BOND GETS FLEXIBILITY
All Aboard, Reps
Okay Hiring Of 3
For COVID Fight
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – The county Board of Representatives voted unanimously today to give Public Health Director Heidi Bond the resources she may need.
Acting on a resolution from the floor presented by county Rep. Michele Farwell, D-Morris, the board approved three LPNs or three health workers, or a combination of the two, to ensure Bond has the resources she needs to continue combatting COVID.
At the board’s Health & Education Committee last week, Bond reported her county Department of Health staff is “working overtime and weekends,” adding “I haven’t worked out what staff would be most beneficial.”
Farwell, who was approached by a constituent concerned contact-tracing is slowing down, said she doesn’t serve on Health & Education, but came up with the three-and-three combination to ensure Bond has the flexibility to hire who she needed.
The idea is for Bond to fill three positions, in whatever combination, as soon as it becomes clear where the three can do the most good.
Under county board rules, committees can send resolutions to the full board for an up-and-down vote. An individual rep can introduce a resolution at a board meeting, but it requires a two-thirds vote to pass.
Everyone voted ayes on Farwell’s measure.
The west-end legislator said she was concern that, if no action was taken today, Bond would be unable to hire more staff until the county board next meetings in early January.
Good going for District 2 County Rep. Michele Farwell! Once again her hard and conscientious work has paid off. Would that AllOtsego were as conscientious. Please note that District 2 includes BUTTERNUTS and PITTSFIELD as well as MORRIS, so Rep. Farwell should be referred to as D-Butternuts, Morris, Pittsfield. Also, I would not refer to her as a “west end legislator,” as that smacks of the west end of Oneonta. “Western Otsego County” would be more accurate.