tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26667159572504384892024-03-05T13:33:05.804-05:00Morrisville Public Library COVID 19 Blogmorrisvillepubliclibraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15838595072010272569noreply@blogger.comBlogger225125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-24103640681162260422020-05-14T13:44:00.000-04:002020-05-14T13:44:05.982-04:00May 9th, 2020 9:39am -Mid York Weekly Article<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><u>Library Offerings are Essential</u></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>By: Michelle A. Rounds</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know our physical building is closed and many of you have run out of physical materials to read and/or watch. Every day I view Gov. Cuomo’s press conference waiting for the green light to open our library; even for curbside (no contact pick up) to get you some materials. Right now we have to be 100 percent closed, but as soon as he gives me even a little wiggle room, I am working on our Infectious Disease Preparedness and Recovery Plan.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I want to be ready when we can begin offering any services other than online only. I have been working on ways to get the inside of the library prepared for our “new normal” too. Rest assured we will offer as many of our regular services as we can while we progress to the new normal.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Additionally upon reopening, we will have rigorous safety and sanitation protocols to keep all staff and patrons healthy. But, right now, we are not really considered essential so that concerns me when it comes to opening.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many of us will agree, our books and movies are essential pastimes! But, we must respect our governor and make sure we do what is best. We surely don’t want to reopen and then have to close up shop again for another few months!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the meantime, we have had to cancel all in-house programming and meeting areas until further notice. This will most likely stay in effect even after we reopen for a bit. For now we still continue to have various virtual programs.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Check out our webpage for these at <a href="http://morrisvillepubliclibrary.org/events/links-for-virtual-programs/">morrisvillepubliclibrary.org/events/links-for-virtual-programs/</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can also see below for a couple!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Have you participated in our Chat Around the Circulation Desk program yet? Every Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. we all get together and chat on whatever we want to! A book we read, a movie we watched, how everyone is doing, anything that we want to chat about!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">All you need is a phone or computer with speakers (and a webcam and mic if you want us to see or hear you)! Join your hosts, Michelle and Jennifer! We put the link and phone number every Wednesday on our Facebook page and our website! (Links and numbers change every week.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seeing as our April LEGO Your Boredom contest was such a hit, we are doing another one in May! All the fun began Tuesday, May 5 and runs through 8 p.m. May 19. All Lego enthusiasts (1 to 100-plus years) can build an original Lego creation based on one of the holidays featured on our Facebook page and website that are typically celebrated in the month of May.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">You have until 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 19 to build your creation! When your creation is complete, please send a photo of it to us via Facebook message or email it to us at morrisville@midyork.org!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please note that photos of your creation will be put up for a vote, creations should be made so that they can be viewed in their entirety in a photo. Participants’ creations will be voted on later by our social media viewers!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The winner of the contest will receive a Kindle Fire donated by an anonymous donor who wants someone to smile in this time of uncertainty. Happy building!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some reminders: our book drop is closed so please keep all of our materials as they have been renewed for you until we reopen. If you are trying out our digital services and need help, have problems with your library card number, etc., want to check out e-books, watch movies, get audiobooks, read magazines and need help, please email me at mrounds@midyork.org and I will get you the help you need!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please stay safe and well and talk to you all soon! I miss each and every one of you!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michelle Rounds, manager of the Morrisville Public Library, can be reached at 315-684-9130 or by email at mrounds@midyork.org.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Article Obtained from: <a href="https://www.uticaod.com/news/20200509/library-offerings-are-essential">https://www.uticaod.com/news/20200509/library-offerings-are-essential</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Jennifer Forward, left, used a little Photoshop magic to create this photo of herself and her mom, Morrisville Public Library manager Michelle Rounds, as if they could actually have their virtual Chat Around the Circulation Desk program there. Library patrons are invited to join the chat at 6:30pm every Thursday night online. [COURTESY JENNIFER FORWARD]</i></span></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-14961789006499732782020-05-14T13:37:00.003-04:002020-05-14T13:37:46.593-04:00May 14th, 2020 12:30pm -Madison County NY Government Facebook PageOne effective way to slow the spread of COVID-19 is to identify and isolate people who are infected. This requires people to get tested. Madison County currently has several testing locations, and is working to offer additional drive-up testing sites in the coming week. There are additional testing locations right over some of our county borders that are open to everyone, regardless of the county they live in. Most require an appointment ahead of time.<br />
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For a complete listing of testing locations in the area and information about each, visit: <a href="http://www.madisoncounty.ny.gov/2589/Diagnostic-Testing-Sites-for-COVID-19">www.madisoncounty.ny.gov/2589/Diagnostic-Testing-Sites-for-COVID-19</a><br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-48368554431244307392020-05-14T13:36:00.005-04:002020-05-14T13:36:55.720-04:00May 14th, 2020 7:00am -Syracuse.com Article<b><u>Green Empire Farm must move workers out of hotels after coronavirus outbreak, county says</u></b><br />
<b>By: Marnie Eisenstadt</b><br />
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Oneida, N.Y. — Green Empire Farm and its migrant labor contractor will need to move 250 workers out of local hotels and into bunkhouses at the greenhouse by June 1, Madison County officials say.</div>
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The county’s request comes on the heels of an outbreak among the migrant workers: At least 169 of them have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent weeks. The virus spread not at the greenhouse, but at the hotels where the workers were living, county health officials said.</div>
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Most were crammed four to a room, two to a bed. County officials said they were unaware that the three hotels — the Days Inn, Super 8 and La Quinta — were being used for farmworker housing.</div>
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Samantha Field, a county spokeswoman, said Green Empire is building bunkhouses meant for migrant workers, but they are not done. The farm opened in August.</div>
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Those need to be finished by June 1 so the workers can move out of the hotels, Field said. The county delivered that message to both MAC Contracting, the migrant labor provider, and Mastronardi Produce of Canada, the company that owns Green Empire Farm.</div>
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“We have impressed upon them — this can’t continue,” Field said.</div>
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At least two bunkhouses are under construction, and it’s unclear how many workers they would hold or how tight the quarters would be. A spokeswoman for Mastronardi did not respond to questions about the migrant workers’ living situation.</div>
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Field said the county will inspect the bunkhouses to make sure they are up to the farmworker housing standards in state law before allowing workers to move in.</div>
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The state Department of Health and Madison County are also investigating whether housing the workers at the hotel violated state law. Public health law sets out minimum standards for farmworker housing.</div>
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Jill Montag, a spokeswoman for the state DOH, said the department is reviewing information about how the workers were housed and whether the state standards for migrant worker housing were violated.</div>
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Some farmworkers became seriously ill with the coronavirus and had to be hospitalized. None died. But Roxanne Whaley, a housekeeper at one of the hotels, caught the coronavirus along with her husband. Her husband died May 7. The hotel’s owner also became ill with the virus and had to be hospitalized.</div>
