Government, Law and Legal Services
The New York State Senate passed a raft of bills last week to help the restaurant industry then sent them over to the House of Delegates for consideration, the Albany Business Journal is reporting this morning. Among the laws: an eviction moratorium, an unemployment insurance program aimed at helping restaurants keep people on at least part-time, and another that protects employers against large rate hikes in unemployment premiums. The Saratogian ran a similar story, here.
In Saranac Lake, the village board OKed an $11.5 million project to add an ultraviolet light disinfection system to its wastewater treatment facility, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise is reporting. The upgrade is both required by the state and funded through a 0% interest loan from the state, the story says. The system costs local taxpayers $10 per month.
Health Care and Fitness
Eighty nursing homes statewide have reported staffing shortages in January. This according to an Associated Press story posted in the Saratogian. At least 13 nursing home staff members have died of COVID-19 since Dec. 1, 2020, the story says. In the same time period, more than 1,700 “residents with COVID-19” have died. That number may be low since people who were transferred from a home to a hospital are counted in the hospital tallies, not the nursing home tallies.
Rep. Elise Stefanik and others have introduced legislation that protects hospitals in rural locations, the Adirondack Daily Sun is reporting. Called the Protecting Rural Access to Care Act, the legislation is aimed to protect the Critical Access Hospital designation for hospitals in areas like the Adirondacks. It’s a certification through the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The proposed law would, among other things, keep the regulations for certification from changing as a hospital attempts to comply.