the ratepayers who funded them are not charged again in the event of a new operator taking them over.

"The response to tropical storm Isaias by the electric utilities was completely unacceptable. Fifteen days later and we are still hearing complaints from families and businesses," Governor Cuomo said. "With many weeks remaining in the hurricane season, we do not have the luxury of time — utilities must act immediately to fix their broken storm response apparatus, and the Department of Public Service must act more swiftly to hold utilities accountable. DFS will help DPS on this investigation because I want a faster and more thorough investigation than they've done in the past. I am also going to propose legislation to facilitate, expedite, and clarify the process for a utility to lose their franchise. These utility companies predict when we're going to have storms and when we're going to have emergencies - that's the art form of the business and what we pay them for. They need to do better and we are holding them accountable."   

Specifically, DPS cited Con Edison and Orange & Rockland for inaccurate communications, website problems, and inadequate pre-staging; PSEG LI was cited for a failure of its outage management system, inaccurate communications and problems with its call center; and Central Hudson was cited for inadequate communications capacity at its back-up data center, leading to their website becoming unavailable to customers. Altice-Optimum apparently did not follow its emergency plan pertaining to generator deployment and communications protocols, among other failures.

DPS has also called on PSEG LI to forfeit its 2020 incentive compensation of approximately $10 million as a first step and to use the proceeds toward compensating families and small businesses who lost food and medicine as a result of the extensive outages, and PSEG LI has agreed to do so.

Peak power outages in New York State due to Tropical Storm Isaias reached approximately 920,000 customers, and approximately 1.3 million New York customers experienced power outages during the event. 

The State is directing the utilities to undertake several corrective actions, including:

• Add crewing capacity via retainer contracts from private contractors or utilities located outside of New York, with a goal to be able to secure in advance of a storm double the level of internal linemen and tree crews;
• Test capabilities at all command centers, call centers and back-up command centers to ensure capability to handle an event that affects 90 percent or more of their customers in their service territory and provide confirmation back to the Department regarding the results of this test within 10 days;
• Refine coordination plans with municipalities tailored to each county (road clearing, local liaisons, etc.) and provide to the Department within 20 days a written confirmation from each county Emergency Operations Center that they understand and accept the plan; and
• Update life support equipment and critical infrastructure lists to remove or add customers as identified during Tropical Storm Isaias and file such updated lists to the Department within 10 days.

The Department also identified several potential violations related to Altice-Optimum's storm response in the lower Hudson Valley and Long Island, including a failure to coordinate emergency response with local officials, communications failures, and insufficient generator capacity for their network. The Department letter demands that Altice-Optimum promptly remedy these issues and provides notice that the investigation will include a review of whether the company is in violation of the Commission's 2016 order approving its acquisition of Cablevision.

In addition to sending out notices of violations to the aforementioned utilities and Altice-Optimum, the Department also informed the State's other major electric utilities — NYSEG, National Grid, and RG&E — to immediately secure supplemental crews that can be deployed in the event of an emergency, to test the capabilities of the utility's command center, back-up command center, and call center to ensure capability to handle a large event (more than 90 percent of customers affected) in their service territory; and to file road clearing and liaison plans with each county emergency operations center, update lists of customers who use life-saving equipment in their homes, and update critical infrastructure lists.

Governor Cuomo Announces 12th Straight Day New York's COVID-19 Positivity Rate Is Below 1 Percent CORONAVIRUSHEALTHPUBLIC SAFETY

 

0.78 Percent of Yesterday's COVID-19 Tests were Positive

6 COVID-19 Deaths in New York State Yesterday

SLA and State Police Task Force Observes Violations of State Requirements at 5 Establishments

Confirms 631 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 427,202; New Cases in 37 Counties

  Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that for the 12th straight day, New York State's rate of positive tests was below 1 percent. The number of new cases, percentage of tests that were positive and many other helpful data points are always available at forward.ny.gov.

"For the 12th straight day, our rate of positive COVID tests was under one percent, which is great news. We went from one of the worst situations in the nation to the best, all thanks to the hard work of New Yorkers and our data-driven, phased reopening," Governor Cuomo said. "The reason we're doing well is because we're being smart. If people's behavior doesn't remain disciplined, we're going to have a problem and you'll see the numbers change. COVID is not over by any stretch of the imagination. We must protect our progress, both from the growing cases across the nation and lack of compliance within our state. We cannot go backwards, and it is up to all of us to slow the spread by continuing to wear our masks and socially distance, and localities must enforce compliance."