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Field said the county was unaware that the hotels were being used to house migrant workers until the outbreak. Once they found out so many workers were living in such tight quarters, the goal was to test them all, separate those who were ill from those who were not, and get medical care for everyone who needed it.</div>
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Now that that situation is under control, the county wants to make it clear that the hotels are not a permanent solution, she said.</div>
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In addition to the county and state investigation, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also investigating the working conditions.</div>
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The migrant labor force is more than 270 workers. Another 180 workers came from the surrounding area. The migrant workers started at the farm to tend and harvest strawberries in December. Now they are harvesting tomatoes and planting cucumbers.</div>
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Field said most of the workers have recovered and will be returning to work, if they haven’t already.</div>
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Article Obtained from: <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/05/green-empire-farm-must-move-workers-out-of-hotels-after-coronavirus-outbreak-county-says.html%C2%A0">https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/05/green-empire-farm-must-move-workers-out-of-hotels-after-coronavirus-outbreak-county-says.html </a></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-24157148174427360062020-05-14T13:35:00.004-04:002020-05-14T13:38:26.717-04:00May 13th, 2020 4:46pm -SUNY Morrisville Facebook PagePlease join us on May 22 as we congratulate all of this year’s graduates with a virtual SUNY Morrisville Commencement 2020 experience! While we may not be able to gather together, we hope that this virtual ceremony allows our graduates to celebrate this monumental moment with loved ones and provides them with a sense of Mustang Pride.<br />
Learn more by visiting our website: <a href="https://www.morrisville.edu/commencement">https://www.morrisville.edu/commencement</a><br />
#MoVilleGrad2020 #MustangProud #MustangStrong<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-26100308007134291742020-05-14T13:34:00.003-04:002020-05-14T13:34:46.278-04:00May 13th, 2020 12:31pm -Morrisville Eaton Facebook PageOn Friday May 15th<br />
8:20 PM (20:20 Military Time) to 8:40 PM<br />
We will light up the High School Stadium<br />
To Honor our Student Body and the<br />
MECS Senior Class of 2020<br />
The Campus will be closed so please Join us online for pictures and video.<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-10949108643123061082020-05-14T13:34:00.001-04:002020-05-14T13:34:18.063-04:00May 13th, 2020 -Oneida Dispatch Snapshot<div style="text-align: center;">
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A look at a sign recognizing seniors and all students missed at Morrisville-Eaton Middle-High School.</div>
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Article Obtained from: <a href="https://www.oneidadispatch.com/news/local-news/snapshot-recognizing-class-of-2020/article_ce8eff04-9513-11ea-8006-6749ae788f7c.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share">https://www.oneidadispatch.com/news/local-news/snapshot-recognizing-class-of-2020/article_ce8eff04-9513-11ea-8006-6749ae788f7c.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share</a></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-29885780614978764162020-05-14T13:32:00.000-04:002020-05-14T13:32:43.029-04:00May 12th, 2020 4:34pm -Morrisville Public Library Facebook PageAnnouncing our 2020 Summer Reading Program! (We regret that we will not be able to do any in house programs, contests etc. this summer, but we think you will really like what fun things we have come up with virtually and that you can do at home!) More details soon!<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-71166726343493334322020-05-14T13:30:00.004-04:002020-05-14T13:30:52.360-04:00May 12th, 2020 12:37pm -Morrisville Eaton Facebook Page<div style="text-align: center;">
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-74745210386071651302020-05-14T13:30:00.001-04:002020-05-14T13:30:23.265-04:00May 12th, 2020 9:00am -Madison County NY Government Facebook PageFor the foreseeable future, Madison County Board and Committee meetings and press conferences will be streamed live to the Madison County YouTube Channel.<br />
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The following meetings can be viewed live this week:<br />
Tuesday, May 12th @ 2:00 PM - Madison County Board Meeting<br />
Thursday, May 14th @ 10:00 AM - Madison County Press Conference<br />
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Madison County, NY on YouTube (subscribe to receive notifications)::<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgdcgWYfbnN6U0LxChcJWJA">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgdcgWYfbnN6U0LxChcJWJA</a><br />
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Scheduled meetings can be found on the Madison County website calendar: <a href="https://www.madisoncounty.ny.gov/">https://www.madisoncounty.ny.gov/</a><br />
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It is wonderful that we live in this age of technology where we can still communicate and conduct business all while maintaining social distance.<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-74018472936569501232020-05-14T13:29:00.002-04:002020-05-14T13:29:14.775-04:00May 12th, 2020 8:24am -Village of Morrisville Facebook PageGive Blood, Help Save Lives<br />
Healthy donors are encouraged to<br />
book an appointment!!<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-659057404246348702020-05-14T13:28:00.001-04:002020-05-14T13:28:31.107-04:00May 12th, 2020 -Syracuse.com Article<b><u>In scandal of Green Empire Farms outbreak, there’s 1 death you’ve never heard about</u></b><br />
<b>By: Marnie Eisenstadt</b><br />
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Oneida, N.Y. — Roxanne Whaley had worked at the Super 8 in Oneida for more than 20 years.<br />
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The 68-year-old scrubbed the bathroom floors on her hands and knees, for minimum wage. The work was hard, but honest and predictable. Until December.<br />
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That’s when the hotel began housing dozens of migrant farm workers from Green Empire Farms, a sprawling indoor greenhouse, she said. The workers lived in three hotels, jammed four to a room and two to a bed.<br />
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At least 169 Green Empire Farms workers became infected with the Covid-19 virus.<br />
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The virus got Whaley, too. She fought off an infection for weeks, going to the doctor twice before she was offered a coronavirus test, she said. It came back positive April 29.<br />
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By then it spread to her husband, Lansing “Lanny” Whaley. He spiked a fever that night; she stayed up with him.<br />
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He was already weak from a bout with pneumonia and a years-long battle with Stage 4 bladder cancer.<br />
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Lanny died May 7, a week after he went into St. Joseph’s Hospital.<br />
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Over the days in which the largest coronavirus outbreak in Upstate New York exploded, authorities talked with relief about how none of the farmworkers became seriously ill.<br />
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But no one spoke about Lanny and Roxanne Whaley, who were counting on more time together.<br />
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Roxanne and Lanny met when she was in eighth grade. She was 18 when they married. She talked to him that first time because he was cute. But she stayed because he was kind.<br />
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They had two sons, four grandkids and two great-grandkids. He loved cars, the kids and her. Now, he is gone. There will be no big funeral. No procession of shiny classic cars.<br />
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Roxanne Whaley reluctantly talked to Syracuse.com for this story, and she did not want their photo published. They are private people. She is not angry at the hotel or the workers. But to her, it seems wrong the way the farmworkers were forced to live so close together for so long while the virus lurked.<br />
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“I know they are trying to make a living, but don’t put them in those conditions,” she said of the farm workers. “It was a bad situation.”<br />
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Public health officials in Madison County last week brought in state help to test greenhouse workers. But it’s unclear how much testing has been done of employees at the three hotels. (Two are in Madison County and one is in Oneida County.)<br />
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Madison County Public Health Director Eric Faisst said last week that the county tested 16 hotel workers and none of them was positive for the virus.<br />
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When Whaley and her family heard that, they were confused, she and her son, Michael Whaley, said. She was sick. She had a positive test. She had a public health nurse checking in on her every day. Her husband died. Surely they must know she has the virus and she works at the hotel.<br />
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On Monday, Samantha Field, a spokeswoman for Madison County, confirmed there are hotel workers who tested positive for the virus — just not among the 16 workers who were tested with the greenhouse workers. She did not say how many hotel workers have tested positive.<br />
