CAYUGA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT COOPERATING WITH INMATE DEATH INVESTIGATION

Photo: Stock photo by Matthew Henry

 

The Cayuga County Sheriff's Department says it's cooperating fully with the state Attorney General and Department of Corrections as they investigate the death of an inmate at the County Jail.

The inmate, a man who has not been identified, was found unresponsive in his cell at about 7:30AM on Thanksgiving Day. He was transported to an area hospital for emergency care and died the next day.

Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Schenck says cells are checked routinely during the overnight.

 

Schenck says his department is conducing its own internal investigation of the death.

Listen to my full Flx Ted Podcast conversation with the Sheriff below.

AUBURN CITY COUNCIL ACCEPTS NYSERDA GRANT

Photo: NYSERDA Facebook page

 

The Auburn City Council has voted to officially accept a $5,000 NYSERDA grant.

The money was awarded under the Clean Energy Communities program.  

Communities that meet certain guidelines in providing clean energy for their residents are eligible for designation as Clean Energy Communities, making them eligible for grants. The more points cities accumulate, the bigger the grants they can receive.

The city has already received the money. Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason says it will be used for LED lighting at the Slow Sand Filter building at the water filtration plant.

The city of Auburn has completed seven high-impact actions under the program, receiving 2,000 points toward NYSERDA grants. A number of Cayuga County communities are taking part in the program.

Listen to my full FLX Ted Podcast with Chuck Mason below.

CITY OF AUBURN SEEKS INPUT ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT

 

The city of Auburn has posted an online survey asking residents how they want federal Community Development Block Grant funds spent next year. 

The survey on the city website asks residents to rank five potential uses of the money in order of importance. They are park improvements, water and sewer line replacement, sidewalk improvements, demolition of unsafe buildings and neighborhood revitalization.

It goes on to ask questions about specific projects. Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason says the money is targeted toward lower income neighborhoods. 

 

The city hold two meetings to gather input. They will be Wednesday at 10AM in the City Council chambers at City Hall and at 5:30PM at the Booker T. Washington Community Center at 23 Chapman Ave.

You can hear my full FLX Ted Podcast with Chuck Mason below. 

CITY OF AUBURN APPLIES FOR TREE REPLACEMENT GRANT

Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources - Forestry Archive, CC BY 3.0 US https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/deed.en via Wikimedia Commons

The city of Auburn is applying for a $50,000 state grant to replace ash trees damaged by the Emerald Ash Borer.

The state DEC has launched the Tree Planting in Disadvantaged Communities After Ash Loss Grant Program to help communities whose ash trees have been devastated by the invasive pest. The DEC says the Emerald Ash Borer was first spotted in New York in Cattaraugus County in 2009. It has has since spread to every New York county but three.

 

Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason says the grant money will also be used to remove damaged trees, which can become a hazard. 

 

If the state approves the grant application, the city will begin planting new ash trees in the fall of 2023.

Listen to my full FLX Ted Podcast with Chuck Mason below. We recap the City Council meeting every Friday.

THE FLX TED PODCAST - AUBURN CITY CLERK CHUCK MASON

Photo: Ash tree, Wikimedia

The FLX Ted Podcast is where we talk about the people and stories making news in the Finger Lakes.

In this episode, Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason recaps this week's City Council meeting. 

The city applied for a state grant to help replace ash trees devastated by the Emerald Ash Borer.

The Council officially accepted a $5,000 Clean Energy Communities grant from NYSERDA for LED lighting at the water filtration plant. 

The city is applying for BridgeNY funding for bridge and culvert projects throughout the city.

There's a survey on the city website where residents can give their input into projects they'd like to see funded in the 2023-24 federal Community Development Block Grant program. There will be a pair of public input meetings on the CDBG program on Wednesday, December 7th.

Finally, we talked about the changes coming to city government with the announcement that Mayor Mike Quill will retire at the end of 2023. City Councilor Jimmy Giannettino has indicated interest in running for Mayor. 

Our theme music is "Sugar Zone" by Silent Partner. You can find their music and other copyright-free music here.

You can subscribe to my podcasts on Anchor and Spotify.

YOU SAY GOODBYE, I SAY HELLO

Credit: pxhere.com

You can't go wrong with a Beatles song title as the title of your first post.

Remember Admiral James Stockdale? He was H. Ross Perot's presidential running mate. Remember H. Ross Perot? In the first vice presidential debate that year, the Admiral opened by saying "who am I? Why am I here?"

Let me answer those same questions. For 19 years, I was Program Director at Finger Lakes News Radio in Geneva, NY and for 15 of them, hosted the Finger Lakes Morning News. It became increasingly difficult to wake up at 4AM as I entered my 60s, and so last November, I accepted an offer to join the staff at fingerlakes1.com. I had been appearing on one of their podcasts on a regular basis, and I was told I would report on local news, host podcasts, write blogs, and eventually, host the site's live flagship morning show.

Well, it turns out websites are subject to the same revenue difficulties being faced by local media throughout the country, and I was laid off in September of this year. 

I approached Finger Lakes News Radio about returning to my old job, and the answer was no.

You can take the boy out of the media, but you can't take the media out of the boy. 

With the staffing cuts that have hit the local media in recent years, there are a lot of stories that aren't being told, so I'm going to tell them. My intent is to bring you original local news, newsmaker interviews, and occasional observations on the state of the world and craft beverages.

If you listened to me on the radio, you know I have a lot of opinions and haven't been afraid to express them. I'll express some of them here, but there are a lot of places where you can go for political opinions (see my blog list on the right) and I don't think many minds are being changed these days.

So here we go. Let me know what you think, and what you'd like to see and hear covered, and I'll do my best to oblige, but I won't get up at 4AM to do it.