Yesterday, the State Liquor Authority and State Police Task Force visited 1,077 establishments in New York City and Long Island and observed 5 establishments that were not in compliance with state requirements. A county breakdown of yesterday's observed violations is below:

• Brooklyn - 3 
• Manhattan - 1 
• Queens - 1 

Today's data is summarized briefly below:

• Patient Hospitalization - 548 (+11)
• Patients Newly Admitted - 81
• Hospital Counties - 30
• Number ICU - 131 (+5)
• Number ICU with Intubation - 60 (+0)
• Total Discharges - 74,328 (+70)
• Deaths - 6
• Total Deaths - 25,270

Attorney General James Wins Court Argument Against Martin Shkreli and Company, Antitrust Lawsuit Will Continue

 

Courts Rejects Vyera, Shkreli, and Mulleady’s Motions to Dismiss

AG James Filed Lawsuit After Shkreli and Company Stifled

Competition After Raising Drug Prices More Than 4,000 Percent

  New York Attorney General Letitia James yesterday afternoon won a motion in the case against Vyera Pharmaceuticals — previously known as Turing Pharmaceuticals — and two of its former CEOs — including convicted criminal Martin Shkreli — after Shkreli and his company tried to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Attorney General James, six other states, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

“While much of the country continues to suffer from rising COVID-19 infections, Martin Shkreli and his company continue their unlawful scheme to gouge and hold captive essential, life-saving drugs from ill and vulnerable individuals,” said Attorney General James. “This order will not only ensure our case against Shkreli and his company continue, but that at-risk patients and victims of this fraud get their day in court. Our bipartisan coalition will stop Vyera’s egregious conduct, make the company pay for its illegal scheming, and block Martin Shkreli from ever working in the pharmaceutical industry again because we will never allow greedy pharmaceutical companies and CEOs to line their pockets at the expense of suffering patients.”

In January, Attorney General James and the FTC filed a lawsuit against Vyera, Shkreli, and his business partner, Kevin Mulleady, alleging that the three stifled competition — and continue to do so today — to protect the exorbitant, monopolistic pricing of the drug Daraprim (pyrimethamine). Daraprim is used to treat the parasitic disease toxoplasmosis, and despite Vyera being the only FDA-approved source of the medication until a generic was recently launch this past spring, Shkreli, Mulleady, and Vyera raised the price of the drug by more than 4,000 percent overnight, to $750 per pill, after they purchased the rights to Daraprim in August 2015. In April, the attorneys general of six additional states — California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia — joined Attorney General James and the FTC in the lawsuit.

Vyera and the two individual defendants filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit this past May, which the U.S. District Court for Southern District of New York rejected yesterday, stating, “the alleged scheme continues.”

Daraprim and its generic equivalents are the only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs for the treatment of toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease which may pose serious and often life-threating consequences for those with compromised immune systems, including babies born to women infected with the disease and individuals with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Daraprim has been the gold standard for treatment of toxoplasmosis for decades — recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the HIV Medicine Association, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America as the initial therapy of choice for toxoplasmosis. Nevertheless — and despite being off-patent — there has never been a generic version of Daraprim sold in the United States.  

Attorney General James and the coalition seek to enjoin Vyera’s conduct, as well as to obtain the return of unjust profits that would be distributed to the victims of the company’s illicit scheme. Additionally, Attorney General James and the FTC are leading the coalition in asking the court to issue an order banning both Shkreli — who is already serving a seven-year sentence in federal prison for securities fraud — and Mulleady from the pharmaceutical industry for life. 

SCHUMER REVEALS: PANDEMIC LEAVES FINGER LAKES HOSPITAL STRAPPED FOR CASH, SADDLED WITH COSTS FOR PPE & TESTING; SENATOR ANNOUNCES THREE-PRONG PLAN TO GET FINANCIALLY-DEVASTATED NY HOSPITALS – LIKE SOLDIERS & SAILORS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL – THEIR FAIR SHARE AND SECURE THEIR SERVICES FOR THE REGION

 

COVID-19 Costs and Cancellation Of Elective Procedures Left Hospitals Strapped For Cash; Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital Has Already Eliminated 50 Positions And Risk Needing To Eliminate 20 More In The Fall