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County officials recently asked the state whether the hotels should be considered migrant living quarters and held to those standards under New York State Public Health Law, which also requires a permit for migrant farmworker living quarters.<br />
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Most of the 250 migrant workers were brought to town by MAC Contracting, an Indiana labor company that provides farm workers for several large greenhouse farms run by Green Empire’s parent company from Canada, Mastronardi Produce.<br />
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The company put up the workers at three hotels — the Super 8 and Days Inn in Madison County and the La Quinta in Verona.<br />
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Whaley has no question about where she caught the virus.<br />
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“I know I caught the virus there,” she said of the Super 8.<br />
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Whaley said she had been sick on and off since March. At first, her doctor told her it was a sinus infection and prescribed antibiotics and steroids, she said. No one suggested a coronavirus test. Whaley is high-risk for complications from the virus: She has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which makes it hard to breathe.<br />
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The antibiotics seemed to help some, but the infection nagged at Whaley. She returned to urgent care April 27, she said. She had run a fever the previous week, one of the criteria for getting a coronavirus test in some counties. Two days later she got a phone call that her test was positive.<br />
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That day, April 29, was the same day county public health officials heard that local hospitals were seeing a spike in cases from greenhouse workers who lived at the hotels.<br />
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Whaley knew some of the risk she was taking when she went to work. But they had bills and a mortgage. She told Harry Patel, her boss and the owner of the hotel, that she was worried.<br />
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“I told him I was scared. He said we need the money, you need the job,” Whaley said.<br />
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So Whaley did what she could to protect herself.<br />
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She said Patel could not get masks for the hotel workers, so she brought her own from home. Patel did supply gloves, she said, which Whaley wore except when changing the sheets. She also brought her own hand sanitizer and disinfecting sprays.<br />
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There were signs before April that farmworkers at the hotel were not well. Near the end of March, some workers were moved to different rooms and the doors were covered in plastic wrap, Whaley said.<br />
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She said she was told the workers had pneumonia and were quarantined. Patel said this was true.<br />
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Patel said he, too, told the migrant contractor, MAC, that he was concerned about having so many men crammed into the rooms with the coronavirus circulating.<br />
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He asked them to look elsewhere, but the company could find no other place for the dozens of workers.<br />
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In recent weeks, Patel became sick, too.<br />
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He tested positive for Covid-19 and was hospitalized, he said. He is still quarantined.<br />
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Whaley said the migrant workers told her they were scared. A few spoke English; some used Google Translate to communicate with her.<br />
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“Whoever brought them here shouldn’t have had them sleeping like that,” Whaley said.<br />
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She said the workers were mostly respectful, but the hotel rooms weren’t made to be lived in by that many people for so long. They cooked on hotplates and often ate at the hotel desks in their rooms, Whaley said.<br />
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She said most of the rooms were four men to a room, two to each bed, as county officials have said. There was at least one larger room with five or six men.<br />
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Most of the migrant workers were bused out to the greenhouse May 2 for tests.<br />
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By then, Lanny Whaley was in the hospital and getting worse.<br />
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And Roxanne Whaley could not leave their home in the Madison County countryside. She could not go see the man who’d been by her side since before she was old enough to drive a car or drink a beer.<br />
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He’d been hospitalized a few weeks before for pneumonia and been tested for the virus then. He was negative. He came back home, he got better.<br />
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He mowed the whole lawn by himself. He was so proud, she and her son said.<br />
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Cars were Lanny Whaley’s business and his passion: He ran Rolling Hills Street Rods and Restoration until he retired in 2018. He had a 1934 Ford Coupe that he still took to car shows.<br />
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When it was clear Lanny was near the end, the couple’s sons were allowed to see their dad. But not Roxanne because she had the virus.<br />
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Her last words to her husband were through a video chat. The boys held up the phone so Roxanne and Lanny could see and hear each other.<br />
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Lanny could no longer talk. Roxanne told him she loved him, so much. “I tried to give him comfort,” she said.<br />
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Then they said good night. Lanny Whaley died the next morning.<br />
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Roxanne is still in quarantine. She’s done with the hotel, she said.<br />
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But she worries about the workers, who are now quarantined in the rooms she cleaned on her hands and knees.<br />
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Whaley remembered making small talk with a new worker a few weeks ago.<br />
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Can I ask you a question? the young worker said. How can they make us sleep together in the bed?<br />
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I don’t know, Whaley said she told him. That isn’t up to our boss. It’s your boss. The one that hired you and brought you here.<br />
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He told her he was worried he’d get sent home if he spoke up. And he wanted to work.<br />
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He asked her: What can I do?<br />
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Article Obtained from: <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/05/in-scandal-of-green-empire-farms-outbreak-theres-1-death-youve-never-heard-about.html">https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/05/in-scandal-of-green-empire-farms-outbreak-theres-1-death-youve-never-heard-about.html</a><br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-7739589326396608442020-05-14T13:27:00.003-04:002020-05-14T13:27:23.784-04:00May 11th, 2020 8:06am -Morrisville Eaton Facebook Page<div style="text-align: center;">
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-83468193811257098502020-05-14T13:26:00.003-04:002020-05-14T13:39:28.591-04:00May 11th, 2020 -New York Times Article<b><u>New York to Begin Limited Reopening in Upstate Region</u></b><br />
<b>By: Jesse McKinley</b><br />
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<b>Parts of New York that have met seven health and testing criteria will be allowed to restart construction, manufacturing and curbside retail.</b><br />
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In the most concrete step toward restarting his battered and shuttered state, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday that large chunks of New York State’s central interior will be allowed to partially reopen construction, manufacturing and curbside retail this weekend.</div>
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The move toward a limited, regional reopening came 10 weeks after the state’s first confirmed case of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 26,000 people in New York and sickened hundreds of thousands more. That toll has been largely borne by New York City and its populous suburbs, with far fewer cases and fatalities thus far in the state’s more rural communities and smaller cities.</div>
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Indeed, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday offered a more sobering assessment for the city, the nation’s financial capital, saying that no reopening of any kind would be likely there until June, at the earliest.</div>
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And even as Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, announced that three regions — the Finger Lakes, including Rochester, a major city on Lake Ontario; the Southern Tier, which borders Pennsylvania; and the Mohawk Valley, west of Albany — have successfully met benchmarks for reopening, there still remained many hurdles to clear.</div>
