C M Y K The Daily Mail · 2021. 2. 20. · lage charter states it cannot. “According to our...
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C M Y K Price $2.50 Copyright 2021, Columbia-Greene Media All Rights Reserved Volume 229, No. 36 Region A3 Opinion A4 State/Nation A5 Obituaries A5 Sports B1 Classifed B4 Comics/Advice B9-B10 n INDEX n WEATHER Complete weather, A2 Facebook www.facebook.com/ CatskillDailyMail/ Twitter Follow: @CatskillDailyMail On the web www.HudsonValley360.com TODAY Breezy with some sun TONIGHT Clear to partly cloudy SUN Sunny to partly cloudy 35 18 HIGH LOW 32 18 WEEKEND The Daily Mail Saturday-Sunday, February 20-21, 2021 Serving Greene County since 1792 n SPORTS n LOCAL Not all thrilled German is back Trustees agree to solar farm After missing last season to serve a suspension, Domingo German was back on the field. PAGE B1 Coxsackie officials OK a plan by Hecate Energy for a solar generating field in the village PAGE A3 By Sarah Trafton Columbia-Greene Media CATSKILL — Six weeks af- ter Village President Vincent Seeley resigned, the process of filling the vacancy remains unclear. Seeley stepped down Jan. 8 after a four-month absence that stemmed from a new business venture. The former village president was elected to his fifth term on the village board in March 2019. Board members indicated in January they would have to appoint someone to fill the vacancy until a special elec- tion could be held in 2022. Questions are being asked about whether the board can appoint a trustee when the vil- lage charter states it cannot. “According to our charter, it says it has to be a special elec- tion,” Village Vice President Joseph Kozloski said. “It does say the trustees cannot ap- point another trustee, it has to be an elected position.” Kozloski was unsure if the special election could be held this year. “You’d have to give anybody who wanted to run ample time or a party [time] to find somebody to run for that po- sition,” he said. “I don’t know if there is a certain law that states you have to give them so much time to campaign. This is all new to us and there’s questions we have to have an- swered.” Village attorney Ted Hilscher is investigating the matter, Kozloski said. Kozloski received email cor- respondence from Hilscher- non Friday morning about the dilemma. “According to [the email], there was an opinion from the Attorney General in ’71 that says the remaining trustees can make an appointment to fill a vacancy, but again, our charter says we can’t, that it has to be filled by a special election. [Hilscher] is go- ing to check further with the Conference of Mayors.” Under New York State Vil- lage Law, the trustees could appoint someone to fill the position for the remainder of the year, Rebecca Ruscito, a staff attorney for New York Council of Mayors, said. The village charter could in theory supercede New York State Village Law, Ruscito said. “I don’t want to speak to or speculate to the village charter without seeing it,” she said. “The Village Law can be superceded. You can have a charter or village code that Confusion reigns over vacancy Vincent Seeley See VACANCY A10 By Natasha Vaughn and Kate Lisa Johnson Newspaper Corp. Next week’s federal deliver- ies of the COVID-19 vaccine are expected to face addi- tional national delays because of persisting severe winter weather impacting several states, officials said Friday. Nearly all of the state’s coro- navirus vaccine doses — up to about 315,000 a week — for the 10th week of distribution are delayed because of ongoing winter storms. The shipments were sched- uled to arrive to localities, pharmacies, federally quali- fied health centers and other sites between Feb. 12 and 21. “The snow has had an effect on distribution of vaccines across the country,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday. Many state distribution sites have leftover supply from the first nine weeks of alloca- tion. Columbia County Depart- ment of Health Director Jack Mabb said Friday county health officials are not going to assume vaccines will be late. “We are going to go ahead and plan on our Wednesday scheduled POD,” he said. Each vaccine shipment contains a sophisticated GPS tracking device. “We are looking constantly to see if we’ve had any move- ment and we haven’t so far,” Mabb said. “So it is entirely possible with the weather that we’ve had that they may be de- layed in getting to us and that would be very unfortunate, but we’re still optimistic, we’re still hoping.” If the county is able to phys- ically have the doses in the building by Thursday or Fri- day next week, they will try to get as many of the scheduled shots done as possible, Mabb said. The remaining doses will be administered the following Courtesy of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Ofce A man is vaccinated against the novel coronavirus COVID-19 at a downstate mass vaccination site last month. Storms to cause continued vaccine delays See DELAYS A10 By Kate Lisa and Natasha Vaughn Johnson Newspaper Corp. Police and the state Depart- ment of Labor continue to investigate growing numbers of fraudulent unemployment claims as thousands returned to work from home this winter because of the COVID-19 pan- demic, officials said, targeting New Yorkers involved in past data breaches. Officials at every level of gov- ernment, including police, at- torneys and state or local execu- tives, have