Schumer Pushes Three-Pronged Plan To Get Hospitals More Federal Support, 1) Pushing For More Funding From Schumer-Created $175 Billion Provider Relief Fund, 2) Calling For Improvements To Medicare Loans Program, & 3) Demanding More Support For COVID-19 Testing 

Schumer: Finger Lakes Healthcare Workers Were Fighting On The Frontlines, They Shouldn’t Have To Fight To Now Stay Afloat Too

  Standing with officials from Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital in Yates, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today revealed his three-pronged plan to get sufficient federal support for Soldiers and Sailors and stave off additional layoffs of vital staff who helped the Finger Lakes beat back the COVID-19 peak in New York. First, Schumer pushed for ‘COVID-4’ pandemic relief to contain additional funding for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund (Provider Relief Fund), which would provide additional tranches of funding that would help Soldiers and Sailors. He also called on HHS to quickly allocate the remaining funding they have available for the program, roughly $60 billion in total. Second, the senator called for improvements to be made to Medicare Advanced and Accelerated Payments, which are loans that help hospitals with cash flow, but have such onerous interest rates and repayment terms that it will severely hurt hospitals in the long run. Third, Schumer additional testing dollars in COVID-4, which would providing more federal support for Soldiers and Sailor’s which is now saddled with new costs due to requirements that staff must routinely be tested.

“The doctors, nurses, and staff at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital have made incredible sacrifices throughout this pandemic, putting public health above profit and working ceaselessly to help Yates County and the Finger Lakes beat back the virus and flatten the curve,” said Senator Schumer. “Despite these incredible sacrifices, Soldiers and Sailors has not yet received enough of the federal emergency aid that I specifically negotiated into the CARES Act and fought for in the Interim ‘Corona 3.5’ package for them.”

Schumer argued that his three-pronged plan is necessary as a series of funding issues have plagued Soldiers and Sailors and all the issues must be addressed in order to sufficiently support hospital operations. Additional funding for the Provider Relief Fund is needed because the Hospital is still facing $3 million in losses by the end of the year, despite receiving $3.5 million in HHS’ Rural Hospital tranche of funding. Soldiers and Sailors has also been wary of Medicare Advanced and Accelerated Payments, as the loan program has prohibitively high interest rates and onerous repayment terms that would severely hurt the hospital in the coming months. Finally, the Hospital estimates it will incur $41,000 in unbudgeted testing costs by December, on top of the budget shortage they are already experiencing. As such, Schumer is pushing for additional funding for testing to support the hospital.

Schumer explained that the lack of federal support has forced Finger Lakes Health and Soldiers and Sailors hospital to take on extra costs which they are unsure of how to alleviate, other than through staff cuts. So far, Soldiers and Sailors has been forced to eliminate 50 positions, and anticipate needing to let go of 20 more in the fall if no additional funding is forthcoming. They have spent thousands of dollars to obtain PPE, supplies, and other critical equipment, were forced to stop capital spending and defer expenses, and spent a significant amount outfitting the hospital to provide a safe environment to treat COVID-19 patients.

Schumer added, “It will take a multi-tiered approach to ensure Soldiers and Sailors gets the aid they need, which is why I am here today pushing a three-pronged plan to ensure the hospital is able to keep its heroic staff on the job and keep its doors open to continue serving the Finger Lakes Region.”

Schumer’s three point plan calls for the following:

1)    Calling on Congress to provide additional funding for the $175 billion Provider Relief Fund, and calling on the Administration to immediately disperse the roughly $60 billion that remain unallocated

2)    Amending the Medicare loans program to provide more cash flow assistance to hospitals, which carries a punitive 10% interest rate and withholds Medicare payments from hospitals until the balance is paid

3)    Calling on Congress to provide additional resources for testing

VCJC Shabbat Services to Resume Aug 22

 

The VCJC is sending this announcement to inform you of:  Our plan to resume Shabbat Services on Sat. Aug. 22, 2020 The Van Cortlandt Jewish Center wants you to know that we are planning to resume Shabbat morning services this coming Shabbat August 22nd. Services will be held upstairs in the game room on the first floor for the rest of the summer. Due to the need for social distancing, we have to limit the number of attendees to 20 people. Anyone wanting to attend services must sign and return the waiver we mailed out with the high holiday ticket letter to the shul before Shabbat. The waiver is also available for download.   All attendees will be required to wear a mask during services.  All attendees will be given a temperature check upon arrival. We also ask that you contact Stu Harris at 646-240-1279 to reserve your space as soon as possible. You may also reserve a space by email to reservations@vcjewishcenter.org. If you do not make a reservation, you may be denied admittance if we are at our 20 person limit.   Please review the rules for attending services during the pandemic on our website's home page. Services will begin promptly at 8:30 AM and we expect them to end by 10 AM at the latest. For any additional questions regarding the reopening and safety protocols as well as changes to the services please call Stu Harris at 646-240-1279