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Newly formed regional “control rooms” will be granted oversight and authority to give businesses the go-ahead to open; they can also impose their own safety requirements. They will have the authority to slow or shut down reopening plans, Mr. Cuomo said, if data about the disease shows a worsening of conditions.</div>
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Businesses will also carry a heavy burden, as employees return to radically altered work spaces, operating under tight controls, including social-distancing protocols, staggered shifts and frequent cleaning and disinfecting. Company cafeterias would most likely be closed, Mr. Cuomo suggested, and employees subject to testing in the case of outbreaks.</div>
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“There’s no gathering,” Mr. Cuomo said. “That’s what we’re trying to avoid.”</div>
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Retail businesses would also be allowed to reopen for curbside service under the plan, with employees in masks. Health screening would also be required of all businesses in the first phase, which would be evaluated after two weeks to determine its impact on the spread of the disease.</div>
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“We are all anxious to get back to work,” Mr. Cuomo said, in a briefing in Irondequoit, near Rochester. “We want to do it smartly, we want to do it intelligently, but we want to do it.”</div>
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Mr. Cuomo noted that the number of new hospitalizations statewide for Covid-19 — the disease caused by the coronavirus — was roughly the same as it was just before he issued the statewide stay-at-home order, known as New York State On Pause. The number of deaths reported on Sunday — 161 — was the lowest daily death toll since late March.</div>
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In light of such statistics, the governor said other smaller semblances of normal life would be allowed to resume across the state, including drive-in movies, landscaping projects and “low-risk recreational activities,” such as tennis, a sport with built-in social distancing.</div>
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The decision to restart the commercial and professional lives of some New Yorkers was welcomed by business leaders, who have watched as more than one million state residents have lost their jobs since early March.</div>
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In Rochester, the largest city eligible to reopen some of its businesses, Ashley Mayberry-O’Connell, an executive at QES Solutions, a business support company, said the firm had laid off about 85 percent of its 80-person work force, but hoped to “hire all our employees back” in light of the governor’s announcement.</div>
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But Mr. Cuomo’s announcement also left state business leaders with numerous questions.</div>
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“What’s not clear yet is exactly what the state is going to expect from you,” said Ken Pokalsky, the vice president at the Business Council of New York State. “Do you just say, ‘I have a plan’ and you’re good to go? Or are there going to be some additional details you need to provide?”</div>
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Robert Duffy, the former lieutenant governor and member of the Finger Lakes control room, said it would be the companies’ responsibility to meet the safety criteria laid out by the governor.</div>
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And while Mr. Duffy said many business want to reopen, having taken “some huge economic hits,” he acknowledged that “there is also trepidation among employees and customers” as reopening progresses.</div>
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“I don’t believe people are going to rush back to a crowded restaurant,” Mr. Duffy said. “They’re not going to jump in a plane. They may be afraid to go back to their gym or fitness center.”</div>
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The state’s nonessential businesses have been closed since March 22, under a stay-at-home order issued by Mr. Cuomo, and extended in mid-April.</div>
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As the state’s daily death toll began to slacken, the governor had laid out a detailed plan for reopening last week, requiring each of 10 regions around the state to fulfill seven metrics in order to prove readiness to reopen. Those include beefing up testing and contact tracing, ensuring hospital capacity and showing sustained declines in deaths and new cases of the virus.</div>
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Two other regions, in central New York and the Adirondack Mountains, are meeting six of the seven metrics. But the city and two other surrounding areas — Long Island and the Hudson Valley — continued to be hindered by stubbornly high hospitalization rates.</div>
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On Monday, Mr. de Blasio confirmed that “unless something miraculous happens,” the city’s shutdown — and concomitant financial hardship — were “going into June.” And like the governor, the mayor said any opening was reliant on the data.</div>
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“It’s not quite been what we need it to be, but definitely trending the right direction,” said Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat. “But we need to see it sustained in a deeper way.”</div>
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With the formation of regional “control rooms,” Mr. Cuomo seemed to be ceding greater autonomy and responsibility to regional leaders for the state’s reopening, including monitoring how businesses implemented safety protocols.</div>
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Those groups — largely made up of elected officials — will also be charged with solving a battery of practical problems, like arranging child care for workers now being called back to the job, Mr. Cuomo said. The governor canceled school statewide for the rest of the academic year on May 1.</div>
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Reopening is likely to be a slow process, even in the three regions which Mr. Cuomo cited on Monday. In addition to manufacturing and construction, the three Fs will also be allowed: farming, fishing and forestry, as well as retail, but only with customer pickups and drop-offs.</div>
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If no negative impact is seen from the first phase, the second phase would include allowing professional services, real estate and finance, among other businesses.</div>
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Restaurants, bars and hotels would come next, followed by a final phase that would include attractions like cinemas and theaters, including Broadway, a powerful economic engine in New York City, and schools.</div>
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The reopening process could still be endangered by new outbreaks, Mr. Cuomo said, noting that a faulty reopening could inflict even more damage on public health and the economy. Mr. Cuomo said he wanted to “learn from the mistakes that others have made.”</div>
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He also gave credit to the state’s residents for helping bend the curve of infections by observing social distancing and other rules and pleaded for continued cooperation.</div>
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“This is not the floodgates are open, go back, do everything you were doing,” Mr. Cuomo said, adding, “No one’s going to protect your health but you.”</div>
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Article Obtained from: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/nyregion/reopen-new-york-coronavirus.html?referringSource=articleShare">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/nyregion/reopen-new-york-coronavirus.html?referringSource=articleShare</a></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-55bf3dd4-7fff-d548-99fd-5d8a9f8549c5"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 399px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="399" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/YeolF9zFPeUOh2i6RL5izy2gA_adVGiZc57pB2i9zgs7pvbjmpY8EBTQqaFOJXW6YI6mKlAXqYztSEhbVym9Cau3Zn9mmGrgW9Zb4PF1RX-0tYNGOOy4pQg4MXIg_vPGyDe9kuLo" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 14.6667px; height: 399px; overflow: hidden; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 624px;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">The partial lifting of the statewide shutdown is expected to help places like Morrisville, N.Y., just east of Syracuse.Credit...Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times</span></span></span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-5634557189759718732020-05-14T13:25:00.001-04:002020-05-14T13:25:10.967-04:00May 10th, 2020 7:35am -Morrisville Eaton Facebook PageHappy Mothers' Day to the moms of the MECS community. Students of MECS - be sure you are doting over your moms today! My children are making scrambled eggs and serving breakfast in bed to their mom. What do you have in store? Share your ideas to spread the love...<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-34962848625450663382020-05-14T13:24:00.002-04:002020-05-14T13:24:41.284-04:00May 10th, 2020 7:30am -Morrisville Eaton Facebook PageThe Middle/High has Spirit Week kicking off tomorrow too. See the themes in this pic.<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-79226262720254265512020-05-14T13:23:00.002-04:002020-05-14T13:24:03.230-04:00May 10th, 2020 -Syracuse.com Article<b><u>Madison County has 7th coronavirus death</u></b><br />
<b>By: Nolan Weidner</b><br />