reported heightened numbers of fraudulent unem- ployment cases and are warn- ing residents to remain vigilant against potential attacks. Columbia County District At- torney Paul Czajka warned resi- dents Friday about increased scammers and criminals — likely international criminals — submitting unemployment insurance claims in the names of New York residents, leading to some residents appearing to owe hundreds, or even thou- sands, of additional dollars in income taxes, he said. State Police from the Livings- ton barracks reported 17 fraud cases since the start of the pan- demic. Lt. John Rivero, with the Columbia County Sheriff’s Of- fice, said he has seen a recent increase in the number of false unemployment insurance claims over the late fall and win- ter months. “It’s always been a sporadic issue, someone’s personal infor- mation being compromised,” Rivero said. “But I would say as of recently, November, Decem- ber, we’ve seen a large influx in these types of calls to the point where I’m probably seeing about five a day come across my desk from all different areas.” State Attorney General Letitia James’s office does not regularly investigate cases of potential NY sees spike in unemployment fraud See FRAUD A10 File photo Columbia County District Attorney Paul Czajka and other officials are warning residents of a rising number of unemployment scams. INSIDE TODAY! By RODNEY HO The streaming services that typically get all the headlines are the big subscrip- tion-based ones like Netfix, Hulu and HBO Max. But there are a surprising number of robust free services. Like traditional broadcast and basic cable channels, they rely on advertising. On the bright side, the number of ads is typically fewer than what you would have to watch on traditional TV. They provide a vast ar- ray of big TV hits and flms from the past six decades either on-demand or on live channels. Some shows pop up on mul- tiple services such as “3rd Rock From the Sun,” “Leverage,” “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Forensic Files.” Mike Beavers, a 67-year-old Ken- nesaw, Ga., retiree, said “some obscure old movie has popped into my brain, and I want to see it now. I’ll do a Roku search because it checks every channel known to man and invariably, the movie will only be showing on Pluto, Crackle, Tubi or some other free service I never heard of. I’m glad these services exist.” 5 of the best free streaming platforms “Framing Britney Spears” is a new documentary on FX. It charts the star’s career from the Mickey Mouse Club to present day. Te FreeBritney C-GMSaturday - Sunday, February 20-21, 2021 - C1 INSIDE TODAY!
Transcript of C M Y K The Daily Mail · 2021. 2. 20. · lage charter states it cannot. “According to our...
C M Y K
Price $2.50Copyright 2021, Columbia-Greene Media All Rights Reserved
Volume 229, No. 36
Region A3Opinion A4State/Nation A5Obituaries A5Sports B1Classified B4Comics/Advice B9-B10
n INDEX
n WEATHER
Complete weather, A2
www.facebook.com/CatskillDailyMail/
Follow:@CatskillDailyMail
On the web
www.HudsonValley360.com
TODAY
Breezy with some sun
TONIGHT
Clear to partly cloudy
SUN
Sunny to partly cloudy
FORECAST FOR HUDSON/CA
35
18
HIGH LOW
32 18
WEEKENDThe Daily MailSaturday-Sunday, February 20-21, 2021
Serving Greene County since 1792
n SPORTS
n LOCAL
Not all thrilled German is back
Trustees agree to solar farm
After missing last season to serve a suspension, Domingo German was back on the field.
PAGE B1
Coxsackie officials OK a plan by Hecate Energy for a solar generating field in the village
PAGE A3
By Sarah TraftonColumbia-Greene Media
CATSKILL — Six weeks af-ter Village President Vincent Seeley resigned, the process of filling the vacancy remains unclear.
Seeley stepped down Jan. 8 after a four-month absence that stemmed from a new business venture. The former village president was elected to his fifth term on the village board in March 2019.
Board members indicated in January they would have to appoint someone to fill the vacancy until a special elec-tion could be held in 2022.
Questions are being asked about whether the board can appoint a trustee when the vil-lage charter states it cannot.
“According to our charter, it says it has to be a special elec-tion,” Village Vice President Joseph Kozloski said. “It does say the trustees cannot ap-point another trustee, it has to be an elected position.”
Kozloski was unsure if the special election could be held this year.
“You’d have to give anybody who wanted to run ample time or a party [time] to find somebody to run for that po-sition,” he said. “I don’t know
if there is a certain law that states you have to give them so much time to campaign. This is all new to us and there’s
questions we have to have an-swered.”
Village attorney Ted Hilscher is investigating the matter, Kozloski said.
Kozloski received email cor-respondence from Hilscher-non Friday morning about the dilemma.
“According to [the email], there was an opinion from the Attorney General in ’71 that says the remaining trustees can make an appointment to fill a vacancy, but again, our charter says we can’t, that it has to be filled by a special election. [Hilscher] is go-ing to check further with the
Conference of Mayors.” Under New York State Vil-
lage Law, the trustees could appoint someone to fill the position for the remainder of the year, Rebecca Ruscito, a staff attorney for New York Council of Mayors, said.