Mayor de Blasio talks about COVID-19

 

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Well, good morning, everybody. New Yorkers have been nothing short of heroic in fighting back against the coronavirus. In fact, when you think about what you have done in the last few months, people all over this country look at and they honestly are amazed, and I think it is a statement on the ability of this city, the ability of the people, the city to do extraordinary things. Now we have so many challenges that this crisis has brought forward, but that same spirit of doing what others may see as impossible or very, very challenging, we New Yorkers take on challenges all the time and we overcome them. So I want to talk to you today about the challenge we're seeing and it's been made so stark by the coronavirus. The challenge of disparity, the challenge of income inequality, it has come up so sharply in the course of these last few months, but it's something we've been grappling with for a long time, and this needs to be a moment when we resolve to make more fundamental changes. The coronavirus itself and the economic crisis that's come with, it has hit so hard in communities of color. It's hit immigrants so hard. It's hit small businesses so hard. We have so much work to do to create something better and fairer, and that's what we're going to do. We are committed to a just and fair recovery. So today in a moment, we're going to talk about a very important piece of that recovery, a very important piece of an effort to do things differently, and it is exciting because it has to do with a brand new approach to supporting businesses in the Black community and providing the support they need to really come back stronger than ever.

 

So we're going to go over that in just a moment, but first I need to give you an update about the situation, a couple of neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and this goes back to everything that we are doing with the Test and Trace Corps, everything we're doing when we identify a problem, how we address it rapidly, another thing that New York City is doing on a level unlike any other city in America, we now have the capacity through Test and Trace, when we see a problem to address it fast and with a lot of energy, a lot of personnel, a lot of impact. So last week I alerted everyone to the situation in Sunset Park. I was out in Sunset Park, Brooklyn yesterday [inaudible] Tuesday, and I was out there with a lot of volunteers. Some of whom you see here reaching out to people, telling them how important it is to get tested. And this outreach effort has been going on for a while, but intensely over the last week. Now what the Health Department saw in the last week or more was an uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases. The outreach effort meant to get ahead of that, to instantly ensure that more and more people got tested, that we found where there were specific problems and address them, obviously, by making sure people safely separated and the situation was contained. The increased testing gave us more information, more data to work with, more contacts to follow up on.

 

What we know so far, thank God, limited community spread and not a cluster situation in a Sunset Park, and we'll talk more about that – I also want to mention a situation in Borough Park, Brooklyn, that we're focused on as well, because we've seen an uptick in just in the last few days and particularly a group of 16 cases that came out recently that we see as an early warning sign. Again, we want to be always acting out of an abundance of caution, and we saw this in the Sunset Park situation by assuming there might be a problem getting in there fast with a lot of energy, a lot of personnel, it makes a lot of difference. So we're taking the same approach with Borough Park. Some of these 16 cases are linked to a recent wedding, a large wedding, in fact in the community. So, we are working immediately to galvanize community leaders, to work with Test and Trace Corps, had a good call last night with a group of community leaders from Borough Park. They certainly understand the urgency of situation. We want to get the message out that people need to be tested, that people need to wear face coverings, that we need to avoid those large gatherings that can cause a bigger problem. We're also mobilizing a large response, mask distribution to houses of worship, engaging community organizations, whatever it's going to take, helping people understand that if they do test positive, they can safely separate and get a lot of support to do it. And anyone who's concerned that if they test positive, what's going to happen next, we want them to know that there'll be a lot of support for them to get through what really is in the end, a brief period of separation, and we're going to have community members and community organizations that are going to play a big part in that.

 

So, again, overall New York City is doing so well and you'll hear today's indicators are pretty extraordinary as an evidence of what all of you have achieved, but we've got to stay vigilant about the basics, the social distancing, the face coverings, obviously avoiding large gatherings. This is really important that we take seriously that reality because that will help us stop the spread of this disease. Now I want you to get an update on all of these kinds of outreach efforts because they're so crucial to our success and I want you to hear from the Chief Equity Officer of Test and Trace, she was with me in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, yesterday and did a great job engaging residents directly.