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Wampsville, N.Y. — A seventh Madison County resident has died from coronavirus, the county’s health department reported.</div>
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An elderly man became the latest county resident to succumb to COVID-19. A county spokesperson said the man had some underlying health issues and had been hospitalized for some time, but the county did not release any other information on the death.</div>
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The death was announced on the county’s Friday morning news briefing.</div>
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Article Obtained from: <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/05/madison-county-has-7th-coronavirus-death.html">https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/05/madison-county-has-7th-coronavirus-death.html</a></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-79612013116935683222020-05-14T13:19:00.005-04:002020-05-14T13:19:44.594-04:00May 9th, 2020 -Syracuse.com Article<b><u>Green Empire Farm coronavirus outbreak: County wants to inspect migrant conditions at hotels</u></b><br />
<b>By: Marnie Eisenstadt</b><br />
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Oneida, N.Y. — Madison County health officials are investigating whether Green Empire Farms failed to get a required permit to house migrant workers in local hotels.<br />
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The county is also planning to inspect the living conditions of migrant workers now housed in two hotels following an outbreak of COVID-19 among migrant workers at the 64-acre farm under glass. The outbreak is the largest in Upstate outside of the cluster in New Rochelle.<br />
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The workers were brought to Oneida by MAC Contracting, a migrant labor contractor from Indiana hired by the farm.<br />
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The migrant workers were living four to a room, two to a bed, said Madison County Public Health Director Eric Faisst. He said it was farmworkers’ living conditions, not the conditions at the greenhouse, that fueled the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus. The migrant workers were also shuttled to work and back on vans and buses, another source of concern.<br />
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Last week, 169 workers at the greenhouse tested positive for the virus. Two were sick enough to be hospitalized, but have since recovered. Of those workers, 83 that tested positive for the virus are living at the Super 8 and Days Inn in Madison County. There are also 82 COVID-19 positive migrant workers living in Oneida County; many are at the La Quinta Hotel.<br />
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In total, there are 186 workers for Green Empire Farm living at the hotels.<br />
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Madison County was not aware that the migrant workers were living at hotels until late March, county officials said in a news release this evening. And it wasn’t until this past week that county officials knew the living conditions were so cramped, they said.<br />
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County officials said 16 hotel workers in Madison County also were tested; none had contracted the virus.<br />
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No hotel workers are cleaning the rooms of COVID-19 positive workers, county officials said.<br />
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The county has asked the state for guidance on how to deal with the hotel being used as migrant living quarters and plan to inspect the hotels soon.<br />
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“Once we have that information we will conduct an investigation to ensure the workers are in living conditions that adhere to New York State Migrant Farmworker Housing regulations and issue citations as needed,” county officials said in a statement.<br />
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Article Obtained from: <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/05/green-empire-farm-coronavirus-outbreak-madison-county-wants-to-inspect-migrant-living-conditions-at-hotels.html">https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/05/green-empire-farm-coronavirus-outbreak-madison-county-wants-to-inspect-migrant-living-conditions-at-hotels.html</a><br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-18965118450878136992020-05-14T13:18:00.002-04:002020-05-14T13:18:41.239-04:00May 8th, 2020 -MECS Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-82691726517849134802020-05-09T14:46:00.003-04:002020-05-09T14:46:56.484-04:00May 8th, 2020 10:04am -Morrisville Eaton Facebook PageNice work by the ERA team of teachers organizing Spirit Week.<br />
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Messy Monday<br />
Tropical Tuesday<br />
Superhero Wednesday<br />
Book Character Thursday<br />
Spirit Day Friday<br />
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Check out the video here:<a href="http://www.wevideo.com/view/1691338352">www.wevideo.com/view/1691338352</a><br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-49119758010322623892020-05-09T14:46:00.000-04:002020-05-09T14:46:07.135-04:00May 8th, 2020 -Syracuse.com Article<b><u>Green Empire Farm workers are out of hospital; dozens of workers in coronavirus outbreak still quarantined</u></b><br />
<b>By: Marnie Eisenstadt</b><br />
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Oneida, N.Y. — The two farmworkers who had been hospitalized in the massive coronavirus cluster at Green Empire Farm have been released and are recovering at the hotels where they live.<br />
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The total number of infected farmworkers in the outbreak is 169, making it the largest virus cluster in Upstate New York, aside from New Rochelle. Dozens of workers remain quarantined at the Super 8, Days Inn and La Quinta hotels in Oneida and Verona.<br />
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They had been living there for months already while they planted and harvested in the sprawling greenhouse at the edge of the small city.<br />
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County and public health officials in Madison County said workers did not become infected with the virus while working at the farm. It was when migrant workers left the farm, on buses and in vans, and went back to the three local hotels where they were living four to a room, sleeping two to a bed, county officials said.<br />
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The migrant workers, more than half of the farm’s labor force, are employed by MAC Contracting out of Indiana. The farm labor company supplies workers for many of the farms owned by the Mastronardi produce company in Canada, which owns Green Empire.<br />
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The outbreak at Green Empire caught Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s attention after Madison County officials asked for state help to test all of the workers. An army of state and county workers tested 186 workers Saturday and 151 more on Tuesday.<br />
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The state is continuing to monitor the situation, said Jason Conwall, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The greenhouse farm was inspected by the state office of Agriculture and Markets after the testing to make sure it was complying with the governor’s orders about worker safety.<br />
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“The state is in regular contact with local officials and providing assistance in handling the situation. We acted quickly upon learning of the COVID-19 cases among Empire Farms Greenhouse employees, with NYS DOH staff on site at the facility the next day testing workers,” Conwall said.<br />
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Madison County officials were going back out to the farm today to see if the farm had made changes the county requested. They had asked the farm to rearrange the break room so workers could be more spaced out. They also asked MAC to change its transportation plan so fewer workers would be crammed into the buses and vans on their trips to and from work.<br />
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Article Obtained from <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/05/green-empire-farm-workers-are-out-of-hospital-dozens-of-workers-in-coronavirus-outbreak-still-quarantined.html">https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/05/green-empire-farm-workers-are-out-of-hospital-dozens-of-workers-in-coronavirus-outbreak-still-quarantined.html</a><br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-25503419295577529022020-05-09T14:44:00.002-04:002020-05-09T14:45:00.555-04:00May 8th, 2020 7:01am -Syracuse.com Article<b><u>Inside Green Empire Farm: Upstate NY’s biggest coronavirus outbreak slams migrant workers</u></b><br />
<b>By: Marnie Eisenstadt</b><br />
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Oneida, N.Y. — Every day, more than 300 workers walked in and out of the sprawling Green Empire Farm greenhouse on the edge of the city of Oneida.<br />
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Even when the whole world mostly shut down, the 32-acre farm under glass kept going. There were millions of strawberries to pick after growing ripe under miles of glass. And there were half a million tomato plants to tend.<br />
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The company, Mastronardi Produce of Canada, took measures to protect those workers from the coronavirus, officials from Madison County and the company said.<br />
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But it didn’t matter. At the end of each workday, 186 workers left the giant farm in vans and on buses, to return to hotels where they lived four to a room and slept two to a bed.<br />