The village charter could in theory supercede New York State Village Law, Ruscito said.
“I don’t want to speak to or speculate to the village charter without seeing it,” she said. “The Village Law can be superceded. You can have a charter or village code that
Confusion reigns over vacancy
Vincent Seeley
See VACANCY A10
By Natasha Vaughn
and Kate LisaJohnson Newspaper Corp.
Next week’s federal deliver-ies of the COVID-19 vaccine are expected to face addi-tional national delays because of persisting severe winter weather impacting several states, officials said Friday.
Nearly all of the state’s coro-navirus vaccine doses — up to
about 315,000 a week — for the 10th week of distribution are delayed because of ongoing winter storms.
The shipments were sched-uled to arrive to localities, pharmacies, federally quali-fied health centers and other sites between Feb. 12 and 21.
“The snow has had an effect on distribution of vaccines across the country,” Gov.
Andrew Cuomo said Friday.Many state distribution
sites have leftover supply from the first nine weeks of alloca-tion.
Columbia County Depart-ment of Health Director Jack Mabb said Friday county health officials are not going to assume vaccines will be late.
“We are going to go ahead and plan on our Wednesday
scheduled POD,” he said.Each vaccine shipment
contains a sophisticated GPS tracking device.
“We are looking constantly to see if we’ve had any move-ment and we haven’t so far,” Mabb said. “So it is entirely possible with the weather that we’ve had that they may be de-layed in getting to us and that would be very unfortunate,
but we’re still optimistic, we’re still hoping.”
If the county is able to phys-ically have the doses in the building by Thursday or Fri-day next week, they will try to get as many of the scheduled shots done as possible, Mabb said. The remaining doses will be administered the following
Courtesy of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Office
A man is vaccinated against the novel coronavirus COVID-19 at a downstate mass vaccination site last month.
Storms to cause continued
vaccine delays
See DELAYS A10
By Kate Lisa
and Natasha VaughnJohnson Newspaper Corp.
Police and the state Depart-ment of Labor continue to investigate growing numbers of fraudulent unemployment claims as thousands returned to work from home this winter because of the COVID-19 pan-demic, officials said, targeting New Yorkers involved in past data breaches.
Officials at every level of gov-ernment, including police, at-torneys and state or local execu-tives, have reported heightened numbers of fraudulent unem-ployment cases and are warn-ing residents to remain vigilant against potential attacks.
Columbia County District At-torney Paul Czajka warned resi-dents Friday about increased scammers and criminals — likely international criminals — submitting unemployment insurance claims in the names of New York residents, leading
to some residents appearing to owe hundreds, or even thou-sands, of additional dollars in income taxes, he said.
State Police from the Livings-ton barracks reported 17 fraud cases since the start of the pan-demic.
Lt. John Rivero, with the Columbia County Sheriff’s Of-fice, said he has seen a recent increase in the number of false unemployment insurance claims over the late fall and win-ter months.
“It’s always been a sporadic issue, someone’s personal infor-mation being compromised,” Rivero said. “But I would say as of recently, November, Decem-ber, we’ve seen a large influx in these types of calls to the point where I’m probably seeing about five a day come across my desk from all different areas.”
State Attorney General Letitia James’s office does not regularly investigate cases of potential
NY sees spike in unemployment fraud
See FRAUD A10
File photo
Columbia County District Attorney Paul Czajka and other officials are warning residents of a rising number of unemployment scams.
INSIDE TODAY!
By RODNEY HO
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The streaming services that typically
get all the headlines are the big subscrip-
tion-based ones like Netflix, Hulu and
HBO Max.
But there are a surprising number of
robust free services. Like traditional
broadcast and basic cable channels,
they rely on advertising. On the bright
side, the number of ads is typically fewer
than what you would have to watch on
traditional TV. They provide a vast ar-
ray of big TV hits and films from the past
six decades either on-demand or on live
channels. Some shows pop up on mul-
tiple services such as “3rd Rock From the
Sun,” “Leverage,” “Hell’s Kitchen” and
“Forensic Files.”
Mike Beavers, a 67-year-old Ken-
nesaw, Ga., retiree, said “some obscure
old movie has popped into my brain, and
I want to see it now. I’ll do a Roku search
because it checks every channel known
to man and invariably, the movie will
only be showing on Pluto, Crackle, Tubi
or some other free service I never heard
of. I’m glad these services exist.”,
5 of the
best free
streaming
platforms
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ars
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The
FreeBritney
COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA
Saturday - Sunday, February 20-21, 2021 - C1
INSIDE TODAY!