Okay, I'm going to go back where I started that again, this is not just a health care crisis. It's an economic crisis. It's a disparity crisis. And we are dealing with challenges that we haven't seen literally since the Great Depression in this country or this city, but the disparities are now being talked about rightfully in the bluntest possible terms and this fight against income inequality, this has been exactly what this administration has been focused on for the last seven years, but when it comes to the Black community, listen to this fact, it is a deeply troubling one, first of all, in this epidemic Black businesses, twice as likely to close for good as white businesses. But you also have to think about the racial wealth gap at its foundation, and listen to this fact, here in a city that's about – has about 22 percent African American population. So, about 22 percent of all New Yorkers are people of African descent, but only two percent of New York City businesses are owned by members of the Black community. Something's wrong with that picture to say the least. We need to do things differently. And our Department of Small Business Services is leading the way and they've put together a roadmap to help advance Black entrepreneurship in New York City. This is something that you don't just say, okay, the private sector is going to take care of this. No, the public sector needs to get involved to do the most we can to help Black businesses move forward, especially with the challenges going on now. So, Small Business Services launched Black Entrepreneurship NYC last year. The simplification of that phrase is BE NYC – 1,500 Black business owners and community leaders and academic leaders came together to put together a vision of what would actually work on the ground for community businesses. And the idea is to do something profound, to start to close the racial wealth gap. Now, what do we do?

 

Well, we know there's three big areas of concern that came out of this process, obviously, access to capital and trying to right the wrongs of the past where that capital was not available to Black entrepreneurs. Marketing, helping businesses, smaller and bigger, to have more access to the digital marketplace and more connection to new sources of revenue like government contracts that obviously connects to everything we've been doing with the M/WBE program of the city, minority and women-owned businesses. And then mentoring, getting folks who have been successful and have great networks to share that success, share those networks with up and coming businesses. So, the BE NYC partners have come together with a number of leading New York City businesses to do this work. I want to mention a few and thank them in the process. Ernst & Young will be providing free one-on-one consulting to businesses to work on their business plans. Goldman Sachs will be providing access to affordable financing. Mastercard will help business owners to set up virtual storefronts. Major, major firms committing to this effort in a tangible way. And very importantly, a new BE NYC accelerator at the Brooklyn Navy Yard – a $3 million effort to provide the space and the support and the knowhow to help these businesses to move forward rapidly in one location where all that help is there to energize the efforts of entrepreneurs.

Now, number two, the new second indicator, new reported the cases on a seven-day average basis, threshold of 550 cases, today's report 320. Number three, percentage of the people testing positive citywide for COVID-19. Again, we have moved the threshold now from 15percent to five percent, as we continue to tighten up, we continue to fight back this disease. We now told you we're doing everything down to the decimal points so you can see more specifically what's happening with the testing. The number I'm showing you here today is the lowest number we have had since this crisis began. This is the lowest infection rate in New York City since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. Today's number is 0.24 percent. This is extraordinary. Now, we all know every day can vary. We all know there's no single perfect measure, but the fact that with expanded testing and more and more outreach all the time, you now see a number as low as 0.24 percent for the New York City infection rate. This is striking and this should be a clarion call to all of us to double down and go farther because the more we can do to beat back this virus, the more we can bring back this city. So, congratulations to all of you, because this is your achievement. 

DEC Environmental Conservation Police Officer Highlights

 

  New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Environmental Conservation Police Officers (ECOs) enforce the 71 Chapters of NY Environmental Conservation Law (ECL), protecting fish and wildlife and preserving environmental quality across New York. In 2019, the 288 ECOs across the state responded to 25,704 calls and worked on cases that resulted in 16,855 tickets or arrests for crimes ranging from deer poaching to solid waste dumping, illegal mining, the black market pet trade, and excessive emissions violations.

Two-thousand-and-twenty marks 50 years for DEC and 140 Years for New York’s Conservation Police Officers. In 1880, the first eight Game Protectors proudly began serving to protect the natural resources and people of New York State.

"From Montauk Point and Brooklyn to Buffalo, the ECOs patrolling our state are the first line of defense in protecting New York's environment and our natural resources, ensuring that they exist for future generations of New Yorkers," said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos. "Our ECOs have worked arduous hours, both deep in our remote wildernesses and in the tight confines of our urban landscapes, for far longer than the 50 years since DEC was created. These officers are critical to achieving DEC's mission to protect and enhance our environment and I am confident they will continue this important mission for the next 50 years and beyond."