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The workers’ living conditions, chosen for them by the labor company that hired them and brought them to Oneida, were perfect for the coronavirus to dig in and take hold.<br />
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And it did.<br />
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The indoor farming complex is now the site of the biggest coronavirus cluster in Upstate New York, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office. The only cluster outside of New York City that was bigger was in New Rochelle.<br />
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By Thursday, 169 of the 340 workers had tested positive.<br />
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“They were living in close quarters, together, so it was ripe for spread,” said Eric Faisst, Madison County public health director. “The conditions were perfect.”<br />
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The farmworkers living in the hotels are migrant workers who speak little English, county officials said.<br />
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Faisst said many of the workers are scared. They came here to the U.S. to work and send money to their families. Some are from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, others are from Haiti. Now they are stuck: They can’t work, and they can’t go home.<br />
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The county had to get 12 interpreters to help with tracing the sick and exposed workers’ travels through the area.<br />
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The outbreak was so shocking that it caught Cuomo’s attention. He mentioned it in his nationally viewed news briefing Wednesday. He compared the cluster to outbreaks in meatpacking plants across the nation.<br />
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“It’s when you run a facility with a large number of workers in a dense environment,” the governor said.<br />
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But county officials say it’s not the workplace, but where the workers live that have been making them worry since the pandemic started.<br />
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Until last April 29, it seemed like everything was under control. That’s when Faisst got the first bad news: The night before, Oneida Health, the hospital nearest the greenhouse, saw two workers.<br />
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Both were sick with COVID-19. Both lived in those hotels, four to a room. Workers live in the Super 8 and the Days Inn in Madison County and the La Quinta Hotel in Verona in Oneida County.<br />
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When Faisst heard of about the two positive tests among the workers, he knew he was facing a potential cluster that showed the virus’ ability to jump from person to person at an exponential rate. All the farmworkers, migrant and local, had to be tested.<br />
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The county called in the state for help. Two days later, an army of state and county workers set up rows inside the greenhouse.<br />
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The farmworkers filed in, speaking to each other in Spanish and French. One by one, nurses swabbed their noses and took down their contact information, aided by interpreters. Then the workers boarded the buses and vans back to the hotels to wait.<br />
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By Monday, the results came back. All but 47 of the contract workers had the virus.<br />
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The county and state tested the second wave of workers, mostly local help, on Tuesday in the same way. That turned up 31 more positives.<br />
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<b>Part of the Flavor Army</b><br />
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All of the workers at the farm do the same jobs and make roughly the same pay on paper, employees said. But they live in two different worlds and work for two different employers.<br />
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The workforce drawn from Central New York makes a little less than $13 an hour. They pick, plant, sort and pack. They work for Green Empire Farm, which is owned by Mastronardi Produce, a 70-year-old company in Kingsville, Ontario, that was started by an Italian immigrant who decided to grow hothouse tomatoes. The company has at least six hothouse farms in North America.<br />
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Most of the produce is sold under the Sunset brand. The new amphitheater in the company’s hometown bears its name: Sunset Stadium.<br />
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The company prides itself on how it treats its workers, a company spokeswoman said, and is devastated about the outbreak at the new farm in Oneida.<br />
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Mastronardi calls its workers the “Flavor Army.”<br />
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But more than half the workers in Oneida, those in the buses and the hotels, are migrant farmworkers employed by an Indiana company called MAC Contracting. A Mastronardi spokeswoman said MAC supplies workers to many of the company’s greenhouses.<br />
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Faisst said the contract workers did not bring the virus into the community. The county’s first coronavirus case was at the greenhouse, but it was a local worker.<br />
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A worker who has been at the greenhouse since it opened said the migrant workers were hired to take local jobs that went unfilled. Both sets of workers are supposed to make the same amount: a little less than $13 an hour. The contract workers are paid by MAC, who takes money out of their checks for the hotel rooms.<br />
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Since the outbreak, the county has been pushing MAC to put fewer workers in the rooms and to pay them when they’re not working, said John Becker, chairman of the Madison County Board of Supervisors.<br />
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“You’re going to comply, or we’ll take further measures,” Becker said the county told MAC.<br />
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He said he was “aghast” when he found out how many workers were living in a room, together, while public health officials were trying to space people six feet apart.<br />
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Becker said he was concerned the workers would not be paid when they were quarantined, which made him worry they would keep working while they were sick.<br />
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The county, he said, pushed Mastronardi to pay them while sick. Becker said the county is delivering food to all of the workers in the hotels in Madison County while they are quarantined to keep them inside. It is costing the county $3,000 a day.<br />
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Becker said the outbreak is peeling back the curtain on how factory farms work.<br />
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“We can’t fill the jobs with American labor, so these folks come up. They send money home. These conditions are throughout the country,” said Becker, who ran his family’s dairy farm for decades.<br />
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<b>‘We followed social distancing’</b><br />
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Becker said it’s unclear whether the workers have the documents to work in the U.S.<br />
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“That’s one of those questions I don’t want to ask,” he said. “That’s MAC’s deal.”<br />
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Farm labor contractors, like MAC, traditionally handle the certifying that the workers’ papers are legal for the companies that hire them. They also handle transportation and housing.<br />
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The Oneida greenhouse had always planned to bring in some labor. There is a bunkhouse on the grounds, but it’s not finished.<br />
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The greenhouse just opened in August. It took five years of work to get the farm to come to Madison County, Becker said. The county was jockeying with others to get the huge operation. In the end, Madison County had the most land and the sweetest deal: a 20-year tax break worth millions.<br />
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Company documents show that the project will be built in four phases on 600 acres of land. Each phase is a 32-acre greenhouse. The total cost is more than $100 million. It’s unclear how much of the project has been completed.<br />
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Cris Schultz, a MAC employee in Indiana, disputed the county’s account in an interview Thursday with syracuse.com. She said the workers never stayed more than three to a room. She said the workers pay for some of the housing out of their paychecks, but she would not say how much.<br />
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She disputed that the workers’ living arrangements made them ill.<br />
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“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion,” Schultz said. “We followed social distancing.”<br />
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She declined to say how MAC helped the workers follow social distancing when they were on the buses or at the hotels. County officials said that, after prodding, MAC spaced the workers out on the buses and vans and began wiping down the vehicles several times a day.<br />
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Schultz would not say how many workers were sick with symptoms from the virus. At one point in she said “enough” were sick; then she said none were ill. County officials said two of the workers had been hospitalized. They have since been released and are recovering back at the hotels they were living in.<br />
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“I am worried about them, their health,” Schultz said. Then she hung up.<br />
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<b>“They came here to work”</b><br />
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Oneida feels more like a village than a city. The population is 11,000. People mostly know each other, and now they know the workers who have been picking and planting under the glass at the edge of the city.<br />
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The outbreak has put a spotlight on the laborers in a way that makes county and city officials worry.<br />
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“They came here to work and send money back to their country,” said Oneida Mayor Helen Acker. “They want to work; they don’t want to be sick.”<br />
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Now they are being watched, not just by public health officials, but by people who are angry they are here. Madison County publicly identified nine local businesses, including a laundromat and the Walmart, as places the farmworkers frequented.<br />
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Faisst said he feels the virus is under control. The workers have been tested and quarantined. He is not worried about them spreading the virus.<br />
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“They’re scared as hell and then on top of that, you’re starting to see this mob mentality. They’re victims of this virus … they acquired this here,” Faisst said. “My concern is for their safety.”<br />
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None of the county officials thought the greenhouse would be closed.<br />
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All of migrant workers have been isolated in their hotels since the mass testing last Saturday.<br />
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The infected workers will be released in roughly two weeks.<br />
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Workers who have recovered and workers who tested negative will be back at work sooner.<br />
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Next week they will be picking the millions of tomatoes under acres of glass at the edge of the city.<br />
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Article Obtained from <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/05/inside-green-empire-farm-upstate-nys-biggest-coronavirus-outbreak-slams-migrant-workers.html">https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/05/inside-green-empire-farm-upstate-nys-biggest-coronavirus-outbreak-slams-migrant-workers.html</a><br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-17708771464070345392020-05-09T14:42:00.002-04:002020-05-09T14:42:21.044-04:00May 7th, 2020 2:45pm -SUNY Morrisville Announcement<b><u>MESSAGE FROM CHANCELLOR KRISTINA JOHNSON</u></b><br />
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To the SUNY Community,<br />
<br />
Throughout the unprecedented novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, SUNY has responded as a system. Students, faculty and staff at each of our 64 individual campuses continue to contribute what they can and when they can, leveraging their own distinctive expertise.<br />
<br />
I am writing to you now for two reasons. First, to thank you for your courage, grit and resiliency as we navigate these unchartered waters. Though there have been some bumps in the road with our near-universal shift of classes to distance learning, this never-before-attempted experience has been largely a success. That’s thanks to you and your passion for higher education and carrying out the SUNY motto – to learn, to search and to serve.<br />
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And in addition to our students, faculty and staff moving to remote instruction within a fortnight, you used 3D printers to make face shields and sew masks, producing more than 55,000 personal protection equipment for New York State medical center staff. Youare carrying out research on COVID-19 diagnostic tests, clinical trials of promising therapeutics, novel tracing technologies, and genome sequencing to further our understanding of the virus and accelerate a path towards solving this pandemic.<br />
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Our first responders and frontline health care workers from Upstate Medical University left the safety of their homes to volunteer downstate, where SUNY hospitals have cared for thousands of COVID-19 patients. SUNY campuses on Long Island are home to temporary field hospitals, and campuses all over the State are setting up regional drive-through testing sites.<br />
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And this past year we invested time and resources in building a system-wide, online platform- SUNY Online, which allows faculty from any SUNY campus to follow their students and oversee academic progress anywhere and at any time. This preparation paid off in an unexpected way.<br />
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All of this is part of what it means to be #SUNYTogether, with everyone pulling together toward the same ultimate goal to deliver absolute inclusivity - high quality education for all New Yorkers. And I thank you for your fighting spirit and support.<br />
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My second reason for writing is to be informative and transparent about what we are doing and how we are planning to resume face-to-face, on campus instruction, research and scholarship.<br />
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The infection curve thankfully is now flattening as a result of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “PAUSE” effort and the State is moving toward a phased-in re-opening of the economy.<br />
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This is a complicated undertaking with many moving parts, and it requires collaboration with a wide range of partners. We have established a SUNY COVID-19 Re-Imagine and Resume Residential Education Task Force (Task Force), with seven working groups focused on specific areas integral to a safe and successful resumption of residential education - from student wellness and academic operations to community engagement, campus resources, research and the science of re-opening, physical plant preparedness and community colleges.<br />
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Just as the State is working in concert with neighboring states on a regional re-opening approach, SUNY is working in consultation with its 64 campuses, the Governor’s New York Forward Advisory Group (Advisory Group), New York’s private colleges (CICU), CUNY, local and state elected officials, public health experts, and others. We are also reaching out to higher education leaders across the country to compare notes on best practices and determine the safest and most effective route forward.<br />
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We understand that resuming face-to-face instruction cannot occur in a vacuum; each of our campuses is a complex ecosystem with regular engagement with their respective surrounding communities. The Task Force is working collaboratively with the Governor Advisory Group, to develop plans and a checklist of criteria that must be met before on-campus learning resumes.<br />
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In addition to a checklist, and part of our resume strategy, SUNY is creating a risk wheel that will dynamically pull real-time data from a number of dashboards to help all of us manage operations during the transition back to face-to-face instruction and beyond.<br />
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Again, this is a complicated and fluid process that is changing by the day and informed by the input of a wide array of experts. We recognize that this situation has been both challenging and frustrating, and we thank the members of our SUNY community for being both resilient and patient as we work to determine the safest path forward.<br />
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Our main goal is to be able to fulfill our mission of providing high-quality education to all students with the broadest possible access, while prioritizing the health and wellness of the entire system. There are numerous challenges ahead, and we are assessing the changing landscape daily and responding to them as quickly as we can. We will continue to provide updates as they become available. Thank you again for your resiliency, courage and grit during this difficult time.<br />
<br />
Kristina M. Johnson, PhD.<br />
<br />
ChancellorAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-49561008624630242492020-05-07T14:24:00.002-04:002020-05-07T14:25:04.910-04:00May 7th, 2020 9:00am -SUNY Morrisville NewsSUNY MORRISVILLE NURSING ALUMNA ANSWERS CALL TO HELP ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN HARD-HIT MICHIGAN<br />
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MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — Before she goes in for her night shift as a nurse, Kirsten Krause does a video chat with her four-year-old son, Nicholas. He runs around the house with the phone showing her his kittens and the puzzles he is working on at home. She tells him she loves him and will be home as soon as she is done helping people, fighting back tears as he blows her a kiss goodbye.<br />
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The daily calls keep her going.<br />
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Three weeks ago, Krause left her job as a nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse to join nurses and health care workers on the front lines in Michigan, as the world struggles to contain the coronavirus pandemic.<br />