If you witness an environmental crime or believe a violation of environmental law occurred, please call the DEC Division of Law Enforcement hotline at 1-844-DEC-ECOS (1-844-332-3267). 

Illegal Turkey Take – Westchester County 

On July 27, a Westchester County man appeared in the Town of Mamaroneck Court to answer charges from the illegal taking of a turkey from a roadway. Back on May 7, ECO Schneider responded to a call for assistance from Mamaroneck Police for reports of a turkey shot from the roadway at approximately 7 p.m. ECO Schneider photographed the scene and spoke to a witness who described a van in the area at the time of the shooting and provided a license plate number. The following day, ECO Schneider turned the case over to ECO Tompkins who is assigned to Westchester County. ECO Tompkins interviewed nearby residents who may have witnessed the incident and reviewed video from a homeowner with surveillance cameras pointed at the road where the turkey was believed to have been shot. The videos showed the turkey dead on the side of the road with the van in question stopped as a passenger exited the vehicle and picked it up. ECO Tompkins tracked down the owner of the van, identified as Mark Luceno of Mamaroneck, and spoke to him about the incident. When presented with the evidence, Luceno gave a full written confession describing how he shot the turkey from the side of the road with his compound bow while his wife drove. He was issued six tickets for illegally taking protected wildlife, taking a turkey during closed hours, use of a motor vehicle to take small game, discharging a bow from across a public highway, discharging a bow within 150 feet of a dwelling, and failure to tag a turkey as required by law. Luceno agreed to civil penalties in court and paid a $500 penalty. 

Tangled Osprey – Suffolk County 

On Aug. 12, a concerned personal watercraft rider contacted ECO Perkins reporting an osprey hanging from its nest with its foot wrapped in fishing line. The nest was in the State Boat Channel near the Cedar Beach Marina in the town of Babylon. With help from Town of Babylon Bay Constables, ECO Perkins boarded a boat to reach the nest and used a pair of shears to cut the fishing line tangled around the osprey’s foot. Once free, the osprey flew away without showing signs of injury. 

Bear in Downtown Monroe – Orange County 

On Aug. 14, ECOs Duchene and Newell responded to Mill Pond in the village of Monroe, Orange County, for reports of a bear in a tree in a busy part of town. When the Officers arrived, they found what appeared to be a yearling bear about 50 feet up a tree. The Monroe Police Department, already on site, assisted with public safety. After a short time, the bear descended the tree and began to run along Mill Pond before climbing another tree along a busy road. DEC wildlife staff members Matt Merchant, Deena Brabant-Oatman, and Jonathan Russell responded, tranquilized the juvenile bear, and removed it from the tree. With help from Monroe Police Chief Guzman and Sergeant Tenaglia, DEC Officers and staff were able to weigh, measure, and tag the juvenile bear before it was transported to nearby State lands and released unharmed.  

Tomhannock Clean-up Day - Rensselaer County 

On Aug. 15, ECOs Canzeri and Crain teamed up with the Rensselaer County Conservation Alliance to help clean up an area around the Tomhannock Reservoir. The reservoir provides drinking water to approximately 135,000 residents in three counties and is open for fishing year-round. The reservoir is notable for its walleye and carp, including a state record carp exceeding 50 pounds, but also contains healthy populations of black bass, yellow perch, bullhead, chain pickerel, and panfish. DEC maintains a fishing access site at the reservoir and has an agreement with the city of Troy to patrol and enforce laws related to hunting, fishing, pollution, and water quality. ECOs respond to complaints and proactively patrol the 5.5-mile-long waterbody all year. Approximately 47 volunteers participated in the cleanup, including New York State Assemblyman Jake Ashby. ECOs Canzeri and Crain provided health and safety compliance checks on top of assisting with the cleanup efforts. The event went well with beautiful weather and more than 50 full contractor garbage bags were collected.

Bronx Jewish Community Council - Volunteer Opportunity

 

Volunteers needed on September 13th  (10-11:30 AM) for a contact-less Rosh  Hashanah package delivery to the outside  doorstep of our isolated seniors -  exclusively  at Amalgamated Housing  between Riverdale and Moshulu Parkway.  Thank you! If you would like to RSVP contact   Niti, BJCC Director of Volunteers by  email at nMinkove@bjcconline.org   or at 917-693-3084