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Krause, a 2018 SUNY Morrisville nursing graduate, is now working as an RN at St. Mary’s Mercy Hospital in Livonia, Michigan, about 20 miles outside of Detroit. The hard-hit state has the fourth largest number of COVID-19 deaths in the country as of May 4.<br />
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She’ll be helping at St. Mary’s Mercy Hospital for at least a month, which could turn into longer as the hospital assesses its needs.<br />
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Life changed quickly for the Morrisville resident in what seemed like an instant. Krause had just graduated with top honors with her BSN from Chamberlain University College of Nursing and was making plans for the future, when the pandemic changed her course.<br />
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As her job at St. Joseph’s was enforcing furloughs, Krause had 24 hours to decide if she wanted to redeploy to a sister Trinity Health Hospital. She chose Detroit.<br />
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“I knew that I wasn’t going to be happy with my decision to furlough if I could be helping out more,” she said. “Other nurses are getting incredibly sick and dying or they’ve become so overworked that they can’t go home and function like they should. I also wanted to help other nurses who had dedicated so much of their lives to help care for these incredibly sick people.”<br />
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She packed her bags and headed to the airport, leaving her home and the life she loved behind.<br />
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“I was terrified to go. I didn’t know where I was originally going, who else would sign up, how long the assignment would be, or what floors I’d be expected to work on,” Krause said. “But none of that mattered; I had to go.”<br />
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While her boyfriend, Nick, is tucking their son in at night, Krause is hundreds of miles away preparing for a demanding 12-plus hour shift.<br />
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She cares for three to six patients, usually COVID-19 positive, a mix of young and old.<br />
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“I feel that the compromised elderly patients are hit harder because of other comorbidities, but the actual virus can affect anyone,” she explained.<br />
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It’s emotionally difficult to see — sick people whose family members are unable to visit. She updates them frequently, as their loved one’s condition could change at any time.<br />
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“I’ve seen patients go from feeling great to being unable to catch their breath and requiring immediate medical attention all in a split second,” she said.<br />
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The emotional demands are trying for health care personnel, the only link those with the virus have to the outside world.<br />
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“Here, they need that emotional connection more than ever,” Krause said. She’s there to provide it.<br />
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Every day poses a risk of her being exposed to the virus, but her intrinsic desire to help outweighs that fear.<br />
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The PPE she wears is extensive, consisting of an N95 with a surgical mask over it, face shield, hair net, gown and gloves.<br />
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“It is incredibly uncomfortable and makes it hard to breathe,” Krause said. “You’re also usually really hot and sticky.”<br />
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Downtime is well-earned and appreciated.<br />
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The studio hotel room where Krause is staying, five minutes from the hospital, is also close to two coworkers who joined her from St. Joseph’s. Their company helps to ease the loneliness of missing home and the stress of the work they are doing.<br />
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Krause’s ability to persevere is a trait she started building as a student at SUNY Morrisville.<br />
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“Morrisville has been known to prepare strong nurses,” she said. “They (faculty) teach you how to think critically by combining your education with reasoning so that you can come up with a solution that most benefits your patient.<br />
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“This amazing college has been life-changing for me. I wouldn’t be redeployed to Michigan as an RN if it weren’t for the nursing education I received at SUNY Morrisville,” Krause said in a Facebook post.<br />
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It wasn’t exactly the career she planned on growing up.<br />
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“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, but it needed to be something that really mattered,” she said. “I realized nursing could provide me with so much that I wanted — job security and a way to help care for people. Now that I’m here, I feel like nursing was always my best option.”<br />
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The journey was not an easy one as she juggled working full-time, taking classes and her responsibilities as a parent.<br />
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“Trying to find the time to sleep after work, do homework, be a good parent, interact with friends and family, try to get caught up with housework and drive 45 minutes home after having a difficult shift; it felt impossible at times,” Krause said.<br />
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But it was all worth it in the end.<br />
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“Knowing that I helped someone get their parent or child or even best friend back makes it all worth it,” she said. “They will never know me personally, and that’s OK, but the small sacrifice of leaving everyone I know and love helped make it possible for someone else to go back home.”<br />
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A lot has happened in the weeks she has been gone. The structure of the hospital where she worked has changed, the family’s four kittens have grown considerably and so have her son’s language skills.<br />
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“He’s speaking full sentences and is able to comprehend so much and it’s only been a few weeks,” Krause said. “I can carry on a full conversation with him and he can respond back. It’s crazy and a little heartbreaking.”<br />
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Calls from home, the sound of her son’s voice and encouragement from family and friends fortify her strength and motivation. <br />
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“I was given the gift of being raised by both my grandma and mom, women who have shown me the value of hard work and what it means to unconditionally love someone,” she said. “I have siblings who check in on me frequently and remind me to keep going, a son who thinks the world of me and can’t wait until he can get a mommy date, and a boyfriend who would love nothing more than to see me come home safe and sound.” <br />
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She looks forward to returning to help on the front lines at home and seeing her family.<br />
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“I can’t wait to cuddle with my son,” Krause said. “After that, a nice glass of wine and a home-cooked meal sounds perfect.”<br />
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She makes a point not to shine all of the light only on the work nurses are doing, crediting so many others.<br />
<br />
“With the help of everyone in the hospital, from respiratory therapy, physical and occupational therapy, dietary, doctors, nurses, patient care technicians and environmental services, we all have a common goal of trying to help these people and we need to all be equally recognized.”<br />
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She shies away from being considered a hero.<br />
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“Hero? No,” she answered. “I am just so proud to be a nurse and work alongside some of the bravest people I know.”<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-15969011324649229252020-05-07T14:23:00.005-04:002020-05-07T14:23:56.942-04:00May 7th, 2020 9:00am -Madison County NY Government Facebook PageEmergency rooms at both hospitals in Madison County are open. If you have a medical emergency, please seek care. Both Community Memorial Hospital in Hamilton and Oneida Health Hospital are ready and available to serve patients in need of emergency services. All safety measures are in place for patients and staff as the hospitals continue to provide COVID-19 testing and treatment as needed. Safety and patient satisfaction are their top priorities. Do not hesitate to visit either emergency room if you need emergency care. For more information, visit <a href="https://www.communitymemorial.org/">https://www.communitymemorial.org/</a> or <a href="https://www.oneidahealth.org/">https://www.oneidahealth.org/</a>.<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666715957250438489.post-87371224062586192062020-05-07T14:22:00.002-04:002020-05-07T14:22:52.072-04:00May 6th, 2020 3:53pm -SUNY Morrisville Facebook PageJoin us for our final dairy drive this Friday, 4-6 at SUNY Morrisville.<br />
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<a href="https://youtu.be/R6-NLLT7jeQ">https://youtu.be/R6-NLLT7jeQ</a><br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0